TRAVEL BACK TO AUSTRALIA
   A few weeks ago, our son Stephen and Katie Shaw met up with me at the Los Angeles Airport to head out at midnight to Sydney, Australia.  After waiting in line to check-in, we were told that our flight was cancelled.  Unbeknownst to us, Qantas had grounded all of their Airbuses due to several incidents of engine trouble.  We also found out that some people at the airport had been waiting several days to get to Australia.

    About 2:00 a.m., Qantas arranged for a shuttle to take us to a motel in downtown Los Angeles.  We were thankful for the accommodation and that they were being safe in their flying standards, yet were tired and wondered what was going to happen next.  The difficult part about a situation like this is that you can’t really relax because you don’t know if it will be one day or many days before you get a flight to your destination.  And we kept hearing at the airport how they couldn’t “guarantee” anything.  It reminded me how nothing in this life is guaranteed.  Only the things of the Lord are guaranteed.

    The next evening we hoped to be on the list of passengers to fly out, but were told that our names weren’t on the roster.  However they said that we were on the list that was going out the next morning and to be there early.  We guessed because there were so many passengers back-logged, that if we didn’t arrive early, our seats might be given to someone else.  Therefore we got up at 3:00 a.m. and even pre-paid a shuttle van to take us to the airport.  After hurrying to get ready, we got down to the lobby of the motel and waited and waited for it to arrive.  The last words of Qantas “to be early” kept echoing in our minds, so we decided to get our money back and instead get a taxi.  One pulled up and we started loading our luggage into the trunk when all of a sudden a flat tire was noticed.  So our luggage was unloaded.  Then the shuttle showed up but the driver said he had some stops to make along the way and we knew that would make us late.  So we called for another taxi.  Three passengers, five pieces of luggage, and all our carry-on’s were squished in and we took off.  When we got to the airport, a security guard from Homeland Security came up to the taxi driver and told her she was not wearing the right uniform to be at the airport.  The driver was an immigrant and struggling to understand what she had done wrong.  I thought, “Oh no, is this going to take a long time to sort out and can we just pay and go.”  As we casually opened the taxi doors and started getting our luggage together, I saw the driver hand him a type of license and it seemed to satisfy him.  Whew!

    By God’s grace, we were able to make our flight to Sydney okay.  There is never a dull moment in traveling.  For instance, the evening before we left Los Angeles, we were trying to regroup when all of a sudden we heard this “noise.”  We looked out our motel window and saw there was a wedding reception going on with a local band playing jazz music.  It was about 6:00 p.m.  None of us care for jazz music, but really it was the fact that it was playing so LOUD that was irritating.  At about 6:15 p.m. we said, “I wonder how long they’re going to play?”  At 6:25 p.m. we said, “Are they going to play all night?”  Then we decided to just go with the flow of things, and in the end they stopped playing in a couple of hours.

    Time is relative and it seemed like we had been trying to get to Australia for a week, when really it had only been a couple of days.  Right when we were almost to land in Sydney, a lady who was sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder.  I turned around and she said, “When we land, let’s all clap and shout a big thank you to Qantas.  Pass it on.”  I struggled to comprehend what she was asking because of not sleeping much for the past 72 hours.  Mustering up a clap and shout seemed to be going a bit far, but we did thank the Lord for a safe flight.

   IS THIS SORT OF A COMPLIMENT?
   From our 8-year-old granddaughter.  “You and Pop are fun to E-mail when I’m bored.”

     A friend in Christ,
    Sister Cyd James