Early Monday morning, when the sky was still dark and the city was still quiet, I began my long journey back to the States for my 6-month home assignment. My travels got off to a beautiful start with one last sunrise over the desert as I was walking across the tarmac to catch the plane for my 6:30am flight to Johannesburg. After 5 hours in Joburg, it was on to Doha. Most people were sleeping on that long flight, but I was trying to stay awake to help my body clock adjust to Eastern Standard Time. So I ended up chilling with a bunch of the flight attendants in the little area where they store all the food trays and drinks and stuff. I had some great spiritual talks especially with one young lady from India who professed Hinduism, although she was more generically pluralist than Hindu. She had lots of great questions about God and the Bible and things like how Jesus could be God and why God allowed evil in the world. After probably an hour's conversation, interrupted only by the occasional flight attendant rounds, she let me pray for her and I encouraged her to keep reading her Bible, especially the Gospels. Sometimes you never find out what happens with the seeds you plant, but I pray hers bears some fruit.
On my next flight I was seated next to an elderly, atheistic, South African man who was on his way to the States to visit his daughters. He kept going on about evolution and how everything is just random and the Bible is just stories. I asked him, "If somebody gave you indisputable evidence that God exists, would you even then be willing to change your mind?" And he said, "Yes, but no one can," which basically means "No." Interestingly, I later overheard him talking about spiritual things with the guy seated on the other side of him. But of course everything is just random, so that couldn't be Providential. ;)
I landed in Philadelphia with a 1:50hr layover. The immigration room had 56 counters but only 4 people working, though after a long wait I finally made it through. I collected and then re-checked my luggage, and proceeded to security for my next flight. On my first attempt, my boarding pass was denied. So the elderly gentleman at the desk, who also happens to be the slowest walker ever, walked over to his supervisor to ask what was up. I was told I needed to go downstairs to get my boarding pass reprinted. So having done that, on my second attempt going through security, they decided that they needed to search through my carry-on bag. By now my flight had already started boarding. Not finding anything even remotely dangerous, they finally let me through. But I had arrived into Terminal A and my flight out was from Terminal F, all the way on the other side of the airport. So I caught the slow-driving shuttle to Terminal F, convinced that I could've walked faster than that, and of course my gate was the very last gate in the farthest terminal in the whole airport. Naturally. Speed walking through the terminal I made it to the gate with 3 minutes to spare before they closed the doors. Not exactly the way I had hoped to be welcomed to the States.
All that to say, 35 hours, 4 flights and 3 continents later, I finally arrived safe & sound.
All that to say, 35 hours, 4 flights and 3 continents later, I finally arrived safe & sound.
