I Woke Up Singing

Yes I woke up this morning singing,
"Our God is an awesome God,
He reigns from heaven above.
With wisdom, power, and love
Our God is an awesome God!"

But I get ahead of myself - let me back up and share with you this amazing adventure the Lord is taking us on.

Monday was a day of frustration and futility.  We received an email from our travel agent that she 'happened' to find 2 missionary tickets for Sydney and I to travel home via New York and Los Angeles.  The hitch, getting out of Blantyre.  Due to the class of ticket we had we needed South African Airways to change our ticket so they would let us fly out of Blantyre on Wednesday.  Needless to say after several phone conversations to Toronto and SA in Blantyre, we were unable to have confidence in South African's 'arrangements.'  Not only that but SA had overbooked 10 tickets on that flight which we knew would be a problem because of all the people in the same situation as we were.

So we ended up having to leave Tuesday morning at 6:15 am and drive 4.5 hours to Lilongwe.  Alex had to drive us with her broken leg and both Alex and Andre had to make a lot of arrangements with the girls and a vehicle to get us on that plane.

Already I must go now but quickly I am praising God beause of His people.  We had no accommodation arrangements for Tuesday night when we left for Johannesburg (don't fly out until Wednesday evening) and didn't know what was going to happen when we got there.  We had heard there were literally thousands of people in our situation and no available hotel accommodations.  But Bill Boesterd from our church knew someone in Johannesburg and so he made a phone call.  Apparently Bill met Len Coleman a few years ago during a business trip to South Africa.  Bill phoned Len and his wife Sarie and asked if they could help Sydney and I with our situation.  Bill made arrangements with Len to pick us up at the airport and accommodate us at their home for the night.  I can't tell you now all of the amazing details that occurred to make that happen and how Len, Bill and Mike cooridinated everything so Len could arrive at the right moment for Sydney and I.  We are so thankful and wowed by our Lord that He took care of all of the details and kept Sydney and I safe.

Today we leave from Johannesburg to start a journey that will involve almost 30 hours of air travel, 4 planes, one plane change, 2 stops and several hours of layover time in many airports. We are thankful the Lord can get us home before April 28, which is when British Airways was estimating we would be able to fly out on their planes.
"I love the Lord because He hears my prayers and answers them.
Because He bends down and listens.  I will pray as long as I
breathe."  - Psalm 116:1&2


See you in a couple of days.
Darlene & Sydney