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| Janna and I at a Christmas Concert in St. Nicholas Church in Old Town Square in Prague |
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| Time with Mark at Starbucks in Prague |
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| The Christmas Market in Morges with Malia |
What an adventure! I left work on Monday December 6 and headed to Chicago for a 10pm departure from OHare, all the while having a very uncomfortable feeling about the flight. After arriving at Karen's and checking the flight schedule, we headed off to Ohare as my flight was on time. When we arrived however we discovered that my flight had been cancelled with no reason offered. American Airlines was unable to get me to London any other way to meet my connection to Geneva so I had to reschedule both flights and lost a day. So on 12/7 I departed to London and arrived in Geneva on 12/8, a day late. Malia picked me up at the airport and we headed to the school. This was the next in a series of God moments. Two of the professors were American and one was in to teach a week long class. So I was able to visit with them in English. So at dinner as I spoke with Tom, he asked about my church in Peoria and this led to a coversation about theology and John Piper. He let me know that the other professor would be interesting for me to talk with and that he was with particular missions organization. This perked up my ears and I asked "Is he going to be at a conference in Turkey in a few weeks?" "My church is going to Turkey to provide the children and youth programming for a group serving with this missions organization from all over Europe." At this Tom said "Let's go find out." After speaking with Mark in French, Mark turned to me and said "You are part of Pastor Lyall's team from Bethany!" This began the coversation and I was able to meet one of the families that we would be serving in Turkey while in Geneva. A God sighting both as a confirmation that I was to go to Turkey and an encouragement to the other students as Mark explained to them in French what had just occurred. Malia however was back at the table telling Tom that in the scheme of life, we see God provide these meetings sometimes but in Holly's life these meetings happen all the time. I asked her if she had rolled her eyes for Linda, who had been our third roommate and had experienced this with me many times in the past!
Flights continued to provide interesting stories and much excitement as after the first delay I figured that it would be smooth sailing. Think again! As I relaxed on my flight from Geneva to Prague, the man across the aisle began to throw up. The young man with him waved me off when I offered my white bag as an extra. In a few minutes however, the man began to have a seizure. The flight attendants asked for a nurse of physician for a medical emergency and no one responded. Silence. And I realized that I was most likely the only medical person on the flight and was a dietitian with both healthcare professional CPR and first aid training. So I told them that I had basic first aid and was trained in CPR. After sending up a quick prayer, began to help the young man help his dad by talking him through how to keep his dad's airway open since he had passed out in his seat. This went on for 45 minutes and I continued to pray and watch his breathing and look for signs of cardiac arrest all the while praying that CPR would not be needed but ready and willing to do what I could to keep this stranger alive. The man began to respond as we approached Prague and an emergency response team boarded the plane. I disembarked thankful that God had provided wisdom and strength and that the man was enroute to a hospital but I was still very shaken.
Plane Adventures continue....
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| Our transportation to Heathrow - a charter bus |
I arrived back in Geneva on December 16 after a very uneventful flight and Malia and I spent the evening together and prepared to depart on the 17th for home. We knew that it was going to be interesting when we awoke to 3-4 inches of fresh snow on the ground and then arrived at the Geneva airport to discover that the first 3 hours of flights had been cancelled and the airport was in chaos. Our flight was still listed as departing on time but the British Airways ticket counter was very disorganized and Malia and I were shuffled from being in line to out of line and in other lines all while getting very frustrated. When we finally got our tickets and headed to the gate, we knew that we were departing an hour late but that we still had plenty of time to catch our next flight out of London. So after our plane was deiced, we headed to London but this time I was uneasy again. As we approached London the first officer came on and told us that there was a lot of traffic on the ground at Heathrow and that we would need to circle the city for another 45 minutes - now this was going to be interesting as our time to make our connection would be really close. In a few minutes however the landing gear was down and the first officer got back on and told us that we would be landing on time and to review the safety card information in the seat pocket in front of us. Now that was an odd request and made me realize that something was wrong. After a few minutes as we prepared to land, the plane instead shot back into the sky and then I knew something was really wrong. There was silence from the cockpit for about 20-25 minutes and then we heard from the first officer. They had experienced the loss of their instrument panel as they descended into Heathrow and were being diverted to another city in England where it was clear so that they could do a manual landing. As we prepared to land a second time, Malia and I joined hands and each began to pray. In my mind asking the question "Jesus do I see you today?" and yet I was completely at peace despite having no idea what the outcome would be. When we landed about 60 km north of London the pilot got on and told us that they had experienced and electrical failure in the cockpit and that this was the reason that they lost the use of the instrument panel and the autopilot. They needed to completely turn off the plane for safety and that they would keep us informed. So after another 2 hours on the plane, we were towed towards the terminal and then disembarked to go throgh customs and collect our luggage. British Airways hired charter buses to take us to Heathrow. When we arrived now after 7 pm we enetered expecting to have new flights and to be on our way home when we entered absolute chaos in the British Airways terminal due to cancelled flights all over Europe related to weather and thousands of people were in line. We found an information desk and no one realized that our flight had not landed in London. We finally found a group of people from our flight who had managed to get a British Airways employee to believe the story about the flight failure and he realized that the ball had been dropped related to rescheduling all of our flights. So we were all placed in a line together and we waited to get new itineries. 3 hours later however, the airline employees left at the end of their shift with none of our flight having been served. Through a series of circumstances we found an employee who was willing to answer my questions about the partnership with American Airlines and what information AA employees could see about what had happened to our flight. She told me that on the BA side they could see that our flight did not land in Heathrow but in Luton. So Malia and I decided to try calling AA in the states to see if they could help us. After trying to use my international calling card without success, Malia and I found a corner and prayed and then opened her laptop and tried skype and got through to someone at AA who could help us. After being told that the first flight we could get on was Sunday, I mentioned that I would miss my family Christmas and had no more vacation time left at work. Soon a seat on the Saturday am flight opened and after a discussion with Malia about who would take this flight, the reservation person was told to give it to me and she would Malia on stand-by. So with great thankfulness Malia and I went to join our flightmates to spend the night on the floor of Heathrow. The morning dawned and Malia and I headed to the American Airlines terminal and another challenge presented itself. My flight had been rebooked but Malia's had not been. So we spoke with AA ticket agents about the BA flight failure the day before and they were able to get Malia a seat on the Saturday 4:30 pm flight. So we had breakfast and then went to the my departure gate where we parted ways. Then as we went to board the plane, the skies opened and snow began to fall. By the time that we boarded and the plane was deiced, there were several inches of snow on the ground and I could barely see the runway and I thought that this was going to be very interesting. We taxied down the runway and took off and had clear skies all the way to Chicago. When we were about an hour from Chicago, the flight attendant told the women in front of me that they should be thankful for their Christmas miracle as our flight was the last one out before London Heathrow closed the airport and it would remain closed for 4-5 days. Malia was stuck and my heart broke. God had a purpose for each one of us and her sacrifice enabled me to get home for Christmas and to prepare for my trip to Turkey.
The interesting note about my adventure getting home was that when I did not arrive in Chicago, American Airlines told Karen to contact British Airways about my connecting flight. She looked it up online to discover that the listed information stated - flight status - contact British Airways. So she called and was told that "yes she was on the flight and that I was alive and that everyone was ok." When Karen asked where I was she was told "We do not know."
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