Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Saturday, March 8, 2008

We're almost there!

We are in Dubai, United Arab Emirates right now! God has been so good. Everything has gone so smoothly and we believe God has paved the way for us. Thank you prayer warriors! Here is a list of some of our miracles and answered prayers...

* Knowing our bags were borderline overweight, and praying before we approached the counter, once again God showed us HE IS FAITHFUL! The airlines chose not to weigh any of our bags.

* By airline standard one carry-on is permitted. However, by the grace of God, we were allowed 3 a piece, no questions asked.

* Good Health, Good Conversation, and Good Flights.

* Emirates allows two bags to be checked per person. Each additional bag is $135. We believe God softened the heart of the Emirates supervisor. He made the decision to waive half of the overage charges.

* Originally, none of our flights had us seated next to each other. Thanks to the willingness of our fellow passengers, people moved, seats opened, and with hardly any effort on our part we were seated together.

* One bag was lost in New York. We were easily frustrated after getting the run around, until the Lord reminded us how blessed we are. In the midst of a very busy New York airport, with people scrambling everywhere, we jumped on an elevator to find that God had chosen only one to share the ride. It was a blind, deaf, and mute man. We felt as if the wind had been knocked out of us. Who are we to grumble over a lost bag?? We were immediately reminded that we are so easily distracted by our circumstances, and that our focus must remain on Christ. Thank you God for that lost bag and the gentle reminder to keep our eyes fixed upon you. Isn't it amazing how God can bring good out of these small hiccups? (By the way we found the bag!)

* On arrival in Dubai we received a complimentary meal at the airport.

* Erryn found out via email that there is a trustworthy woman in Kampala who has graciously offered space in her home for our extra supplies while we travel to Northern Uganda.

***********************************************
We are in the middle of a 12 hour layover, 8pm to 8am. We have been succesful at using up 5 of those hours so far. We have had lots and lots of funny moments, lots of laughter. It has been great "girl time." We are doing well, just a little (or a lot) tired. The farther we get from "home" and the closer we get to Africa, the more it sinks in--we are bringing home our children!!!! As we push our stroller, that is packed to the brim and overflowing with carry-ons, through the airport, we have gotten many looks of terror or shock and questions... "Are you forgetting something?" or "where's the baby?" We have treasured the response..."We are going to get our children and bring them home!" Oh, how I have longed to say those words.

Stay tuned...Next stop, Entebbe, Uganda!

1 comment:

Todd and Jenny said...

Here's more reading material for you because I know there are few things you love more than reading these comments, and you were probably really excited to see a comment to this blog entry.

I just asked God what He wanted to say through me to encourage all of you, and especially you, Jennifer, since He sees you right where you are, and I'm too finite and human to know much of anything that your really experiencing right now. God put Psalm 146 in my mind-I wasn't even familiar with that one.

"Praise the LORD, O my soul!
While I live I will praise the LORD; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.'

"Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish.'

"Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever, Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry.'

"The LORD gives freedom to the prisoners. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD raises those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.'

"The LORD watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked He turns upside down.'

"The LORD shall reign forever-Your God, O Zion, to all generations.'

"Praise the LORD!"

PS. Camp out in the Psalm 140's for a while.