Looking for the Silver Lining

So...I am finally in Australia! It seemed like this day would never come, but now it is here and I am definitely a mixed bag of emotions. It is so hard leaving everybody I know and love to come and do something completely different. You know? But I am eager to see what God has in store for me here and why He opened so many doors for this to happen. I should be updating this blog, now that I am here, quite frequently. Feel free to comment and keep in touch on here as well as through facebook, e-mail, and "snail mail."

No account of my time in Australia would be complete without a telling of how I got here. To be sure, my travels from Detroit to Adelaide were some of the worst traveling experiences I have ever had. From the beginning: I got to Detroit extremely early for my 4:30 pm departure. Why? Well my parents were worried and Dr. Stewart said I needed to be there extremely early in case anything happened. So I sat and waited--no big deal. Eventually we boarded the plane and were told that we needed to "de-ice." After about 10 minutes the pilot informed is that the chemical wasn't working or something and we needed to taxi over to where they could spray on some super industrial strength stuff. But first....we needed to taxi around to burn some excess fuel or something lame like that. Eventually we stopped in a cue of airplanes waiting for the chemical. Forever-and-a-half later we were ready to take off. This being almost a full hour after we were supposed to. So we landed in Chicago O'Hare and sat on the runway for another hour waiting to be de-iced again. I am not sure why this was the case, as there should have been no problem with us docking with the hanger and disembarking. I think it was a convenient excuse for the fact that O'Hare was backed up and there were no open gates to dock with. This theory of mine is helped by the fact that nobody came to spray the chemical on our plane and yet we eventually hooked up to a gate.

Needless to say, I missed my flight out of Chicago due to the massive delays on the plane from Detroit. So I immediately went to the re-booking center to try and get on the next scheduled departure for LA. Luckily I got booked on this flight with no problems and went to the gate to await its departure. Unluckily, this plane had been delayed as well--almost a full hour due the pilots "not being there." Had this plane taken off at its scheduled time, I would have made my flight in LA to Melbourne, Australia. As it was, however, we arrived in LA a full hour after my international flight had left. Seeing as it was now 12:30 am, there were very few people around to help me figure out how to fix the situation. I eventually spoke with a booking agent who told me that Qantas only flew one plane a night from LA to Melbourne, departing at 11:20 every evening. Moreover, the next days flight was overbooked and she could only put me on a waiting list. I would need to go to the international terminal the next day at 2:30 pm to get myself off the waiting list and properly booked (and there was no guarantee of this happening). There was no way on this planet that, after long day of flying, I was going to spend the night in an empty terminal. Unfortunately, the airline would not give me room or meal voucher for the night, as they were not responsible for weather delays. Fortunately, I did find a cheap enough hotel nearby and got to enjoy bed and a much needed shower.

The hotel kicked me out around noon the next day and I was stuck walking around the streets of LA with all my carry-on luggage (a funny sight I am sure). I ate In'n Out Burger for lunch...yum and just wandered around looking at stores for awhile. Around 2:00 pm I made my way back to the hotel, hopped on the airport shuttle and rode to the international terminal. Speaking to the lady at the Qantas desk, it looked at first as if I would not be able to get on that evening's flight. Moreover, the plan was booked for the next night as well. She told me to come back in 20 minutes to speak with a different agent. After a very stressed out 20 minutes, I returned to find that a seat had been found and my boarding pass was ready! Praise the Lord! In addition, they had found my checked luggage which nobody had known the whereabouts to the night before and were making arrangement for it to get on the plane. Wonderful! Now I needed to killed time until my departure at 11:20 pm. So I decided to WALK all the way back into town from the international terminal (still carrying my bags), as I did not want to wait in the terminal. So I walked down more streets, saw more stores, ate a bit more LA food and then walked pack around 8:00 pm.

The plane ride from LA to Melbourne went well. All things considered, the fifteen hour flight went smooth and I was able to sleep some of it away. I do hate flying though and the seats were really cramped together and my stomach felt horrible to whole time. Something about flying always makes me sick to my stomach. We flew all night and arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday morning. Then I had to rebook my final flight from Melborne to Adelaide, seeing as I arrived a whole day after I had expected to. I booked the flight at no extra cost, which was great, waiting a few hours, and enjoyed the MUCH shorter and MUCH less crowded flight to Adelaide. Jon Joyce, my mentor over here in Australia, was waiting to pick me up. My bags and everything made it safe and sound.

My whole traveling experience, miserable as it was, prompted me to ask the question, "So where is the silver lining." I mean...we all say things like this as Christians, don't we? After all, the Bible promises that God works ALL things for the good of those who love him. But yet we constantly face trials where we are asking where the good is. We are always looking for the silver lining. From the death of a loved one to something as seemingly unimportant as travel delays, God promises that there is purpose and good behind everything that happens to us, whether we see it or not. As Jon Joyce told me though, just because it is for our good doesn't make it easy to deal with. I simply have to be content with the knowledge that my delays happened for a reason. For now then, I think the silver lining of my being delayed would have to be the In'n Out Burger I ate for lunch. I mean, you just don't get a burger that good everyday :-). Perhaps God catered to my refined fast food palette. Or perhaps there was something else far more important that I will never know...a real "butterfly flapping its wings causes a hurricane" sort of paradox. God is good and that is enough for me. After all, I am here now and safe and that is what matters in the end. More soon, my friends!

In Christ,

Chris