Greetings All
Wow what a trip!, but “the eagle” did get landed and on schedule. Monday was an early start as Jeanne and I left the house at 4:30 a.m. to head for the airport in Kearney. All was on schedule. When I got to Denver it was time to eat breakfast and so I sat down to eat my Egg McMuffin at McDonalds. That is when I turned my cell phone on only to find out that my flight to Tokyo was going to be delayed by about 2 hours making it impossible to catch my flight on down to Asia Pacific.
I gulped my egg McMuffin down and hurried to the customer service desk only to find out that all alternate routes were either to late to catch or full. There was a gate change with this postponed flight so I decided to head over from terminal B to terminal A to just wait for my delayed flight. When I got over there I just decided to check at their customer service desk and see what they had to say. They told me that the flight to San Francisco had just been postponed for an hour out of Denver and I could get on it and to San Francisco in time to catch the Tokyo flight which would make my connection. So I had them change my tickets – and then had to go back to Terminal B where I had just come from in order to catch this flight.
When I got back to Terminal B, I thot I better check back in with the desk there too, and when I did I found out that the San Francisco flight had just been delayed further which was now going to make it impossible to make my connecting flight to Tokyo. However he said that he could now get me on a flight through Seattle which would get me to Tokyo in time, so he changed my tickets once again.
The flight to Seattle left from Terminal A so now it was back to Terminal A to catch this flight. Of course baggage tags had to be changed each time too, so I was praying that the baggage men would not get confused over all the changes. When I got to Seattle I checked at the desk – all was on schedule but I found that my seat was a middle seat – and 10 hours of flying stuck between two people, ughhhh! The flight was very full and no aisle seats available. The attendant was very nice but said all she could do was put me on a list in case an aisle seat opened up, so I started praying – all I needed was one aisle cancellation.
About 15 minutes later she called me back up to the desk and said she could help and gave me my favorite seat on the plane! After we were on our way I looked around and I am not sure there were any empty seats on that plane and yet the Lord opened up a aisle seat – but not just any aisle seat – it was my favorite seat!! Wow, what a blessing! When I got into Japan all was on schedule and just a short wait for my next 7 hour leg to Asia Pacific.
When I handed them my boarding pass it promptly rejected it and the computer said there was a seating issue with the aisle seat they had previously assigned me. I could only imagine what this might mean. The attendant told me to step forward and they would work on it. After a few minutes she approached me and said they were changing my seat and giving me a whole row of seats to myself – now I not only had an aisle seat but could lay down and sleep for this trip! Talk about how the Lord works out the little details – and all this is an answer to your prayers as you have been praying for this whole trip. Thanks SO MUCH!!!
And oh yes, the baggage made it in fine shape too! I didn’t get to the hotel till after 1:00 a.m. but was in bed by 2 and slept like a log all night – horizontal really felt good!. I will take the day to rest up from the trip and then head up to the province tomorrow. Again thanks for all your prayers – prayer does make a difference and it is a comfort to know you are “holding the ropes” in this way.
God Bless you,
Ed Casteel
Church Planting Asia Pacific