Never a Dull Moment

Catching Some Zeez

The Twelve Disciples at YVR

Cristina Resting in London

At the time of writing this, we were about 200 miles from London on our British Airways flight. We had a bit of a scare at the airport in Vancouver.  I arrived at International Departures at about 5:15 with two members of our group,  Cameron and Donna Treloar. Cam is a good friend I went to Bible college with back in the day.  Immediately upon walking through the doors I saw Cristina leaning against a column waiting with her baggage.  The others trickled in. Malou, Fae, Justin, Sandra, Ria, Cathy, and finally, longtime friends, Rand and Shirley arrived.  Their flight from Calgary was delayed, so they arrived later than planned. We got our baggage dropped off fairly quickly, everyone, that is, with exception of Justin.  He has a Philippines passport,  and the ticketing agent said that she wasn't going to let him board because he needed a visa to get to Egypt.  She was very adamant that there was no way that she could allow him to go with us.  

I called Brian Watt from www.christian-journeys.ca and asked him to talk to her.  No luck.  I asked Justin how would feel if he was rejected.  He said he would be disappointed, but he would be ok because it's in God's hands.  My heart was very moved to see Justin's faith in God.

I suggested we gathered in a circle and pray for God to intervene.  At the same time, Brian prayed with his family in Ontario.  A couple minutes later a different ticketing agent came and motioned for Justin to come to the ticket desk.  We started heading that way, and Cam hollered for him to come back and get his suitcase as a display of faith.  She told Justin that she would check him in, and hoped that things would work out once we got to Cairo.  We were so thankful to God.  We publicly praised his faithfulness.



Our flight was delayed an hour, which meant that we had lots of time before boarding our plane.  Everyone was pumped and eagerly anticipating God to speak to us on this trip.  He had already proved himself faithful.  We went through security and then gathered to pray God's blessing on our journey.  We prayed that our hearts would be right and that we would be ready to receive whatever the Spirit of Jesus has to say to us.

Justin and Ria en route to Cairo from London

Our flight to London was nine hours or so.  For some reason the seats seemed a little more cramped than what I can remember from other flights I have taken.  Maybe I'm gaining weight, or maybe I'm getting older.  Both are true, but I'm not sure if they were a factor in my perception the space seemed smaller.  All in all, it was as comfortable as can be expected in economy.  I was, of course, envious of the luxurious, roomy stations that the first class guests had, but hey, we are all so thankful that we get the opportunity to go on this trip. 

We had a couple hour layover in London.  Some members of the group got some shuteye, while others did some window shopping.

While waiting to board our connecting flight, Cam struck up a conversation with an Orthodox priest.  He beckoned me to come over an meet "my brother."  We chatted for a bit.  He told me that his name is Theophilos.  The name sounded familiar, then I realized that it is the same name as the recipient of of Luke's Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles.  He urged us to come and visit him in Alexandria while we are in Egypt.  I don't think we'll be able to but, it was interesting to talk with him.

We boarded our flight to Cairo and just under five hours later we arrived in the land of pyramids and Mt. Sinai.  We walked off the plane onto the tarmac.  The weather was quite mild, about 20 degrees Celsius.  We boarded a bus that took us to the terminal and were met by a guy with a sign, "GERMO GROUP".  "I'm Simon", he said.  "Simon Hani.  Like honey."  I was so thankful to see him.  He gathered us together, put our visas in our passports and the whole group went through security in less than ten minutes.  By the time we got through our luggage was already on the conveyor.  I was impressed. 

We put all our luggage together and a customs officer came over and asked if we had anything to declare.  "No", I said.  And then he was off.  Another guy came and loaded our luggage on a trolley and pulled it out where we were met by Rania, our tour guide.  They took us to our 50 passenger bus.  We have four seats each.

Before driving to our hotel, Rania asked me if I wanted to say anything to the group through the microphone in the bus.  I thank her and reminded everyone to not eat anything raw, or drink the tap water, while we are here because, I know from experience how uncomfortable it is to have a bug as a travel companion.   Then I prayed for protection and God's blessing our journey.  I prayed for blessing of Rania and for Simon and our driver.  When I was done she said that she liked traveling with church

 

Cathy and Sandra in London

groups because everything seems to go so much better than with other groups.  "God seems to go ahead of the group", she said.

We are settled in our rooms.  It's 3:35 am right now.  We have a wake up call in less than four hours.  We have breakfast from 8:00 to 9:00 am and then to the bus for departure at 9:00.  We were thankful that Rania suggested we could sleep in this morning since we are a bit sleep deprived.

Tomorrow is a full day.  The Pyramids, the Great Sphynx, and the Egypt Museum.

I am closing this off with a very thankful heart.  I wonder what God has in store for us.  I am going to keep my eyes open for divine appointments.  God is going ahead of us.  We can expect something good.

Shalom

PJ