Thank you for praying.
okay so kendal went out of communication when she left for Manilla.
I wasn't sure if she was going to make the flight transfer in Manilla (from POM to LAX)... but there was nothing I could do... which when I asked for prayer.
So I prayed, and left it to God, sat down with the kids to watch a movie... about 30 minutes into the movie, an idea popped into my head. I returned to my well worn seat in front of my computer.
I called Philippines airline and told them the situation, that my wife had luggage, and 1 hour to check in to a transfer flight. They told me it required a taxi ride to a new terminal!!! She was most likely not going to make it in an hour. But they told me 'tell your wife to do this (and several instructions) which involved her flagging down a Customer Service Representative.
I did not have a way to tell this to my wife.... I could hope that she might think of it, but in her emotional state, even though she's very smart, it might not come to her. So, I had another idea.
I tried calling the Manilla airport but the phone wouldn't go through. I'm told the Philippines have the worst phone system in the world.
Not to give up, I did some web searching and found an odd little website where someone had indexed email addresses and phone numbers.
So I wrote up an email, explaining the situation, and asking them to send a Customer Service Rep to the gate of her flight with a sign with her name on it.
I sent the email to several different addresses hoping that email would work, where telephones failed. (yes I'm geeky that way).
Then I set my alarm to the time the plane was scheduled to touch down... so I could wake up and pray her through each step.
I fell asleep praying, 'it's all up to God'.
I woke up around 1am, and prayed for each specific step, as she went off the gangway, etc... fell back asleep, and my phone never rang, indicating she made the flight.
I called her dad's cell phone 5 minutes ago and my wife answered it. She also had her luggage.
From her end she says this:
"I was stressing out the entire way from POM to Manilla, because the plane left late and arrived 25 minutes late. I knew I wasn't going to make it, but when I got out of the gate, there was an angel there holding a sign with my name on it. I would have never made it without this person. I had to clear security around 12 times, wait for my bag, take a taxi to the new terminal, but first had to convert my U.S. cash into Philippines cash to pay the taxi, then my angel helped me and escorted me into the gate and my bag was the very last bag to come off the track in LAX."
Is that not super exciting! .. she's safe, she's with cargo. We made the decision to not all go, if we had decided all to go, we'd all 4 be stranded in Manilla right now.
Praise God.... this has been one wacky story of travelling.
I feel like the computer geek in mission impossible, sitting with a phone headset at the computer, clearing the way every step. No one I've told this story to has EVER heard of Air Nuigini just letting someone on board. That miracle, coupled with the idea that came to me in the middle of vegging out with the kids... just popping into my head to get a customer rep... all of that was from God.
Thank you in your help getting my wife to LAX, as soon as she stepped off the plane, she was able to release the tension she had from the flight hysteria.... and I could hear in her voice she was already doing much better!!
Thanks to God.
What a CRAZY travel story.
Every single thing that could go wrong, went wrong, except the part where she didn't get to her destination. And.. she got there in under 35 hours. Many have travel stories like this, but this particular story shows us that God answers our prayers, He listens, He reacts, and He cares. He's a personal savior.
