"Susan, we missed our connecting flight out of Miami, so we aren't coming in this morning. We're on 4 separate flights coming in late tonight and tomorrow morning. Can you help us?" What a way to start a Sunday morning! I had just said goodbye to two house guests at 7:30 a.m. when I listened to this phone message.
One of my hats here is to coordinate the teams. While this kind of a situation doesn't happen often (Thank goodness!) it definitely kicks one into action and stretches the imagination. At first, my reaction was "Gack! How am I going to do this and get to church on time?" then I took a deep breath, raised my hands in prayer and said, "Okay God, this is in your hands. I can't do this, but you can." And boy did He!
First was a call to the airline (Please, please, please answer the phone on Sunday morning.) to see if I could change tickets for 20 people who were supposed to be at the airport in 2 hours to fly to Arequipa. They needed to fly the next day instead. As I had bought the tickets in batches of 1 to 4 tickets over the space of three days to coordinate different leaving schedules and the airlines requirement of no more than 9 tickets a day, it meant dealing with 7 different reservations. Thank God, Peruvian Airlines had space and an hour and a half later, one very patient young woman and I had managed to change all the tickets to catch the same flight the next day. Call Susan and Vicki in Miami, "Okay, You're all on the noon flight tomorrow."
Now we need a place for the 14 people who were coming in to stay the night. Mami Panchita is an old hacienda house near the airport. "Do you have room for 14 people tonight?" "Yes, we do, as long as it is just for tonight." "No problem, God willing, they'll all be on their way to Arequipa by tomorrow." Call Susan and Vicki in Miami, "Okay, got you rooms at Mami Panchita. Now I have to get the bus." "Can their van pick us up? That way we can let the first group go to the hotel as soon as they arrive and then it can go back for the second group?" "I'll double check."
"Is your van available to pick up the group?" "I"m sorry, Sunday is the driver's day off." Okay, Plan B -- Look up the bus company I've used for the last couple of trips. "Hi, I've got two groups of people coming into the airport tonight. Can you pick them up for me?" Make all the arrangements for the van. Call Susan and Vicki in Miami, "Okay, got a van for you. Now I have to get ready for church."
Quickly get cleaned up and over to church as it was a special day. Sofia Daniela was being baptized. John had married her parents a few years ago, and baptized her brother two years ago. How wonderful to be able to see families grow with the church. (see the picture below) After church, off to the baptism party barbeque. I got to stay and enjoy it for a while, but then had to catch a taxi downtown.
All those ticket changes and the price differences and change fees had to be paid for downtown that day. It couldn't wait until the team came in and let them pay it for the next day. Thanks goodness, we had just gotten paid, so I went to the bank and got out our money to pay for the price difference. Tucked behind the Sheraton was a brand new mall, with a kiosk for the airlines. "Hi there, you're going to earn your pay for today." So I sat down with my list of reservation codes, and price changes, and we started through the list. An hour later, with her printing out all the tickets (2 pages for each) and $900+ later, we were done. Quick scoot back to church for Evensong.
Evensong is very calming, especially when you've had a busy day. Just sitting there, drinking in the music and prayers, brings a sense of calm. We always invite the people who come to Evensong to come over to the house to join us for a light supper of soup or salad . Knowing we would have the baptism that day, I had prepared the salad the day before. Boy was I glad! Kevin headed off to the store to buy some rolls and grab some water bottles for the team. One thing I've learned is that when you get off the plane, you're really dehydrated, so a bottle of cool water hits the spot. Enjoy our salads and and sermon discussion, then I've got to scoot upstairs.
In order to get reimbursed, I have to turn in copies of all the tickets. so I sit down to make 40 photocopies of the tickets and then while I swap those out of the copier one by one, I go on-line and find seats for everyone on the plane so then I print out 2 copies of 20 boarding passes to take with me to the airport.
Penny comes over after the Spanish Prayer and Praise and we catch a taxi to the airport. She's going to pick up Christopher's parents (the young man who had been helping us with the website. See his brithday picture below) My first group is due in at 10:10 pm. Lima airport receives about 30 international flights between 10 pm and 1 am each day. Multiply that times the hundreds of people on the plane. Usually you wait about an hour for your team to go through customs and immigration. I catch sight of Susan and Vicki and steer the first 6 people over to the side and hand out the water which they all eagerly gulp down.
"The two girls (the youngest of the group) who went from Dallas to Miami to Los Angeles aren't coming in tonight. When they got to LA, there were no tickets for them on the Lima flight, so they are coming tomorrow. But the other group doesn't know." Call the bus driver. "Group is here, meet us in the parking lot." So we head over to the parking lot. Buses often wait outside the airport so they don't have to pay the parking fee as you never can tell how long it will take to get a group through customs and immigration. So we wait and we wait and we wait. Call again. "What's happening?" " Ayy Señora, mumble mumble mumble mumble Jose mumble mumble mumble arrancador mumble mumble mumble robbed mumble mumble mumble."
"What's going on?" "I'm not sure, but I think he's on his way, He did say something about being robbed though and Jose coming," while I wrack my brain to remember what's an arrancador. So we wait some more. 20 minutes later, still no van. Call again; this time I understood a bit more. "Jose is coming to get you, the van won't go, the starter (arrancador !) was stolen." and he gives me Jose's number. An hour after the team emerged from the airport, we had a van which had had to come from the garage many miles away. Pile everyone and all the suitcases in. "Please, after you drop them off, come back and get the next group." And I go back in as it's midnight and time for the next plane to land.
Another hour later, I catch sight of the florescent green tie on a suitcase and a bewildered look on some women coming out. I called out the name of the church, and they sighed with relief. Directing them over to the side, pass out the water, "Where's Ginny?" "Oh she's inside waiting for the girls." "They aren't coming in tonight, they had no tickets waiting for them. I thought there were 6 of you." "Yes, Eric lost his bag, he's in there filling out the forms." Finally get everyone out now an hour and a half after the plane landed and head to the parking lot. This time he was there waiting for us. We get all the bags and the 6 of them in. I decide to go with them as I can catch a taxi more cheaply outside of the airport.
We head out of the airport and head down the road. A bit later we turn off to follow the beach road as the hostel is only a block from the beach. We slow down past the park, turn and go up a block and cruise down the road. Then I realized he's heading back the way we just came, and then we go around the block with the park again, and then yet again. Hmmm, he just dropped off the other group, I wonder if they went around and around too? Finally, he goes further up the road to another park and then we find the hostel. Unload everyone, wish them all good night and the driver felt so bad, he took me all the way home instead of just to the garage. Thank you God as catching a taxi in the wee hours isn't fun.
Quick e-mail to the people back home to let them know some of the team arrived safely and crashed into bed at 3 am.
Over the course of the week, I found out that when the girls had gotten to Los Angeles, they ended up being put on stand-by to fly out the next night. But God rescued that too. They had cousins in LA who took them out for the day, and got them back to the airport in time for their night flight which they managed to get seats on.
The original flight had left Dallas late on Saturday due to mechanical problems which was why they had missed their connecting flight. Since most of the people on the plane were going somewhere else out of Miami, the gate agent had said, "Oh you won't get out of here until Tuesday at the earliest." That would have left them with only 3 days in Peru. The other ticket agent was a Christian pastor who said, "Oh yes they will!" and worked to get everyone on flights to get them all to Lima. He got 20 people on four different flights so that they arrived in Arequipa only 1 day late.
And the bus driver had gotten lost with the first group too. But he found his way back the next morning to take them all to the airport. The rest of the team (a group of 6 and the two girls) arrived and everyone caught the plane down to Arequipa. We had been worried about overweight as they were not allowed as much luggage as the US airline does. But they added up everyones' suitcases' weight and didn't charge them a thing.
Just today, Susan told me, "Through everything, God always provided for us." God is so good! To Him be the glory!
One of these days, I'll write my memoirs-- "Fun and Games in the Third World" This is Chapter 16.
Blessings,
Susan
Sofia's baptism
Christopher's birthday
John+ & Susan Park
johnpark@sams-usa.org
susanpark@sams-usa.org
www.ParkPeru.org
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