A Series of Unfortunate Events

July 24-July 26, 2011

What a “series of unfortunate events,” as Kaili would say! The evil one sure is working hard to stop our team from doing God’s mission in Kenya. First, we have trouble checking in our baggage at Seatac all the way to Nairobi: American Airlines tell us that they cannot manage to do that so we must recheck in our bags from London. Next, Jesse gets pulled aside at security because of all the clay we brought for one of our VBS crafts because they are searching for “trace amounts of TNT.” Our flight from Seattle to Dallas is delayed, but we make it to Dallas on time.

On the plane to London, we catch a lucky break (well, more like I do). Lucas needs an aisle seat and I happen to have one and we happen to be sitting next to each other. The three seats next to me are also unoccupied and I get nearly the entire row to lay across and sleep. However, upon arrival in London, I forget my passport on the airplane and Erika and I ran all over the airport, and we end up having to wait at customs once they find it.

After that, they tell us we can’t check in our luggage until four hours before our flight, which is at 8 pm, and it is only 2 pm. Turns out that Jesse’s luggage got flagged and never made it to London in the first place. Most of the boys decide to stay behind and watch the luggage while the girls and Lucas take a train out to explore the city for a few hours. First, we end up walking the wrong way, then find out we should take another train to get to Westminster Abbey. The kind man lets us in free because Erika’s card got denied, but then we realize that we can’t get out of the train station without a ticket. We wait even longer, finally get to see Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, then head home, discovering that most of the rails are down on weekends because of construction, and of course, the lines we need to take back to Paddington, the station, are closed. We end up having to take the Tube all the way back to the airport, which takes us an hour and a half.

It’s now 7:15 pm and for some reason all the Kenyan Airways employees have left the desk, and insist that they have a policy that disallows them from checking in baggage one hour prior to departure. Derek, Trenton, and Jesse decide to head on to Nairobi since they have already checked in their luggage, and rush through security. Meanwhile, the other 5 of us try to find a comfortable place to spend the night, seeing as how the next flight to Nairobi doesn’t leave until 8 pm the next evening.

An hour later, Trenton, Derek, and Jesse show up: they have missed the flight too, and had to go through immigration again and wait for another hour. We eat dinner at a Café Nero at the airport, and decide to check into a hotel for the evening, which Cindy books for us. We load up all our luggage onto the bus, which takes us to the hotel… but it’s the wrong hotel! So we have to hire a taxi that took two trips to the correct hotel, where we finally get to shower and have a good night’s rest.

The next morning, we call Kenya Airways to see if we can get on the evening flight to Kenya, but they tell us that it is completely booked but we can wait at the airport on standby. We get there at 1 pm, wait until 3 pm when the Kenya Airways counter opens, and they agree to let us in on standby and tell us to wait until 6:30 pm. At this time, they say that they will let a certain number of us go through the gate if passengers don’t show up.

6:30 rolls by, and the helpful lady tells us that there are quite a few deportees on the flight that they can bump, but there are still only 6 seats. She lets all eight of us through just in case, but as we go through security, Kaili and Erika’s carry-on bags are chosen for screening and we have to wait while the slowest (but nice) security guard goes through the entire contents of the bags. We finally get through to the gate, and six of us get on the plane while Trenton and Jesse have volunteered to stay behind if necessary. Jesse manages to get on the plane, and Trenton waits. At the very last minute, he gets on the plane and miraculously, eight standby passengers make it on the fully booked flight to Nairobi! Praise God. Unfortunately, only six of our 16 bags make it to Nairobi. Nine are in London and one is in the States, so we’re praying that they get delivered to Mike’s house here soon! Jesse doesn’t have his personal luggage, and neither does Lucas.

Still, our determination has not wavered. While we were in London, there were so many nice people helping us when we were lost or needed assistance. God made all these things happen for a reason, and I have faith that God has amazing things planned for us.