Sunday: Yesterday was another interesting day. We were up at
4 am. The hotel was supposed to give us a wake-up call at 4 am but didn’t, but
we were up anyway, thankfully. At 4:30 am, they sent a boy to check our snacks
to see if we had eaten any but we were not yet dressed and sent him away. The
desk called and asked us to allow him in and we explained that we were not
ready. Asked why we did not get a wake-up call. He said he thought it was for
4:30. At this point, it was already 4:35. I did not argue but 5 minutes later,
sure enough the call came in, right on time, 40 minutes late. Sometimes it is
hard to see how this type of behavior seems face saving to them.
We headed to the airport and the driver turned into the
international terminal, all Indian airports have domestic on one side and the
international on the opposite side of the runway. We were flying domestic but
he could not turn around so we wove through all the traffic unloading, etc.,
and then proceeded to the domestic terminal, about 10 minutes away. We paid the
taxi man and went to the front gate to gain entrance. In India, you have to
show passports and your ticket voucher to get in the airport. The guard looked
at our tickets, then at a chart on the wall and said, “This flight is from
international.” For some reason, that domestic flight flew out of the
international terminal. We quickly flagged down our taxi and rushed back
over to the international terminal we had just left. It turns out that the
driver was a Christian and was so nice. Tom had initially paid him 1000 rupees
and needed 200 in change, which the taxi driver did not have, so Tom said just
keep it (about $3). The man said he would not charge us to return to the
international terminal because we gave him too much. I gave him a tip,
which he tried to refuse (unbelievable in India!), but he said he wanted to be
honest because he was following Jesus. What a blessing! We made it to
our gates just as they started to board.
On arrival to Chennai, no one was there to greet us. It is a
little unnerving to be in a huge city in India at the airport and not know how
to connect with anyone. We waited a half hour and I dug around on my
computer and found a number to call. A taxi driver let me use his phone. Unbeknownst
to us Vasanth was at the domestic part of the airport waiting for us, but we
had come in on the international terminal. He had his cell phone stolen the
previous week, had bought a SIM card and gave it to his daughter in case
someone called. I call her home and his 8-year-old granddaughter answered,
saying hello, hello, over and over again. She did not know English. Finally,
she hung up telling her mom it was a wrong number. I called back and the
daughter answered and finally connected us to Vasanth, who quickly came and
picked us up.
We soon were so delighted to meet him because he turned out to be
a fine, humble godly man. We attended their house church, which we enjoyed,
although I think I slept through half of it I was so tired, but it wasn’t in
English so I didn’t miss much. Edie said she was glad I did not fall out
of my chair. Later we had a great opportunity to share our ministry and
they were so receptive. We had lunch together and then we met with the
leadership team. We began to strategize about how to work together. It
was such a joy to work with such mature godly people. We expect great
things for the future there.
Tom was still sick and stayed in bed most of the day, which was so
good for him. When we left, back to the airport at 4:30 pm, he was
feeling better and this morning he seems much better. Praise the Lord and
thank you for your prayers.
Our flight to Trichy was an hour and a half delayed but we arrived
safe and sound and to our rooms at 11:30pm, a long but good day. We are
getting ready to work with our dear friends here and expect a good, even if
interesting, day.
Al
No comments:
Post a Comment