Amenables Tested!

This pretty much sums up the whole day...



We got up at 2:30 in the morning to catch the 6:30 AM airplane to LAX, which would have placed us on a connecting flight to Tokyo Narita airport. The mistake we made was that we chose United Airline to get to LA. If you are flying UA, you can be certain to expect somthing to go wrong. We managed to get in the plane but right when we were about to fly the left engine fails on us! Of course the pilot kicked all of us out and made us get in the 2 hour long customer service line. By the time we got to the table we knew there was no way we were gonna make it to our connecting flight to Tokyo. What baffled me was the inefficiency of the airliners to get us to LA after the unfortunate situation. Now that I think about it, of all the times I've flown UA, there was not single flight I didn't have trouble with. They always delayed my flights or didn't give me a boarding pass due to a 45 min cutoff line! Can you believe that nonesense? If you come within 45 min of your boarding time (not your departure time), they won't let you in, even if you clearly have more than enough time to get to the gate. *angry wailing*

Well so we flew down to LA on a different plane and got into LAX. We go to our connecting flight terminal and of course we missed it. Frustration and disapointment soon ensued but there was no time to be brooding over a missed flight because we weren't sure which airliners had our checked bags. Because of the earlier switches in our flights we weren't sure if UA or Korean Air or NorthWest (another potential flight to Japan) had our baggage. Forced to explore perhaps the biggest airport in the world dragging our carry-ons and talking to agents who seemed to have no clue as to the workings of their own company, we finally found our bags at the Korean Air Terminal.

Well as you could imagine, UA did not find us a flight out of the country, and our team is kinda stuck in LAX right now. The earliest flight they could find with open seating was on Wednesday, but we asked to get on the stand by list for tomorrow's flight. Whether we get on tomorrow or not we will be amenable to the will of God.To their credit we got hotel and food vouchers and are comfortably lodging at La Quinta inn. Thanks be to Jesus! Well it's their fault that we missed the connecting flight so we'll splurge on all the vouchers and enjoy our hotel stay in a playful attempt to get back at UA for what they made us go through this day.

I personally believe this unfortunate string of events were good for us. Honestly speaking I don't think I was mentally and emotionally prepared what I face in Japan. I just got done moving out of my apartment and up until the last minute we were leading worship and fundraising in various churches. I feel like my relationship with God was overlooked in many ways because of the hustle and bustle of organizing this trip. This actually is a good chance for me to reflect and meditate on the Spirit of God. For our team really needs to be prayerful if we want to accomplish what we are planning to do in Japan.

Also I believe this was a really great team building experience. There were times when we were angry, hungry, and cranky. But in every irate moments, the Amenables were patient and pleasant. We really lived up to our name today and I'm really proud of myself and the team today. Thank you God, in spite of what happened today, we're truly grateful.