Home Again for Twelve

All lined up at the airport in Siem Reap

After a night in the Bangkok airport, we all were up early (or stayed up late) to board our 5:40 am flight to Tokyo. We had to walk a long way, across the airport from where we had spent the night, and then we had to go through personal screening for every bag (open, remove items, inspect) and for every person (light pat down). We hadn’t had that kind of scrutiny at any of the airports before, and you can imagine that it slowed down a group of 12 to have that much one-on-one attention! We made it through in plenty of time, though, and sat for about five minutes before boarding our flight to Tokyo. The flight was uneventful (always a good thing), but we did need to alter our flight plan to skirt the edge of a typhoon passing through Japan. After about 6.5 hours, we landed in Tokyo.

Siem Reap airport

Dairy Queen at the Siem Reap airport

A view of Bangkok, out the window of the plane

Once safely in Tokyo, we had a bit more time (maybe an hour at most?) to get to our assigned gate for departure.  A few headed out to indulge in exorbitantly-overpriced McDonald’s food before we departed.  It smelled very good! As we were seated for our long flight, the announcement was made that the flight would be slightly delayed. We took off about 20 minutes later and were told that the time would be easily made up as we flew. This was a long flight and we were weary. We didn’t really see each other a lot on the plane. Most were trying to sleep, and some even succeeded! We also walked the aisles to keep our legs from cramping up from sitting too long. Who knew you could feel like you got hit by a truck, when all you did was sit for 11 hours?

We arrived at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport on schedule. The lines in customs were long. We stepped into two different lines to try to speed our process of getting through the lines. One line had two different customs officers at the front of it, taking people through, so that line moved quickly.  The other line had only one officer, and it went slowly. Minutes ticked by, and we wondered if we would make it to our Rochester flight on time. Liz, Laura, and Mike were in the slow line and on the early (2:20 pm) flight to Rochester. (The rest of our team had a later flight, leaving MSP at about 4:20.) After we eventually made it through our line at about 2:00, we still had to move our luggage to the next room to re-check it and then go through our pre-flight security check. As we finally made it through all the check-points, Ray was waiting on the other side to take us to where we needed to go. We RAN all the way across the airport to our flight, with Ray carrying one of my backpacks. I didn’t even have time to put on my shoes, which I had removed for security, until we got to the moving walkways. Ron was just ahead of us (made it onto the tram), so he let the crew know we were on our way. When we arrived, we saw the plane was still available for boarding. Yes!! We boarded, and the older gentleman who was our flight attendant said, “I wasn’t leaving without you. We saw you were coming all the way from Tokyo.” He then put both my backpacks up in the overhead storage for me. I informed him I’d be using the oxygen right away, after running all the way there. The flight to Rochester was barely long enough for us to catch our breath!

There were four of us on this first flight to Rochester: Mike, Ron, Laura, and me. As we approached the airport, I thought how good it was to be going home, but also how much had been packed into the past three weeks. It will take a while for each of us to process the lessons God has for us from this journey we have taken. Waiting at the airport were Mike’s family, Laura and Liz’s family, and Karl and Martha, who had come out to meet the incoming flights. It was wonderful to see everyone and to catch up on things from home, from them (while friends and family caught up on things Cambodian, from us)! Our suitcases failed to run across the airport as we did, so they did not make the flight. The airport said they would deliver our bags later in the evening, so most of us departed the airport and headed for home. The remainder of our crew would arrive on the later flight, just after 5:00 pm (Ray, Becky, Ben, Andrea, Steve, Logan, Marlin, and Abby). All are now safely at home, while the crew in Poipet labors on with the Copelands. Hopefully we’ll receive an update from them soon. Thank you so much for your prayers!!

Praises:

1.       Praise God for safe flights for the 12 of us returning yesterday, and that the early crew all made their connection to Rochester.

2.       Praise for the changes we all have experienced the way we perceive the world.

3.       Praise God for his general protection over all our travels.

Prayer Requests:

1.       Please pray for those who have just returned, that they may recover from jetlag and any lingering digestive problems that they might have.

2.       Pray also for all 14 who have returned (Rick and Karen plus the 12 who just got here) that they will figure out what God wants them to do with all they have learned, and that they will be obedient to his purposes.

3.       Pray for the team still in Poipet, that they finish strong and that they travel safely when they return on Monday/Tuesday.

4.       Please pray for the people of Cambodia and for the full-time missionaries there.