June 15, 2007

I arrived at the RDU airport around lunch time with my suitcases in hand. GAIN had sent me a box to carry over to distribute as humanitarian aid. Being able to use my "2nd" suitcase as a "ministry" suitcase, helps save GAIN alot of money and usually ensures that it will arrive at its destination. It's definitely a blessing that each passenger was able to carry with them a ministry suitcase. I met up with Dave and Mickey Stahl in the morning.

Dave and Mickey attend my church, Crossroads Fellowship (http://www.crossroads.org/) They are affiliate staff with GAIN. They had advertised the trip in our church bulletin so that is how I initially found out about the trip.

Our plans were to fly from RDU to JFK. At JFK we would meet up with other team members and then fly on to Moscow. Little did we know that God had different plans in store for us. Our flight was delayed at first. We boarded and after being in the air for about an hour, the pilot came on the speaker and told us that we would be landing back at RDU in 15 minutes. I had been asleep so I didn't know what was going on. Come to find out we had alot of turbulance and our plane had mechanical problems. Of course that left the Stahl’s and me frantic. We were not able to catch another flight to JFK that night, which left us unable to meet up with the rest of the team. I went home for the night, frustrated and questioning if I should even continue on with the trip. I knew though that God had a purpose and reason for this happening and I just had to trust Him with the outcome.