India/Nepal/Gentry Report #23: Thur, Nov. 29, 2012 at 9 a.m. from Gentry, AR USA
Dear Family and Friends:
This will be redundant for some since we made a few phone calls from Dallas when waiting to catch our final (fifth segment) flight to NW Arkansas. We are safe at home and enjoying every moment of it.
Faithful Gilberts picked us up at the airport in their car and we all decided on the way back home that we would attend the Gentry Prayer Meeting first since they were just beginning with their meal together followed by prayer meeting. Gilberts had prepared soup for us that served well there.
Mary Alice had found our house key and in the final rush to prayer meeting put it into her suit pocket and then put on another jacket over that because of the coolness. Well, afterward she couldn’t find the key and looked everywhere. I remembered that my key (with small knife attached) had been put into one of the check-on cases to avoid confiscation of the knife in Security. We thought we would just get that and later search more for her lost key.
At our front door we noticed that the smaller suitcase we had put the key into in a little green bag with other “Security no no’s” like fingernail clippers, had been opened and searched, apparently after we had cleared Security at Dallas airport and it was put back on the belt to the plane. The rope was missing and we had seen it on when it went through Xray in Dallas. The note inside did not give explanation. We had marked our entrance Immigration form “yes” on one item—food. We knew the loaf of bread we brought from Kathmandu was baked and normally would not be any problem clearing immigration, but one item mentioned was “food”, and it is food. What did they really want to know? Honesty dictated marking it “yes.” When we explained it they pushed it through Xray and it was on its way. Someone later must have had other thoughts. In their repacking hastily after the search, they put the little green bag somewhere other than where we remembered placing it for easy retrieval. (The bread was NOT in that suitcase! Projector cords were there.)
Then I suggested Mary Alice look in her SUIT pocket rather than the outside jacket pockets and it WAS THERE. We were soon inside and warming the house that is in great condition considering we were gone eight weeks with nothing being done to it in the meantime. Then came our second prayer meeting of gratitude for getting us in so easily. A nice warm bath for Mary Alice (our efficient hot water heater acted quickly) and a warm shower for me and we were soon fast asleep in bed in spite of the sleep we had snatched here and there on the long plane rides.
I had not considered my back problem a blessing, but it was, in that Brent had scheduled wheelchair pickup for us at Calcutta, Bombay, London, and Dallas. Mary Alice refused, but I accepted and that enabled the system to process us much faster than we could have on our own. We were pushed to the head of the long lines for immigration and security and put through with the minimum of bother. We still had to remove shoes some places and underwent full body Xray in others, but we DID meet the scheduled flights in spite of long delays in our planes reaching the next flight in some cases. I thought of the Bible verse “…when I am weak, then I am strong.” All is well that ends well and we did. The distance between Domestic and International terminals at Calcutta, Bombay, London and Dallas would have been a severe challenge within the time frames we were facing. I wondered if one could run a marathon in the airport itself. Some of the exit gates were about as far as possible from the gate we landed at. It is so nice to be able to trust the Lord to work things out as He sees best and then just try to keep up with His pace.
Another special blessing was that we did not have to pay extra for the third suitcase and extra weight. At Katmandu, Calcutta, and Mumbai (Bombay) they tried very hard to make us pay more. I just told them firmly (between silent prayers) that we had ticketed with AA all the way from USA and back and their policy was we were allowed two suitcases each to check on and we expected their loyal partners to honor that. I reminded them that we had not had to pay extra all along the way and what was changing now? (Their system showed us having ruby frequent flyer status.) It was interesting to see how they could work it out and still save face. When they suggested calling the supervisor, I urged them to do that. In Calcutta they had us go off to “sit a while” as they worked on it. That happened at least twice when the final verdict came through that we could check all three under without having to readjust the weight more among them and carry the extra one on with our other carry-on pieces. (first solution attempt) The reason was that “another had checked in without any baggage and so they could now let us have our third one free.” The lady who had been working on it also said that we reminded her of her own parents. We don’t care what the rationale as long as the end result is positive. It would have been a challenge to scare up enough Rupees by changing money at that late hour etc. We didn’t mind at all reminding her of her parents, but wondered why it took so long for her to see that. At Mumbai we were able to get boarding cards for the rest of the trip, finally eliminating having to check in at London and Dallas.
We are up and going strong to catch up after being gone for eight weeks. A good breakfast, back again on schedule with our home worship sessions, and enough sleep to not be dragging from Jet Lag, has us off to a good start—even if it was at 5 a.m. rather than trying to recover all the lost sleep at once.
With gratitude to the Lord for His constant leading and blessing, we are off and running to meet the home challenges even while enjoying the missed luxuries of our recent past.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice, (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)