And . . . we're off!

Waiting to board our final flight!

It was amazing to see all 29 people riding the bus ready to go ahead of schedule! Several choir, family, and friends showed up to see us off, and even better, assure us of their prayers for us as we traveled and ministered throughout the coming week. Finally, after having a time of prayer, we were off!

When we arrived at the airport in Oklahoma City, we joined up with our four other travelers (two individuals have already been in Australia for the past week). Anyway, it’s quite a trip just logistically! In Oklahoma City, we all checked in. It is no small feat to check-in 32 people (and their luggage) when everyone arrives at the same time! To keep it interesting, a few people weren’t assigned “real” seats until they arrived for each leg of the flight.

From OKC we flew to Dallas where we changed planes and then flew to Los Angeles. At last, we’re on Qantas and everyone made it! We’ll be flying for a LONG time. We left Enid this morning (Thursday, July 11) around 11:30 a.m. and we’ll land in Sydney on SATURDAY a little after 6:00 a.m. My mind is thoroughly confused as to how long we’ll be flying (I’ve been told a little over 15 hours). We will cross the International Dateline and lose a day (“Bye, bye to Friday the 13th!”). We’ll make it all up on the return trip though when we leave Sydney a little ater 1:00 and arrive in Dallas a little over 30 minutes later! Oh . . . if only it were so!

Please continue to pray for us. Saturday will be an official “jet lag” day, for sure. We’re determined to do our best to acclimate quickly because Sunday will be a very long day as we lead worship at West Ryde Baptist Church in the morning, share lunch with families from the church, and then go on to the Salvation Army Congress Hall for a late afternoon worship service! We can’t wait to see what God has in store for us!