Total flying time: 23 hours (5 flights)

Total time waiting in an airport: 25 hours (including 4 hours in UK interrogation room- which we will get to later)

Hours of sleep I’ve gotten: 5

Times I’ve almost cried: 10

Times I’ve cursed myself for remembering my toothbrush in my carry-on but not my toothpaste: 15

And the beauty of it all- after 48 hours I’m back in the exact same place I was when I started on Saturday- Dallas…..

For all of the craziness I’m getting ready to describe, I’ve actually felt pretty calm and at peace. Incredulous would probably be the best adjective to describe how I feel- I just can’t believe this is all happening but I'm really just trying to trust God and remember that He is in control!

So the flight over to England is good- uneventful, went by pretty quickly, got a little sleep, watched a few movies- all a good start to the trip.  And then it starts to go downhill pretty fast.  As I’m going through British Immigration, the woman looking over my stuff asks me lots of questions about why I’m staying so long and what exactly I’ll be doing in England for 9 weeks.  Apparently no one has ever come over to the UK for that long of a time period without an ulterior motive.  Even when I tell her the truth, she thinks I’m hiding things or changing my story- she must think I’m trying to work without a work visa or something but she will not listen to anything I’m telling her.  I’m looking around to other people, like can you believe this?  Who ever gets questioned for spending a month or two in Europe?  People backpack and travel all the time where they don’t have every little detail planned out.  I mention again I will be on an American military base, helping out some friends who do ministry work.  I then get told to step out of line and that I will need to be taken for further questioning.

I’m led to a room to get fingerprinted and have a mug shot taken- still not really knowing the problem about what I told Immigration girl.  I’m then put in an interrogation room and told someone will come talk to me soon- 3 hours later someone finally comes to talk to me.  He’s cordial and nice- asks me a few more questions about MCYM and then says he’s going to go talk things over with his boss.  Luckily I have been able to talk with the Pitzer’s so I could keep them informed about everything that is going on.   Mr. Interrogator finally comes back about an hour later and informs me that I will be leaving on a flight back to the US in 20 minutes so I need to hurry up, get my stuff and get on that plane.  I have to question him while we are walking, trying to figure out why I’m being denied entrance.  He explains that the UK immigration policy changed in April 2009 (2 months ago!!) and that anyone who is doing any type of ministry work needs additional paperwork (I guess like a visa) to get permission.  Jim and Shannon were just as confused as I was.

This whole day has felt very surreal- I still can’t believe all this has happened!  So then I’m on my 2^nd transatlantic flight of the day.  Luckily this flight was not full so I could stretch out and sleep some.  I’m so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open at this point- I’m pretty sure I was snoring on the plane but I didn’t really care.  I arrive at JKF around 8pm on Sunday to realize that in London, they rebooked my flight to Detroit instead of Dallas.  I run around for about an hour and a half (with all my bags, mind you, because they did not book those all the way through) but I finally get all that settled with a ticket agent and am booked for the 8 am flight- to…. Atlanta (+4 hr layover, then Dallas).  Why can’t anything be easy? 

 

So I left Dallas, Saturday at 5pm and arrive back to Dallas on Monday, 5pm.  What a crazy 48 hours….

Please be praying that this all gets sorted out quickly.  I honestly have no idea how long that paperwork will take to get worked out or when I’ll be leaving to go back.  There is a possibility that I'll be going to another base instead of England as well.

Luckily after having this for my bed tonight:

I have Leslie’s comfy guest bed to look forward to J  You know I’m going to be sleeping for a day straight.