Volcanic ash - just for us??!

What a MIGHTY GOD we love and serve!

On the 2 1/2 hour drive to Auckland airport, both Rich and I felt shattered. Besides both being exhausted from a very intense 2 months without hardly a day off, and a huge push to get out of the house, I was feeling sick and the thought of flying for 13 hours made me feel even weaker.

We both honestly didn't know how we were going to make it ~ ~ ~

I told Rich that all I was longing for was lying in my bed (with fresh sheets) in my clean home.

On arrival at the airport, when I saw the sign on the departure display that our Qantas flight was cancelled ~ due to volcanic ash coming over from Chile ~ I felt relieved ~ probably the only one at the airport ~ hehe!

It was early Monday morning and as we were amongst the first travelers with cancelled flights, we were able to re-book a flight that same night with Air New Zealand. The VERY friendly staff also immediately booked us into one of the finest hotels in Auckland, paid our taxi there and back and 2 meals - or better: FEASTS!

Just those extra few hours of rest - in a nice, clean, luxurious bed - were gonna make all the difference, I knew - to both Kylie's ears and mine, as well as to Rich!

By the way, when Kylie woke up that morning, the first thing she said, very excitedly was: "I know my ears are gonna be ok".

The buffet at the hotel made our family almost think we'd made it to heaven for the wedding-feast! AMAZING!!!!! Never seen/tasted anything like it!!!

While lying on the bed, we watched the news and heard about the earthquakes in Christchurch. It was surreal. Here we were in complete luxury (for a few hours), and there were the traumatized people of Christchurch - once again - including our son Jeremie with his DTS-team. We were able to call him within minutes of the big 6.0 shake - and they all seemed quite shaken - not just literally - but safe (they left Christchurch, as planned, on Tuesday).

We also watched the news about thousands of travelers stranded at airports in Aussie and NZ, and here we were - SO SPOILED by our FATHER!!!!

The plane trip was very easy, as the kids got to have their own entertainment - oh, what a difference to days go past, when we would travel with little ones and had to entertain them ourselves...! SPOILED again!!

Kylie's ears had absolutely NO problems!!!

I had quite strong pain on our way down, in spite of medicine, but as I was engrossed in a most encouraging talk with the lady next to me about Uganda, I was distracted enough to handle it... ;)

There's so much more to say, but just wanted to GIVE GLORY TO GOD for HIS KINDNESS, GOODNESS and MERCY on me and us, for miraculously healing Kylie's ears and giving our family an unexpected blessing when we most needed it.

We KNOW that this was also the result of YOUR PRAYERS!

So - THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We would appreciate your ongoing prayers, as I'm still not 100% and there have been a few unexpected "hick-ups" with our fundraising materials. Never a dull moment!