Across the Pond

We've arrived in NYC and are awaiting our flight to England. It's been a hurry up kind of day. Our flight out of ABI sat on the ground an extra 30 minutes due to a de-icing problem (hello--it's June and we don't need de-icing unless we're going to the edge of the atmosphere thank you). Anyway, landed @ DFW and had about 10 minutes to traverse from Term. B to C--across the airport---run, run, huff, huff. Then we grabbed a Cold McD's to take on the plane with us. Landed here around 2:05 Texas time.

Now waiting to link up with my sister and head across the pond. It's 9:20 PM already over there so I suspect after supper--which I hope is soon on the flight that we'll get some sleep and land there around 7:00 Tuesday morning--where did Monday go?

Plans for Tuesday are to check into hotel and spend the day in the Westminster Abbey/Parliment area before we really crash.

Cheerio!!

Jim and Diane

I'm getting very sleepy

My sleep schedule is very messed up right now. Fell asleep on couch last night @ 6:00 before supper--probably the best sleep I've had in a week. Up for supper--then home to bed at 8:30. Now I'm sleeping about every three hours (12:30, 3:30, 7:30 and as you can tell...it's 10:30. Time for sleep! Any suggestions.

Back to work today. I may be useless, but I'm home and I'm here.

No place like home!!!

There's no place like home. Yes, we are on American (pun intended because we're on American Airlines) soil.

We waited 6 hours in the Visitor Center @ Dehli aiport yesterday. And, it wasn't wasted time as we all three did some "talking to the home office wirelessly" while we were there. Met many people from across the world that we probably wouldn't have met if we had made our earlier connections.

We prayed and prayed for 3 open spots when we finally entered the terminal @10:00 PM. The first guy wasn't too sure that we'd be able to get on. As we stood there for the first 30 minutes and watched people upon people begin to arrive, I wasn't too sure either. We finally gathered around our luggage and said " Lord, you know our needs--we trust you." But the guy told me again not to count on going...so I began to trudge off to find a phone to start the process of getting a flight out on another airline. While I was gone, he came urgently looking for me-some breakthrough had happened. As we got to the front, he said "Who do you know? Someone has secured tickets for you? There are printed e-tickets in our box?" We just looked at each other.

And so--we got the last 3 seats on the plane--the very last seats---the last row in the back near the galley. But we were willing to ride in the cargo bay if needed.

Landed at ORD @ 5:40--through customs by 6:45--but not in time for our DFW connection and so we went later. And--as it works out, I was able to catch up with my seminary roomie, Scott (who works for AA) and we chatted for a few minutes. Conincidences? I don't think so. I think Sovereingn Boss is in control of everything. What a great surprise to see a familiar face after 9 days away. Thanks Scott! (See picture)


Now--we're in DFW and they don't know if our flight to Lubbock is going to go. I just laughed out loud. To struggle to come 8K miles to get here and now the flight to Lubbock is iffy. But hey--I can walk home from here. Cause, there's no place like home. Dororthy, the great theologian, is right!

DELAYED IN DEHLI

This will be cryptic
* Flight from AMD to DEL--delayed--jumped plane to another to get here ealier--that didn't work. ARrived DEL--11:20--took an hour to get bags. 12:20--25 minutes to flight--no bus to international terminal--no taxis. Had to take the bus @ 1:00 AM. Drove right by the plane as they were pulling away from the gate. Disappointing.
Rescheduled for today--standby- please pray we get on.

Hotel in Dehli over night. NO sleep--too noisy and no food since yesterday lunch. Going to breakfast now. Keep talking to HOME OFFICE about our arrangements

J.

If the son has set you free...

( This is a repost of a blog published in 2007 while in India)

This will be a combination post today. Yesterday was Republic Day in India (much like our July 4th) so things were quiet a bit different than the other days. Most noteably was the lack of traffic. We headed back to the park for more "conversations" and site seeing. Enjoyed interaction with people. Saw three monkeys sitting @ the gate of the park..they seemed to follow me around--guess they knew I wasn't native either.

Back to dept. store close by for some shopping and interaction again. We had been there twice. Stopped for fresh fruit juice ( I had Watermelon, and team mates had fresh pinapple-orange and black-grape). Very, very good.

Then had meeting with company members at Uncle Sam Pizza here. Very different. Never had spicy pizza like that...but was good to connect with them since they are moving headquarters this week.

Then evening spent seeing the sites of the town on Rep. Day. NO parades or such--very subdued. No fireworks or cookouts.

Then this morning a trip to Ghandi Ashram where M. Ghandi stayed during his period of leadership and c.disobedience. He marched from here to Dandi during the Salt Tax Revolt of the 40's--that led to...INDEPENDENCE DAY--thus the tie in with this blog.

Many school children there this morning learning about Ghandi. Time for us to contemplate and understand what TRUTH is... I'm reminded of the passage "I Am The way, the TRUTH, The Life". Good reminder of where I am.

Most of today spent in tieing up loose ends with company and partners here. Continue to talk to Home Office about our arrangements home. Tight schedule to get from here to DEL and on to plane home--pray for open doors and highways and fast Riki's to get us there.

Can't wait to show you my picture

Last post until Tuesday

This will be the last post until Tuesday, Jan. 30 since there are no internet connections along the path home.

Look forward to hearing from you then.

J.

The Heritage Walk

Today began early as we made our way across the river and to the Heritage Walk. It's a historic look at the city of AMD. We began with a rousing call to worship in the Swaminayran temple. Ok...if anyone tells me that our drums are too loud anymore--I have a reference point...with cymbals and bells and such you could hear it a mile away.

Met some interesting folks today. 2 from UK and 2 from US on the first trip. We enjoyed our time together with them asking questions and interacting. The best part of the day.

THEN...we walked, and walked and walked. Ending up at an outdoor eatery we enjoyed fresh, I MEAN FRESH, pinapple juice and orange juice and a dish called DOSA--like a pancake.

Spent the rest of the morning and into early afternoon around a park area shopping and talking--but had to go back to HOTEL to rest the dogs after walking so much

Day ended back in park again talking to a few, and some more shopping and interaction. We have a personal Riki driver now--Johnny---call him anytime to take us anywhere. After seeing some of the other drivers--we may just take him up on it.

Keep talking to the boss about us.

Later

J.

Akshardham

We began our cultural tour today. Began with a breakfast in the hotel. Interesting, everything was an omlet. I overheard the guy at the next table asking for a Fried egg... the answer was' So, you want omlet!".

We began the day by traveling North of AMD to a waterwell dug in 1555. Amazing architecture and carvings and you know me, I was snapping pictures of it all( I'll post them after we get home) Encountered many lovely people and it being a public place, many school children on field trips. Looks like home.

We then traveled further north to the town of Ganhdiknakar (the official captial of Gujarat) We laughed that we were entering Austin and crossing the Trinity. Not much here--just official buildings, but lots of trees..more than in AMD. We spent the majority of our day at the Akshardham--which is the museum to the Swamirajan. Many, many people travel here (www.akshardham.com/gujarat)and we went through the exhibit along with them. Many of them looked like this was the trip of a life time to go through the exhibit. Talked to the boss a lot during this portion of trip today. More on this later.

Then back to the MALL for SUBWAY--yes, subway san. with a COCA COLA for lunch. By the time we went back to hotel it was 4:00 or so and we decided to rest a bit before venturing further into the city tonight.

Just back from that trip to a little Wi-Fi cafe where we thought we could connect--but no luck. Owner said he didn't know nothing about APPLES! I just shook my head. Rode in my first Riki (motorized scooter) so that was interesting.

Talking to the boss all day long was exhausting. Reminded of many truths that I know and have seen fleshed out.

Tomorrow is another journey to the Old town. If you can check in with the home office about us, that would be much appreciated.

Now its off to the hotel for some WATER (much needed) and a bath because I feel grungy (maybe there will be more hot water tonight than last)

Peace
Pauolo

Here!

Arrived here early this morning...like 1:30---arrived at hotel only to have to leave again @ 5:45. My body is saying "what time is it? What day is it?"

You've never lived until you've had an Indian Security Guard sing "Jimmy, Jimmy" to you while wanding your body (ok--don't even think of the picture). He got my name off my passport and starting singing to me. He could tell I didnt understand and said it was a popular song over here (whatever) Scary!

AMD is an interesting city. Looks a lot like GUA and so that has made acclimation to it pretty easy. We spent the day checking in to hotel (change in accomodations because of WEDDING SEASON has made internet in room a no go), then to meet company at their headquarters, back to hotel, then lunch with the company and its junior board members. Ate Indian food---not bad, the bread made it all go down ok.

Then off to see the city. Uh...who do those cows belong to? Camels and cows everywhere---no monkeys yet. Wedding season in full swing--saw two or three today. Procession with big bands and such.

Back to hotel and crashed for a bit before I headed over to internet cafe again.

I'm blogging each day on my computer, so I will update when I can and may have to give you a full report when I get back.

Later
Paolo'

Jimmy, Jimmy

JIMMY, JIMMY
You’ve never lived until you’ve been wanded by an Indian security guard at the Dehli aiport while he’s looking at your passport and singing “JIMMY, JIMMY”. Huh? He said it was a famous song over here, but I wasn’t too sure as he looked me in the eyes. Scary.
Boarded the plane this morning--we gringos were late. Evidently they had moved the flight time up on us since we booked in December and they were waiting for us. The pilot in a not so sublte way apologized to everyone else on board for the late comers. I believe he said “ We don’t know what delayed them, but they had some excuse.” Thanks!
Spicejet is the equivalent to Southwest. Flight was full and the service was different. We were offered small bottles of water and mints and sugar cookies (Could I have a Diet Dr. Pepper please!)
We met our company man here. He drove us around and to our hotel. Not staying the same place that last year’s manager stayed when they were here visiting the company.
AMD is a different town. Basically the size of LBB but reminds me a lot of GUA. I observed a wedding taking place this morning ( or at least the procession to the wedding-very colorful and tradition rich)
Going to rest a bit before I head out to lunch with company reps.
Later
Paulo

The End From The Beginning

The End From the Beginning
As I write this we are about 6 hours out from New Dehli. It’s about 6 AM in the states and we are presently over the Baltic Sea. Who would have ever thought a little West Texas boy would be flying over the former communist nations of Poland, Czechloslovokia and Russia?
There are on this Boieng 777 neat little monitors at the back of each seat where you can chose between 15 channels of TV/Movies and Radio as well as a neat little feature that shows you exactly where you are on the Map route. One of the best pictures is when they show you the whole earth and show you the Day/Night--where it’s Daytime and where it’s night. You can literally see the beginning of one day and the end of the next. Fascinating.
No one really knows what will happen in a day. Normalcy, jobs, situations, events and the like are all ordained of God. Only He knows what a day will hold and seeing this little map reminds me that he knows the beginning and the end. That comforts me.\

What time is it?
My clock on this computer says that it’s 6 AM Monday morning in the states. By their calculations we should land in Dehli somwehere around 11:45 PM or about lunch time stateside. That would mean that we had been in process of getting here a little less than 21 hours. Yep--it took us until 10 PM to leave the states because of the icing situation in Chicago. It was a long, long wait for them to finally take off.
We ate dinner around 11PM-yum, don’t you know that my stomach was going “What are you doing to me?” I tried not to sleep-but when I hit the mark @ 3AM Texas time--I was toast. I woke just about 3 hours ago--so I think I can go again. Right now it’s supper time in Dehli and I just had my lunch bag--so my clock is really going to be messed up--Breakfast is lunch is suppoer ---something like that.

Flying Over Conflict

FLYING OVER CONFLICT
It’s a little scary to see the names Baghdad, Kabul and such on the screen before me. To know that you are flying above these areas of conflict that you hear about on the TV is a little nerve wracking. To be so close to those things makes you realize just how small the world really is. Things which seem so far away, really aren’t.

24 ON A PLANE
We’ve officially been on this plane 24 HOURS (or so it seems) since we’ll be landing @ 11:35 PM New Dehli time and we took off from Chicago @ 10PM sunday night--but when you look at it, it’s only 12hours difference. But it feels like 24!

Sunday and a Boeing 777

Well, our day has begun. Left early, early, early from Sny town--and the roads weren't bad until right out of LBB. Our org.flight was delayed until 9:15..but they went ahead and put us on the earlier flight that was delayed too--so we arrived ealier than we expected into Dallas.

We attended church at the Interfaith Chapel @ the Airport. We walked in and there were two bleary eyed individuals listening to the preacher go on, and on and on (like the energizer bunny) and we made 5, then 2 more came in and you could see the guy get more and more excited. He kept adding to his sermon to make everyone feel like they'd got their money's worth...and then he asked for the money's worth at the end --asking us to drop a small donation in the plate as we left. He did pray for the saftey of all travelers- (which he said he has a 100% success rate---like how would you measure that).

We then waited for a phone call from FBC. We were being interviewed during the service via phone using SKYPE. That call came about 11:00 and then we waited another 1:30 to get on board. Then.... the wait (almost 1:30 on the tarmac due to Winter Weather here in Chicago). But the pilot wasted no time getting us here--we arrived 20 minutes later than scheduled.

The air in the airport was charged because DA BEARS were playing today. Everyone was gathered around every TV that we could see. They won---go BEARS!

We had our last American meal @ Chili's for supper. No more meat for a week! It was good and I'm sure that I'll look fondly back upon it during the week ahead.

Our plane is set to leave in just under an hour and half. Long 14 hour flight and we'll arrive there @ 9:31 PM. So....pray for me, for endurance, for the right kind of sleep so I can sleep there, for opportunities ;looks like it will be a full flight.

I will have access to internet @ Hotel @ final destination. Will blog again on Tuesday afternoon or evening (Monday evening or early Tuesday morning for you statesiders!

Take care

Jim
(to the nations....)

When It's All Is Said and Done

"When It's All Been Said And Done"

Words and music by Jim Cowan:

When it's all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth
Did I live my life for You
When it's all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I've done for love's Reward
Will stand the test of time

Lord Your mercy is so great
That You look beyond our Weakness
And find purest gold in miry clay
Making sinners into saints

I will always sing Your praise
Here on earth and ever after
For You've shown me Heaven's my
True home

When it's all been said and done
You're my life when life is gone
Lord I'll live my life for You.

Time moves on

I had the opportunity to attend a funeral this morning. The father of one of our childhood friends passed away and as it happens I was in town for the graveside funeral. I was the only one of the "Bunch" as we were once called. I saw several parents of my childhood friends. Like me, this was the final chapter for these friends as they had already buried their mother several years ago. With the passing of this parent, the chapter in their lives closed as they both live away from the area now. I could empathize with them. With Mom's passing almost 2 years ago, a chapter in our lives closed.

It's amazing when you are faced with these moments in life. You still see so vividly the past. It seems like yesterday when were all playing together and doing life together as children and teens. And yet, time has passed by so quicklly. These two friends have 6 children, many of whom look just like their Aunt or Uncle at the age that I'm talking about.

Wow--a life moment that made me realize I'm not 7 or 17 or 27 anymore. As my next birthday approaches, life seems a little shorter on the backside than I would care to admit. So, what do I do with today to make it count.

The Longest Day of My Life --Part Deux (or Planes, Trains and Automobiles)

Home....arrived just minutes ago. And oh what a day this has been.

I was booked on the 3:55 flight out of Dallas--already told you that, but the mess that I had to get through to get to that flight is a story in itself. Seems that the weather in Dallas this morning choked the system and thus flights going east couldn't leave their gates and flights coming west could get to Dallas but not to the gate. So---a traffic jam. They shuttled us 6 different times to 5 different gates--I think it was all a cat and mouse game because they knew that the injuns were getting restless on the reservation. Finally the last time that they moved us I let out a sigh and others too audible enough for them to know that we weren't taking this lightly. Be careful who you sigh in front of, the guy next to me was a prominent Baptist church leader (oh well, he'll never recommend me for a position--not to worry, he doesn't know me from Adam--but ya never know!!)

Finally left for Lubbock @ 6:00 and landed there only to find that my bags didn't make it to Lubbock either. So, started and ended with no bags---some consistency there.

And, to top things off--my car was deader than a doornell in my brother's driveway. Seems no action on a 1997 Sub. for a week makes it go in to sleep mode. Had to jump it to get going.....boy, now you know why I feel like I was in the movie--PLANES, TRAINS and AUTOMOBILES.....

Back to life in Scurry county....

Delayed

I should have suspected that something was up by the addition of 4 gate managers at B-22 this morning. Then the offer came for those willing to give up their seats (I was tempted to take it and go on the 3:55 flight--but ready to get home) then...the news was Flight Cancelled due to weather in the DFW area. Just then the most typhoonic rain storm I've ever seen enveloped the DFW airport. So--now I'm booted to the 3:55 flight. Lesson--trust your instincts. Now I'm on that same flight and I could have had a $200 voucher in hand.

So, more time to spend in an airport. I'm beginning to think this is my life. I'd love to take a Roma nap right now, but I'm afraid I might oversleep the flight.

The journey continues!!

Paolo

The Longest Day of My Life

I'm here at DFW...just a few more hours til I'm home. It's so nice to be typing on an American keyboard. Please forgive the typos in the previous posts. The keyboard @ the hotel was an international keyboard and the strokes and keys I'm used to are not in the right place.

We began yesterday morning (about 7:00 Rome time--Midnight here in Texas) Flight was 10:30 there and arrived here in States @ 2:00.. Ok..doesn't sound like a long flight. Jeessh....10 hours in the air is maddening, especially when you don't have any personal electronics to keep you busy.

I started the day off with a thought that a sleeping pill might help...wrong thing. I didn't have much in my tummy so by about 1 hour into the flight I thought I was going to be sick. That would be great.... I gathered myself in the bathroom and came back and sat down. I'm not one to get air sick or motion sick so I just attribute it to the high altitude and no food in my tummy. Lunch was chicken with pesto--but I didn't want to go there. I ate bread and sprite.

By the time we landed in the states it was midevening in Rome...almost 11 hours difference and I was feeling it. Had a long layover in NYC then delayed departure from there before finally arriving in Dallas @ 10:00 (1 hour late). Then to hotel by 11:00. My room was suppose to be N Smoking...but it wasn't and I was too tired to fight.... Slept pretty good except I think my clock is still Roman.

Interesting thing this morning, I met two Italians @ breakfast. They are here to see the states. I recognized the italian they were speaking... I stopped and showed them my pictures and we talked about Rome and America. They were having problems exchaning money here in the states...something you don't have a problem with in Europe (wonder why that is?)

Ok...this is all until I get home and see the family. Will continue to post my thoughts on travel, life and culture. It's been an eye-opening trip

Paolo

Good Night and Good Morning

As I write this, many of you are putting your head down to sleep. It's almost 7:00 AM here and midnight there. The day begins.

I'll see you in the states!

Ciao!

Paolo

A Texan and a B'Day

Uh.... what's this other thing in my bathroom? This has been my first experience with such. I first thought it was a two-fer and wondered who I was sharing it with. It's been a puzzling thing? Why don't we have these things?

Ah the beauty of encountering another culture!

Good night!

Paolo