Malawi - Day 1

COR Blog Day One, and Two, and Three…

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. The Malawi Missions team understands that all too well as we have endeavored to arrive in Malawi to assist the local doctors in caring for their people.

Alan and I departed Denver two hours late and managed to leave a huge bag of snacks in the car. Oops! We arrived in Detroit and met up with 6 other members of the team. Our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was 20 minutes delayed… not a big deal. About 30 minutes into the flight, an announcement was made inquiring if any medical personnel were on board. A few minutes later, we learned that we had an ill passenger and that we would be diverting to JFK Airport in New York.

After we landed and the ill passenger had left the plane, we waited for further news. After several cryptic announcements, we learned that we would be deplaning and the plane was not continuing to Amsterdam. At this point, it was about 9 PM Eastern time. Several hotel rooms were procured and some of us headed to a much-needed night of sleep.

Jean, Mary Beth, and Nancy queued up with several hundred other passengers to determine what options we had. Finally, around 2 AM, they were able to spend 35 minutes with a Delta service agent. We were divided into two groups. Three of us boarded a flight mid-afternoon on June 7th, bound for Atlanta. As of this writing, we are still en route. Hopefully, that direct flight to Johannesburg will actually happen and we will arrive in South Africa around 6:30 PM on Saturday, June 8th.

The other six were scheduled for a different route, and as of the time we left JFK, their original plans were already derailing. However, they were able to board a flight to Amsterdam and hopefully, the connecting flight to Johannesburg will work as well.

We clearly did not make our connecting flight from Johannesburg to Malawi on Saturday, and there were no options for that flight on Sunday. The current plan is to spend Sunday in Johannesburg and head to Malawi on Monday. A few of our group did arrive in Malawi as scheduled and are being well cared for by Hugo.  Those of us still struggling to get there are quite disappointed that we will miss church and at least one if not two, clinics.

Nevertheless, God has our backs and we will get there and do as much as we can.  Sheree has been working miracles behind the scenes at COR and we are grateful.