We started our trip at the Springfield National Airport at 2:30pm where we met up with part of our group. There we about 25 or 30 in that group. We patiently waited for our first of 4 planes for the trip. We boarded and left for DFW with no troubles at all. We had a small layover in Dallas and picked up more in the group. We flew to LAX where we had another small layover and then our group grew even bigger. By this time, we probably had about 60-80 in our group.
We then boarded the 3rd plane for our long 15hr and 8 minute flight. It's been a long time since I've been on a plane overseas and I'm not sure I remember how long it actually took from back then. This was our very own time machine. We actually traveled, in the dark, 14 hours forward in time. So, basically, we lost half a day. I had an aisle seat on this trip and Chris sat across the aisle from me. I waited until they fed dinner about 1 1/2 hours into the trip and then took some Tylenol PM. For dinner, I had beef merlot with mashed potatoes and something else. I also had some delicious cheese cake and some other things that I have already forgotten. I dozed on and off but at one point I realized the guy sitting next to me was no longer there. He had stepped over me and disappeared. I didn't think I slept more than an hour but later in the flight I found out he had gone to the back to stand and talk and was gone 4 hours. I didn't see him leave and only awoke for a brief second to let his wife out and then again when they wanted to sit back down. Guess I slept longer than I thought. That was a good thing, though. I watched a couple movies between all that. Each person has their own individual screen with tons of movies and TV shows and also video games to play. You have a remote and gaming remote. It's great for such a long trip. You can also watch the map of the plane moving across the sky or you can watch out the camera that is located on the bottom of the plane. That turned out not to be so cool except during take-off and landing. The rest of the time you just saw black (the night sky). Chris's TV didn't work, or at least the remote didn't. So, every time he wanted to watch something he had to ask a flight attendant. Kind of funny, but made for a long trip for him. We ate breakfast at some point. You could order some clam cognee (which turned out to be a creamy soup) or you could have a ham frittata. That turned out to be an egg omelette with ham and veggies in it. It also came with "streaky bacon". I have no idea why they called it "streaky" but it was just flimsy bacon. It also came with some creamed spinach, red skinned potatoes, fruit bowl, yogurt, juice, and an apple loaf. The apple loaf was actually pretty good. I ate everything except the creamed spinach. It was kind of dry and, well, just not so great. We were served snacks at random during the flight where I found I enjoyed a small chocolate bar called Tim Tams. I'm going to have to get a few extra on the flight home to share with my boys. They'll love them. We landed in Hong Kong downstairs and then had to go through security to get upstairs which is where you have to be for all departing flights. We were able to connect to the Wi-Fi and use the soft-phone installed on my laptop and call Dylan on his 6th birthday. I think I was more emotional about that than actually leaving them the day before. He was excited to hear from us and know we were in China but couldn't hear very well. I know by the time we get back he will look like he's grown a foot. I miss my boys so much. We were in the Hong Kong airport a couple hours before we boarded our 4th and final plane to Cebu. I sat by the exact same people, Steve and Jenell Bender, but this time I had the window seat. That was the perfect time for a window seat. I got to watch the islands pop up in the middle of the ocean all the way from Hong Kong to Cebu. I saw Manila as we passed over it...so neat! We ate chicken and rice rolls on that flight. No, the rice and chicken wasn't in an egg roll. It was literally rice cake rolls with some chicken on top of it. Not too bad. It also came with some fruit and other stuff that I already forgot. Guess my memory isn't working too well.
We landed in Cebu and as we came down the tunnel we saw our first "welcome" sign. It was the BBFI Global Fellowship meeting sign. They were all over the airport. As soon as we got inside we were greeted by Chris's boss and ushered to a special line that was supposed to move quickly, but didn't move as quickly as anticipated. On the other side we were greeted by Pastor Jun and I'm not even going to try to spell his last name. He's the Associate Pastor at the church who is hosting the meeting. He helped get us through customs and then we were again greeted by even more people from Bible Baptist Church of Cebu. This time it was a group of ladies who, didn't put lays on us, but instead put a tag around us that symbolized we were there for the big convention. After we all got through security, customs, and got our luggage we were ushered outside to be again greeted by members of BBC Cebu. This time is was a group of young people singing and playing instruments. It was so cool! They had 1 large bus and a van to get us all to the hotel, Crown Regency. It was a short 30 minute drive but full of sights of poverty and uncleanliness. People, well mostly guys, just drop their drawers anywhere. We saw some mental cases, lots and lots of shacks if you can even call them that. We immediately saw the need for the gospel here and our hearts are so thankful there are missionaries and pastors hard at work in this city.
We all, obviously, got to the hotel at the same time and check-in was a mess. First of all, I have to tell you that we walked into the hotel and there was a metal detector but since they were overwhelmed with the number of guests arriving at the same time, they just let us all pass. That makes me feel safe, not! The hotel wasn't prepared for us and had assigned rooms to couples with 2 twin beds and rooms with singles in it got King beds. It was a mess. We finally got a room assignment in Tower 2. I have no idea where everyone else is. Funny thing is we have to take our elevator to floor 9 and then take a ramp and some steps over to floor 10 to actually get to our room. And, there are some in our group that have to take the elevator to floor 10 to go to a different ramp to get to their room on floor 9. It's crazy but we've got it figured out now.
We were allowed ample time to shower and clean up and get things adjusted in our room, but were asked to meet at 5pm for further instructions. At that time we were told of our next few days plans and escorted to a bus where we went to the nearest mall. The mall was huge. Again, we had to walk through metal detectors, but this time they actually checked bags and were very careful about what got through. The mall was 4 flights up and 1 down in the basement. It was full of stores I've never heard of and lots of stores we have in our own mall. There are so many places to eat and shop. There are salons and mani/pedi places. We didn't want to think so we ate at TGI Friday's that night. It was hard to sit down because the thought of getting back up was painful. Every time we went in a store and stopped moving for a second my legs would get heavy. We decided to just keep moving. We were allowed to meet back at the van at 8pm (had to and then taken back to the hotel. There was no discussion about what to do when we got back. We brushed our teeth and crawled into bed. I don't even think it took 10 seconds for my eyes to close and be in deep sleep. We slept from 9:30 to 4:30 the next morning (our Friday) with no problem, or at least I did. More to come!
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