december 9th at 4am. we landed in Bogota, Colombia. at this point i felt like a zombie. i somehow made it to the area in the airport we were resting for the night before i crashed. i had my favorite pillow from home, my neck pillow to sleep on along with my colorful blanket i brought from home. i sat my day pack next to me, grabbed it by a strap and i fell right asleep.
we made plans to wake up and be at the gate by 9:30am and I woke up at 8am in panic mode thinking that i overslept and everyone left without waking me up (which i know is so unrealistic). everyone started to slowly get up, a few of us went to Dunkin Donuts to get donuts and coffee and others went to Juan Valdez.
9:15am came around so we started to head to the gate for our 11:05am boarding time. we sat there and did our own things— music, movies, card games, FaceTime, sleep. it came to be 11:05am and there was no plane by our gate and I began to be very confused. I asked the people around me what was going on and why we hadn’t boarded yet but we just assumed that the plane was late (as our previous flight from Lima to Bogota was) and thats why there was no plane at our gate. eventually we hear over the loud speaker something in Spanish about the flight to Guatemala and it being the last chance to board. frantically we checked the screen to find out the gate changed and that our flight was taking off in just a couple minutes. they told us it was too late to get on.
afterward we heard the lady at the desk walkie the guys putting the luggage on and she told them to take our bags off the flight. praise God. not to mention, they held our bags for all day! (PRAISE GOD I DIDN’T HAVE TO CARRY MY 50 POUND PACK AROUND WITH ME)
frustrated, but very calmly, our squad leader Aly and logistics lady Kori reassured us that everything would work out….somehow…but they didn’t know how yet.
they then figured some details out and knew we wouldn’t be getting on the next flight to Guatemala so we had to leave security somehow. they found an emergency exit and had to explain our situation to the security at the door and beg them to let us through. thanks to God, they let us through, all 33 of us.
we got outside of security through an emergency exit which still blows my mind that they would just let us all out in that way and plopped down in our big group trying to figure out what to do next.
as we were siting there, we found out that a flight for all 33 of us for the next day would have been near $16,000. yes. sixteen THOUSAND dollars. stress, tears, anger, frustration flooded over us. after figuring out where the funds would be coming from, having the funds and preparing to spend it, the lady who had been helping us that day told Aly to call a number and tell them that our flight was delayed and that we needed a new one.
Aly called and said just that. in the end, they told us that we would in fact get our flights to Guatemala for FREEEEEEE!! so many tears- happy as heck tears! God worked a literal miracle in that airport.
the next task was finding somewhere to stay for the next two nights of our stay in Bogota, Colombia. they started looking at hostels but they were all way out of budget but at this point it didn’t matter we just needed somewhere to stay. Then Melissa talked with some of her people and was told that she has people (friends or friends of family or something along those lines) in Colombia. More specifically in Bogota— literally 10 minutes away!! after a few conversations she told us that they were opening their house to us. we left the airpoat at 9pm after being there for around 17/18 hours we arrived at their house and they provided chips, candy, pop and water for us. It was one of the biggest blessings we could have received.
we got to sleep on beds instead of the airport ground. we got to eat some homemade meals. we got to sit around in alllll the Christmas decorations that covered all the empty space in the house.
after a good nights rest we got to explore the city of Bogota. Two family members who live at the house took us to a very beautiful park in the morning. Then the family made us an amazing lunch and after that we headed to the top of a mountain in a gondola to see all the Christmas and city lights. it was the most beautiful!
the next morning we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Guatemala and after all of this I can say that we all made it safely to Guatemala even after some of our minor setbacks.
grace doesn’t only come from the Father. it can come through an Avianca employee. we deserved absolutely nothing that happened that day. we were so careless at the airport. it was 100% avoidable but the Lord gives us grace even when we don’t deserve it— from letting us leave through the emergency exit door, to holding our bags all day, free flights for 33 people, the family welcoming us with open arms and then getting to Antigua, Guatemala safely was so much more than we could have asked for.
Thanks God for Your grace.
