Here’s the update… Last night Deanna Austin my roommate’s amazing mom who used to be a travel agent sat with me for hours while we looked at every possible way to get tickets. She also took the time to pray over me, which seriously soothed my nerves. While we were online ticket prices were jumping higher and higher even in the time we were sitting at the computer. Eventually, we found 10 tickets together for right what I budgeted $1,730! A huge miracle! We had to postpone the trip 5 days but 10 out of the 11 people could do that! Our team celebrated, it was a good night. All I had left to do was get payment authorized for the tickets, which I though would be no problem….
I stayed up late last night trying to get the payment made and nothing was working. The frustrating thing is that we have the money! This morning started off early with a long phone call to the bank, definitely not a pre-coffee chore! Some glitch in the system is not allowing the booking agent to receive our payments. I’ve been on the phone with the customer service, outsourced to India, all day (sorry Brian and Willie.) Now, Eric, Harry and about 5 other generically nicknamed Indian men immediately know my voice and confirmation number. I don’t want to loose our booking, especially since one of the tickets has already gone through.
I keep thinking I’m at my end with this whole situation, then something more happens. Right now I’m I can barley keep my eyes open and I get to go home to a place filled with boxes, at least we have a couch and the DVD player is working. Ironic, I just realized that the movie I have to watch is about a customer service agent in India who falls in love with a guy from the U.S. The lovely customer service people in India said that they would call back in an hour if the payment goes through. Please pray it does and we all get to Swaziland and I get a nap =).
Somewhere in the back of my mind I know that God must have an amazing plan for this team. There is always the most opposition before something incredible! Today Brian (the junior high pastor I work with) was saying that it shouldn’t be this hard. I agree, there have been so many hurdles with this trip, but every time God has come through in a miraculous way, far beyond my expectations. So if your a prayer keep fighting for us!
*I’m updating this. I just found out we got the tickets! Woo Hoo! But keep praying, we need lots of it!
