Sorry for the post trip reporting - the Internet access was not great plus our days were very busy with work on-site, team building and well deserved sleep! Here is an account of our departure... enjoy! Wednesday evening, February 14th - 30" of snow, closed interstates, planes, trains, buses and speed boats... gotta love how God provided safe travel for us from Oneonta to Bluefields Nicaragua!
The reports of the snowstorm of the decade began to roll in... the morning was pretty tame... school was called off and as the day progressed, that decision proved to be a real smart one! Lee Ann and I went our cross country skiing, as we have been snow deprived for much of the winter until this point. It was snowing very hard in the late morning... some reports were as high as 4" an hour! I brought my cell phone with me in case there were any updates about our departure and Steve Reed from Partnership Ministries called me... he said "are you folks going to be able to make it out?" I stopped and looked over Riddell State Park and said, "Steve, it is really snowing hard... this is going be a great adventure!" Little did we all know how much of an adventure it was really going to be!
During the day, we stayed in touch with Delta Airlines and our WONDERFUL travel agent, Beth Greenhill of Mission Trip Airfare in Roswell, GA (http://missiontripairfare.com/). Cannot say anything but praises for her abilities and attention to details as we ventured south to Philadelphia for our flight to Nicaragua. Delta Airlines was saying all along, "as long as the airport is open, it is the responsibility of the passengers to make it to their flights"... so, we were determined to make our way regardless of the conditions... if God could lead the Israelites out of bondage, a trip to Philly would be a walk in the park! Beth kept in touch all night long with us and Delta and the Philadelphia Airport… if you are traveling with a group of 10 or more… give Beth a call – you will not be disappointed!
We emailed the team to make it to Oneonta by 9:00 PM as we wanted to leave as early as possible to make our 6:00 Am flight on Thursday. If we tried to leave any earlier, it would have been impossible... the snow was piling up so fast that many roads including the interstates were open only to emergency vehicles... many towns and county roads were closed. Our team of 44 was able to assemble - even though some came from as far as Lansing and Cobleskill! So, at 9:15, we headed south for our trek to Nicaragua! The ride in NY state was uneventful… the NY highway teams are top notch – smooth sailing for us… that was until we got into PA – the roads were less maintained… the passing lane was full of ice and snow for most of the way. Our biggest obstacle was in I-81… the road was closed at Scranton and we got caught in it. Stopped like a parking lot and the time was ticking away… it looked very bleak for us as we prayed and pondered how we could ever make it in time… it was approaching 2:00 AM and we needed to get to Philly by 4:00… would be a piece of cake on a dry day, but this day was different.
We passed Clarks Summit and the intersection of I-380/84 and the we were faced with a stand still traffic back up. As far as the eye could see, there was a parking lot of mostly trucks, with their parking lights on, stopped for who knew how long – reports from other drivers were that the road would not open up until 6:00 AM. After we got back from our trip, we heard that the mess wasn’t fully cleared until the following Saturday… but God proved His ability to tuned what looked impossible to be possible! Two of our team bundled up, left the bus and began to tap on windows of surrounding trucks… very long story short is that the trucks began to move back and forth to allow us enough room to snake through the sea of parked buses. Oh, yeah, did I mention it was COLD… at this time, it was in the single digits with 20-30 mph winds!
Time for more kudos… our driver, Dirk Gantvoort is truly a gift from God… all that know him know that he wanted to be on this trip… it was bittersweet enough for him to offer his services and leave us. His driving abilities and the fact he stay awake and alert to deliver us safely was something I will never forget.
The reports of the snowstorm of the decade began to roll in... the morning was pretty tame... school was called off and as the day progressed, that decision proved to be a real smart one! Lee Ann and I went our cross country skiing, as we have been snow deprived for much of the winter until this point. It was snowing very hard in the late morning... some reports were as high as 4" an hour! I brought my cell phone with me in case there were any updates about our departure and Steve Reed from Partnership Ministries called me... he said "are you folks going to be able to make it out?" I stopped and looked over Riddell State Park and said, "Steve, it is really snowing hard... this is going be a great adventure!" Little did we all know how much of an adventure it was really going to be!
During the day, we stayed in touch with Delta Airlines and our WONDERFUL travel agent, Beth Greenhill of Mission Trip Airfare in Roswell, GA (http://missiontripairfare.com/). Cannot say anything but praises for her abilities and attention to details as we ventured south to Philadelphia for our flight to Nicaragua. Delta Airlines was saying all along, "as long as the airport is open, it is the responsibility of the passengers to make it to their flights"... so, we were determined to make our way regardless of the conditions... if God could lead the Israelites out of bondage, a trip to Philly would be a walk in the park! Beth kept in touch all night long with us and Delta and the Philadelphia Airport… if you are traveling with a group of 10 or more… give Beth a call – you will not be disappointed!
We emailed the team to make it to Oneonta by 9:00 PM as we wanted to leave as early as possible to make our 6:00 Am flight on Thursday. If we tried to leave any earlier, it would have been impossible... the snow was piling up so fast that many roads including the interstates were open only to emergency vehicles... many towns and county roads were closed. Our team of 44 was able to assemble - even though some came from as far as Lansing and Cobleskill! So, at 9:15, we headed south for our trek to Nicaragua! The ride in NY state was uneventful… the NY highway teams are top notch – smooth sailing for us… that was until we got into PA – the roads were less maintained… the passing lane was full of ice and snow for most of the way. Our biggest obstacle was in I-81… the road was closed at Scranton and we got caught in it. Stopped like a parking lot and the time was ticking away… it looked very bleak for us as we prayed and pondered how we could ever make it in time… it was approaching 2:00 AM and we needed to get to Philly by 4:00… would be a piece of cake on a dry day, but this day was different.
We passed Clarks Summit and the intersection of I-380/84 and the we were faced with a stand still traffic back up. As far as the eye could see, there was a parking lot of mostly trucks, with their parking lights on, stopped for who knew how long – reports from other drivers were that the road would not open up until 6:00 AM. After we got back from our trip, we heard that the mess wasn’t fully cleared until the following Saturday… but God proved His ability to tuned what looked impossible to be possible! Two of our team bundled up, left the bus and began to tap on windows of surrounding trucks… very long story short is that the trucks began to move back and forth to allow us enough room to snake through the sea of parked buses. Oh, yeah, did I mention it was COLD… at this time, it was in the single digits with 20-30 mph winds!
Time for more kudos… our driver, Dirk Gantvoort is truly a gift from God… all that know him know that he wanted to be on this trip… it was bittersweet enough for him to offer his services and leave us. His driving abilities and the fact he stay awake and alert to deliver us safely was something I will never forget. Special thanks, too to Three Springs Ministries of Morris, PA (http://www.threespringsministries.org/) for allowing us the use of their bus to transport our team in one vehicle… we had figured it would have take 15+ minivans to transport 44 of us and the 70+ pieces of baggage… could you imagine that armada getting stuck in that mess!
Once we bobbed and weaved through the traffic to get off an exit, we managed to get back on I-81 North to Clarks Summit… however, most of the exits northbound were completely snowplowed closed… we could not exit until about 15 miles north to u-turn and head south again. Once on I-476 south, the travel turned somewhat routine to our fearless driver, Dirkules. All along Beth Greenhill gave me updates via cell phone… she also alerted Delta that in fact were in transit… might make it by 5:30 if we were lucky… she said “do what you can, I will keep in touch”… we made great time from there – the snowstorm headed from south the northeast, so below the tunnel below Jim Thorpe, it was much easier to cruise down the highway. By the grace of God, we made it into Philadelphia Airport at 4:45… 45 minutes before the cutoff to ensure a timely departure… that would be simple for a single passenger… we now had to process 44 team members and the baggage… special thanks to the Delta crew that received us… I ma sure we stressed the system pretty well. We cleared security without any issues and we were on our way.
The flight from Philly to Atlanta was a smooth one… that is until we began our descent into the Atlanta Airport… just about a few hundred feet from touch down, the plane abruptly pulled up and we aborted our landing… once we corrected ourselves and banked hard to circle around for a second attempt, the pilot came over the PA and announced “that’s what happens when someone is in your runway!”… so, God wasn't finished with our team yet – He had plans for us… and He was going to deliver us to Bluefields! Because of this little “sky dance”, our connection went from rushed to “vamos… we gotta go!” We made it for our final jet leg to Managua… a collective sigh of relief from all of us as we sat back one more time and anticipated the end of this long journey.
Once we bobbed and weaved through the traffic to get off an exit, we managed to get back on I-81 North to Clarks Summit… however, most of the exits northbound were completely snowplowed closed… we could not exit until about 15 miles north to u-turn and head south again. Once on I-476 south, the travel turned somewhat routine to our fearless driver, Dirkules. All along Beth Greenhill gave me updates via cell phone… she also alerted Delta that in fact were in transit… might make it by 5:30 if we were lucky… she said “do what you can, I will keep in touch”… we made great time from there – the snowstorm headed from south the northeast, so below the tunnel below Jim Thorpe, it was much easier to cruise down the highway. By the grace of God, we made it into Philadelphia Airport at 4:45… 45 minutes before the cutoff to ensure a timely departure… that would be simple for a single passenger… we now had to process 44 team members and the baggage… special thanks to the Delta crew that received us… I ma sure we stressed the system pretty well. We cleared security without any issues and we were on our way.
The flight from Philly to Atlanta was a smooth one… that is until we began our descent into the Atlanta Airport… just about a few hundred feet from touch down, the plane abruptly pulled up and we aborted our landing… once we corrected ourselves and banked hard to circle around for a second attempt, the pilot came over the PA and announced “that’s what happens when someone is in your runway!”… so, God wasn't finished with our team yet – He had plans for us… and He was going to deliver us to Bluefields! Because of this little “sky dance”, our connection went from rushed to “vamos… we gotta go!” We made it for our final jet leg to Managua… a collective sigh of relief from all of us as we sat back one more time and anticipated the end of this long journey. 
We arrived in Managua, greeted by our hermanos and hermanas Rigo, Claudia, Mike, Lesly, Eric, Gloria, Carla, Marta and Yolanda… then boarded another bus – destination El Rama, about 4-1/2 hours east southeast through spectacular Nicaraguan Landscapes to where the road ends… and a well deserved rest stop and 5 hours sleep – at 6:00 AM Friday, we had to be at the docks along the Escondido River for a 1-1/2 hour boat ride to Bluefields.
That was just the first 24 hours of a 12 day trip… stay tuned for another report from the work site in Bluefields! We want to thank all of our prayer and financial partners... without your faithful support, this trip might not have had the impact it did... we carried your prayers with us and I believe it sustained us through many obstacles. Only in God is our soul at rest... Amen!
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