Friday, September 20, 2013: Enroute to Guyana

Our morning started off VERY early. We were up around 345 AM and on the shuttle to the airport by 430 AM. Our flight from Atlanta to Miami on American Airlines was good, no problems, in fact we were a little early getting into Miami.  While we were waiting to board, we saw Clint and Sara Byars who were on there way to St. Martin for a vacation. They are the pastors at Forward Church.

After getting on the plane, Tammy chose to adorn herself with her "chicken" hat....

Now for those who have not been to Miami airport, let me tell you...Atlanta airport has a better layout than Miami. At Atlanta airport you have north and south terminal and it is all fairly close together. With Miami airport it is spread out in a big "U" shape, and oh so fortunate for us, the American airlines concourse is at one end of the U and the Caribbean Airlines counter is at the opposite end of the "U"...UGH!!! While we were able to check out bags from Atlanta all the way to Georgetown, we could not get our Caribbean Airlines boarding passes until we got to Miami, and even then the counter didn't open up until 1130 AM...and it was 900 AM when we got there. So we decided to get our boarding passes after we met up with Dre.

We had a great time with Dre and Eddy. We went to Latin America restaurant for breakfast, Cuban steak and eggs (my first time having eggs since my food poisoning episode...still couldn't eat all of them). After breakfast we hung out at Dolphin Mall and then they dropped us off at the airport.

When I originally booked out flights on Caribbean, we were not able to get seats together, in fact we were 3 rows apart. When we got to the counter, they were able to get us 1 row apart. When we got on the plane, a lady on the plane said she would swap seats with Tammy and fortunately we were able to sit together on the flight from Miami to Trinidad. Our flight was "suppose" to have a layover in Trinidad with us staying on the plane as it was the same flight. I've taken this flight before and no problems. However, this time they canceled the segment from Trinidad to Guyana and transferred us to another plane, a 767 that was headed to JFK but had the layover in Georgetown. It ended up being a nice flight, beautiful pictures from the flight of the sunset and sky. We made it into Georgetown early, got through customs...no problems...and was headed to the Caines in less than an hour from landing...incredible!!! It was so good to see the Caines! We got to their house, had a little bit to eat (we were starving! Except for our breakfast all we had was a small turkey sandwich and some goldfish crackers). What a day!!!! Needless to say, we are tired!

Thursday, Sep 19: Our Adventure Begins

Although our flights haven't left yet, we are at the Country Inn and Suites near Hartsfield Airport. With us having to be at the airport by 5 AM, we thought it best to get to a hotel and catch the shuttle to the airport.

I had one of those experiences this afternoon that made me sure this trip was going to be alright. I had booked us at the Hyatt at the airport, through hotels.com at an unbelievable rate. Well when I went to print out the confirmation late this afternoon, I realized I booked for the wrong date. I called hotels.com and told them the situation. Now when I booked, I booked it as a non-refundable booking. The lady at hotels.com tried to find a room at the Hyatt but the price was much much more, out of the question. She took it on herself to find a place around the airport, talked to her supervisor who said we could transfer the booking without any kind of penalty fee. She found a room at the Country Inn and Suites, and check this out...we have a $14.00 refund coming! Woot! Woot! Way to go hotels.com!

I know this doesn't sound big, but in my experience, when something like this happens, the rest of the trip is fantastic. It's just these little things that God does that mean a lot.

Anyway, Dan drove us to the airport, but we stopped at the Downtown Grill in Tyrone for dinner before coming to the hotel.

Our schedule tomorrow is as follows....
Leave Atlanta and arrive in Miami, FL around 9 AM. Our good friends Dre and Eddy will pick us up and take us out for breakfast and we will hang out with them until around 2 PM when we need to be back at the airport. Our flight leaves Miami on Caribbean Airlines and we arrive in Georgetown, Guyana at 945 PM Guyana time (which is 1 hour ahead of Atlanta time). We probably will not be at the Caines house (where we will be staying) until around midnight-ish. So in light of this, I probably will not make any entry on Friday, Sep 20...but you never know!

Pray for us and this trip, I know God is going to do some great things!

Guyana Short Term Mission Trip 2013

Yes, it is almost here, our short term mission trip to Guyana, South America. We will be leaving next week Friday, September 20 and returning on September 29. We will be working out of Shekinah Worship Center just on the other side of the river from Georgetown, Guyana. It will be just Tammy and myself and although we are only two people, we expect to see God do some wonderful things through and around us.

We will be staying with Foster and Marie Caines while we are there. Our current schedule has me speaking the Sunday message at Shekinah on September 22, then doing a Worship Symposium on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 24 and 25 where I will be teaching on worship on one of those nights. Tammy will be doing some women's ministry on Thursday, September 26.

We are so looking forward to this trip and have been for about 3 years now. Come back to this page daily for updates of our day and some pictures.

Guyana Trip Cancelled

Due to many doors closing on this trip, we felt that November is not the right time to go to Guyana. Therefore it has been post-poned. We WILL go there, however no new date has been determined as of today.


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Next Adventure - Guyana, South America

Check back to this blog for our next adventure, which takes us to Guyana, South America, November 3 - 10, 2011. We will go into the jungles of northeast Guyana and minister to the Amerindians, along with Pastor Foster Caines, on a short term mission trip.

Final Post - Day 14 , July 12

We cant believe that our journey has ended, but it ended on an unexpected note. We will start where the last blog left off, yesterday at the Oktoberfest at the Humpeneder's. By the time everything was packed up we didn't leave Bergoberbach until about 1130 PM last night. It was slightly longer than an hours drive to Wurzburg and so we didn't get back to Manu's place until about 1245 AM this morning. We still had to re-pack our luggage and distribute the weight so that we would come under 23 kilos. Our first 2 attempts failed...over 23 kilos, but the 3rd time worked. By the time we got the luggage packed it was 130 AM Tuesday (730 PM Monday Atlanta time). Here is where it gets fun...we had to get up at 430 AM Tuesday (1030 PM Monday) in order to shower and drive to Frankfurt to be at the airport by 645 AM Tuesday (1245 AM Tuesday Atlanta time). And it all worked out, we got to Frankfurt airport around 715 AM (115 AM Atlanta time). Here is where the surprise happened...I already checked in online the night before, and we had seats in row 36. When we got to Frankfurt Airport, we dropped our bags off, and the dude behind the counter said "here are your new boarding passes." I was thinking, hmmm, that's interesting, I guess the paper ones we printed out were not good enough. I took a few steps and took a closer look at the boarding passes and told Tammy..."hey, I think we just go put in first class." I took another close look and saw "Sky Priority" and "Prem" where it would normally say zone 3 or zone 4...but the biggest tell sign was that we were now in row 8, and I was right, Delta bumped us up to Business Elite, and we didn't do anything to get it. God really blessed us with that! The flight was really good, especially being in 1st class. Check it out, the seats recline out to a full 180 degrees, plus the food was great!

We landed on time (145 PM), got through customs relatively easy (had a delay in getting our luggage due to a thunderstorm over the airport, they had to pull the crews off the tarmac and into the buildings). Thanks to Steve Hall for picking us up at the airport!

After Tammy and me got home, we decided that after 2 weeks of bread, cheese, and various kinds of pork (which, by the way, we totally enjoyed!) we needed a change and went out for sushi.

For this blog, I have been doing the writing and Tammy has been proof reading my typing (which was required...LOL). However I wanted to add both of our final thoughts from the trip, so here it goes...

Kent's Perspective...
While this was our honeymoon, it was a honeymoon surrounded by friends and family, our German family. Having said that, our wedding was out of the box and so this shouldn't surprise anyone. I really enjoyed this trip in addition to the obvious (with my new wife). The relationships between myself and the Humpeneders grew deeper, and that was awesome. While it would have been nice for Tammy and me to tour Germany on our own, we would have seen only the "tourist" areas and not experience the German culture. Spending our time with the Humpeneders allowed us to experience the culture of the German people and that was great!

My favorite part of the trip
Well actually I had 2 parts I really enjoyed. First, I loved hiking through the Alps which happened early on in the vacation. Second, I really enjoyed speaking to Marcus' class and I hope I get to do that again.

Most memorable moment
I have a couple "most memorable moments." While the whole trip will remain engrained in my memory, two events really stand out. First, the Oktoberfest we had at the Humpeneders the night before we left. We know that they did this just for us and really for that reason that is my most memorable and it really shows how they have accepted me and Tammy into their extended family, their American family. Second, was the first day we got to Germany. Manuel and Christiana took us on a walk to the Marienburg Castle that evening, and we sat on the wall overlooking the city of Wurzburg. We had wine and cheese as the sun was setting on the city, it was really romantic and beautiful.


Tammy's Perspective...
This trip was my first out of the US, a big step for me. I have always wanted to travel abroad, my first experience could not have been more wonderful. Two and a half years ago Kent and I had just started talking through Facebook and over the phone when he made his first trip to Germany, I was able to follow his trip through emails that he sent me while he was gone. How wonderful God is to let me experience first hand the beauty Kent had written me about so early in our relationship. The marvelous beauty of the Alps is undescribale by words, and to be able to hike on those mountains is an experience like none other. We were able to share our honeymoon with a wonderful family, each one of them were so welcoming to me, I can't wait to see them again. I loved the cities that we visited and the people, I love other cultures, so it was amazing to experience it with my new German family and my husband.

Most memoriable moment
I will forever have etched in my mind the view from the Marienburg Castle, sitting so high above the city with Kent. The lights of the city were beautiful, it was like my own Thomas Kincaid painting come to life! There were so many more moments for me that will be memoriable, everything was new and exciting, from the old town streets with their beautiful architecture to the most wonderful friends and food. God has truely blessed me and I am so very thankful.

Day 13 - July 11

It started out as a slow day. We got up kind of late, had breakfast and lingered around the house for a few hours. Gerhard got home around 2 and we had a birthday lunch for him...he turned 59. The family got him a stand alone stove, unfortunately they have to send it back because it was damaged in the shipping. After that me, Tammy and Manu went into Ansbach to walk around the old town area. We stopped at a cafe and had coffee ice cream. Christina met up with us at that point, along with her mother.

Later that evening, we had our Oktoberfest at the Humpeneder's and dressed up in our dirndls and lederhosen..all of us. We got many pictures of us dressed in traditional German clothes...Jurgen here I come. After a dinner of pancake soup, white brats and wieners, potato salad, a blood sausage and vinegar salad, a pasta salad, and a Black Forest cake. After we ate, Manu brought out a small keyboard and I played and sang Happy Birthday, a German birthday song, and then Amazing Grace, which is Gerhard's favorite song. After I finished playing Amazing Grace I saw tears in his eyes. After we packed and loaded up the car, it was time to say good bye, and as I expected, it was teary. Tammy and I will sure miss our German family, and they ate already thinking of what to do on our next trip to Germany. Some of them said they are going to make the trip over to America, and I hope they do. They are a wonderful, loving family who considers me and Tammy one of their own.

New pics will be posted with our final blog post coming in a few hours.