yet another blessing

Yesterday I spent nearly 24 hours traveling across the Pacific Ocean to arrive in Manila late last night. I was exhausted as I had not slept in over 30 hours due to work, buying supplies, and packing. When I got on the plane from Seattle to Tokyo, I met a delightful flight attendant. We joked around and laughed as I took off my shoes, put on my cozy socks, slippers, and arranged all my travel gear on the seat. She asked what the purpose of my trip was and was excited to learn that I would be doing disaster relief. After answering a few more questions I started staking my claim on the plane, looking for two empty seats next to each other that I could swipe in order to sleep better. Just after the pilot announced the doors were shut, the flight attendant raced up to me in my new seats (2 by the window!) and urgently told me to grab my purse and shoes. Perplexed I did so and traipsed through the plane with her towards the front. Quickly looking around she then pulled aside the curtain to business class and walked me up to an empty seat while saying, "I'm so sorry about the seat mix-up. I'm glad we were able to get it straightened out. Here's your seat for you." WOW!!!! God knew I desperately needed sleep and gave me a seat that fully reclined with a fluffy pillow and blanket. I was shocked beyond belief. The flight attendant then told the other flight attendants what I was doing and everyone was grateful and encouraged.

There were other wonderful moments to my trip, but thank God for 8 hours of deep sleep to get me here rested and ready to face the disaster. Today I will be heading out to one of the relief areas and will try to take pictures to post here.

Thanks for praying!