August 19

A man from this church in Brisbane took me to the airport. Upon arrival, I found the lines for Virgin Blue very long, causing me to get bumped to the 7:00 a.m. flight, one hour later than the original schedule. The flight was OK, but because of the delay, I missed my connecting flight to LA, California. Delta “refused” my boarding, and in exchange, put me on a flight with Qantas, along with a $600 voucher toward any future flights I may have with them (Delta).

The flight with Qantas was really nice and had the best food and the jet was the most comfortable. It is the largest jet (airbus A380) in the commercial world and the newest. This flight was a none-stop 13.5 hour flight and I was able to get a little bit of sleep.

Upon arrival into LA, California, I found out that the next flight had been canceled due to mechanical problems on the jet. This caused another change, so now I am headed to Rochester via Atlanta, Georgia. This flight is to leave at midnight and the time is 11:30 in the morning….what was I going to do for the next 12 hours in LA?! I remembered the last time I flew to PNG, we (Cliff Taylor and I) had a similar layover in LA and he had a contact there that came to the airport and entertained us for several hours. I was able to contact him (Mr. Carl Shriver) and he came out and picked me up and took me to his house. I was able to rest a little and get a shower. We had some really good fellowship and went to Spanish restaurant, also. He and his wife were a great blessing to me and it was good to see them again.

I arrived back at the airport with about 2 hours to spare because I really did not want to miss any more connections…I was already about 17 hours behind my original flight schedule. Detroit was the original way I was to go through to Rochester, but now I was going through Atlanta. Delta was able to secure an Alaska Airlines jet to help with their flight problem for this leg of the journey. I am almost home!