Last post I was telling about my trip to Madison, WI. When I left off, I had just run a bit over a mile through the Detroit airport, which turned out to be unnecessary. Our plane was a little late in departing, but the pilots assured us that we would arrive in Birmingham on time. Now when you think about it, it becomes clear that airlines build in some "fudge factor" time in their time of arrival, when they can leave late and land on time.
A couple of times in this flight one of the pilots announced that we were in turbulence caused by thunder storms, and it would be a rough flight the rest of the way. Well, they were a bit overly cautious, because it was pretty smooth except for one little altitude loss.
I looked out of the window as we neared our time to descend to BHM. The lights didn't look right on the ground, but I attributed it to my disorientaion as we could be approaching from some direction other than North due to the storms.
Well, the better explanation was that the flight had be DIVERTED to Atlanta due to the heave thunder storms surrounding the BHM airport. We were almost in ATL before we learned that they didn't have enough fuel to circle and wait for clearing weather so we were going to ATL for fuel and to wait out the storm. Us passengers speculated wildly about HOW we would get back to BHM, and the airline offered no info. It turns out that the airline's plan, much simpler than that of the passengers, was to sit and wait for the storms to move out of BHM. We arrived in BHM only about 2 hours later than scheduled. Not bad. And I think most of us realized that was MUCH better than most alternatives.
As local AL folks know, the interstate between BHM and Northport has been under renovation for some months now, and the direct route had been closed over a month. So, at about midnight, I had the task of choosing how to drive home in a misting rain. I decided to trust the GPS, which turned out to be much better than following the "detour" signs.
And by G^d's grace and the prayers of many, I made it home safely and not even too sleepily.
Brenda and I have become BOLD in asking for prayer for these ministry trips. As this trip illustrates, we are glad we do. Thank you L^rd.
Thanks to all who prayed. It was a great conference, and an interesting trip. Blessings,
A couple of times in this flight one of the pilots announced that we were in turbulence caused by thunder storms, and it would be a rough flight the rest of the way. Well, they were a bit overly cautious, because it was pretty smooth except for one little altitude loss.
I looked out of the window as we neared our time to descend to BHM. The lights didn't look right on the ground, but I attributed it to my disorientaion as we could be approaching from some direction other than North due to the storms.
Well, the better explanation was that the flight had be DIVERTED to Atlanta due to the heave thunder storms surrounding the BHM airport. We were almost in ATL before we learned that they didn't have enough fuel to circle and wait for clearing weather so we were going to ATL for fuel and to wait out the storm. Us passengers speculated wildly about HOW we would get back to BHM, and the airline offered no info. It turns out that the airline's plan, much simpler than that of the passengers, was to sit and wait for the storms to move out of BHM. We arrived in BHM only about 2 hours later than scheduled. Not bad. And I think most of us realized that was MUCH better than most alternatives.
As local AL folks know, the interstate between BHM and Northport has been under renovation for some months now, and the direct route had been closed over a month. So, at about midnight, I had the task of choosing how to drive home in a misting rain. I decided to trust the GPS, which turned out to be much better than following the "detour" signs.
And by G^d's grace and the prayers of many, I made it home safely and not even too sleepily.
Brenda and I have become BOLD in asking for prayer for these ministry trips. As this trip illustrates, we are glad we do. Thank you L^rd.
Thanks to all who prayed. It was a great conference, and an interesting trip. Blessings,
No comments:
Post a Comment