Last night, I arrived in London at 9pm, and have learned to trust God even more since then. He has definitely been looking out for me these past 12 hours in many ways:
1. When I got off the plane, I headed to the terminal where my next plane was leaving, and figured I would just stay there for the night. Luckily, a woman came up to me asking me when my connecting flight left. I told her the next morning, and she kindly advised me that I can not stay in terminal 5 overnight, I had to go to terminal 1. So I headed there, along with another nice American woman who was about to do the same thing as me. We had to take a bus to terminal 1, so I got to experience driving on the other side of the rode! Once we got to the terminal, we basically had to walk through a maze of hallways until we got to an area with lots of seats and people already sleeping. Having that lady tell me where to go and another lady to go there with me was very comforting, and the words, "I am with you always" kept echoing in my head.
2. I payed for internet for 24 hours which wasn't too expensive...but my laptop battery was dying quickly and my adapter was in my checked bag. I saw two girls my age that were charging their laptops, so I kindly asked them to borrow their adapter once they were done charging their laptops. Just then, a guy came and woke everyone up, and told us we had to move to another location. I felt like we were a group of refugees, half asleep (it was midnight there) moving through the airport. When we got to the new room, I charged my laptop with the girls' adapter, and gave them my turkey sandwich that I got on the plane because they had no food. With internet and a charged laptop, I got to Facebook chat with friends and my mom :)
3. A man came up to me asking me if he could use my laptop to check his email. So many people had already helped me along the way so I joyfully was willing to help him. He was very grateful for being able to use it. We talked for a bit, and he said he was headed to Nairobi as well (and I think he grew up there). He added me on Facebook and told me if I ever needed anything in Nairobi to feel free to contact him.
4. At 4 am they transported us back to the original room we were in, so I slept for a few hours there (thank God I took the blanket and pillow from the plane!). When the 2 girls were leaving, they said goodbye to me, and gave me their adapter because they had an extra. This was a huge blessing! Even now I am using it as I sit and wait for my next flight.
5. At around 6am, I realized that my baggage tag only had Boston and London on it listed...so I went to the information desk and asked if my bag would be sent to Nairobi. They were very helpful, said no it would stay in London, and told me everything I needed to do: basically go to terminal 3, get my bag, go through customs, take a train to terminal 5, check in again, and then get to my gate. My first instinct was to get nervous/stressed, but I knew this was an opportunity to trust in God. I walked away praying, asking Him to get me through all of this, and reminding myself I had nothing to fear. I like adventure right?
6. As I headed towards customs, a lady came up to me asking for help. She barely knew any english - she could say 'bag', and 'help'. So I told her to follow me to customs and baggage claim. I thank God for showing me how blessed I was to be in a country where I know the language, and to realize my situation was really not that bad.
7. God taught me humility - I had to depend on others to make my way to my gate by asking lots of questions about where certain things were. Luckily, everyone I talked to was very gracious, and the British accents caught me off guard every time haha.
8. This adventure allowed me to see more of London, or at least the airport! I got a British stamp in my passport, got to ride their underground rail to get to my terminal, went in an elevator with floors -2, -1, 1, 2, and saw a lot of cool people from all over the world. The airport was so advanced and fast, the bathrooms all seemed brand new, and even the automated voices had British accents! There were so many chocolate stores with good, European chocolate…very tempting.
9. On the train to my gate (my 4th train/bus ride thus far) I looked up and saw Bruce, a rising junior at MIT and fellow member of Cru, the Christian Fellowship I am in. It was crazy to see another MIT student, and talk to someone I knew, rather than asking strangers stupid questions. Definitley a God moment! He lives in Nairobi, so he was headed home for a month and was on my plane. He also said he lives in Kilimani, which is where my home stay is. I definitely didn't expect this to happen since we got out of school almost 3 weeks ago, but God is good, and out of all the train cars we could of been on, God placed us both on the same one.
I am currently over the Darfur mountains - Ive flown over more than half of Africa.Less than 2 hours to go!
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