Thursday, April 2, 1998

After a couple of tumultuous days, we (Terry and John) departed, with passports in hand, for Dayton International Airport at 11:00 a.m. Dad, Barbara, Erik and our kids accompanied us. We were the first of our group to arrive and check in. We were traveling as part of an organization called the Ministry of Money whose purpose was to provide us with a reverse mission experience. We walked to the gate and the rest of the Dayton crew (Bob Hadley one of the trip leaders, Tim and Pat) came soon. After waiting a brief time, we were informed that our flight was delayed due to mechanical difficulties. Those of us making other connections had to be re-routed via United Airlines. We were told that we would now depart Dayton at 1:30 p.m. Many people from our church who had previously made the Haiti pilgrimage came to see us off. After a teary good-bye to the kids we boarded the plane and were off. John and I didn't sit together as we were "add ons" to the flight. We arrived in Chicago and proceeded to our gate. There we relaxed and read until flight time some 2 1/2 hours later. John enjoyed a soft pretzel and Terry had a waffle cone from TCBY. We boarded and left Chicago at 4:15 p.m. En route to Miami we enjoyed supper. John had pizza and Terry had chicken salad. Not bad for airline food. We arrived in muggy Miami around 8:00 p.m. After waiting for an unusually long time for our luggage, Bob phoned the hotel to arrange for transportation to the hotel. Soon a shuttle picked us up and took us to the Fairfield Inn. We got to the motel, checked in and went to our rooms to crash. Terry phoned home and spoke with her Mom for a bit. Our kids were in bed, but seemed to be settling in well. Terry wrote a few notes and then we went to bed.