On the Road (I Mean, In the Air) Again

I'm writing these words from the Kansas City Int'l Airport. I took the 6:00 AM flight from Joplin (more like the 6:35 AM flight), and am waiting the next flight. From here I will go to Dallas, then to Miami, and finally on to Santiago, CHILE. By the time I arrive there, I will have been traveling about 24 hours. I will preach Sunday morning at the Libertad church (I hope I don't put myself to sleep). I will have the remainder of Sunday (nap time, I imagine), and Monday & Tuesday to visit as many friends as I can. On Wednesday, I will fly to Temuco, then travel about an hour north to Lautaro, where I will teach an intensive course in Principles of (Bible) Interpretation.

My colleague, Larry Pechawer, will start teaching a course on Psalms at the Santiago Institute this morning. I will look forward to seeing him there. I think he will be teaching mainly at night, so maybe I can show him around Santiago during the daytime.

I'm thankful that the Kansas City airport decided to provide free wi-fi. I have already responded to a student blog, and now am working on this entry. The trip from Joplin to Kansas City was pleasant, despite the small plane. John Mouton (from CIY) was on the same flight, ready to meet up with a group of Ozark students already in Kansas City. They will be going to New York City to work with a new church plant this week. I tried to check my baggage from Joplin all the way to Santiago. The Joplin-Kansas city portion was on US Airways Express/Mesa Air Group/operated by Air Midwest. Their routing paperwork only had enough spots for 3 destinations. I told them that if it would be easier, they could check it to Kansas City, and I would pick it up and re-check it. That wasn't a problem. Here you can see a photo of the plane from Joplin. The pickup truck was off-loading the luggage. From the time the pickup truck left the side of the plane until the time my bags rolled off the carousel was only about 2 minutes. I didn't have any trouble identifying my two bags. They were the only two that were sent to U.S. Airways Baggage Claim (all the other bags on my flight were connecting to other U.S. Airways destinations). I got my bags, took the red bus to Terminal C, checked them in at American, had a bite of breakfast, and decided to post this.

Hope that you all are well. I'll be back in Joplin (Lord willing) on Tuesday the 20th in the afternoon, after another marathon trip.

See you later!

DGF