We sat in Omaha for four hours waiting to take off because of the weather in Chicago.  The pilot finally said we were going to get up in the air and then Chicago can’t tell us to turn back – they have to let us land there.  That should have been a clue to me that this wasn’t going to be an ordinary journey.  When we finally got to Chicago, we, of course, had missed our plane to Vienna. We rushed to the ticket counter just before they closed for the night.  Austrian Airlines rerouted us on Swiss Airlines headed for Zurich, then on to Moscow, and then Ukraine, but we had to hurry, the plane was “scheduled” to leave in 30 minutes.

So, we ran through O’Hare, through security again where I had to have them dump the water out of my bottle because I wasn’t expecting to go through security again, on to Swiss’ gate where they told us to hurry up because they were “waiting for us”.  BUT, first they had to stop me and tell me my carry-on bag was too big and had to be checked – my bag with all my class notes and materials needed for my first day of classes – the things the school told us to carry with us so it wouldn’t get lost.  After shuffling through the bag to retrieve my notebook and a few other things I would have to carry by hand, and after telling the flight attendant, he better guard my bag with his life, we got on the plane only to sit and wait two hours for the de-icing machine to get fixed to come de-ice the plane.

When we finally got to Zurich the next day, we had missed our flight to Moscow. They wanted us to take the next plane to Moscow that was leaving that evening, but there was no guarantee we would be able to fly out of Moscow any time soon and we did not have visas for Russia.  It took what seemed like hours to explain to the ticket agent we were not originally planning on going to Moscow and did not want to get stuck there without visas, BUT we had to get to Ukraine before Monday.  He kept saying, “It can’t be done, it can’t be done.”  I kept saying, “It has to be done.  I have to start teaching on Monday.”

Finally he came up with a solution.  Swiss Air would put us up for the night in Zurich, they would give us meal tickets for three meals each and they would reroute us – again!  So we spent a lovely day and a half walking through Zurich enjoying their wonderful hospitality.  Saturday evening, the day after we were supposed to arrive in Ukraine, we left for Rome.  We spent a whole 30 minutes in Rome in the airport trying to change flights and explain to the people of Aeroflot why we were doing what we were doing and trying to get on the plane.

We finally got on the plane, flew to Moscow for a “seven hour” layover which turned out to be more like twelve hours.  During that time I walked the halls a million times while Doyle slept on one of the benches.  We had arrived around 2:00 a.m. and finally around 9:00 a.m. they allowed us to wait in the office where they said, “You wait here” in the typical monotone Soviet voice.  A little later around 9:30 they said, “You come with me” and led us through a maze of back hallways and through locked doors to a bus waiting outside which took us (we were the only ones on the bus along with our “guide”) across the landing strip to what appeared to be a deserted airport. We were taken in through a back door and went through security to a deserted waiting area.  There were no pictures on the walls, nobody behind the desk, just a few people coming and going occasionally.  Another family came to wait for a little bit, but then they left.  At one point the airline personnel said the plane was ready so “you come with me”.  We took a shuttle out to the plane (again we were the only ones on the shuttle) where a flight attendant was standing at the bottom of the steps to the plane looking like the plane was ready for departure.  Our “guide” got out and talked to her and disappeared inside the plane for a bit while we waited in the shuttle.  He finally came out and told us we would have to wait in the terminal, the plane wasn’t ready yet.  So we rode back to the deserted terminal, to the deserted waiting area and waited some more.  A young woman came and started talking to us.  She was quite pleasant and knew English quite well.  She was on her way to Ukraine to visit her family. Finally, around 2:00 (twelve hours after arrive in Moscow), they came and got us, this time this other gal was with us, we were allowed to board the plane, but still we were the only ones on the plane.  So, we sat and waited some more.  Finally a busload of people came which filled the plane with many Russian speaking people.  We finally got in the air and were on our final air leg of our journey.

When we landed in Ukraine, we went through customs with no problem at all because we had no luggage with us.  Our luggage had not followed our trek through Europe. A man from ZBCS was there to meet us; he had been waiting since before noon and it was now about 4:00 p.m..  We had to file a claim for our luggage in an office of some airport official which was styles in the typical old Russian décor – the bare necessities and equipment from the Dark Ages.  There were many papers to fill out and many more questions to be answered explaining our crazy trip across Europe.  I felt them wondering how this all could have happened.

We finally arrived in Zaporozhye only two days later than expected, and three days after we departed Omaha.  The school staff kept constant communication with the airport to check on our luggage.  We tried to contact United about the luggage but their only response was we had to fill out a claim and mail it to a US address!  By the time they would receive the claim, we would be home – two weeks later!  When we finally got  our son, Jeremy, and our travel agent on the problem from the States side, United finally tracked down our luggage still sitting in Chicago.  They were able to get it to us the next day.

Anytime we pray and ask for God’s will to be done, we better be ready for a ride.  Our experiences are nothing compared to the great adventures of the Bible.  The next time we read about these patriarchs of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament, we need to consider how it is to really live those experiences and realize that God brought them through, and God will also bring us through.  Some of the Christians died a horrible death, but God’s hand was in that too.

(For the second episode in our Travels across Europe, read “The Unluckiest Traveler?” at https://marilynn-lester.com/2014/10/04/the-worlds-unluckiest-traveler/)