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Please excuse the bad grammar and layout of this post. I wrote it all in a hurry previous to this, and I don't have the time to fix it all now...here goes.

When I started my blog as Celestial Journey, I knew it would be a Journey, but I'm not sure if I would call our
experiances thus far heavenly. We certainly had the heavenly one looking out for us though.

6:30 A.m. on January 15th me and my parents set out ? the car for Minneapolis St. Paul where my starting flight was. It
didn't quite seem to have me yet that I was leavning...my home, my family, my loved ones, everything I knew. I'd said
goodbye to more people than I'd care to count, yet never cried. Somehow I couldn't. But as I neared the airport I started
to feel that pounding in my chest, that feeling of anticipation, excitement, and maybe just a little bit of nervousness.
11:15 my parents dropped me off at the gate and bid me goodbye. I've flown before so I think that I know what I'm doing.
I head right to the checkout line and do just what everyone else is doing. My turn comes. I slid my debit card through
the machine for identification. Gary Bernard. GRR. I am NOT Gary. Slide my passport, nothing comes up. One of the men at
the desk comes to help me. "Your name is wrong on the E-ticket. You first and last names are switched.You name is not in
our machine. There is nothing we can do. You have to get ahold of Mr. Bensen or buy a new ticket." wow. I didn't even know
what to think. I walked away, pulling two huge suitcases, my laptop, my caryon and my purse. I don't have a cellphone. I've
never talked to this Mr. Bensen guy (he's the travel agent and Steve Rusk worked all that out for me.) I don't know if the
rest of my team is still coming or if they already checked in and are far ahead of me, no way for me to contact them. It
was a very deep feeling of lonliness. For the first time, I was ready to cry. My parents were already on there way home. I
was worse than lost for ideas of what the next step would be. "God please help me!" was all I could say. I walked away
aimlessly, struggling to keep all my luggage. I glanced over at the checkin line, there was, Steve and Nancy Rusk, Amanda,
and Sarah!!! I walked over to my group, and mumbled "hi steve, I have a major problem. My name is mixed up, the airline
says there is nothing they can do. we have to get ahold of Mr. Bensen." Praise God Steve had his cellphone on him still and
he got to buisness right away. 2 hours later, much running back and forth, some arguring to crazy people, talking to people in
India that speak to fast and leave you on hold forever, we got my ticket replaced. With a big sigh we say "PRAISE YOU God!"
ran through security and got on our flight. Only GOd knew that we seriously DID need that never needed 3 hours that you're
supposed to have before your flight. From There we flew to Chicago where we finally had some time to breath, relax, get
something to eat and board our flight to Abu Dhaube. It's now nearly 1:00 in the morning, I've been traveling for 16 hours
and we have at least 10 more hours before we land in Abu Dhaube...then we have another flight to India and from there a 4
hour car ride to our final destination. I'll be posting this late because I obveusly don't have internet on the airplane,
I'm just taking the time to write now, while I can.

Well well, I guess I don't have anything else terribly exciting to write to you about right now, and I'm super super tired
so I'm going to see how I can sleep on this plane. God bless you all, and remember I love you and miss you tons!


Later ~


Well it's me again. It's about 1:00 Sunday afternoon here, I guess that means it's about 1:30 a.m. on Sunday for you.
It's been about 43 hours since I left home, and I've not yet had the chance to sleep. I'm ZONKED, but waiting to go to
bed, cuz I'm determaned to get onto the time schedule here. I might not be able to resist falling asleep for a short time,
but we have tea at 4:30 and bible study at 5:30. The headmaster's wife (I have no clue how to pernounce or spell her name.
We just call her Auntie.) is taking us girls shoping, she's sure that we each need to have a Sahri. Mostly the older and
married women weare Sahris all the same so we'll be wearing sahwors (sp?) most of the time. I guess thats ok with me,
because they are more practical for an active girl like me.

So after I wrote you all yesterday, we hours and hours more in the airplane where we TRIED to sleep, and then we finally
arrived in Abu Dahbi. I never dreamed of an airport where they would have special rooms to pray. I never saw so many muslems,
or whatever they are called either. All the men in long white robes and white vails (of what do you call them for guys?). All
these women who wear black and cover their entire face but their eyes. It was deffinatly a new experiance.Then from Abu
Dahbi, we flew into Tervandrum (sp?) where we arrived about 6:00 A.M.and a few guys from the church came to pick us up.
They rented a bus (with a driver.) It was about a 5 hour drive, with a beautiful view. We saw Water buffilo, 3 monkeys,
a peacock, and of course cows, goats, and chickens. AND more people than you could ever count, thousands of people...
everywhere. I think there were more people in ONE block of some of those villages than in the whole town of Rhinelander,
well maybe not litteraly, but hey...it seemed like it.

One of the guys that came along to pick us up (Paul Sam) seemed to really enjoy himself watching us freak out about all
the things that were "normal" to him. He made the bus driver stop and he got us some Palm fruit. I never even knew that
palm trees HAD fruit.

And oh, after all the crazy stuff that happened to us with my ticket, we get to Abu Dahbi where we were supposed to
meet up with John and Ben. We don't see them, and we don't see them and it seems they are just never showing up, and we
finally had to go on without them. It turned out that somehow the tickets had been figured all wrong and they showed up in
Abu Dahbi at the time we had thought, but the day before so they were already in India waiting for us!!! Nice.

So today FINALLY around 11:00 or something we got in and us three girls (Sarah, Amanda, and I) got shown our room where
we came and put everything away. It's really a nice room...we even have a REAL toilet, thats pretty awesome. Well For now
thats all, and I still don't have a chance to post this, but I'll get it to you as soon as I can.

Sorry this is chopping and mixed up. I have not slept more than a couple unsettled house in 43 hours...I gotta run now.
God be with you all.