Wacky Wednesday

As we walked up to the counter to check in for our flight from Tahiti to Sydney, which was scheduled to leave at 2 a.m., on Wednesday, November 13th, the clerk said that there was one little problem: there was no indication that I had a visa for Australia (even though I had it in my hand). As such, they would have to check with the Australian Consulate to see if I could enter the country. "Lord," I silently prayed, "if you don’t want me to go to Australia, then that’s fine. But, if you do, then will you please clear this up." Thankfully, we had arrived five hours early for the flight (that’s about 4 hours and 30 minutes earlier than normal for me), so I presumed that the matter could be cleared up in time for us to board our flight. And, thankfully, it wasn’t long before I was granted a new visa to enter the country, so we boarded our flight.

When we landed in Sydney after our eight-hour flight, we made it to the rental car counter, where we learned that they had no cars for rent and they did not have a car reserved for us (even though I had the reservation in my hand). After a few minutes, they figured out the problem: I had reserved the car for Wednesday, November 13th. While we had left at 2 a.m. on Wednesday, November 13th, and had traveled for only eight hours, we had crossed the international date line. As such, we lost a day (I still can’t figure that one out!). Thankfully, they found a car for us and we were on our way.

As we made it to the town north of Sydney where we are spending our first week, we noticed some huge, exotic parrots (much to Amy’s delight), so we stopped to admire them. While we were admiring them, we met a man, Jack, who was 74 years old and recovering from open heart surgery. He unabashedly showed me the big scar on his chest, which was only ten days old, and told us of his double bypass and aortic valve replacement. After chit chatting with Jack about this and that, we asked him if we could pray for him and he gladly bowed his head and we prayed for a speedy recovery and a long life to enjoy his daughter’s recently born triplets. Day 1 in Australia turned out to be an absolute blessing, even though we had to drive on the wrong side of the road.