In mid air we have a turn around
Well, every trip has its miss haps. We had settled down on the plane for the long haul trip expecting things to go smoothly. I was kind of glad that we had managed to survive Heathrow. The pick ups in Bo’ness went to plan. Everyone was ready and David Hannah did a wondrful job as our taxi driver.
Anyway we were now in the air four hours of flying under our belt. I had watched a movie and was thinking nearly half way there, when an announcement came over the speaker. “We are experiencing a little technical trouble. Now it is nothing to worry about, however as the Captain I feel it is safer to turn the plane around and head back to Heathrow”, now what was really going on? I guess we’ll never know.
When we landed at Heathrow at least a couple of fire engines were standing by. The Captain sounded a bit more relieved as he spoke to us this time. He told us that there was a hissing sound coming from one of thewindows in the cockpit and it had gradually got louder. We were flying of Terhan, when he made the announcement the first time and he thought perhaps that’s not the safest place to land. So he turned the plane around and flew home. Personally I don’t think we’ve been given the full story. Another passenger was told that the fault was to do with communication equipment.
We all duly got out of the plane, received hospitality vouchers and were given a time to go back to the airport, which will be later this morning. We have been told our flight will go at 2.30pm our time and arrive in Chennai local time at 4.55am. So in a few moments we’ll be off to the airport again. In all these things God is working out his purposes. I’m sorry for our friends in Chennai, who will have been expecting us to be with them today. Thanks to the wonders of the mobile phone I was able to contact them and give them an update regarding our trip.
Very shortly a team of twelve from St Andrew’s Parish Bo’ness will be flying out to Chennai to meet up with some of our partners from our World Without Walls Project. Everyone is very excited to be part of this adventure. Except for Martha and myself the others have never been to India, but of course, we all know one another as members of the church, but we have never dared live with each other for an extended period of time. So it is going to be a very interesting experience. There is a great sense of expectation among the team. A number of those preparing for the journey, also see this as a spiritual encounter. I guess for those of us who live in the West going to India has an amazing exotic and spiritual lure. Certainly for our team meeting up with the Christian Communities in the various parts of South india will be an amazing humbling experience. They will encounter people who are poor by this world’s standards but who are rich in terms of the Kingdom of God.So take time to keep up with our journey. Ten of us will leave Edinburgh, this weekend and be joined by another two the following week. For the next two weeks we will share our lives together in a seven bedroom house in Chennai. We will be well looked after and have many stories to tells. So keep in touch and send us your comments as we share our trip with you all.Here is a little bit of footage I shot the last time I was thee in 2005. We are hoping that we might be able to support and encourage some of the work that our partners are doing in the name of Christ.