Stuck in the Denver Airport

At the moment we’re stuck in the Denver airport trying to catch a flight to Durango where I’m scheduled to start speaking at Rocky Mountain Renewal in about four hours. The problem started back in Chicago when a late flight into O’Hare caused the pilots to be late for our flight to Denver, resulting in an hour delay in departing, causing us to arrive after our flight to Durango had left. No problem, right? United has lots of flights to Durango. Well, yes, but the next one (2:07 PM) was totally full because there were two flights that were late in Denver, overloading the small plane with passengers. We were number 36 on the stand-by list, which meant that our chances of being that flight were slim and none. So I needed to call Rocky Mountain Renewal and let them know, but I didn’t have their phone number. I had sent them an email from O’Hare advising them of the earlier problems. I found their phone number on the Internet but all I got was a recording so I left a message. When I got the call back, the nice lady on the other end laughed and said not to worry about it. The Lord must have known all about this. Well, yes, but I still need to get to Durango. Then the 2:07 flight was pushed back to 3:10. Then it was canceled altogether. The next flight is 5:29 PM and we have reservations but no seats, which means it is oversold. So at least two people have to give up their seats for us to get on that flight. We would arrive at 6:30 PM and show up as the evening service is underway. Better late than never. That’s our current plan.

Travel is sometimes fun, sometimes easy, and sometimes an exhausting ordeal. I should add that the Denver airport is very, very long, with no tram to take you from one end to the other. As to where our bags are, I have no idea. And of course we didn’t bring a change of clothes with us. I know, I know. When you travel as much as we do, you have to do that. Sometimes we do, but this time we didn’t. Part of it is because we drove to Normal on Saturday, I preached yesterday, we drove to Elmhurst last night, and in preparing for all that, we just didn’t do it. So make a note, friends. When you travel, carry a change of clothes in your carry-on bag.

By the way, Rocky Mountain Renewal is run by the same folks who used to run Triple Creek Ranch in western Illinois, near Galena. Several years ago I spoke there, and since then they have moved their entire operation to Colorado. They offer beautiful facilities free of charge for pastors, missionaries, and other Christian workers. Over the years they have been an oasis of refreshment for thousands of God’s choice servants. It’s an honor to minister to some of those servants this week. If we can only make it to Durango.

6:07 PM We didn’t make the 5:29 PM flight because there were too many people on the waiting list. That means I won’t be speaking for the first session tonight. We are on standby for the 6:55 PM flight, and we have confirmed seats for the 8:45 PM flight. I’ll bet that’s the flight we’ll be on. So instead of getting to Rocky Mountain Renewal at 1:30, we should be there by 10:30.