Arrived in Manila!

Early this morning (1am), I landed in Manila and was picked up at the airport by Jeri and Darren. I almost missed my flight since my flight to Beijing was delayed two hours and I only had a one hour, forty minute layover. Thankfully, my plane landed 30 minutes before my flight to Manila departed. The Beijing airport, I discovered, doesn't care if your flight is about to leave. You still have to wait your turn in line for immigration and security. Thankfully, I saw that my plane was about to leave and begged someone at the front of the security line if I could cut in front of them. They were gracious enough to let me cut in front of them, otherwise I would have been in the line for 30-40 more minutes and completely missed my flight.

After getting through security, I started racing for my gate but it was on the other side of the airport so someone gave me a ride to my gate. He said they had just announced the last call for Manila five minutes before and he was able to radio the plane to wait. Thankfully, the flight was full and not everyone's carry-ons fit so there were a bunch of bags being checked. They were taking a separate vehicle to the plane with just the carry-ons but they allowed me to ride in the vehicle onto the tarmac and left the plane door open so I could get on. Right after I got on the plane, they closed the doors and off we went!

The whole ride across the tarmac, I was praising God for holding the plane for me, as well as giggling at the ridiculousness of riding with all the baggage. 

Now I'm here and exhausted from jet lag. But God is good and I am safe, in one piece, and ready for my month in Manila!