Travel Update #5: International Airport Install Team from Alabama "IAITA"

This evening Crystal and I received an email with the above collection of impressive wording in the subject line.  Seeing that the email was from Jeff Owens, who is a missionary in PNG, I realized the email must be from Thomas and Jonathan, and that Jeff must have a required subject line when his emails send. Something to do with his own mission work, perhaps?

On second glance, however, I realized that that concoction is from none other than those Rodgers brothers, whose family Alabama roots are now being heralded in the far reaches of the earth. I'm guessing they got a good night's sleep (10 hours, according to Jonathan's part of the email) and their minds are restored enough to be coming up with such names for their miniature travelling team. :)

They proudly shared that Jon made breakfast for them:  he set out the bowls spoons milk and cereal, and was toasting some bread. They also reported that Thomas "washed" the dishes. 

Mom Rodgers, you should be proud. 

It's a cool 70 degrees there and they're enjoying a nice breeze. I thought this was especially sweet of them to mention, as their families are back home in the sweltering and humid Texas or South Carolina heat. Hopefully they'll keep this in mind as they select priceless gifts to bring home to their dear wives. Cough, cough, ahem. 

anyways:

To quote from their email:

"TUESDAY AUGUST 10 -
We did arrive safley in Goroka around 5:15 local time yesterday evening. Everything went

well getting here. No major problems. Actually our flight out of Sydney was
an hour late leaving Sydney so when we arrived in Port Moresby, our 1hour 35 minute
layover was down to just a half hour. We had to still get our visas to enter
the country, get our bags, go through customs, get boarding passes and board
the plane. Getting the visas took nearly an hour so by the time we got the
bag and heaed to customs our original flight was long over due! But the Lord
was obviously in control. When we entered customs they didn't check any of
our bags and just waived us right through! So were getting ready to head to
the domestic terminal when we were directed to check in at the desk in the
international terminal. We checked in with no issue and the nice lady behind
the desk called in and found out that our plane was still at the gate! So
she hurridly check us in never charging us for any of our baggage!

(insert from Katie - as far as I can tell, so far they have not had to pay 
any checked baggage fees on the trip.) 

We then quickly walked out of the international terminal and began running to the
domestic terminal. We ran nearly the entire way through 2 security points
and all the way to the plane (a lot farther than it sounds!) with the locals
and all the airport workers cheering us on our way! Our one concern was that
we went so fast that our bags wouldn't make it on the flight. When we
arrived in Goroka we stepped off of the plane to a cool 70 degree temprature and
I saw both of our bags sitting on the luggage cart beside the plane! The
Lord truly is good. 

We fly out this morning (Tuesday in PNG, Monday evening in the States) 
to Noumani and then drive over to Kiari.

The Skid Loader (one of the two pieces of heavy equipment the brothers planned to use) 

is completely down and will not be usable at all during this trip. 

Please pray that we will accomplish as much as possible over the next few weeks."

Also, the guys mentioned that their flight to Neumani today is their "rundown" flight - 

you know, the type of plane where you board and ask "is that duct tape?" :) 

We all appreciate your prayers for their safety!