Angels Standing Guard

Thursday, January 3rd -
We were all ready to go by 7 am this morning. We gave some last hugs to the Jacobs family and to Staci. Then we prayed together and set off for the airport. We couldn't believe how clear the roads were. There were no road blocks and hardly any traffic! We had to go thru two police check points to go into Nairobi but had no difficulties at all! When we got to the park where the rally was supposed to take place there were no people except the riot police and military who were lined up along the sides of the road. Jamie commented that they looked like angels standing guard as we passed thru safely. We arrived at the airport at 9:30 and were so thankful to have the trip we had all feared behind us. We felt God had protected us and before long we would be back home with our families. When we went to the door of the airport we were told we could not enter yet because we were too early. We had to wait outside on the curb until 5:30! Luckily it was a nice day! While we were waiting a reporter from Nairobi Television came and asked us if we would tell on camera why we had come so early to the airport. Desmond Tutu was in Kenya that day so there were clips of him talking as well as other prominent Kenyans and then there was Jamie! We thought it was quite funny! We finally were able to check in and went to eat at the Java House. Unfortunately they were out of everything except hot dogs and tomato and cheese sandwiches! Our flight finally left Nairobi at 2:00am and most of us were asleep before the plane left the runway. Jamie was awake though and could see sparks coming out of the left engine as we took off. The engine quit for a moment and then started up again. We continued on for about 20 minutes then the engine quit for good. When the pilot announced we were returning to Nairobi we all groaned. Many people were trying to get out of Nairobi and we were heading back! When we saw the emergency vehicles lining the runway we understood the gravity of the situation. We were thankful to make a safe landing and then began our 7 hour wait on the plane on the runway. The plane'e engine needed a new part that was going to be flown in from Brussels on the flight arriving at 11:20pm tonight.