The Pilot Wanted To Get Home On Time

Our flight out of Houston left forty-five minutes late, which by missionary travel standards is basically early. Somewhere over the Atlantic, our pilot found the jet stream and decided he had somewhere to be. We landed in Dubai thirty minutes ahead of schedule. It was also, without question, the bumpiest flight I have ever been on in my life.

I do not say that lightly. We have flown into some rough places over the years. This was different. The turbulence came in waves for hours, the kind where you stop reading and just grip the armrest and wait it out.

An Unexpected Compliment for Emirates

I will say this for Emirates: their economy seats are genuinely comfortable. After fifteen hours in the air, I was still surprised by that.

Laura was not as fortunate. She got airsick for the first half of the flight, which on a fifteen hour flight is its own kind of endurance test. She finally settled in and slept hard through the second half, which felt like a fair trade after the first.

We had internet the whole way; so, I got a good bit of work done. I even started on my next book. It is one of my favorite missionary stories, one I have wanted to tell for a long time, and I am finally getting to tell it in my own style. More on that soon. I also heard that Pastor Bob Reno made it safely into London and was already on his way toward Accra, which was good news to get somewhere over the ocean.

Wide Awake in Dubai

We landed, made our way through the airport, and now we are sitting in a lounge in Dubai on some genuinely comfortable chairs, waiting to find out which gate we will need for the next leg. We have already walked most of the terminal, found the mall section of the airport, and both managed a shower before the next flight.

We have a ten-hour flight ahead of us from Dubai to Accra, and I have been doing everything I can to stay awake through the night here so we can actually sleep on that next leg instead of showing up in Ghana running on fumes. It is a strange kind of math, trading sleep now for sleep later, and I am not sure yet whether I did it right.

If you want to follow along as the rest of this trip unfolds, you can always catch it at consfords.com/connect.

We will pick this up again once we make it to Takoradi.