Still in Kazakhstan...

Well, I ended the last entry with: "Lord willing we will be on a plane to Germany in about 24 hours." I guess the Lord was not willing. Despite getting on a plane at 1:30 this morning and saying goodbye to all our friends in Almaty... 7 hours later we are still in Kazakhstan.

Our flight was almost empty leaving Almaty, but like last year the plan was to stop in the capital city, Astana, and pick up some more passengers on the way to Frankfurt. When we were landing in Astana the cabin lights went out all of the sudden, but otherwise it was a normal landing. But as soon as they told us that they wanted us all to get off the plane so they could run some "diagnostics" on the electrical system, I knew we might be in for a little adventure.

Sure enough, they ended up canceling our flight to Frankfurt and it looks like we will be here in Astana the whole day. After about 3.6 hours at the airport, Lufthansa put us all in taxis and brought us to the InterContinental hotel in Astana. It is a super nice hotel... we're all in culture shock looking at the lavishness that has been so foreign to us for the past 3 weeks. It is ironic that we are still in Kazakhstan and experiencing such a dichotomy. I think God is trying to teach us something, so please pray that we will continue to seek Him and grow in likeness to Him.

We are very thankful to God that He has protected us thus far and that we are safe despite a malfunctioning plane and the craziest taxi drivers I have ever experienced.

We just finished a time of prayer and now we're going to try and get some rest. Thank you all for your continued support. It's not over, yet.

Slava Bogu,
Justin & the Team