THE LAST DAY AND THE LONGEST DAY!

MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2011
On our last day in the Philippines on this campaign, we had a number of items we wanted to take care of and get some rest before the flights home on Tuesday. After breakfast on Monday morning we visited with Susan, Celine and Benny at the resort until about 10 AM. We discussed this trip made some plans for the future trips. At about 10 AM Celine and Benny took Chris and I to Magic Mall where we did a little shopping in the market in Urdaneta and in the Magic Mall. We also picked up the communion trays for the Pao church of Christ that Trenton bought them to strengthen them. They will be delivered before Sunday to them. We love that congregation and look forward to seeing them again soon!
After that Chris and I went to Arnold's barber shop and salon to get a haircut. Enough of the comments about the easiest money the barbers would make all day...we already made those remarks. But not only is it a great haircut but it Leon the barber gave me about a 10 minute back massage that convinced me that on my next trip to the Philippines, my first stop will be at the barber shop for a cut and massage! I tried to get him to move to Trenton! :)
After the haircuts we had invited all the workers to the Food Court at the mall for a lunch as our treat and tell them thanks for all the good works and goodbye. We had about 25 show up and we had a wonderful time visiting and then the hard part of goodbyes. This a a great group of Christians in eastern Pangisinan that we have truly grown even closer to and met so many new brothers and sisters!
After the visits and goodbyes, we returned to Lisland Resort to have a meeting. Before our meeting at 4 Brenda showed up with Arlan who had been baptized Sunday night after a study with Chris and another teacher, Adonnis. We had a wonderful visit with them. It is so encouraging to see folks like Brenda who are focusing leading her colleagues at the school to Christ.
After that we had our meeting with Benny, Celine and Susan and brother Tamicala, who was a teacher and director of Philippine Bible College for over 40 years. He now focuses, in semi-retirement, on developing church leadership. It was a very informative meeting and he was gracious to share a number of ideas with us to help us in our planning for our work with the churches in eastern Pang.
At 6 PM Chris had a meeting with Susan to cover some final issues before we headed out. At about 8:00 PM Arnold, Dana, Dinah, Dale and Irish came in and Benny then came in and we met with them about some future plans and dreams and to help Chris and I with some info about the area of Pangisinan.
We finished up about 10 PM and said goodbyes in the parking lot of the Lisland Resort and headed to our cabanas to get packed up and ready for a 2 AM wake up call. Before going to the room, I totaled out our bill and checked out!
TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2011
I got in and got my stuff packed and ready at about 12:30 AM or so and laid down for about 1 1/2 hours before the phone rang. I got a quick shower and closed up the suitcases and head Chris rolling his down the brick sidewalk beside my cabana. Susan, Celine, Richard (Chat), Jake and Eli were with Carlos, our driver in the van. We got rolling a few minutes before 3 AM PhST (3 PM Monday in Trenton) and headed to Manila and NAIA Airport. The trip was pretty quiet and uneventful as everybody except Carlos and Celine, who had 'keep the driver awake' duty slept. We did make two stops, one for panasal, little Philippine biscuits that are great and then coffee at 7-11.
We arrived on the north side of Manila in about 3 hours which with the normal traffic means you still have about 2 hours to go. Last Friday started Holy Week in the Philippines when many people are off work and anybody in Manila that can heads for the beach or Baguio and the mountains. It was eerie in Mania as we drove through in about 40 minutes. It was almost like a ghost twn, comparatively.  We got to the NAIA at about 7:30 AM and said our goodbyes to this special group and then went in and got through security and found a seat and waited for our 12:40 PM flight. After the wait, we got in line and checked in and heard those dreaded words, "Mr. Walker and Mr. Gerber, can you wait over here?"
We found out we had tickets on Korean Air to Manila but then our flight to Atlanta was cancelled and we would have to wait in Seoul until 10:30 AM KST Wednesday to get home. When we told her that wouldn't work, she went to work and got supervisors involved and eventually we got tickets to LAX from Seoul and a long delay there but we would be on our way home. Long and short they gave us emergency exits seats with no one in front of us which was great for that flight.
When we got to Incheon/Seoul, the representative from KAL met us and started working us through the process. After a little negotiation, we had been assigned seats to, not Atlanta but Seattle. We would have a 11 hour layover but KAL would put us up at the Airport Hilton for the day and give us tickets for dinner. This turned out to be great. I went to my room and crashed for about 3 1/2 hours after talking to Jamie, the girls and Dad and then took a shower and shaved! Didn't have a clean shirt so I now have a green Seattle T-shirt--and it really smells and feels better!
We had a good dinner and took the shuttle back to the Sea-Tac Airport and now are waiting at our gate for the red-eye which lands in ATL at 6:35 AM EDT on Wednesday. Our Tuesday has already been 35 hours long and will really be glad to get on Delta flight 898 and head to the east. We are slated to leave ATL at 8:30 AM EDT and be in Chattanooga at 9:30! Will wrap up after we get there. Time to get on the plane! It is 10:15 PM PDT on Tuesday night and our flight leaves in 30 minutes!