"The First Day Blues" of International travel

Well, I don't really know where to start other than to ask for a miracle that will allow us to remain here. Let me explain...

The flight was an uneventful 8.5 hours, most of it over the Atlantic. We arrived at London Heathrow airport at 8:30 AM London time, 2:30 AM CST beginning what looked at that point, to be an incredible day. We saw the sun rise over the Atlantic as we began our decent, and hit the ground to a beautiful sunny UK day. Little did we know that would be the last sunshine we would see for 12 hours!!! We were detained at immigrations and quickly became, "illegal aliens" and official detainees of the United Kingdom, thanks to an over efficious immigrations inspector and a change of policy enacted only three months ago. You just will not believe this.

Before I go any further, our prayer is for a miracle that would cause the immigrations office to allow us to stay. Numerous attempts have been made to reach our embassy. If something doesn't change we head home Sunday morning at 9:00 AM. We have been denied entry.

We arrived at the immigrations entry to the airport and, as you know if you have ever traveled internationally, you must present your passport and disclose your reasons for and the extent of your stay. Ten of the thirteen members of our party were allowed in with no issues, but the last three of us were routed to a different inspector who proceeded to interigate us extensiveley as if he could not believe we were coming to a foreign country to offer our services to a minisrty for free. It was almost as if he had been assigned to oppose us and seemed to really enjoy his position of authority over the big American Christian football players.

As the conflict intensified, I produced papers explaining our mission and providing them with contacts with Advancing Native Missions as well as Elam, our place of service. Unfortunately that must have prompted the recollection of the three month old policy that requires all foreign visitors entering Great Brittain for work, voluntary or not, to either have a valid work visa or a letter of sponsorship through a registered agency.

We had neither, mainly because our trip was planned before the policy change occurred and ANM was not made aware of the need to be registered and issue letters of sponsorship. So they proceeded to mug shot and search us and our luggage, finger print and interrigate us while in lockdown under guarded observation. Sounds like fun huh!

Finally, at the seven hour mark of our introduction to British beaurocracy, we were finally informed that we could not stay. Efforts had not been successful in obtaining the necessary documents for our legal entry. And here is the really good part. Their initial solution was to wisk us to a terminal for the next avaiable flight to the U.S. , which would take us to SEATTLE, WASHINGTON where it would be the airline's option as to how we got from there back to Texas!!

I know this is already too long but you just have to hear this.

Of ourse, I protested. bad call Mr. Official. Just so happened it was an immigration official. As I attempted to explain to the assitant who had been sent to deliver the message, just how rediculous that would be to expect of this group, I realized I was making no progress, burned a time-out to speak to the referee. And Praise God for shift change!! The supervisor who had just come on duty actually listened to learn our story. I think his name was Charles.

Charles actually came to us in detention and heard me out. He eventually agreed that Dallas via Seattle and was indeed, "a bad plan". He went to work for us, not at record speed mind you, but he did go to work.

Charles promptly returned...an hour later to inform us we could wait till morning and did not need to see the Great Northwest. He then did something we had not seen all day, he actually volunteered an act of compassion. He said he would allow us to get a hotel if we would promise to return for our departure on Sunday morning. Of course, they kept our passports, and of course it took another 2.5 hours to do the paperwork for our release.

I finally made contact with Mike Twitcell, our ANM rep and we are now staying at Elam where we were suppose to be. Our flight leaves at 9:00 AM, unless we get the miracle. We made it here around 9:30 PM and WOW, what a cool place and incredible people! I so hope God allows us to stay. More about that later.

Now for the good part.

Through it all, these young men were absolutely incredible. Never rude, negative, or disespectfull. Always laughing, complying, and overwhelming these people with their manner and attitude. I am so proud of them. Never a complaint, never a display of anger or frustration, (wish I could say the same for me), they quickly won over every Britt that would pause long enough to speak.

At about the 5 hour mark, just before we were told we had to leave, I was compelled to share what I had planned to share tonight in an evening devotional. I Corinthians 2:14 ; "But praise be to God who continually puts us on display for Christ, and through us, spreads the smell of Him everywhere we go". I just wanted the guys to realize, that if we are forced to leave, He has already, "put us on display", and they had been faithful to "smell up the joint for Jesus"!

We were able to develope an especially sweet bond with Lindsey and Ken, the two security people assigned to us during our confinement. They simply could not resist the guys infectious manners and humor, and were somewhat overwhelmed to see the attitude they took toward the whole matter, throughout it's duration.

As they went off shift just before we got sprung, We had an opportunity to share with them the real reason for the attitudes they saw in us. We were able to share with them, that if we did have to return home in the morning, that God had arranged this whole trip so we could meet and share this with them. We gave them a Tiger Football T shirt and with hugs and blessings, our guys said goodbye. Who knows what seed may have been planted.

Well, around 9:30 we finally got Elam, a stunning 150 year old English hunting manor on 19 acres of the most beautiful European country you can imagine. Just before dark we got the tour. I do hope we get to stay. I will need to describe it to you more later. We met the Pastor, staff, and the leadership of the previous team. Such an incredible group of believers. It would be such a blessing for these guys to get to spend the week with them.

Around 10:00 we were taken to a genuine, authentic English Pub for supper. Not what you think. Here, they are absolutely the best places to eat and anything but the ideas many of us have about the atmosphere and patrons.

Well, it is 1:00 AM Sunday morning here and I have been awake since 6:15 AM Friday morning. It is for that reason I ask you to excuse mispelling and micues, etc... The guys are in London. The staff here believe our miracle will happen, but they want to make sure these guys at least get to see a few sites.

Pray that God's will be accomplished. He never misses and never wastes anything his children go through. Pray that the dozens of attempts today to reach our U.S. Embassy will yield a miraculous phone call or God just changes a heart!

God bless THE U.S.A., and Go Tigers!!

Coach Sartain