Travelogue 1-10 Off to China

Travelogue #1-10

Dateline: Seale, Alabama; February 22, 2010--It is almost that time again. In the words of Willie Nelson, I will soon be, “On the road again, just can’t wait to be on the road again.” And I can’t. But just getting ready has been an adventure in faith. And as I write this travelogue a mere 24 hours from the time I will be flying out of Atlanta, the adventure continues. That takes my mind to Psalm 139:9,10. “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
Tomorrow I am to leave for China, but there is one caveat; to go there you must have a visa and a passport. I have neither, but I am still packing. It is so exciting living life at the edge. My passport and visa applications (one for China, one for Russia) were duly sent to Washington, DC, a few weeks ago. It took a long time to receive the invitation letter from China and Russia. If you have heard about weather conditions in our nation’s capital, you know that snow shut them down for about a week. Now, I work my visas through the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, who have been most helpful, and still are. Once all the applications were sent in, I received a call from China casking me to fly to Beijing rather than Shenzhen and to come a few days later. But the tickets were already purchased for February 17. Atlanta to LA on Delta, LA to Shenzhen on China Southern. That came to $1013.62. Now I had to change the ticket an change always costs money.
The ATL to LAX on the 17th ticket cost $149.70 and it would cost $150 to change it. So I had to book a whole new ticket but this one cost just $99.70. The China Southern ticket cost $863.92 for the 17th and also cost $150 to change but the new ticket was only $644.28. Doing the math, you will see the new tickets only cost $743.98, a savings of $269.64 over the original tickets. Factoring in the penalties, I only paid $30.36 extra even with the change.
Another blessing was in store for me too. Had the changes not come, I would have had to leave last week but the passport is still not here, so God has it all under control. Will I have the passport and visa on time? Of course I will, it is just we have to learn to be on God’s time and not our own. NEWS FLASH! Just called the GC; Fed Ex should be here today with the passport and tomorrow I will take the wings of the morning and head for China.
In Beijing we are starting a training course in natural and preventive medicine with governmental approval. It is a great opportunity and I anxiously anticipate our work there. Ever since I was a child listening to Stan Matlock on WLW in Cincinnati, I have had a yen to travel the orient. O, I have been to many places over in that area; Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand; even Hong Kong and Kowloon. But China, the big, mysterious, densely populated land of the Wall, has eluded me all these years. On WLW there was an advertisement for Northwest Orient Airlines which had a jingle that went, “Northwest Orient....Airlines, boooooong.” And from that simple jingle grew a desire to breathe that air, to hear those sounds, to meet those people. Now, at last, I will be flying to PEK, the airport designator for Beijing, formerly know as Peking. Truly God is giving me the desires of my heart.
Friday I went looking for shoes for this trip, something rugged but dressy, high topped but slip on, quality but thrifty. It came down to Durango but they were expensive. But you know what? They are all made in China. Well, Thursday afternoon I hope to buy some Durango high top slip-ons in Beijing. But another blessing there. Someone is sending some herbs, etc. for a TB patient in China and the weight is 15 lbs. That is a lot of weight but now I can leave off carrying a heavy pair of shoes and take the herbs instead. Hey, almost everything is made in China today.
Where all will I be going? You have to understand, I couldn’t make full plans until I knew I had the Chinese and Russian visas. Now I plan to head down under to New Zealand and then over to Australia and then, if it works out, to Lindley, South Africa. Don’t drool yet. As you are leaving this cold “global warming” winter and entering the beauty of spring, I will be experiencing the southern hemisphere winter season. Last July I was in Yzerfontein, South Africa, and was cold most of the time. But “even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
This will be the last travelogue I send out as an email. After this I will post blogs. If you have not yet responded to my blog invite, click on the link below and you will receive my blogs. If you have already responded, you will probably receive this twice as I will test it as Blog 1-10.
God bless you and keep you.

Don Miller

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