Day 1: In Transit...

My long awaited trip began today.

Woke up early...4AM to wash and get dressed, then pray with Sunny. I wanted to get to the airport by around 5:30AM for an 8AM flight.

Why?

Because I wanted to confirm that my pre-reserved seat was one with a power outlet, and if it wasn't I'd hopefully have enough time to get it changed. Apparently they recently upgraded, and so every 2 seats share a power outlet.

After Checking-In, Sunny and I went off to have a bit of a bite to eat...last meal together for quite some time...

She had bibimbab and me...I had a meat pie...hehe




Anyways, I went in through Customs and Immigration around 7 since Sunny had to go then to make it to work on time. No problems through Customs or Immigration...then onto the plane.

My seat...35B which is an aisle seat just in line with the leading edge of the wing. So I got my noise-cancelling headphones out of my backpack then stowed in the overhead storage area. My laptop bag, I put under the seat in front of me so I could get to it quickly. :)




We were delayed a bit because some connecting flight didn't make it on time and we had to wait for those passengers, but soon enough, we were taxi-ing through to the runway to take-off. I was sitting next to an old Japanese lady who was heading over to Japan to visit some friends. Her English was remarkably good! Actually, we got to talking because of my cough! I've got this wretched cough that's been hanging around for several months now, and just won't leave me alone! Being in the dry, air-conditioned air didn't help, and I coughed a few times. She asked me if I had a cold. I explained my coughing situation and she tells me she has a similar thing too, then coughed at the end of her sentence just to prove it!

She then reached into her handbag and pulled out some cough lollies and gave me a handful. Nice lady. :)

By this stage, I was mentally praying about how I could speak to her about Christ.

Anyways, we took off without incident, and around 10 minutes into the flight, I got out my laptop computer, plugged it in, and powered it up.

Lo and behold!

There was a wireless access point available and I was connected up. I started up Firefox (browser of choice...I mean why would you use Internet Explorer? Even IE7? hehe), and logged in with my account details that I'd made a few weeks before. And as simple as that, I was online!




My MSN tray icon started flickering between the grey and green to indicate it was hooking up. So I got my emails, replied to the ones that needed attention, looked at all my usual websites, and chatted on MSN.

I'd asked Sunny to be online especially today, so that i could chat with her. I wanted to webcam with her too, but unfortunately, her workplace network didn't allow that...hehe

But, I chatted with quite a few people, most of whom were initially confused as to why I was online.

"Steve...? Weren't you meant to leave today...???"

I also webcammed with a few as well. :)

Anyways, all up, I was online for about 6 of the 10 hours. The rest I was reading a book. I didn't watch either of the movies that were on...the first because it was such a lame Korean movie about a horse...Sugar Lump or something. And the second, which was Lake House, I didn't watch because I want to watch it with Sunny...hehe

Through all this, I was very much aware of the lady sitting next to me. I was wondering how we could start talking about Christ. She slept through most of the flight, but was awake for the meals, so after lunch, I grabbed my chance. I asked her how long she'd lived in Australia because her English was excellent. 40 years!!! So I asked her how hard it was living in Australia in those days...especially as she was Japanese and all. Yes, it was hard, but she managed. And she told me that now, she loves Australia and wouldn't live anywhere else!

So I asked her about her kids...she had one son who is a doctor, but did an MBA after his medical degree and is now working at a pharmaceutical company.

Of course, after that, it's just natural that she ask me what I do. I explained I was a minister, and we started talking about God, religions, and faith.

She didn't not believe in a god, she said, but she didn't really think about it much. And so for about an hour after lunch, we had a good chat talking about Christianity. I explained what I was doing, and I invited her to church with me once she was back in Sydney. We exchanged contact details, so I'll give her a call once I'm back. :)

Hopefully, she'll be open to giving Christianity a try.

One last thing, as we were coming in to land at Incheon, she looked out the window at the sunset which was throwing out a blaze of deep and vibrant pinkish/purple across the horizon. With a smile on her face, she turned to me and said, "When you see things like this, how can you not believe in God?"

That was really encouraging. Hopefully, the God she speaks of is the same God Christians worship and adore. :)

So we landed in Incheon, and since I'm transitting through to Los Angeles, I'm actually staying in the transit area until my flight tomorrow at 3pm. No, not just sitting around in front of some gate, but in the Transit Hotel in the airport. It's not bad...cosy... :)




After checking in, I went downstairs to get some dinner into me.




And now here I sit, writing this while chatting with a some loved ones.

Once this is done, I'm off! SLEEP! :)