Early in the morning our team got up to prepare to leave. We moved our luggages downstair and ate our last breakfast at HOM before departing. The sun was just peeking through the clouds...
As we loaded the van with the luggages the kids started to come out for our final farewell...
There was lots of hugs and tears...
Pastor Kenny saying good bye to his Godchild :)
And we were off to the border. Thankfully the line wasn't very long as we crossed and we made it through rather quickly...
But the mission trip wasn't done yet! God has something else to show us on our way to Budapest. As we were driving toward Budapest, a mercedes behind us kept flashing his beam at our van. Vasya thought maybe something was wrong with the van so he pulled over and check. It turns out the driver behind us needed help getting to Czech Republic through Hungary/Budapest. Vasya was happy to lead the way to Budapest as the Mercedes followed. We stopped a few times for breaks and as they chatted they found out the driver was the head surgeon specializing in bones in their region. He knew the doctors that took care of the HOM kids with bone issues and he also offered to look at those kids himself!! What are the chances?! How awesome is our God!!!
We arrived in Budapest in the early afternoon and after we checked in to our hotel we took a tour of the Castle district...
... Waiting for a few of the ladies at the souvenir shops...
At night we had our traditional team dinner at the chinese restaurant. We decided to try their 6 person combo...
We were surprise by the size of the dish...
Day 17 was the beginning of the epic journey home. After we checked in and got to our gate for our flight from Budapest to Frankfurt we found out our flight was delayed due to a thunderstorm, or atleast that's what we were told. We later found out there was a strike going on at the airport by the air traffic controllers and it may continued the next morning, this got us pretty worried. By the time we reached Frankfurt our layover time was down to 9 min. Eventhough we could see our next flight at the gate the agent won't let us through so we had to find the Luthfansa ticket agent to rebook our flight... As we got to the airline ticket area we found hundreds of people waiting to do the same thing. We took a number, #538, and waited... When we arrived they were serving #413 and we were told it will be about 2 hrs. So we waited and waited... from 2PM to 8PM we waited, we even played a few games. At about 8PM we finally got the see an agent and was rebooked for the next morning at 9:25AM, so a night in Frankfurt it is!
The next morning we found out the strike was averted!! Thank God!! As we waited at our gate we were treated to live Cuban music by a group of travellers!! What a way to start the morning!!!
The team landed back home at 11:25AM and as we headed home in our separate ways we thank God for letting us be part of His work. Seeing Him work in ways we can't imagine from day 1 to the last day. There's still much to do in Ukraine, and we pray we can continue to be part of His work there for many years to come!