This tigger has bounced into Lisbon...

.... and is happy to report that she´s is still bouncing in a good way....woohoo...at some points I literally mean bounced into Lisbon...ok let me explain...this is what the last 24 hours has been like...flew out of Saskatoon as per scheduled(only flight that left on time, I might add) barely landed in TO at 16:30 (Tuesday Aug 4th), ok I´m exaggerating a biy, but it was lightning and we were grounded on the tarmac for over 3 hours because the ground crews were not allowed out on the tarmac due to the lightning! I must admit I was happy to be on the ground longer than I was scheduled since the sky was looking omnious. I was a little concerned about my connection...but that was a bit"duh" on my part...if they were grounding arriving flights then flights weren´t leaving either!

While on the tarmac in the plane, I called my friend Karen at Sick Kids,and she also informed me that there were tornado warnings in Guelph so I was even more happy to be on the ground! A little update on Alysha(Karen & Mark´s daughter at Sick Kids) I had a lovely chat with her, she was watching tv and feeling pretty good. Her parents inform me that her white blood cell counts steadily improve, the docs are carefully monitoring her organs as there have been some issues most recently with her liver. Thanks to all who have been praying,for them, keep remembering them as the Spirit leads you.

Anyway, back to my last 24 hours, when we finally got off the plane in TO, it was a rather interesting experience atmosphere at Pearson, glad I wasn´t working there...it was rather chaotic...my flight was leaving within the hour...so I started making my way to the gate...I just want to note here that between TO and Frankfurt I have had my run for the day... so ladies I didn´t miss Tuesday run, I just did it by just walking rather briskly to my gates at two International airports in our world! After a good jaunt at Pearson, I finally got to my gate and met this very HOT man in line...he intensely works out at some new fad in TO. I forget what it´s called but noticed the name of something on his t-shirt and asked him about it, it´s like really intense circuit training...I proceeded to tell him, trying, of course, my best to impress him, about my triathalons(ok mini tri) and 10kms runs...it was fun! Unfortunately we didn´t sit anywhere near each other so that was the last I saw of him! I´m sure he wasn´t too disappointed...nor was I as he kind of came across like he knew he was HOT which kinda spoils things! All this to say, finally made it on the flight and away we bounced and this is where we literally bounced, I was not a very happy tigger...I´m thankful I hardly ate anything cause it probably would have bounced right out of my system...when the plane dropped suddenly and everyone on board let out a nervous noise...is when my crying out(of course, in my heart not out loud) to the Lord bumped up a notch or two! Needless to say I didn´t really enjoy my meal on the plance. A couple of ways the Lord kept me sane was knowing that the weather forecast for Frankfurt was very good and he seated me next to a South Asian believer from Mississauga, Sam, who is doing his Masters in Biomedical Engineering and is involved with Campus for Christ. We had lovely chats throughout the flight...God bless you Sam...hope you made it to India ok... The flight eventually calmed down in terms of the turbulence...but we did have a medical emergency which delayed things even further at Frankfurt as Paramedics came on the flight to take the passenger off, before any of us could leave the aircraft. That was a first for me! One of the docs who helped was from Liberia now practicing in USA and he filled us in a bit on the status of the patient, who was now stable,on the bus ride from the plane to the airport!

Needless to say I totally missed my connection to Lisbon, but this Star Alliance thing is amazing...they had me on the next available flight and I didn´t even lose my luggage! I boarded at 13:30 on TAP Airlines in Frankfurt(first time flying TAP) Wed, August 5th sat between two very interesting gentlemen, one is a Dutch banker working in London, very interesting Bloake, and the other worked in Saudi Arabia and knew very little English so limited conversation took place. The flight was relatively smooth...there was a little bouncing...but I was so glad to know that the Dutch man(who I might add, was rather hot as well) hated flying too!

And voila here I am in Lisbon, Portugal, I´ve wanted to come here since 1999, 10 years later...finally I´ve arrived and it is beautiful...the sun is shining, the palm trees are waving a bit in the breeze, there are beaches after beaches and lots of people on the beaches...Luis Martens picked me up from the airport and we had a lovely drive to Abla... which i might add is a wonderful place to stay...Karla McMurray greeted me and took me to my room and filled me in on everything here and shared a bit of her journey with Jesus with me which was very precious and my room is wonderful...once I figure out how to put pictures on this thing you too can see just how wonderful it is....well enough of this blogging...I have my new bikini on and am going to sit by the pool and read a book for a while as the sun will be going down soon...and off to the market tomorrow...thanks for all your prayers...I couldn´t have remained sane otherwise...the verse that the Holy Spirit kept bringing to mind was the one in Timothy which emphasizes the truth that God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power, love and sound mind...thanks again... more later...love ya...Anj