We’re back in PNG!
It was an emotional journey, but we made it on 4 flights and we’re in Mt Hagen, where MAF’s HQ is, and where we’ll spend the next 2 weeks before we return to our home in Telefomin. Thank you so much to everyone who spotted our urgent call for prayer, God answered, we made it all the way with all 7 of our suitcases!!!
If you’d like to know the stress we went through to get back, he’s the story… Our journeys around the world are not usually as emotional as this.
When we tried to check-in in Calgary on Saturday afternoon, we were told there was no baggage agreement between Air Canada and Air Niugini, which meant that our luggage could only be checked as far as Sydney. We would have to clear customs in Sydney in order to collect our baggage then check-in for our Air Niugini flight from Sydney to Port Moresby, the capital of PNG. In order to clear customs, we would both need a Visa for Australia which we didn’t have. They would not allow us to check-in without a Visa for Australia. We immediately got online and applied for a Visa for Shiv, but the email said it could take up to 2 working days for the permission for the Visa to come through. When we tried to apply for a Visa for Ryan, the Australian Government website would not allow him to apply at all. We called our travel agent in Australia and the Australian embassy in Canada, and anyone else we could think of who might be able to help, but as it was the weekend we struggled to get to through. We did, however, get Shiv’s Australia Visa through email really fast, which was a huge blessing!
We spoke with the Air Canada staff, discussing various options, and eventually (after speaking with 4 different people) managed to convince them to put all 7 suitcases under Shiv’s name so she could clear customs in Sydney and claim them all. We were also super grateful that they did not charge us for 7 suitcases against one person as that would cost us 5 excess bags, not 3, which would have been a lot more money! (Another blessing!) We were grateful for this option, but we thought this would be rather risky as Shiv would have to pass through customs, collect 7 bags, check-in all 7 bags and get to the gate, all within 3.5 hours, providing the flight arrived on time!?
Eventually, almost 3 hours after arriving at Calgary airport, we had all 7 bags checked in to Sydney. We were frazzled from the stress of not knowing if we would make this flight and coming close to cancelling the whole journey, but we had Boarding passes which would get us to Australia, which was a huge relief! We had hoped to spend that time sharing one last meal with Ryan’s parents at the airport, but sadly there was no time left. We said a teary goodbye to Ryan’s parents, went through security and straight to our gate, still with time to spare as our flight was delayed and we had arrived 4 hours before check-in.
When we got to Vancouver, we saw a message from a Canadian friend in PNG who said you needed to download an App in order to apply for an Australian Visa, this is new and our travel agent in Australia did not even know this. We downloaded the App and, after a few attempts on both of our phones, we managed to submit an application for Ryan’s Visa and we prayed it would get approved before we reached Australia. Amazingly, the approval for his Visa came through within 15 minutes, so we then both has Australian Visas, what an amazing answer to prayer!
We managed to get a little sleep on the 15 hour flight to Sydney and rushed from the airplane to the customs desks. We got through and were thrilled when, one by one, all 7 of our suitcases appeared on the baggage belt. Our flight had landed a little late, so we asked someone if we could jump the baggage inspection queue, but they said 2.5 hours was plenty of time. The queue went down quicker than we imagined and the baggage inspectors waved us through without inspecting our bags, despite us declaring that we had food and other items. That was another massive blessing.
In Sydney Airport, we managed to find the Air Niugini check-in desks which had a mercifully short queue. We checked in and, after some discussion about our baggage allowance from North America, were given a large excess baggage fee, much more than we paid in Canada. This was very disappointing as we had not expected to pay excess again. But we have a credit card and were able to pay and get boarding cards, so we went through security again and proceeded straight to our gate. We got there 20 minutes before boarding, which meant Ryan was able to find a cafe with a nice cup of tea for Shiv to take on board the flight to PNG. Another blessing!
After we landed in Port Moresby, we were queuing to go through customs and were thrilled to see some of our suitcases already on the baggage belt! All 7 suitcases eventually came through, got inspected and cleared customs with very little delay, we were so grateful. We spent Monday night in a hotel and this morning we checked in for our MAF flight and ALL of our luggage came with us to Mt Hagen!
This was a much more emotional journey than usual, but God answered our prayers, we got to PNG as planned with all of our suitcases. Thank you all for joining us in prayer when we faced such big unknowns, we’re so grateful to have people all over the world who care about us.
