Ukraine 2010-Mission Trip

Deanna Minson, my pastor's wife and friend, was given a "mission trip" as a Christmas gift from her husband Mitch, our pastor. He asked if I would like to accompany her and I found myself preparing for my first overseas mission trip myself. We would be attending a small kids camp and doing a vacation bible school program with North Monroe Baptist Church and a church from Birmingham, Alabama. Deanna and I were in charge of crafts. Our mission trip to a tiny village in Ukraine outside of Lugansk started off with more difficulty than we could have imagined. We were to board a flight in Monroe, LA and fly to Memphis, Tennessee to catch our international flight. When we arrived at the airport, we learned that the flight we were to catch had been delayed several hours coming from Atlanta. This would mean that we would miss our international connection. After a lengthy conversation with Delta Airlines by phone, we were told that if we could make it to Memphis an hour before the flight, we would be able to retain our itinerary. Danny made arrangements to use the Terral Riverservice plane and we arrived at the airport over an hour before the flight. We were so excited until we stood in the ticket line for 30 minutes and then were chastised for having paper tickets that were issued to us by Expedia. In addition to that, we were told that we were 9 minutes too late to check our luggage for an international flight even though the flight wasn't leaving for another hour. We then stood in line at a different counter for 2 hours while Delta tried to figure out the paper ticket problem and rebook our flights for the next day. We knew that the last leg of our flight, from Kiev to Lugansk, would be an issue because it was not a Delta airline and Expedia refused to try to help us with the change in the tickets. Delta put us up in a hotel for the night and gave us vouchers for a light meal. Deanna got sick in the night and we never really determined if it was nerves or a stomach bug that had been going around Lake Providence before we left. Regardless, it was a pretty sleepless night for both of us.