On February 16, I narrowly escaped being stranded in Washington Dulles airport because of the snowstorm that hit the Northeast. I was at George Washington University that weekend for my monthly classes. It had snowed about 4 inches on Friday night, but I was able to get to class and back to the place I was staying without any trouble. More snow was predicted for Saturday night, and even more for Sunday. I called the airline on Saturday and found that although several Sunday morning flights had been already cancelled, mine was still confirmed.

However, when I got up at 3:00 AM Sunday morning to go to the airport and return home it was snowing very hard. I tried calling again at 3:00 AM, but I was put on hold indefinitely. I could wait no longer, so I headed for the airport. On the way, the snow was coming down so hard and had so covered the ground that I was unable to see the road. I had to guide myself by the snow that had been slightly flattened by the few vehicles that had gone before me. Although my windshield wipers were going full blast, the snow falling on the windshield gradually turned into ice and made it more difficult to discern the lower snow where the road was from the higher.

I finally made it to the airport, only to find out that my flight had been cancelled - along with all other Delta flights and practically all other flights. In fact, the other Washington airports had closed. Dulles still had one runway open. I had heard that the worst snow was yet to come, so I knew that if I didn't get out now, I probably wouldn't get out for several days. I resigned myself to a long, lonely wait. At least I had my books with me. When it came my turn to reschedule a flight, I was surprised to hear that an AirTran flight was still planning to leave that morning for Atlanta, and that Delta would transfer me over if I wanted. I was warned that AirTran might cancel at any time, but I decided to give it a try.

I did wonder why AirTran was still planning to take off while apparently no one else was. Did they know what they were doing? When I got to the ticket counter I asked if they were really going to take off, and two ticket agents looked at each other skeptically before they answered, "I think so." When I arrived at the concourse, I heard "Last call for flight 65 to Atlanta" and ran to the gate. There I was actually sitting in the plane, but expecting that any minute the captain would come on and say that the runway had been closed and we would all have to deplane.

We sat there for a long time, and as time went on I had less and less hope of really leaving. The captain would come on occasionally and would often begin with words like "unfortunately." Whenever I heard that, I just knew we would be deplaning. As it turned out, the company they hire to deice the planes was having trouble with their deicing machines. The first one they brought in had mechanical problems. The second one just sat there and no one knew why they didn't use it. A long time later the captain came on again and said, "You won't believe this, but the third deicing machine just caught on fire." We sat there on the plane for four and a half hours wondering if we were really going to leave or not, knowing that the snow was coming down fast and furious, and that they might close the only open runway at any time.

We took off without any problems and I arrived in Atlanta safe and sound. I had missed by connection to Chattanooga, but picked one up later and finally arrived home at 4:00 in the afternoon. Unfortunately, though, my checked bag didn't arrive. Some of my fellow students called me and said they had been unable to get out and were probably going to be there at least until Tuesday. It was so nice to be home. Thank you for your prayers for us. Even though most of you didn't know about this, the Lord often answers beyond what we ask for.

Here are some additional prayer requests and answered prayer:

1. Thanks to the Lord for answered prayer concerning the lacking funds for the leadership training program in Chile.

2. Pray that the Lord will work in the eight young men who are being trained in Chile and not only teach them good doctrine but also develop in them a godly character and the abilities necessary to plant and pastor churches.

3. I will be making a trip to Mexico soon to give a seminar on training leadership.

4. Pray for the pastor MTW trained in Colombia. Javier is doing a wonderful job, and as you know is working under very difficult circumstances in that war torn country.

5. I will be speaking for the next three Sundays about missions in a church here in Chattanooga.

6. Although our monthly support has been stable, we need to boost the total amount in our support account.

Thanks for your prayers.

Gary Waldecker