For those who have been supporting and praying for the 2024 Summer Guatemala team, it is important to know two things:

First, the team from Grace Community Church that left Iowa as planned on Saturday, July 20, never reached Guatemala, but everyone on the team is now home and safe.

Second, all of the money that was raised for this trip to help build homes, provide wheelchairs, and minister to families in Guatemala will still be used for those efforts in the next week. Those are the facts. Now for the story.

---

On Friday morning, July 19, 2024, a software update was introduced to a number of digital systems that are used for managing airline travel, employee management, and many other activities and industries. That software update caused multiple systems to crash, resulting in significant travel delays and problems across the globe. By Friday evening, it appeared that most systems were working again. The travel agency that Grace uses to book flights for missions trips believed it was likely that our flight would still leave on time. When our team arrived at the airport at 4:30 am for our 6:00 am departure, our flight was listed as “on time.”

Then things started to fall apart. 

First, our group of twenty travelers almost didn’t get our bags checked in on time. This wasn’t necessarily a computer system issue, but it was a problem. We thought for sure we would miss our first flight and stress levels were starting to rise. When our flight was delayed for the first time due to conflicts in Atlanta - our first scheduled stop - we were all actually relieved because it meant we would have time to get on the plane. But then the second delay happened. And then the third. We sat in the plane on the runway from 6am to 8am waiting to take off. Then, suddenly, we were cleared for take off and got underway. The flight to Atlanta was smooth and quick. We arrived about two hours later, 11am local time. Then for the next sixteen hours, we did everything we could to leave. 

Before we even reached the gate we knew that we had missed our connecting flight to Guatemala. We got off the plane and immediately got in line at the Delta service desk to find out about options for rescheduling our flight. This was the first pass through the line. We waited about two and a half hours to talk to the service representatives. We were told then that it would be three to four days before our group of 20 could get another flight to Guatemala. It was the first time we began to appreciate the scope of the situation. 

We know now that Atlanta is one of, if not the busiest airports in the world. And we know that 80% of air traffic through Atlanta is managed by Delta - our carrier for this trip. They weren’t just responsible for finding us new flights. They were trying to manage new travel itineraries for a sizable portion of all travelers in the world that weekend! Because of that, this is a good place to mention that the Delta employees we spoke to were always patient and courteous. They were given an impossible task and almost no help, and yet they were kind to the many thousands of people they spoke to. Praise the Lord for that provision, and may He bless their faithfulness. If the Delta service team in Atlanta hadn’t been patient and kind, who knows how much worse everything could have been.

Once we learned that we would have to wait three or four days just to fly out of Atlanta, we began researching other options. We called our travel agents multiple times. We called Delta’s help lines multiple times. We used online chat tools. We waited in the service line two more times for about two hours each time. We talked to vehicle rental companies. We talked to other airlines. Between about 2pm and 7pm we did everything we knew how to do to arrange an alternative method of transportation to Guatemala. 

Our best possible solution involved renting vans in Atlanta, driving the team to Miami, and sending people from Miami to Guatemala on three separate flights. This plan would have required us to leave two team members behind to return the vans to Atlanta. And there was no guarantee the flights from Miami to Guatemala wouldn’t be delayed. Despite those challenges, we were ready to take that option until we learned that there was no way to retrieve our luggage. Not only did this mean losing access to clothes and personal items. It also meant we would have all of the supplies we had gathered for the families we were planning to serve in Guatemala. At this point we recognized that there was no good option to get our team to Guatemala, and got in the service line one more time to try and get a flight back home. 

The last wait in the service line was the longest. At this point, travelers had been piling up at the Atlanta airport for almost two days. We waited in line from about 7pm to 10pm just to get our flight changed to a Cedar Rapids destination. The flight was scheduled for a 12:50 am departure. It looked like we were headed home. Until that flight was delayed. Delayed again. And then finally the flight to Cedar Rapids was canceled at about 2am. We were stuck again in Atlanta.

One member of our group immediately sought out another service line. He was able to find a helpful employee that could reschedule our flight to Tuesday the 23rd at 8pm - this would have meant waiting in Atlanta two more days. We elected to try and drive home instead. Because we had explored ground transportation options earlier in the day, we knew that rental car options were few and far between. There were no large vans available to take our group in one or two vehicles. Bus services like Greyhound were sold out. Finally, at 3am, we found a service that had four, five-person vehicles, available in Atlanta. We reserved the vehicles online, and then got everyone moved across the airport to the rental station to pick up the vehicles.

By 7am we had all twenty people packed into four cars and were driving out of Atlanta. We had breakfast at a Buccee’s in Georgia. We drove through Nashville and stopped for lunch in Kentucky. Most of us found supper somewhere near St. Louis. And at 10pm, all of the rental cars were returned and our trip was complete. God got us safely home.

As I said at the beginning, the money raised for this trip is still being used to bless families and individuals in Guatemala. Our partners, Bethel Ministries, will be recruiting local help to fill in the gaps left by our team not being in the country. But the houses will still be built. Wheelchairs will be distributed. Food and Bibles and clothes will still be given to those in need. The gospel will be shared with men, women, and children who need Jesus. 

Our team is already learning many lessons, too, about how God is redeeming this missed opportunity. We have seen His Spirit bless us in so many ways. Ask anyone who went on the trip about the way He provided for us and you’ll hear stories about God-given patience, stamina, available rental cars, much-needed blankets, kind airline employees, and more. God is good, and He is doing good through this. 

It is always our goal to have people from Grace go to Guatemala to minister to the people there. If we are going to send money and resources, we want to send people, too, for a personal connection and partnership in the gospel. But this time, even though the people didn’t get to go, we are confident that the ministry will go forward. You can expect to see pictures of the homes and families that received them soon. Our friends at Bethel are headed to the worksites right now to bring Jesus to those who need Him. Thank you for the prayers. Thank you for the monetary support. We will be reporting back to you to tell you how God continues to work for our good and His glory.

- Pastor Josh