Our national church president, Vicente Ticona, was given a visa by the US Consulate in La Paz that would allow him to come up to the general conference and represent the Bolivian church. As he would be flying by himself I thought it might be best if I met him in Miami and helped him get from there to Minneapolis. He seemed to like that idea. I tried to carefully explain to him what to expect both at the airport in La Paz as well as the airport in Miami. I told him about having to go through immigration in Miami and then through customs. I explained that I could not be back there with him but would wait right outside the door for him. If he did not see me he was to wait for me. I would be there.
The day before he was to arrive in Miami, I flew south. After waiting most of the next day it was finally ready for his flight to arrive. So down to the customs waiting area I went. I was pleasantly surprised to see a friend, Mike, who was waiting there for his own family to arrive. But I didn't see Vicente. Soon passengers were coming out the door and lo and behold there was another friend, David, but I didn't see Vicente. I saw lots of passengers but no Vicente. By now I was beginning to be a bit worried. Had something happened? Had he not made the flight? I called his wife in Bolivia to make sure he had left. He had. But I never saw him and he obviously was not waiting outside the door as I had suggested that he should do. To make a long story short, I never did find him and I missed my flight back to Minneapolis. Now, if I had had the presence of mind to think that he might not have done what I told him, I would have gone to the gate for the Minneapolis flight to check on him. But I didn't. I did not expect him to leave the customs area. But he did. We managed to miss each other and he went on down to the gate and boarded the flight for Minneapolis, leaving me behind. To put salt into the wound, not only did he board the plane but he was given a first class seat. In fact he was given a first class seat all the way from La Paz. Why or how I'll never know! I purchased his ticket. It was definitely for the back of the bus. I have never flown first class to or from Bolivia. But I won't hold that against him.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that I had to spend an extra night and day in the Miami airport. When I arrived back in Minneapolis, did I hear, Welcome back. We're glad you are ok. Sorry about what happened. No, I most definitely did not. Instead I heard things like, How was Miami. So you decided to come home. Did you enjoy your vacation in Miami? All said in a less than sympathetic tone. When I suggested that I would soon be returning to Bolivia and wouldn't have to hear such things anymore and wouldn't be back until they had all forgotten it, I was asured that they wouldn't and so I wouldn't. O well.
But I am a big boy. I can still hold my head up high. But should you happen to hear any snide remarks about my navigational abilities, well at least you now know my side, the true side, of the story.
When I did finally catch up with Vicente we had a good two weeks before the general conference in which we did some touring and visited, among other places
The Minnestoa State Capitol
The South Sioux City Evangelical Church
Lake Superior at Duluth, Minnesota
And Wadena, Minnesota where we met with some of the church people and toured the tornado damage.
All in all it was a good time with Vicente and I think that God's blessed his ministry. He is proving to be a good president for the church, perhaps more about that later.
Well, I will end this for now. I need to go to the drug store, that is, if I can find it.
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