Who's brilliant idea was it to ask the foreigners to do it?

Today the leaders of The Salvation Army in the UK are on a one day visit to the Divisional Headquarters in Manchester. They are meeting with all the staff during the day. We were assigned to pick them up at the airport and bring them to the office, probably because we are the ones living the nearest to the airport.

We left early, as we did not really want them to have to wait for us in the airport. On the way to the airport we realised we did not know which of the 3 terminals they were flying into. Called the office and was told terminal 1. Brilliant, have been there and know the way. Parked the car, walked leisurely into the arrival hall – no flight arriving at 9.30 with the code given to us. Called the office again, suddenly saw that plane on the screen for terminal 3! Out again, paid for the parking (£ 1.80 even though we only were there for 5 minutes) and sped forward to the exit. 2 lanes out and both of them blocked by cars, which had not paid before driving to the exit! Time running, panic approaching. Finally the 2 cars get out, cross across the lane in front of another car to get out quickly (have picked up some habits in Latvia). How do you get to terminal 3? Find right exit at the roundabout and we are back on schedule, still time to park the car.

When the TCs (Territorial Commander) comes out we are there, ready, smart, smiling and looking as if we have been there for hours! In the car we quickly get talking, in the front seat we covered my 3 favourite subjects: Natural Church Development, Missional Leadership and football (not a bad start!). On the motorway towards DHQ, which also happens to be the way to Liverpool, we go onto football….and suddenly I realised I had missed the exit and now we were on the way to Leeds! Quick decision, turn of at next junction, but unfortunately it took us onto another motorway, with no opportunity to turn around…called the office on the mobile: We are lost, what way do we go? Finally we found an exit where we could get onto the motorway in the other direction. Very heavy traffic, everything stopping soon! We will never make it to DHQ in time for the interviews, which are on a very tight schedule. At the very last moment we got confirmation from the office to turn of onto another road (it was not legal, but again, I have picked up things in Latvia), still a lot of traffic, but at least we are driving towards Manchester again. The office advised us to head for a certain road, but we decided to stay on the one we had found, which actually ended up bringing us straight to DHQ.

We arrived 30 minutes late and were met by smiles all around! Well, at least we have made an impression on our leaders!

Day has almost gone, we are heading home soon and will not be in the office again before Monday, so hope you can live with having to wait for our next posting till after that.