Philippines: Fly Again

During my stay in France, my new Filipino friend Alex tried to call me to my handphone, but never got to me. Of course he failed, for I had kept it off during one month there. After I had come back to Malaysia in mid-June, we managed to contact each other again via yahoo messenger.

He had postponed his holiday to his home country to September, the Muslims' fasting month where the hotel business dropped generally, instead of last May as he had mentioned to me in Bahrain.

He was going to celebrate his birthday on 14 September with his family in the Philippines. He asked me if I could share this joy. I checked the calendar. It was also the Mid-Autumn festival. The idea of blowing candles on a friend's birthday cake in a foreign country sounded more interesting than lighting paper lanterns in my own house.

Before his invitation, I had the intention of going for a mission trip in Thailand organized by my church in August. Due to the lack of positive response, it was cancelled. Now I was thinking of going to the Philippines alone as a solitary missionary. If that was God's will.

Before taking any decisions, I had two things to look into: my availability and budget.

I began to surf the internet for the air ticket. Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia were both having promotions. After comparing the departure and arrival times, I decided to fly with the low-cost air company.

When I told Alex that I had purchased my online ticket, I saw in the webcam that his eyes were filled with tears.

On 12 Septembre, I was flying again to fellowship with my brother in Christ.