I’ve heard it said that missionaries often find it hard to feel at home and yet quite weirdly can feel at home in airports. Not that airports aren’t stressful, but with the sheer amount of time spent in airports, you can feel more at home in them.

Now don’t get me wrong. That doesn’t mean that missionaries always do airports well. In fact, more time in airports probably just means more opportunities for stories. Stories like arriving at an airport 12 hours too early and with no sleep and no money, needing to walk around the airport, staying upright in-order to just stay awake. 

Or arriving in Cambodia for the first time and handing over $2000 and our passports in the vague hope that we would get visas, that were thankfully granted a week later (that was a long wait). 

Or the time you arrive in Cambodia and leave the airport having forgotten one of your five suitcases. 

Or the time you arrive in a regional airport in Australia after 30 hours of flying, arriving with a tantrumming three year old and you get asked if this is his first time flying as to the reason for his meltdown (he’d already flown close to 10x in his life). He was just exhausted and over it with all the flying. This is also not to mention the amount of times we have all slept at the airport as we await connections. 

Or the time you felt like a cast member from ‘Home Alone 2’ and need to mad dash across an international airport because you’ve been sitting at the wrong gate. That’s a $5000 mistake that I would have regretted. Now, as a result, I check the tickets much more closely now. 

Despite all this experience and how familiar all airports feel, there is nothing better than leaving the airport having finished the trip.