Never have I ever…
…. Been on a bus for 80 hours
…. Gone 5 out of 7 nights without a bed
…. Pulled so many all nighters, yet still had rest and
stayed pieced together
…. Seen monkeys on the side of the road running
…. Witnessed some of God’s biggest mountains and untouched
creations
…. Done all my grocery shopping in gas station stores for a
week
…. Been greeted with such hospitality
…. Felt the warmth of a country and its people so strongly
…. Felt convicted of so many things at once
…. Heard such rich voices worshiping together
…. Began to realize what needs are and what sharing is
…. Watch God provide and make things happen in the ways he
did
The Journey:
(it’s kinda long…but
Africa is far away…so read the highlights if you want and get the gist…it was
a very, very long set of travel days!)
Well friends, we have finally made it to Malawi, Africa and
holymoley was it a long journey
that was worth it. Here’s pretty much what went down. We left our ministry site
in Moldova to head to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova for a couple days to
debrief with our contacts and explore. From there we caught an overnight bust
to Bucharest, Romania where we met up with our squad and stayed a couple nights
together to say farewell to our old squad leaders and prepare for our travels.
We flew out on the 30th from
Bucharest to start our way to Africa.
We flew to Istanbul, then to Dubai, then
arrived in South Africa where we were supposed to catch a bus to take us up
to Malawi. Well…while in Dubai we found out the bus company canceled on us, so we were on our way to SA with no way
to get to Malawi and no where to go. We got there on a Sunday, which made it
impossible to get hold of bus companies and make plans, but some how, God provided us with a place to stay. A
hostel in the area had a group of 100 people leave a day early, which left room
for our 66 person squad to stay there till we found a bus. It took a couple
days, but we finally found a bus that was willing to drive our large group
through borders and take us to Malawi..which isn’t exactly a vacation destination
or usual stop for people. So we start on our way on the 2nd after a
couple nights of good rest we were all so thankful for. We had joked about the
bus ride being anywhere from 12 to 48 or 50 hours to get us to Malawi, but
really, we had no idea what we were in for. It took us 67 hours to get to Malawi!! What really took us so long
were the border crossings. We quickly found that the Zimbabwe and Mozambique
borders were far more interested in making money and setting us back on our way
in and out of these countries than helping get us on our way. We drove through the night the first night,
arrived at the Zimbabwe border, spent about 5 hours there, drove all day,
arrived at the other side of Zimbabwe, found the border closed for Mozambique,
stayed all night on the bus there, woke up to be in line at 6 and spent the
entire morning till lunch trying to get through, drove to the other side of
Mozambique to find the Malawi border closed, so stayed the night again on the
bus, then woke up and hopped in line again for the Malawi border. I had
always heard Malawi is welcoming and the warmest country in Africa, and I was
relieved to find this true when the border patrol began to crack jokes with us
and helped us pass through the border in just a couple hours, welcoming us all.
Yay, we made it to Malawi! Now, you
may think the travels end there once we are in Malawi, but nope. My team still
had to travel to the far north end of Malawi, so we hopped on one more overnight bus to get us to
where we are now. Our contact had a person waiting for us in Blantyre, where we
caught our last bus, for over a week to greet us and ride with us! Finally, we made it to Mzuzu, where we
were hugged by everyone, had a shower and breakfast waiting for us, and have
been able to rest. Needless to say, it was a long, long, long set of travel
days.
…But, God provided
everything!
-He provided a safety
and protection…as we traveled, at the borders, and as we stayed on the bus
overnight.
-A place to stay and
rest in South Africa.
-A bus…with the exact
number of seats as we had people.
-Patience.
– Got us through the
borders
-The right ministry
contact and location, well worth the fight of a long journey.
-Times of worship and
conversations with squad mates that encouraged and challenged.
-Showed us our basic
needs and how He provides them.
– Energy.
-He even gave me an
extra bonus of an emergency row exit seat with extra legroom and no one around
on a flight which was pretty much awesome and let me rest (sleeping on planes
and buses never goes well), and then sounds odd, but even a broken movie screen
on my seat on a long flight while everyone else’s somehow worked, which made me
just want to sit, listen to podcast, pray, and rest (all much needed) rather
than watch movies all night.
Moral of the story (or part of it).. some things are just
worth the long journey, the fight, and the work to get you there -and trusting
in God to take care of you, provide for you, and that he knows what he’s doing
when he sends you on a week long travel adventure will be worth it and the
lessons God has in store. Even with this long blab of travel day, there are still so many more stories, laughs, and lessons learned from what seemed to be the never ending bus ride.
