We are officially headed to South Africa! Earlier today we checked out from our hotel in Chicago and now we’re hanging out at the airport. Here’s the scoop on the next couple days of travel:
Sat 9/8
7:50 pm – Depart Chicago to JFK (Jet Blue 918)
11:00 pm – Arrive in New York and have an overnight layover.
Sun 9/9
3:55 pm – Depart JFK to Atlanta (Delta 2143)
6:35 pm – Arrive in Atlanta and race to find our next gate
7:35 pm – Depart Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa (Delta 200)
(Almost 9,000 miles of Delta SkyMiles rewards!)
Mon 9/10
5:25 pm – Arrive in Johannesburg (Finally)
After this, our squad is spending the night in Johannesburg to recover before heading out to our ministry locations on Tuesday morning.
Originally our route was advertised as Zimbabwe or Botswana during the first month, but Zambia and South Africa ended up in the mix as well. Some teams will be working with rural communities in the African bush and others will be in cities. Some will have a 16-hour bus ride afterward, with multiple border crossings.
Our team is going to stay near Johannesburg and work with a soccer ministry called Soccer 4 Children. There probably won’t be any soccer camps at the time, but we’ll be painting the facilities and helping them with whatever else is needed. We are also going to be with three other teams from our squad and have a lot of freedom during the month to find other ways we can serve in the city. I'm excited to see what will happen.
I will try to keep you all updated during the month, but please keep our team (J159) in your prayers. A lot can happen and I know a lot of growth will come out of it as well.
Africa, here we come.
