We have made it to India! I’m still in disbelief that this is real I’m expecting to wake up from this prolonged and amazing dream, yet I keep pinching myself to check and it’s totally real!
Launch started in Atlanta, GA where we were reunited with our S Squad family for some more training and details for what the next 11 months are going to look like. Our parents were invited as well for their own separate training [such a blessing]. The highlight was having them [&Nana] there for worship. Whether you’re a believer or not, when you have 200 young adults who love God with all of their hearts singing out His praise, you can not deny His presence in the room it is overwhelming and beautiful, and then to add their parents to that… wow! Talk about getting goose God bumps.
Saying goodbye was so hard, my parents are my best friends and the hardest part of accepting this calling God placed on my heart. The crazy part is launch was so packed full of training by the end of the same evening they headed back home it had already felt as if we said goodbye a week ago. I am beyond blessed to have them support and encourage me with so much love in their hearts [for that I will never have thanked them enough].
Another squad mate, Allie Redding, and I were asked to be the S Squad logistics coordinators. How awesome that God would trust us with this! As this journey began on Wednesday January 11th, we got our first run at it. Between the two of us we had to organize how to get 55 people from the hotel to the airport safely and effectively in a timely manner without losing anyone – yikes! Since check out was much earlier than our flight we got to spend a super exciting 9 hours at the Atlanta airport. With being much earlier than check-in we had to stay at the domestic terminal if we wanted access to food before we shuttled over to the international terminal.
I am so glad we God never leaves us to do things alone, there’s no way we would have been able to make any of this go so smoothly if it were just up to us. God blessed our squad immensely with one thing after another. He provided an airport manager, Steve [think of Michelle from Gilmore Girls and you now know Steve] he opened up a conference room for us to place all of our packs in, the large shuttle buses to get us to the international terminal, and Ricky the awesome gentleman who stayed passed his shift just to drive back and forth between domestic and international to make sure we all got there [and an additional trip when items were left at the domestic terminal]. The blessings didn’t stop there, there was absolutely no one at the check-in desk when we arrived so all 6 attendees were able to focus on getting us through the line as quickly as possible. Did you know they weigh your carry on for international flights too??? Lets just say there were more than a few of us who had to make some adjustments. But God’s timing is perfect because as we finished people began to arrive to check in. Security line … no line! We were able to jump in right behind the few people that were there and get right through… after they checked my bag for the converter/adapter [probably not the smartest sentence to leave my mouth when the women checking it for bomb residue asked me what a converter is and I said go ahead and open it so you can see]. The blessings didn’t stop there! The Lord nudged me to talk to the gentleman at the gate desk who said although only half us were zone 1 boarding we could all go in zone 1 [after handicap and children] to take advantage of overhead compartment space!!!
13.5 hours later we arrived in Qatar for a short layover and then we were off to India! As we landed we were woken with a sweet “Welcome to Hyderabad, the local time is 47 minutes past the hour of one in the morning.” Everyone’s bags made it and it was time for the next adventure. We had a 50 passenger bus and needed to fit 57 people plus our large and day packs, but God made it happen! With some triple to a seat, others on the floor, and even a few upfront with the driver. The Lord just poured out blessing after blessing over our squad; including delivering us all safely to our first country! I can’t wait to see what else He has ready us!
I am only $6,617 away from being fully funded!! How great is our God?!
