We left North Africa on Saturday at 1 am and expected to be in Cyprus by Sunday around 10 am, unfortunately what was already a long travel day got even longer! We originally had an 8 hour layover in Porto, Portugal so a few of us decided to leave the airport and explore a little bit. The city was gorgeous and we had a fun little adventure, got to try some traditional food and walk around taking tons of photos like the traveler I am. But I have to admit that upon being in the city I experienced a terrible culture shock after just leaving a Muslim country. There were no more women in head scarves or full burkas and there were no more male dominated cafes with people giving us strange looks. It was a really strange feeling that I can’t quite describe: in a way I felt more comfortable being in a culture like my own but I also felt really sad that to think back to the women I met back in North Africa that don’t get to experience those freedoms and will likely never even travel outside their country to see what they look like. It was also very shocking to quickly realize how much female nudity/how much more skin European (and American) women show walking down the street. I’m not judging at all but after almost 2 months of barely seeing the skin of Muslim women (ankles, wrists, and eyes mostly) I felt like I had to look away or tell these women to cover up.
Anyhow our flight to Greece was supposed to leave at 11:50 pm got delayed indefinitely and around 2:30 am the airline finally told us it was rescheduled until the following night at 11:50 pm and that there was no hotel or anything they could do for us, so to just come back the next night. So we leave the gate freezing cold and half asleep to make our way back to baggage claim and get our bags to set up for the night in the airport terminal. For a group of 22 tired women I think we handled the situation in good spirits and grace. We made a huge pile of our bags, barricaded them with airport benches, and set up our sleeping pads/bags all around to guard them. After all, this wasn’t our first rodeo; we’ve slept in airports before! Praise the Lord we were able to get some rest and the airline provided plenty of food vouchers for the following day so we did not go hungry! Our flight to Athens took off that night and after another quick 5 hour layover we were finally headed to Cyprus!
So we arrived in Cyprus Monday morning and were picked up by our ministry host which was a huge blessing not having to figure out how to move around on public transport in a new country with our huge bags! We got dropped off at our new housing for the month which is a lovely apartment in a central part of town that is only a 5 minute walk from our ministry host. After getting into our apartment the first thing we all wanted to do was shower and I was so tired that I fell asleep. Luckily they shifted our schedule to start the following day so the est of the evening was spent resting then venturing to the grocery store and to grab dinner. To our pleasant surprise we found that most people here speak English! Tuesday we went to orientation and learned some shocking statistics about the refugee crisis worldwide and about God’s heart for refugees. But more on that and about my first few days of ministry soon…
P.s. Enjoy this picture of the Mediterranean Sea from my run yesterday! 
- Please pray for our team as we begin working with our ministry host Oasis (which supports refugees in Cyprus)
- Pray for me as I will be doing a social media fast to connect on a deeper level with the Lord.
- Please pray for financial provision for Haley and I as we continue to raise support! Since I won’t be on Facebook I would really appreciate if you all would share my blogs and help me raise support in this way <3
Thank you for all your prayers and being my biggest supporters! I couldn’t do this without your love and support. Please let me know how I can be interceding for you in prayer this month!
