I love them, when most people seem to hate them. I say “seem” because usually the facial expressions tell the story of distaste and disgust. I usually find joy in those moments. It’s not that I find pleasure in other people’s pain, but people can be funny when they are ornery. Sometimes I just laugh to myself for no particular reason on travel days.
What I mean by “travel day” is this. It’s those days when you have landed in a country and you are headed to a new ministry host or those days when you finish ministry in one place to head to another. Jesus sometimes does some cool things for me on those days.
For example, at the beginning of this month, I was traveling in Kenya with a team going from Nairobi to a town called Eldoret. Most everyone started their morning 45 minutes before me since my alarm didn’t go off. I ended up having 15 minutes to pack my bags, take down my tent, and eat breakfast before hopping on our van around 5AM that morning. They ended up charging us for seats for our bags…
Once we got to the bus station, we had to wait a couple of hours on the sidewalk since we made plans to miss rush hour traffic. The bus we left in was like riding in luxury compared to the expectation of the African “chicken bus” or a 1980s beat up school bus. That 8-hour leg of the trip was a breeze considering our expectations.
Our arrival in Eldoret welcomed the Lord’s voice when the team’s ministry host showed up wearing an Alabama Crimson Tide hat. Roll Tide. It pretty much made the whole World Race worth it.
Today’s travel day was another thrill since as a squad leader I had the rare privilege of making a travel day on my own. The Crimson-Tide-crown-adorned pastor arranged my departure from Eldoret on my journey to Butere. He told the driver to put me on a bus to Mumias once we got to Bungoma. That driver mistakenly but me on a bus to Busia instead of Mumias. Frankly, it was probably my fault. I should’ve made sure I was in the right van with both of my packs and my guitar. I digress…
Thanks to Windows Phone, Nokia’s offline maps, and Jesus, I caught the mistake before the road diverged to Busia. I got out at a fork in the road where a motorcycle (pikipiki in Swahili) driver told me that it is rare for a van to come by there for Mumias. To make a long story short, I called Jonathan, the team leader I was trying to meet, and his ministry host called me. Luckily I was only about 15 minutes away from where I was supposed to meet him. The pastor along with another squad leader, Kellie, picked me up on none other than Pikipikis. Two drivers, two squad leaders, a pastor, two backpacks and a guitar made the drive into town on TWO pikipikis–motorcycles. Yes…Roll Tide and Amen!
After another bus ride, we did the pikipiki thing again to our final destination. According to the picture below, you have to squint when taking a picture on a pikipiki.
It was a fun day, and I thank the Lord for all the people back home praying for my protection. As a kid I likely understood God as “The Great Landscaper in the Sky” since people often prayed for hedges…of protection. I am now thankful for all that shrubbery.
