I finished my coffee as we pulled up to the airport. My dad was in the front seat, me in the passenger, Mom in the back. I watched the dark streets give way to car-lined avenues and the silent but swift movements of early-morning travelers. My dad guided the car into the parking garage and I felt my heart smile at the knowledge that they were parking, they were coming with me, I’d get another huge hug before I left. We walked into the airport and dropped my bag off curbside. When the Southwest agent asked where I was going, I almost said Bangkok and had to catch myself and say Atlanta, like it was no big deal. People travel there all the time. But it’s my first time there and it’s my first stop on the way to somewhere much farther.
I hugged my parents goodbye by security. It was harder than I expected. I remember how difficult at first it seemed to tell them that I wanted to go, but they were willing to listen and willing to support me. I’m going to miss them a ton, and I know it, so I hugged them tightly and felt homesick for a second before I’d even left. They waited by the end of the line and watched as I went through security.
There was a sweet couple in front of me who asked where I was going and got so excited when I told them. I hit that nervous-excited stage of semi-denial and just looked around me, shocked that I was going, unsure of the motions of flying alone even though I’ve done it so many times. I watched a TSA agent play with the security dog, petting it and rubbing its fur like it was just a big puppy, and all the people in the line around me stopped and smiled. Then I stuck behind the nice couple for a second to go through security, grabbed my Kavu bag and Chacos on the other side, and headed to my gate. Then it was just waiting, and boarding, and the sun was rising over Dallas Love Field.
I love planes. I’m going to be an aerospace engineering major, so I’d hope I would anyways! They just feel so close to the future to me, and I always get this sensation when I fly that my heart’s soaring, too. I always watch takeoff- I hope I’m never so busy that I stop caring to see my feet leave the ground- and the wings of the plane reached up to brush the pale pink of the sunrise sky, and I felt so alive.
I landed in Atlanta a bit later and texted Jesse, one of my teammates, who was arriving around the same time as me. I grabbed my bag at baggage claim and found her, and it was so exciting to see someone I’ve been talking to and waiting to meet for so long! We wandered the airport, got Auntie Anne’s pretzels for lunch (why not) and soon Ashlyn joined us! More and more people from our team started to show up as we found ourselves at tables and in locations around the airport, chatting and getting to know each other. We looked out for people with Chacos and Patagonia shorts and enormous bags stuffed full for a month overseas. I looked around at the beautiful girls I’ll be serving with and just felt so blessed to be getting to know them.
Jesse needed to charge her phone, so we scoured the whole airport to find an outlet and finally located one in the middle of the floor. So of course we took it! We sat in a big circle charging phones and chatting. It was a surreal moment, where I just blinked and realized that this is a moment we’ll look back on and laugh about.
Then we were outside to meet the Adventures in Missions staff member, and all the other teams were there, heading to Guatemala and Peru and India and South Africa. We waited a good while and learned some patience and finally a few hours later were off!
About an hour and a half later, we reached Adventures in Missions headquarters in Gainesville, Georgia, and met our entire team. There are twelve of us. We’re from Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, but we all share a common love for the Lord and an excitement to serve. It’s such a blessing to be with such a loving, close, and encouraging team already! We ate dinner together, then went inside and had a beautiful time of worship through song and just prayed for God to be all we need and for us to just trust Him.
Then we heard a talk about why we’re here and what we’re doing. It was really just the heart of AIM and the intentionality of establishing relationships and communities between us as missionaries, between the people of all nations, and between us and Christ. We learned about the rules of training camp, and then we headed to a fun mini-adventure— bucket showers! It’s this spot with little stalls and each girl fills up a bucket from a hose and then showers by dumping cups of water on her head. We all showered in the dark so we put our flashlights pointed to the reflective ceiling to brighten the space and laughed and screamed when the water was cold, feeling like we were nowhere in the world that we’d ever been.
Tomorrow even more fun starts. I’m not sure entirely what training camp holds, but I’m excited for what God has in store here. On July 4 we fly to China to connect for our flight to Thailand, and then we’ll be in Bangkok for a month. Even though I’m here at training camp, it almost doesn’t seem real, but it is! And here we go— what an adventure it is I’m beginning.
