Hey everyone,
After yet another few crazy travel days, my team and I have finally arrived at this month’s destination: Tanzania.
We left our ministry site at Tahk Mau, right outside Phnom Penh early on the morning of the 27th to travel up to Siam Riep, the home of Angkor Wat. After spending a day visiting these amazing ancient ruins, we enjoyed our last two days in Asia soaking in this unique culture that I’ve come to love. It was with a bittersweet heart, then, that I left early morning on the 30th with the rest of the Squad. We travelled first down to Bangkok to catch a flight to Africa. Needless to say, this involved no small amount of travel and one of the most ridiculous border crossings I’ve seen in a while. We gathered our possessions and piled (literally) into a bus and a small van and made the trek. When we reached the Cambodia/Thailand border we were in for another surprise. We had originally expected an hour wait to cross, but it turned into a 5 ½ hour crossing as we stood in line.
After that, we got back in buses to head to the Bangkok airport. We got there with not much time to spare and I was able to snag my last 10 minutes of internet up until this point as well as break out the guitars for a few minutes to have a good old fashioned jam in the airport
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Next, we boarded a 10 hour flight to Nairobe, Kenya. After a short wait in the airport, we split into two groups and the first group (the one I was on) got on another plane for a quick ride to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Upon arriving, we waited 5 hours for the rest of the squad to arrive and amused ourselves by once again breaking out the guitars and entertaining the security guards. After this, we piled (literally again) into buses with all our gear and set out for a local hotel where we spent the night. Before going to bed, I was among the group who went to go buy bus tickets for the next day. We braved the chaos of the bus station and after a few hours of haggling, walked away with tickets for a 6am departure.
The next morning, we left the hotel with all our stuff, and walked over to the bus station, thinking that it would be easy to find our bus. We were wrong. We were completely unprepared for the chaos that awaited us. It turned out that instead of 1 or 2 buses, there were over 50. It was also dark, hot, chaotic, and there were people everywhere. So many of them were yelling at us, jostling us, trying to carry our bags, asking us where we were going. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that amount of chaos and I almost had a breakdown as we looked for our elusive bus. After an hour, we finally found it thanks to a guy who later extorted a bribe from me (I was too tired to argue with a big, muscled African man who could have just yanked the bags out of my hand). Then, we were finally on our way.
The guy who sold us the tickets told us that it was a quick, 12-hour bus ride and that we would arrive around 6pm. I’ve been told about “Africa time” before, where people will give you a very general feel for the time that could be off by an hour or two. Now, I got to see it in full effect. The bus ride didn’t take 12 hours. It took 19 hours. And let me tell you, this was not the most comfortable bus ride. The driver was careening down roads filled with potholes. Any hope of sleep was shattered by being thrown in the air because the bus driver decided to go 70 miles an hour over a pothole. Also, the seats were crammed together and legroom was in short supply.
In fact, I’ve found this to be a problem everywhere I’ve been so far on the Race. I’m simply too tall. I’m 6’1 and there is nothing my size anywhere. Seats on transportation leave my knees cramped and bruised and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve smacked my head on low doorways. I now have learned to instinctively hunch over when I pass through a doorway. I’m going to have horrible posture when I get back.
Anyways, back to the bus ride. Here I am, stuffed into a seat on a bus that seems to be hell-bent on disrupting every bit of sleep with huge jolts that would send everyone sailing into the air. Also, the bus broke down twice and ran out of gas twice.
We finally arrived at Mwanza, our ministry location, at 1am in the morning where we piled into small sedans with all our baggage. It turns out that the house we were staying at is on this hillside village right outside the city. The only way to get to it is to take this dirt road that looks more like a riverbed because of rain runoff. So, naturally, the sedans drive up this incredibly bumpy road, bottoming out every 15 feet and stalling every 20. We finally get there and find out that our house is further up the hill in a part inaccessible to these incredibly resilient sedans. So we grab all our gear and scramble up this hill at 2am in the pitch black. After 15 minutes, we finally made it and found a warm meal waiting for us. Food has rarely tasted this good.
Now, the reason I share this is not just to tell some crazy story about that one time we switched continents over the span of 4 days. Rather, I want to show you something I didn’t realize until afterwards. It was the attitude towards the travel. Travelling with over 50 people can be quite an experience, but it can so easily turn towards negativity when the situation starts to get out of control. Thankfully, I saw none of that over those 4 days. We were crammed into all manner of public transportation and we were able to laugh about the ridiculousness of the situation. We had to stand in a line for over 5 hours and looked at it as an opportunity to socialize with each other and with other tourists in line. We got stuck at airports and lightened the mood with some guitar playing. We had bus rides from hell and, instead of whining, took the opportunity to view the local scenery (which was beautiful) and buy food from the locals who would come up to the windows (it was delicious and the people were so friendly).
The point here is perspective. Bad stuff is going to happen. Plans are going to fall apart. You’re going to have to sit around and wait in life. How are you going to react? God’s been showing me the incredible benefit of a thankful heart and I was able to see how it can change chaotic travel days from miserable experiences into crazy, hilarious adventures.
Thankfulness and perspective are how the Apostle Paul was able to endure so much for the sake of the Gospel. And he certainly had it rough – much more so than I have. “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”(2 Corinthians 11:24-28) Wow, what a list. It makes my complaints seem small by comparison.
But Paul gives the reason for telling us about his hardships. “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) The reason that Paul was able to bear all of this was because he had learned to draw from Christ’s strength – from the joy that comes from a relationship with God. I’ve been learning the same thing. If I were to just rely on my own strength, these days of travel would become tedious and miserable and my mouth would constantly be open in complaint. But, the Lord has been changing my heart and giving me contentment and thankfulness to bear up under these and even laugh at these situations. If nothing else, I recognize that God is using these circumstances to mold me into a more patient and joyful man.
Our new ministry site: Mwanza, Tanzania!
Praise Him for his goodness and divine sense of humor.
