What a whirlwind. That’s about the only word I can think of at this moment to describe our experiences thus far. We’ve been traveling since Tuesday, June 5. As I type this, I’m on a plane to Jo-burg, SA. It’s early on Friday morning (and I do mean
early) and we still have 7 hours of our flight to Johannesburg left. We will spend the night at a mission base in town and until the rest of our team arrives. We then have a 6 hour “bus” ride to Swaziland. I put bus in quotation marks because I have no idea what to expect. So we should arrive at camp in Swazi sometime late on Saturday afternoon. Quite an adventure, huh?!
After picking up our baggage at one airport in London, switching airports, and checking our bags at our departure airport, we were able to spend about 3.5 hours looking around the city. We all took the Tube into the city and then split up in smaller groups. Allison, Jessie, Brady and I hopped onto the classic red double-decker tour bus. We were able to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben/House of Commons, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Westminster Abbey, and probably some other significant landmarks that I can’t remember due to exhaustion. It was a great way to see the city in a limited amount of time. I would love to come back here someday and explore more extensively!
Thank you so much for your prayers about our flight situation. We were able to board our flight to London without any problems with the limited documentation we had in hand. God always provides a way. Please keep the rest of our team in your prayers as they are traveling about 24 hours behind us. We weren’t all able to get on the same flight so we are split up until they arrive on Saturday morning.
I hope to have something deep/profound for you all to read soon, but that will most likely require more than 3 hours of sleep found on a bench in the middle of bustling Heathrow International Airport.
PS- I’m watching our flight progress on a small TV screen on the back of the seat in front of me.
At this very moment, we just flew over Algiers, Algeria on the Northern coast of Africa. We’re officially in Africa! I have actually stayed awake on our flight in order witness this. To honor this monumental occasion, I will leave you with a sampling of some brilliant words from the Most Amazing Song Ever Written: ” Africa” by Toto. (After many hours of evaluation, I still have no idea what this song means. But I still LOVE it.)
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you;
There’s nothing that a hundred men could ever do.
I bless the rains down in Africa,
I’m gonna take some time to do the things we never have.
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company.
I know that I must do what’s right,
Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.
I seek the cure what’s deep inside,
Frightened by this thing that I’ve become.
