I promised that I would write about the crazy
travel experience that we had while transitioning from Romania to Malawi, so
here it is :). Our travel from Europe to Africa was intended to be 3 days at
most, but our plans were not the same plans as the Lord’s so we actually had a
complete week of travel. My blog might present a different view-point from
others on my squad since I’m a part of the logistics team; I’m truly blessed to
be able to see the Lord provide in the small details that others might be unaware
of or overlook in our travel.
Let’s begin with our departure from Bucharesti,
Romania. After leaving Moldova, Team Pro’digal met up with the rest of P Squad
in Bucharesti, Romania. The 3 squad leaders that traveled with us the first 4
months, all the while pouring their love into us and encouraging us in our
walks, said good-bye to us and headed back to the States, thus passing the role
of Squad Leader to our fellow teammates Joshua and Lia. We spent a few days
resting and enjoying their presence before flying out of Bucharesti.
The craziness of our travel actually began from
the first step of leaving the country…getting to the airport. I had arranged
for a bus, the same one that picked us up from the airport when we first
arrived in Romania, to pick us up from our house and take us to the airport.
Our squad was dispersed on two different flights, so maybe that’s where the
communication got complicated and fell through, but who knows….anyways, 6 am
rolled around and the bus was a no-show. After calling the driver and
remembering he spoke only Romanian, we called the manager and asked where
the bus was. It turned out that the bus was waiting at the airport to deliver
us to the house…the same house that the driver had dropped us off at a month
earlier. Why we would be flying back into the same airport I have no clue, but
God revealed to me the importance of being firm in a loving way through my
choice of words through all of this. Eventually the bus came and everyone
arrived in time for their flights.
I was on the second flight of the day. I began
to get motion sickness soon after we began our short journey to the airport.
Great. Daniel (fellow logistics) was on the first flight and Juliette (other
fellow logistics) was flying out a few days after us, so it was my
responsibility to make sure things ran smoothly on my flight. Thus the feeling
of travel sickness frustrated me and made me feel inable to fulfill my
responsibility. God has really been speaking to me about these occurrences. I
always seem to get sick on travel day…the day that I’m supposed to know
what’s going on. It’s in those times that God reminds me that He’s perfectly
capable of managing things when I feel like I can’t. He’s simply been asking if
I trust Him, because trusting in Him is more than anything I can do on my own.
We flew through Istanbul and Dubai on the way to
Johannesberg; only on the World Race will I have been to five countries within
a few days. Shortly after we arrived in Dubai, I checked my email to make sure
that things would go smoothly when we arrived in Johannesberg; little did I
know that God had prepared a roller coaster of events that would happen within
the next few days. I checked my email and realized that our transportation from
South Africa to Malawi had fallen through, which would leave us stranded when
our flight arrived. I didn’t have the logistics team with me, nor were the
squad leaders with me…I felt extremely helpless. There isn’t much you can do
when you’re in an airport thousands of miles from your destination, with
sketchy Internet, and without your fellow team members that are responsible for
making decisions. I prayed for God’s guidance and boarded the next plane
without any clue what would happen when we arrived in Johannesberg.
After arriving in Johannesberg, we made multiple
phone calls and realized that it would be extremely difficult to find a large
enough bus for 65 people at the last minute, on a Sunday nonetheless. We
decided to begin looking into hostels so the squad could rest, then we could
make plans to leave by Monday. After calling multiple hostels, we thought we
would either have to go extremely over budget or split the squad in half in
order to house everyone. Much to my surprise I got a phone call from a
man named Neal. Yes, he called me. Apparently he was a friend of someone that
worked at one of the hostels that didn’t have room for us. He offered us a fair
price and even said he would pick us up from the airport, which mean we didn’t
have to worry about finding public transportation in an unfamiliar area. A
group of 100 people were supposed to stay at the hostel the night that we
landed but had canceled and left that afternoon, so they unexpectedly had room
for all 65 of us…and it was the cheapest out of all the options. We
were at the airport until Sunday evening, but eventually we all made it safely
to the hostel after multiple trips. Thank you God for your provision.
We were all given a bed and were able to take
showers, which was truly a blessing after switching flights several times and
having multiple lay-overs. Daniel, Lia, Joshua, and I decided to get a
“good” nights rest and tackle the task of finding
transportation to Malawi bright and early the next morning. We looked into
multiple companies, many of which were either way too expensive, didn’t travel
across borders, or would split up our group…something that none of us felt
was a good idea. We finally found a company, but wouldn’t be able to leave for
another day because of the availability of a driver. So, the next day we set
out for the task of paying for the bus before a certain time so a bus permit
could be obtained for the border crossings….this was a very complicated and
drawn out process that I won’t go into too much detail about. We made the payment
before the said deadline, but then received a call saying that we wouldn’t be
able to leave for another day. At this point, frustration began to wear on my
because I felt like we had been taken advantage of. Not only did we trust that
they would follow through on their word of us leaving that day, but we also ran
around frantically all day in order to ensure that we were able to leave that
day. I struggled to keep it together at this point. I’m okay with things not
going as planned, but I’m not okay with people breaking their word. So, it was
definitely a challenge for me to keep my frustrations under wraps and out of
sight from the rest of the squad. We stayed another night at the hostel and
prepared to leave the next afternoon.
The bus arrived, which then led to the discovery
that our luggage wouldn’t fit in the luggage compartments. Awesome. So, the
driver had to leaven and return again with a trailor for the rest of our
luggage. Joshua, Daniel, and I rode with the driver to pick up the trailor. We actually
had no clue where we were going so it was interesting to say the least. It’s
crazy how easily I’ve began to trust that God will protect us in random
situations. We FINALLY left Jo-burg and began the adventure of traveling across
the southern countries of Africa.
We drove through the night and arrived at the
South Africa/Zimbabwe border around 3 am. Unaware that we had to pay for Visas
in most of the countries we were about to drive through, we were ready to waltz
through border control and continue on our way. That would have been
lovely….but unlikely in Africa.
All in all, we spent 20ish hours standing in
line for Visas at borders, and spent two nights at borders that were closed.
The first night we slept on the bus was a turning point for our squad. We were
at the Zimbabwe border, which isn’t exactly the safest place to be, so no one
was allowed off the bus. Because we had 65 people and absolutely no air-flow
the entire night, the bus was insanely hot. Although we had our issues that
night, I was impressed with the over-all upbeat attitude of the squad.
After we crossed the Zimbabwe border, we waited
for 9 hours at the Mozambique border; they took their precious time, which then
lead to safety concerns about us making it to the next border before it closed.
While squad leaders and logistics were attempting to speed up the process, our
squad began to intercede for us; in a place where it was evident that satan was
trying to do everything possible to keep us from our destination, our squad
chose to WORSHIP. The sound of hymns being sang in the dusty African heat broke
the strong-holds of the spiritual battle that was encompassing us.
We were finally given our Visas and arrived at
the next border before it closed, despite a closed bridge and the fact that we
had no water, food, or correct currency. Although we made it to the border
before it was supposed to close, there was a storm that knocked the electricity
out so… yep you guessed it… we stayed the night in the bus at yet another
border. We made it through the border the next morning with few hindrances,
mainly people trying to get us to pay for ridiculous things (something I was
growing intolerant of during this trip).
We arrived in Blantyre, Malawi the next day and
went our separate ways to ministry sites.
Although our 2 day travel turned into 7 days, we all arrived safely and
that’s really the most important thing.
What I
learned from this experience:
People are
united through Christ. Considering the circumstances, things ran smoothly with
our team of new squad leaders and logistics.
Occupations
don’t define people. I found myself getting frustrated at some moments and
wanted to tell many people to get their act together…then I was reminded that
they are people. Tasks aren’t more important than loving people; that’s what I’m
here for after all.
Satan will throw many distractions into
situations to try and stop the spreading of the Gospel.
Attitude is
everything. The “be thankful always, pray continuously” Bible verse has a
completely new meaning…I have only a glimpse of what it means to live a life
filled with hardships and inconveniences.
My time line
and God’s time line don’t always align. Sometimes the only thing to do in a
situation is pray.
I’ve been
given the tiniest idea of the overwhelming love that God has for me. I never
knew that I could love my squad so much. The fact that I had no control over
their safety in some instances made me realize the depth of love that I have
for them.
God is a
God of details; He has things planned better than I could ever imagine 🙂
