Hi friends! soo after 7 days of
traveling, being on a bus for 75 hours with not one shower and eating PB&J
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner many days in a row- we made it to Lilongwe,
Malawi early in the morning on November 5th. first, I just want to say I
LOVE AFRICA!!!!!!!!
to back track for ya… after 24 hours of 3
plane rides we arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 31st. Come to find
out in our days of flying, our bus that was suppose to pick up all 66 of us had
canceled. sooo after sitting in the airport all day our awesome logistics people
and squad leaders finally found a hostel for all of us to stay at for the night
to get some rest. The bus was planned to come the following day… but it didn’t.
after all this is africa. so another night of rest for us! third times a
charm right? Finally on Tuesday night- two days later than planned- we were
headed out to Malawi… what we think will be about a 24ish hours drive. but God
knew exactly why we had needed those two days of rest in South Africa before
hand. the following 4 days provided challenges and time with community I can’t
even put into words. the enemy tried everything he could to keep us from
getting to Malawi.
On two different days we didn’t make the
Zimbabwe border or the Mozambique boarders in time before they closed for the
day. The only safe option was to sleep on the bus at the boarder both nights.
and even though we we’re only driving through the countries we had to still get
visas for both, and since there is so many of us it took for.eh.ver. God’s gift
to us: we got to see the sunrise in AFRICA!
(let me give you a little insight in
sleeping on a bus for the night: welllll when there is 66 people on a bus with
no air and we all already smell… it can get SUPER hot real fast. and lucky me
had picked the very back of the bus to sit in-where there were no windows. so
least to say I didn’t sleep a wink. annnd I had a panic attack in the middle of
the night because I couldn’t breathe, but my squadmate was there to calm me
down :] this night was super tough for me and I can honestly say I have never
struggled for Christ this much ever in my life before. crazy)
By time the third day rolled around,
waiting and waiting at the mozambique boarder we were all really struggling. so
what did we do?? we prayed and praised God for hours under a tree in the hot
African sun surrounded by the locals. it was truly another gift from God. we
desperately needed Him. and He showed up. He lifted our spirits and got us not
only through the day, but safely. we trusted Him and cried out to Him literally
and He provided. On the last travel day, He also brought two cats into my path!
I wish I could put into words my week of
traveling and living on a bus for 75hours, but I can’t. I have never felt such
exhaustion- emotionally and physically. And on top of traveling, I was going
through a really rough time personally so it was a blessing to have such
encouraging teammates sitting around me and getting to see all of us serve each
other. The good Lort turned a miserable experience into such a beautiful
opportunity. He had everything planned for a reason and so getting to praise
Him in that and getting to be loved by and to love on the people around me was
a whole new experience for me and one I’ll never forget. Praise be to our
Father!
and now I’M IN AFRICA!!!! I still can’t
believe it.
