Megan Dietrich, from Flushing, MI and a Western Michigan University alumna, along with seventy three men and women, hereafter referred to as the “P Squad”, started leaving North America on July 3rd to begin the World Race.
Jef Rietma’s article on Mlive.com featuring Megan was filled with verbs in the future tense (emphases added):
Participants will live primitively, a lifestyle that Dietrich said she’s already experienced after traveling to Uganda and Kenya for a previous mission experience. Nonetheless, she and the other team members were required to attend a weeklong camp in Georgia that covered all aspects of what the group will encounter.
“We ate food from countries where we’ll be staying, we learned a lot about cultures and what to expect in terms of how we will likely be received by the people where we’ll be staying,” she said.
The 74-member party will head first to the Dominican Republic. The participants then will be divided into smaller groups of five to six people and they will go their separate ways. Dietrich is the leader of her group.
The group members will spend most of their time serving in goodwill capacities, including helping build and repair buildings, working in orphanages and hospitals and offering a friendly smile.
The group will travel to Haiti in August before making the trip to Europe and Asia. The remainder of their stops will be in Ireland, Thailand, Cambodia, China, the Philippines, Mozambique, Malawi, Turkey and Romania.
“Really, it’s to show the love of Christ,” she said of the mission. “I am sure we’ll be met with some indifference and that’s to be expected, but we’re motivated to demonstrate peace, love and a commitment to helping people who don’t get the kind of help they need for a better life.”
The P Squad is in the middle of Launch training camp in the Dominican Republic and now the reality of what they’ve started is settling in.
. . .I go sit down at my seat again, in tears because the family that I love is waiting for me and I am stuck spending time in an airport and not with them, and now I have only ten hours left in the United States instead of thirteen. So naturally after tears are over, I get mad. God. What the hell are you trying to tell me? Is the WHOLE trip going to be like this, because I can guarantee you I will not be making it through. . .
. . .I sulked. When the plane finally came around three hours later, I climbed aboard and attempted to relax. After sitting on the jet way for thirty more minutes, the captain finally saw fit to tell us that we were going to be waiting a while because he had paperwork to do. . . . Not a happy camper, this girl. With all my frustrations compounding . . . it wasn’t until as we hit a bout of turbulence and I felt my head crashing into the luggage compartment two feet above me did I start to violently and uncontrollably laugh. [With t]ears streaming down my face, with cheeks [aching] from grinning and giggling, the rest of the passengers must have thought me mad. But I knew God was telling me something. If American travel frustrates you this much Stacey, wait until I send you to Africa.
. . . the captain comes on the speaker. “We have detected lightning in the area, so there is a mandatory fifteen minute minimum waiting period. . . so please be a little more patient.” It could have been a million years for all I was concerned. As the airport came to a screeching halt, so did my patience. This was the last straw. And at this point in time, I am 100% sure that I am the angriest missionary in the world. And as I list off the roll call of things that made me mad in my head, and the reasons this is the worst experience flying I have ever been through, God starts talking. You have no right to be mad, you know. Where in our agreement about this race, and this day did I ever promise to get you to somewhere at sometime. You will be where you need to be, when you need to be there, and I will put you there myself. So calm down. Stop crying. Stop talking. You’ll never learn anything new listening to yourself. So like a shocked toddler I stopped instantly. My hissy fit was over, for now, even if I was still smoldering. . .
Read the rest of the story on her blog – God in His sovereignty orchestrates a divine encounter.
Everyone made it to the Dominican Republic safely and is getting acclimated to being on the field. Keep track of how they’re doing.
