Getting there!

April 7, 2008

Hello, friends!

What an adventure I had in getting here to Good Shepherd’s Fold Orphanage in Uganda! The last and largest of the hurdles was arriving at the airport in Johannesburg only to find at the check-in counter that my name was not in the system and that my ticket had been cancelled due to lack of an authorization document that was supposed to have been faxed to the airline. With just over an hour until boarding time, I spent an urgent hour running around the airport trying to get the original ticket authorized (including a 5AM wake-up call to my mission leader’s wife Brooke, who then called her husband Daryn who was leading a trip in Jamaica – sorry…love you guys). Obstacle after obstacle came up, from people directing me to an internet cafe that had moved locations to a pay phone that worked for one phone call and was suddenly out of order for the next call, etc, etc. At one point, with the frustration building and time running out, I wanted to just sit down and cry and forget it all. But I kept thinking how the previous day in our morning prayers at Alabanza, we had read a ton of Scripture and had a long discussion about endurance and perseverance. I figured these obstacles were just Satan trying to keep me from doing what the Lord wanted me to do, and I didn’t want to give him the victory by giving up. Anyway, I eventually just purchased a new ticket (with a promise that I could get the original ticket refunded), and even made it to the gate with a little time to spare. I just praise the Lord that He worked everything out.

After that, everything went smoothly and God even provided a nice Christian girl my age to talk to during the flight.