We Leave

We all met at the church Sunday, November 2 to begin our trip. There are 7 of us, Pastor Tom and Kathy, Rand, Tom S., Tracey V., Cody and me. Bruce, Taylor and I all ride up together. B4 stays home content to tell me good-by from bed.

Donna Watts has planned ahead to serve us all communion before we leave. It is a beautiful moment as we stand in the Narthex while JJ explains the elements and Bruce serves them to us. When we finish, the team puts their hands in the center while those around us lay hands on us and JJ prays. So many emotions are running through my head.

Pastor Tom hands out folders with our passports, copies of same and other information we will need. Then we head out to the van. Pictures are taken of the team by the van as a memory of our beginning. As we prepare to leave, Taylor hands me a small white bag. This is very special bag because it's the continuation of a tradition started many years ago when she was little.

Whenever the kids would go to camp or places like that I would pack each days clothes in a gallon ziplock bag so that their entire outfit would be together for that day. In each bag I would have a note that I had written telling them that I loved them and reminders about putting on sunscreen or bugspray. I would try to write some little encouragement about what they might be doing that day or how much I looked forward to their coming home. It was always a special gift from me to them.

So in my little white bag are letters for each day of my trip while I'm gone. Yes, tears.

We load up to begin the trip to Miami to catch our first flight. The weather is beautiful and we're excited. That morning before we left for church I had written in my Missionary Journal: Today we leave. It's 5:00 AM and I cannot sleep. Ten months of planning and preparing and I'm finally about to really go on my first mission trip. What will it be like? How will I respond to each new situation? What will I learn about those I travel with and those I will serve?

It was a pretty uneventful trip to Miami. We park, roll our bags into the airport and start the trek. Miami is a very interesting airport. You hear very little English, but every person you walk by is speaking another language. French, German, Russian, Spanish, who knows what else? I'm excited to use my passport for the first time and stand patiently in line with my boarding pass tucked into the page where my picture is. Carribean Airlines allows 2 bags of 50# each. I have one bag and closely watch the scale as they weigh it.....whew only 38#. Tracy beats us all at 49#, just under the limit. Once our bags are checked in we head off to get some lunch at Chili's.

Before long we are boarding the plane for the first leg of the trip to Port of Spain, Trinidad. It's a long flight, just under 4 hours. I've never been on a flight that long and it was bumpy too which the Lord knows is not funny for me. "Lord I know that you are sovereign and command the earth and the skies. I know you can smooth the air, but if that's not Your will can you just give me a peace about the bumps? I hate potholes in the sky!" The farther away from home we get, the smoother the flight. It's dark when we reach Trinidad so though it's probably a beautiful island, we can see nothing but lights and water.

We arrive about 8:00 PM with an hour layover. On the plane we have to fill out forms saying where we are going, where we are staying, how long we will be there and why we are going. We have been prepped ahead of time by Imro and Linda about what to put for each question, but it's still a little scary going through that "In Transit" line as they take your form, stamp your boarding pass for the next flight and then let you move on. We pass through with no problems and head upstairs for the gate to our next flight.

We board on time and this is a fairly short flight that is very smooth. We are getting tired by this time and since Suriname is two hours ahead of us it is about midnight when we arrive at the airport in Paramaribo. You know how when you are coming into an airport you can look out the window and see all the lights and houses; well I'm looking out the window as we're dropping lower and lower and I see nothing! No city, no lights to speak of and I know we're already over land. I hear the wheels lower and realize that we're getting ready to land and I look at Cody and say, "Cody, where in the world are we? I don't see anything down there!" We hold our breath as the wheels hit the runway and then we're here.