It's so good to be back with my family. I missed them all so much. I will attempt to complete my trip overview over the course of the next few days. I will summarize each day as best as I can.
Travel to Uganda (Sunday 6/15 - Tuesday 6/17):
As I was on my way from my home to O'Hare airport in Chicago, I received multiple messages to contact team member Adam. Adam was to fly from Nashville, TN, to meet us in Chicago and then 4 of us would fly together to Washington D.C. I had spoken with Adam earlier in the morning and he was at his gate "ready to board." Apparently, at the last moment, he was told his ticket was not valid and had not been paid for. His flight was already gone by the time we spoke. I realized the enemy was already at work to spoil whatever he could for this trip. I knew we had about 24 hours to get Adam to Washington D.C. before we departed for Africa. The Man Up team leadership went into action and we were able to get Adam into D.C. by 4pm that same day! Enemy defeated!
With the team fully assembled in Washington on Sunday 6/15, we were able to have a nice supper and get to know each other more. I already knew Steve (one of my best friends for over 20 years), and had met Les several times, but had never met Adam or Jim. We all quickly got to know each other.
The next morning we met for breakfast and headed to the airport. We all made final phone calls to our families before getting aboard our 12.5 hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Saying goodbye is never easy!
We landed in Addis at about 6:45am local time. We were ready to get off that plane! We had about a 4 hour layover before our next flight to Entebbe, Uganda. As we wandered the airport, Adam actually ran into someone he knew from college. Nothing like bumping into someone you know when you are 7,000 miles from home! Our flight from Ethiopia was delayed about 1 hour for some unknown reason. We just sat there on the runway. I actually fell asleep and when I woke up, we were still sitting on the runway. My biggest fear was that Pastor Andrew would be sitting waiting for us in Entebbe and we had no way to contact him. Regardless, we made it, and after about an hour getting through immigration, Andrew was still waiting. He drove us the 4 hours from Entebbe to Jinja to complete our roughly 24 hour journey.
Our hotel was comfortable enough and we had running showers! Each morning we were awaken to Muslim prayers playing over loudspeakers. Interesting to hear. The food at the travel hotel was adequate, not exactly true to Ugandan traditional fare, but good enough to fill the belly.
Our plan for the next day was to head to the tree farm to begin working to clear the land. God is good and He provided a successful journey to Uganda.
No comments:
Post a Comment