Thanks to the inspiration of my sister-in law's Kaysie's blog ( http://light2lionmountain.blogspot.com/ ), I've decided to post a day-by-day of my trip to Sierra Leone. Pray for me and have patience, because posting is an easy thing for me to neglect. However, recently God has shown me how important it is to write things down and share them with others, so here I go:
I left for Redding Airport and picked up Michael on the way at 11:45, even though we needed to be there at 12:15 and I live very close (I was too excited to sit still!). However, our flight was delayed from 2:15 to about 4:30. We were worried we wouldn't make our connection in San Francisco, where the other half of our team was waiting. So we ate at the Chinese restaurant upstairs, relaxed and waited. When it came time to check in, the women were so amazing and gracious. They didn't even charge us for our extra bags! I know John and Kaysie appreciated that, as one of my bags was full of stuff just for them.
The plane we rode in looked like the double propeller plane from an Indiana Jones movie and my chair vibrated and I wore earplugs the whole time to salvage my hearing. We arrived to find that our other flight was delayed 20 minutes, leaving us just enough time to make the flight. The leg from San Francisco to London was long (10 hours) and I didn't get much sleep. I've never been one to sleep well on planes, especially when I don't have a window seat. During the flight, Ryan, the team leader gave us all prophetic words on little note cards, and I felt like the word he gave me was right on. The feeling I'd been getting prior to leaving is that God was going speak through me on this trip. I really felt like my words were going to be important, which is exactly what he prophesied.
The next leg from London to Sierra Leone was better. I slept for about 2 hours (it was about 7 I think) and was awoken to boisterous Scottish conversation and laughter. Ordinarily, I'd be annoyed, but with their jaunty accents and hilarious animation, I couldn't be angry. They were definitely the in-flight entertainment, with their stories, jokes and singing. One of the Scottish men went back while Aaron (one of our team members) was sleeping and he shook him awake, grabbed his face and said "Have courage and follow your heart!" Needless to say, Aaron looked confused and panicked as the rest of us laughed hysterically.
We finally landed at about 9pm and as we walked down the steps of the plane, we were met with a wall of hot moisture. We boarded a shuttle bus at the bottom that literally took us all of 100 feet to the airport door, where we encountered the chaotic, shouting frenzy that is an African airport. With so many people crowded around the baggage claim, it's a wonder that we managed to get our luggage. 2 of our bags, however, did not make it through. They were the bags that had some gifts, team supplies and a keyboard. Luckily though, everyone's clothes made it through.
It was so much fun to see John, Kaysie and Aden at the airport, although I didn't get much chance to talk to them, as we were herded out the door and onto an American-made school bus that waited to take us to the ferry. We drove for about 20 minutes and then drove the bus onto the ferry. Pastor Andrew (our in-country contact) filled us in on some of the happenings in his ministry, and we layed hands on him and prayed and prophesied over him. I was itching to get off the bus to talk with John and Kaysie, and as soon as they gave us the ok, I got off and found them by the railing. Aden was asleep by then, but I introduced them to a few team members and we talked for awhile. We got quite a surprise as the ferry blew its whistle and turned sharply. I watched as we narrowly missed a small local fishing boat with a man frantically waving a single flashlight inside. It was a miracle we didn't hit them...we missed them by only a foot or so. After that, they made everyone go down below where the vehicles were. After an hour ride, we drove to our hotel, which was very nice. We finally collapsed into bed at about 12:30pm
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