South African adventure

Monday morning Feb 15 (still on the plane from Atlanta to Johannesburg) --

I just slept for 8 hours straight on this plane! All those months of sleeping in a chair after my accident are coming in handy at times like this! I have been on this flight for 14 hours and yet never once have I, nor the woman next to me, looked at the electronic map that shows where the plane currently is. She just turned hers on and I glanced to look...where were we? At that exact second, our plane was crossing the border from Namibia into Botswana!! Figures, the very first time I see it after 14 hours was at that exact second!! So we are currently flying over Botswana, about 50 minutes from Johannesburg, South Africa. If I had a parachute, they could just drop me off in Botswana, haha.

Monday evening, Feb 15

I am now typing from Pretoria, near Johannesburg. Mike and Lenie, South African friends who I knew from the Mission Training International (where we’d been training before the accident), picked me up from the airport and brought me here to their home. It’s totally a blessing because they leave in two days to go back to France where they serve with Campus Crusade for Christ. They were home on a break, and we just barely overlapped in time to see each other! If I hadn’t gotten that last ticket to Atlanta, I would have not made the Johannesburg flight until the next day or later, and would’ve missed them (after already cancelling my hotel reservation). Wow…I understand a little better the concept of God going before me and preparing the way.

On the drive back to their house from the airport, Mike and Lenie shared a few meaningful things I had not heard yet. I asked them if they had visited Andrea and Scott in the hospital and they said they had. Right before or after visiting me in the hospital, they had gone to visit Andrea. Until this point (about 11 days after the accident), she had only recognized Scott and their parents. She had not shown any sign of recognizing any of the MTI friends and staff who had come to visit her. The doctors and everyone were very concerned that Andrea’s brain damage was very significant, so that she would not be “the same.” When Mike and Lenie came to visit Andrea, however, she said, “You’re still here?” [our program had ended a week earlier, but Mike and Lenie were staying later for another program]. Mike and Lenie told me that when Andrea said that, they looked over at Scott and tears streamed down his face. It was evident that Andrea remembered them and that our program was over by then…and thus it was evident that Andrea was mentally doing much better than they had feared. In her sweet spirit, Andrea had even added, “We’re praying for you.”

I found out tonight that Mike was also there for that moment with me…when everyone’s fear of the extent of my brain damage was relieved. He was at my bedside, along with several other MTI staff and friends, Youth for Christ staff, and my dad the day after the accident, when I spoke my first words. In a quiet voice, I summoned their attention: “I have something I’d like to say.” Anticipation mounted as they all leaned in close to hear what I had to say. And these were my monumental words: “When you’re sittin’ with your honey, and your nose is a-runny, you might think it’s funny, but it’S NOT!” At that, the room erupted in relieved laughter…I was gonna be ok! (Still kinda crazy, but that is ‘normal’ for me). [And for the record, they also say that at least three times when someone would visit me in the ICU and ask how I was doing, I would answer, “I’m fine…God is good.” So thankfully there was some spiritual insight coming from the depths of my being, not just random jokes about snot!].

I asked Mike and Lenie more about Karin, the 45-year-old South African who had died in our crash, and whether they’d known her before MTI. Yes, in fact, Mike had been the one who mobilized Karin into missions and got her started! She came to work at Campus Crusade in his office for 6 years and then went to France for two years. They would have worked in the same office together in France, and actually Lenie has now picked up a lot of what Karin’s job was supposed to be.

Mike and Lenie took me to a friends’ house tonight for dinner. These friends were also good friends of Karin. They were actually the coordinators of Karin’s missionary support team. Their daughter is a worship leader and works in children’s ministry, and she might come up to visit me in Botswana sometime!  All in all, it's been a wonderful day!!  Flying over Botswana, seeing old friends and making new ones (who were all Karin's friends) in South Africa!  Botswana awaits tomorrow!

to be continued in the next post...