Flying Away!

Sunday, February 14, 2010 –
Valentine’s Day; Day I left home for Botswana!!!


Well, I am typing this over the Atlantic Ocean on my flight to Johannesburg!! It has been a crazy long day...I didn’t so much sleep last night since I left so early and had to finish up a lot of details. After a tearful goodbye to Mom and Chester (probably forever for little Chester; unless he is super dog, he probably won’t live until I come back), Dad and I left for the airport at 4:30 in the morning...only to find that my flight from Flint to Atlanta had been cancelled! And they wouldn’t be able to get me on a flight from Flint to Atlanta until two days from now! So the Delta agent had a crazy idea that she would book me first class from Detroit to Atlanta in less than an hour and half (and it takes one hour and 10 minutes to drive from Flint to Detroit) and put me in a cab to get there. So I got in the cab as he sped away with me the other family. We arrived at 7:26 am with no hope of making it on that flight.

Then I proceeded to wait for several minutes in an international flight line because a Delta agent told me to, but later I found another Delta staff and told her my situation...she told me I was in the wrong line, and needed to go to rebooking. But she let me be first in line. Then the ticket agent said all the flights to Atlanta were booked all day. Wait...except one seat. But it would not get into Atlanta with much time at all to make the Johannesburg flight. I definitely would not get to see Cindy and Kjel (Jessica’s mom and step-dad) as I had been greatly anticipating. But it was either that or perhaps not leaving for a couple days til there were open seats. Meanwhile I’d called my parents and Cindy and we were all praying, as they checked available flights online and could only find one seat on a flight that had a layover somewhere else, but it was soon filled. The Delta agent went off to find another staff lady, and she returned and somehow found me a seat on a 10:20 am direct flight that would put me in Atlanta at 12:30 pm!! Later, that flight kept getting delayed so lots of people needed to get rebooked on their connections once they’d reach Atlanta...they said over the loudspeaker that there were no other options for going to Atlanta that day...every flight going south was completely full! So it is quite a blessing that I got that direct flight to Atlanta today!!!

When I got on that first flight, I called home real quick after I boarded to let my parents know I finally was leaving. Dad told me that our pastor had mentioned Caleb in his sermon that morning! [see the first entry on Feb 13 for the Caleb story where he said, "Give me this mountain!" and how God has used that to encourage me to face the challenges in Botswana in His strength].  On that flight, my seat was next to a U.S. soldier named Jay in his army fatigues on his way to Iraq (via Atlanta). After I shared about my accident, he told me how he too had recovered against all odds, to the bafflement of doctors. He was born with a lot of problems, so he lived his first year in an incubator in the ICU. He had to have several surgeries for another problem, and his doctor told him he wouldn’t live to see 25, and that he’d be surprised if Jay lived to see 21. Jay just turned 28 last week. He broke his back in gymnastics at age 8 and doctors said he would never walk again. But Jay knew he would. He had to be in a sitting brace for 2 years, but with determination, he learned to walk again. At age 12, he fell and broke his back again. Doctors again said he would never walk again. And again, Jay knew he would. He was in the brace for 1 year this time and defied the odds to walk again, to the utter amazement of doctors. And he doesn’t just walk now…he is a soldier in the army! A restored warrior!! On his sleeve closest to me, I saw a patch that said, “MOUNTAIN” and I asked him what it meant. He said that it is the name of his unit. It didn’t hit me until now how fitting that is in light of the warrior Caleb – “God has kept me alive…Give me this mountain!” (Joshua 14:11-12).

It reminded me of how a couple weeks back at a bible study, I was commissioned and prayed over alongside the pastor’s son leaving tomorrow (Feb 15) for Afghanistan and thought it was fitting how he is a soldier in real life, and God has called me to be a soldier of Christ shining his light, hope, and love...to be a warrior who says ‘Give me this mountain!’ And now on the day I fly to Botswana, by a complete weird set of circumstances (cancelled flight, riding in a cab to another airport, missing that flight, amazingly getting that last seat available on another flight), my seat was next to a soldier who clutched his cross necklace and clung to His Lord for strength and comfort during the turbulent times; a soldier who also attributes his recovery that baffled doctors as an example of God’s purposes and plans succeeding against all odds; a soldier also on his way to his foreign field of service to fulfill the mission given to him; a soldier who is in the MOUNTAIN unit!!

We left in time so that I did get to have dinner with Cindy and Kjel in Atlanta after all! It was so great to see them again and be sent off from the U.S. with their love.

And here I am flying across the ocean, with my worldly belongings now simplified into 2 checked bags and a carry-on.

This song came on my random shuffle as I was typing all this on the plane, and I don’t think it could have a more fitting application than today …leaving my father and my mother, loving Christ and following Him, my Beloved, this Valentine’s Day. It’s called “I Will Waste my Life” by Misty Edwards, meaning “wasting” our lives worshipping, loving, and obeying Christ wherever He may lead. Here are some lyrics:

I leave my father’s house, and I leave my mother. I leave all I have known and, I’ll have no other.


For I am in love with You, there is no cost; I am in love with You, there is no loss; I am in love with You; I want to take Your name; I am in love with You; I want to cling to You, Jesus…


I say goodbye to my father and my mother; I turn my back on every other lover, and I’ll press on, yes I’ll press on. I say goodbye to my father and my mother; I turn my back on every other lover, and I’ll press on, yes I’ll press on. For I am in love with You, there is no cost; I am in love with You, there is no loss; I am in love with You; I want to take Your name; I am in love with You; I want to cling to You, Jesus…

When the “I say goodbye to my father and my mother” part comes in the song, it has an almost militaristic march-style snare drum in the background, so it has always reminded me of soldiers entering West Point and how they have 30 seconds to turn and say goodbye to their families…then they turn and march towards West Point without looking back…symbolic that they are soldiers now given to the missions ahead of them. In a similar way, I had to say goodbye to my father and my mother today to set my face toward the mission ahead of me as a soldier of Christ, a restored warrior, in Botswana.

**[ Later after I arrived in Botswana, I looked back to see what the daily bible reading was, listed in a book I had packed in my checked luggage. Look at what was part of the reading for February 14, the day I left on the plane and typed the above:

“Peter began to say to him, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.’” (Mark 10:28-30).]

continued in the next post...