The Week prior opposition.

 

If I think back to all of my past mission trips, it is not uncommon that the week before departure has been plagued with trouble; things you simply cannot plan for and always catch you off guard. We have undergone immigration complications, obscure traffic violations, flight complications, weather anomaly; name the thing you may not anticipate, and it feels like we have had some experience with it.

In this new world of pestilence, there seems to be an obvious curveball that is being thrown at our Rwanda team, COVID. Should anyone have COVID before the flight, that person will have added complication. They won’t be allowed on an airplane, for good reason. Our team has been dancing around people getting COVID and have been praying that we would be kept safe from this unless God wants to use it in his incomprehensible fashion. Some of our team has contracted COVID. As we approach our departure date, we all must be tested negative. Will they be tested negative in time to get on the flight? We are certainly praying for this. We've had petty arguments, high stress, even a front tooth falling out. 

We've arrived at our departure date and made our way to the Sea-Tac Airport. We spent the night in a hotel 5 minutes away. Delta granted each team member 3 check-in bags each, and coordinating getting them checked in and verifying they are all less than 50 lbs. proved to be our first challenge. Our team made it through all the security checkpoints for our departing flight; all of our forgotten items that are prohibited were purged from our bags. I was pulled aside and watched a TSA person rifle through by backpack to reveal in one of those easily forgotten pockets; a healthy handful of 9mm bullets. Like a deer in headlights; I had to explain why they were there and when finished, skulked away, and logged the moment away in my heart. Whoops!!

Off we go to Amsterdam and then onto Kigali!