The team, except for Sharon, rode to Houston Friday morning for our British Airways flight to London. We couldn’t resist stopping in Brenham for a final taste of Blue Bell. We also stopped near the airport at The Kettle for a quick lunch, knowing it would be the last time for the next 11 days or so that we would have much of a choice in what we were going to eat. On the way, we will eat whatever the airline places in front of us and once in Kenya, our breakfast and dinner will be what is served in the cafeteria. It’s all pretty good food, but we Americans like to have lots of choices! Maybe there’s a lesson here that we should be a little more thankful for the fact that we have food at all, given the conditions that we will witness and the stories we will hear in the slum of Kibera during the week. All of us will stock up on snacks and items for lunch, but we don’t expect to be able to stop for longer than it takes to wolf down something in between patients. We are praying that the Lord sends us an average of 1,000 patients a day for healing of their vision needs and that we are also able to be Jesus’ instruments in healing their souls by introducing them to the true Light of the World.
Our journey through security at Bush International was uneventful. We had 16 extra foot lockers with us so that each team member could place their personal item in half of one. This turned out to be unnecessary after all of the gyrations that the Salem leaders went through earlier. The day before our flight, the TSA rescinded their order banning personal items on the way back into the U.S. There was no outbound restriction, but rather than cause confusion with our large group, the original plan was to use footlockers both going to and coming from Nairobi. Because this change was at the last minute, we went ahead and stuck with the original plan. Some good will come out of this, it means we will have more room to bring souvenirs back with us and it is not costing anything, since there were enough team members to account for 2 footlockers each to be counted as their check-in luggage allotment. We flew out of Houston around 4:30pm local time. Our flight was very full and very warm and it wasn’t easy to get much sleep. This is the leg of the trip that the veterans recommend sleeping as much as possible, because it helps get you closer to being on Nairobi time, which is 8 hours ahead of us this time of year We normally try to remain awake from London to Nairobi, since we get to our lodging and are ready for bed by around midnight each trip.
We arrived in London around 1:30am Austin time or 7:30am London time. I considered calling Adrienne and Pastor Kevin to let them know we had arrived in one piece, and the rest of the tram dared me to do it, but I came to my senses. I’ve vacationed in London 3 times and been through Heathrow on a few more occasions and it was the most beautiful sunny morning I can recall. We saw the sunrise from the air and it was full sun and about 55 degrees as we were taken from the plane to the terminal by bus. Our body clocks said it was the middle of the night, but our eyes told us otherwise. I had a little difficulty getting through security. The highly automated equipment detected that I had liquids in my carry-on. Each and every single item was removed from my duffle bag one by one and swabbed with a “magic wand”. After swabbing all of my electronics and the inside surfaces of my bag, all of my stuff was sent back through the equipment with nothing out of order being detected. The swab was taken off of the wand and deposited into a little “magic box” and its test results also came back clean after about 2 minutes of analysis. I thanked the security folks for their diligence. Of course, I was left to repack all of my stuff while the rest of the team “cheered” me on. I’m glad we weren’t too pressed for time and I do have to admit it was kind of funny, what with some of the loving comments that were made by my dear friends that shall not be repeated here!
Our next hurdle was to meet up with Sharon, who was supposed to arrive in London about the same time as we were. Martha checked and her flight showed up as having been on time, which turned out to be untrue. Her plane had been stuck on the tarmac in Chicago for 2 hours due to problems with the onboard computer. We didn’t see her until we were nearly ready to board buses to take us out to our plane, which was not parked at a gate. She had just gone through the same experience with her carry-on that I was blessed with. You always seem to have security issues when they sense that you’re in a hurry. We had thought there was plenty of time for her to rendezvous with us when we double-checked our itineraries earlier in the week, but with all of the adventure and drama, she just made it. All’s well that ends well!
The last leg of our trip was much better. The flight wasn’t nearly as full and it was very cool, so much so that I needed my blue jean shirt and a blanket. This was great, as we all got some much needed sleep. We were concerned about customs problems with the 60 or so footlockers and so about 10 of us formed a prayer circle. Kevin Pieper asked that God would work in this situation and things went without a hitch. Praise God! It was about a half hour ride to our lodgings at the Norwegian Scripture House. After pairing people up for room assigments, we all retrieved our personal items from the footlockers and called it a night after much needed showers. Thank you Lord for travel mercies, we are now in place to serve you in the mission that you have planned for each of us.
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