Africa, Coming Home

We awoke Sunday morning to warmth of the sun as it began to penetrate the building. The temperature began to rise quickly as we prepared to go to the small village church in Torodi. We had passed through there the night before anticipating the stop but hoping for the guest house instead. God answered our plea and the guest house was available. Now we would trek back to the church to be respectful as they had planned on us being there. The trip was 45 minutes and we sat in a grass lean-to or hut and listened to the singing and teaching of the leadership. There was just a small band of believers in attendance but the Spirtit was there and they earnestly desired God to fill them strength and wisdom.

The rest of our day was spent back at the guest house packing, planning, and preparing for the long journey home. Unfortunately the flight would not leave until after midnight. We had MRE's for lunch and waited for 6:30 to come when we would go to dinner with our host missionaries and then take a final shower before going to the airport.

Dinner was at an Italian place in Africa where they spoke French. Can't beat a deal like that can you? Kris, our missionary, wanted to know our thoughts and feelings about the preparation and the trip itself. We talked for a while and then came back to the guest house for final preparations. The time had come and we packed the truck a final time to get us to the airport. We had considerably less luggage going home than coming because so much of the supplies were used or left for them to use in the clinics.

3:30 pm [OK time] We arrived at the airport and acquired our boarding passes and checked our luggage. As we walked through the door for security check, there was our luggage! We had just checked it as baggage and now we had to open it for manual inspection before we could go through customs and immigration for exiting the country. As expected, Pete had challenges. They did not have one of his bags out for inspection and we thought maybe there was no reason for this other than not all bags got checked. We went through immigration and down the stairs to wait for the bus that would take us 100 yds to the plane, because apparently it is too much to walk?!?! About 30 minutes later his name is called because there was a bag waiting to be checked but he was not there. He goes back through customs and gets the bag checked returns through customs just in time for us to walk toward the bus to have ourselves security checked.

5:40 pm [OK time] We left Niger and arrived in Paris. The flight was basically uneventful.

11:00 pm [OK time] We started our 7 hour layover in Paris. We walked around looking for something that was open and palatable. Not much to speak of here. We slept, we ate, we typed, we listened to mp3 players, we read, we walked laps...you get the picture. It was like 4 caged animals wanting to escape but not being able to.

SUNDAY TURNS TO MONDAY

7:00 am [OK time] We are still in Paris. We are on the plane, but still in Paris. And suddenyl to our wondering eyes did appear...Jimmy Carter! He made the rounds and shook everyone's hand and 45 minutes late we finally leave Paris. The next 10 hours we spent in that plane seemed much longer than they were.

5:35 pm [OK time] We have landed in Atlanta and I iam hustling to get through customs to see if there was a remote chance of still making our flight. I rounded the corner and looked at the time. The other three were coming through customs and I gathered the luggage fromt he baggage claim area. It could not be forwarded all the way through because of customs at teh first port of entry. We were changing from an international to domestic flight. I gave up all hoper of making the scheduled flight. We gathered the luggage and headed for the rebooking agents.

6:00 pm [OK time] We stood in line for rebooking as our flight left for OKC. We were not yet sure if we could get home tonight and on what carrier it would be. We did not care! The rebooking agent got us on a flight at 8:45[OK time] so we settled in through security and found something to eat. After we pounded Wendy's for some sustenance we strolled over to the gate and checked in.

7:45pm [OK time] The flight was overbooked because of the rebooking and lateness of the Air France flight...Jimmy Carter remember?...and we would have to see if someone would give up their seat for us to be bale to get on board. Thankfully someone did and we were told we would have seats, though we would have to be the last ones to board.

9:00pm [OK time] We take off and I sleep. I really do not remember anything about the flight. I had taken two Benedryl because of allergies and sacked out, but I think we all did a little.

11:30pm [OK time] We land in OKC and disembark the plane. After 32 hours of travelling we finally embrace our families and head home.

We are glad to have gone. We are glad to be home. We will follow our God to the ends of the Earth. Maybe you will be the ones next time.

Haruna [Aaron], Beto [Bill], Jachi [Chuck], and Pierre [Pete]

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