Seeking Transformation: Africa, Day One

Have you heard the one about a banker, bus driver, preacher and dentist that all went to Africa?

The banker went into the restaurant and was asked what he was doing out so early.
"I am going to Africa."
"Really?", came the reply.
"Sure. We are going to do a dental clinic.", the banker replied.
The friend simply looked him straight in the eye and said, "Chuck if you don't want to tell me why you are up so early and where you are going that is your business."

Well, we all had a good laugh about that one!

Myself, Chuck Hall, Bill Spears, and Pete Moore left the church at 6am Wednesday morning. We arrived at what would be 10am Thursday at home. We are seven hours ahead of home. We have had no incidents and no sickness travelling. Everyone had a good trip, just long. We left OKC at 810 in the morning and flew to DFW. After a 2.5 hour layover we boarded and headed to JFK in New York. After walking the NYC marathon across JFK we finally got to the airtram to go to the Air France terminal. With directional trams...which one should we take?

Of course...it was the other one!

God worked it out that we did not have to pay for excess weight at the AF desk. We scrambled around for food and got in line to board. Air France has the best looking seats when you first board. These things lay flat with all the amenities. We went through a doorway to the next level of seats and they laid flat and fewer amenities.

Could these be our seats?

We passed through another doorway to find that we had left the serfs and were now in the peasant seating. "There is obviously a caste system on this plane", Pete remarked. How do we know this? We passed through two more doorways into smaller aisles and hip room before we got to our seats. Proud to have found them we sat down in row 42 of 48. We were right on top of the engine with 7 hours to go!

Every airport had its own security measures. Even though we were in the same terminal in Paris we went through another security check...shoes off, belt off, passport out, run through the machine and dress again quickly.

The final leg of the journey took us into Niger. We disembarked on the tarmac and took a guarded bus ride 100 feet to the terminal. God took care of us through customs. All passports, visas, and forms checked out. In fact not one bag was opened by a customs official in Niger. God moved us right through without a hitch.

Isn't He good?

We have had supper and showers...not comes the sleep.

Here is a scrapbook from Day 1-2...