Friday June 15th

Friday morning we all met to pack ministry bags together. These bags were filled with baby clothes, toys, Bibles, books, pencils and crayons, and food for the missionaries who were already over there. After weighing all of our suitcases we said our goodbyes and were off to LAX. The lead pastor at Shoreline drove one car with our luggage, his nine year old daughter, and another guy from Shoreline who would drive our car back. This allowed for the rest of the team to all fit in a second car. Seeing that most of us did not know each other prior to this trip, the four and a half hour car trip was exactly what we needed for that special bonding experience : ) Several sickeningly corny car games later, and a neat time of sharing testimonies, we were all old friends. It was so interesting to see the different range of people God had handpicked for this trip. We are all sooo different and yet we all love and serve the same God, and all have the same God-given passion for the continent of Africa. The testimonies on our team were amazing! From depression and suicide attempts to divorce and dads in prison, and yet we all had a common denominator, namely a Creator who had written all of this out before time. Hmmm...

So we stopped at In and Out (hallelujah! there is nothing quite like greasy fries and hamburgers before two weeks of rice, ostrich and other unknown food items.) and I had a wonderful talk with Pastor Tony and his daughter about adoption. His daughter Chantey is nine, then he has a three year old adopted from China, and is now wanting to adopt from Ethiopia. I have always pictured my future family filled with children both biological and adopted from Africa. It was so neat to hear Pastor Tony say that each one of his children were chosen by God to be in his family, but that they just got there different ways. All of this to say, I had a wonderful time of fellowship and American food before arriving at LAX. I am so excited to see what God has in store for my future family, no matter how big, small, or colorful He sees fit.

So after arriving at LAX we said goodbye to Tony, Chantey and the other driver, and met up with our last two teammates Jordan and Emily. When we got to the check in counter they told us we could only have one carry on. Bummer because we all had two. So we sat there frantically figuring out how to fit some of our carry on luggage into our checked baggage, and realizing that our bags would weigh more than 54 lbs. In walks a TSA guy who laughs and tells us our bags can weigh up to 70 pounds. Not so funny when you spent the whole morning taking things out of suitcases to make them 54 lbs. Big bummer, but at least they didn't say they could only weigh 30 lbs right? Everything went smoothly from there on out. One of our guys got pulled aside to get his carry on bag searched, so he whipped out his evangicube (think folding rubics cube with pictures explaining the gospel message) and started witnessing to the TSA lady while his bag was being searched! So funny! Praise God for divine appointments right?

We had a blast waiting for the plane. We listened to and loved on random strangers, and had neat spiritual conversations with our team members. It is so interesting that you can meet someone for the first time that morning, and have such a deep meaningful conversation, simply because Christ is at the center of all that you are talking about.

So then it was on to the eleven hour red-eye flight to London. I was the only person on our section of the plane awake, but I had a wonderful time in the Word and tried to keep a straight face when the flight attendants would ask if I wanted "tea or coffee" in their British accents. There is something about English accents that make you want to respond in an accent. Anyway, the Chinese gentleman across the aisle woke up at some point during the flight, and shared his entire life story with me, showed me maps and pictures of everywhere he was visiting in Germany, and shared his dreams of retiring in Solvang. It was so fun to listen and care for all of these random people. Most of them were shocked when they found out we were spending our time helping orphans instead of vacationing. It made it easy to share my faith without it being forced or awkward. If Christians are supposed to be known by their love, we need to get better at listening. It is amazing how much people want to be listened to.

So overall it was a wonderful car ride and flight. Next stop LONDON!!!