Liberia Part III
AMAZING (G)RACE
Many of you have likely seen the television reality show Amazing Race. On that show teams of people race around the world city to city, airport to airport. The prize at the end of the race is a large sum of money. Our trip to Liberia reminded me a lot of that TV show. The difference is that our prize wasn’t money; it was an opportunity to bring a little hope and encouragement to an area of God’s world that needs both desperately. Our gracious God directed our paths and we made all our connections and arrived in Liberia as planned.
There are many stories I could tell about my week but it starts with our trip to Africa. We were scheduled to leave Grand Rapids at 11:20am on Thursday, April 26. After prayers and farewells at the airport we boarded our plane as scheduled. Then we sat and sat. It seems O’Hare in Chicago was behind and not allowing our flight to take off. After about 1 ½ hours we finally took off. That made the connection in Chicago very close. We caught a shuttle to our next gate, did a little running and made it. Next was Dulles. We didn’t have a lot of time there but made it ok. The next flight was to Brussels. It was kind of strange flying into the sunrise. That makes for a short night. Also, as airplanes are not made for people that are 6’6”, I was like a sardine in my seat, so I didn’t sleep much. We arrived in Brussels at about 8am, that’s 2am GR time. Our flight to Africa was to board at around 10am, we had about 2 hours. We went directly to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes. The person there needed to verify our visas and she discovered a problem. The paperwork we had was quite vague and she suggested we would need to get something more official. She suggested that we get a taxi, rush to the Liberian embassy in downtown Brussels get our visa situation straightened out and hopefully make it back to the airport in time to catch the flight, a very unlikely scenario, unless God wanted it to happen. We raced around until we found the immigration line to exit the airport. We jumped in the queue for a taxi (maybe 100 people ahead of us) and finally were picked up. The taxi driver understood English and understood the urgency. We were zipping around Brussels like something from the movies. Our driver didn’t know where the address was specifically so as he was peeling around he was also trying to find the way from his telephone book sized street map book. After a few wrong turns he did get us there. We asked him to wait for us; he said he would if it wouldn’t be too long. We ran to the door and got there just as the lady there was opening up. She also understood the situation and said she could take care of us quickly. She did. She actually let us fill out some of the paperwork ourselves so it could be done simultaneously. She stamped and signed them all and we raced back out to our waiting taxi, then we sped back to the airport. Traffic was amazingly clear on our way back to the airport. We got there, however, only to find out at the ticket counter that the flight had boarded already. Ron (one of our group) explained that we had tickets and really needed to get on that flight and could she just check to see if we could somehow get on it. The next flight to Liberia would not be until Sunday. She checked with the gate and they said they would let us on. We got our boarding passes and, once again, hustled through immigration, ran to the gate and got on the plane. Was there ever any doubt? No, because God wanted it to happen.
I was thinking about Psalm 127:1, where Solomon writes “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” Those builders currently working on the Kingdom Foundation Institute don’t need to worry about laboring in vain. The Lord is definitely building this house!
The other thought that struck me was that this whole Brussels adventure happened in the middle of the night back home. Our prayers support was likely sound asleep (maybe except for my Mom). Another of the Psalms I was drawn to prior to this trip was Psalm 121 and verses 3 and 4 really spoke to me of God’s provision in our lives. “(3.)He will not let your foot slip- he who watches over you will not slumber; (4.) indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
The whole trip was a faith building experience. It was amazing to see God’s handiwork so evident in all aspects of our trip and in the building of this school. Praise God!
Wow! This is just the beginning. There is so much more to tell.
Stay tuned.
AMAZING (G)RACE
Many of you have likely seen the television reality show Amazing Race. On that show teams of people race around the world city to city, airport to airport. The prize at the end of the race is a large sum of money. Our trip to Liberia reminded me a lot of that TV show. The difference is that our prize wasn’t money; it was an opportunity to bring a little hope and encouragement to an area of God’s world that needs both desperately. Our gracious God directed our paths and we made all our connections and arrived in Liberia as planned.
There are many stories I could tell about my week but it starts with our trip to Africa. We were scheduled to leave Grand Rapids at 11:20am on Thursday, April 26. After prayers and farewells at the airport we boarded our plane as scheduled. Then we sat and sat. It seems O’Hare in Chicago was behind and not allowing our flight to take off. After about 1 ½ hours we finally took off. That made the connection in Chicago very close. We caught a shuttle to our next gate, did a little running and made it. Next was Dulles. We didn’t have a lot of time there but made it ok. The next flight was to Brussels. It was kind of strange flying into the sunrise. That makes for a short night. Also, as airplanes are not made for people that are 6’6”, I was like a sardine in my seat, so I didn’t sleep much. We arrived in Brussels at about 8am, that’s 2am GR time. Our flight to Africa was to board at around 10am, we had about 2 hours. We went directly to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes. The person there needed to verify our visas and she discovered a problem. The paperwork we had was quite vague and she suggested we would need to get something more official. She suggested that we get a taxi, rush to the Liberian embassy in downtown Brussels get our visa situation straightened out and hopefully make it back to the airport in time to catch the flight, a very unlikely scenario, unless God wanted it to happen. We raced around until we found the immigration line to exit the airport. We jumped in the queue for a taxi (maybe 100 people ahead of us) and finally were picked up. The taxi driver understood English and understood the urgency. We were zipping around Brussels like something from the movies. Our driver didn’t know where the address was specifically so as he was peeling around he was also trying to find the way from his telephone book sized street map book. After a few wrong turns he did get us there. We asked him to wait for us; he said he would if it wouldn’t be too long. We ran to the door and got there just as the lady there was opening up. She also understood the situation and said she could take care of us quickly. She did. She actually let us fill out some of the paperwork ourselves so it could be done simultaneously. She stamped and signed them all and we raced back out to our waiting taxi, then we sped back to the airport. Traffic was amazingly clear on our way back to the airport. We got there, however, only to find out at the ticket counter that the flight had boarded already. Ron (one of our group) explained that we had tickets and really needed to get on that flight and could she just check to see if we could somehow get on it. The next flight to Liberia would not be until Sunday. She checked with the gate and they said they would let us on. We got our boarding passes and, once again, hustled through immigration, ran to the gate and got on the plane. Was there ever any doubt? No, because God wanted it to happen.
I was thinking about Psalm 127:1, where Solomon writes “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” Those builders currently working on the Kingdom Foundation Institute don’t need to worry about laboring in vain. The Lord is definitely building this house!
The other thought that struck me was that this whole Brussels adventure happened in the middle of the night back home. Our prayers support was likely sound asleep (maybe except for my Mom). Another of the Psalms I was drawn to prior to this trip was Psalm 121 and verses 3 and 4 really spoke to me of God’s provision in our lives. “(3.)He will not let your foot slip- he who watches over you will not slumber; (4.) indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
The whole trip was a faith building experience. It was amazing to see God’s handiwork so evident in all aspects of our trip and in the building of this school. Praise God!
Wow! This is just the beginning. There is so much more to tell.
Stay tuned.
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