Matthew Early, a past member of this trip to Africa, gave the devotion and he asked us, "What was Jesus' purpose for coming to Earth?" His purpose was to restore the relationship between God and man, and to tell people the truth. And the last part is what God was calling us to do in Sesheke, Zambia...tell people the truth about why Jesus came to Earth.
We left for the airport and arrived to check our baggage around 6:30am. We went through security, and after we put our shoes back on and gathered our belongings we realized we were 2 team members short. We looked...and looked...and looked! Sydney and Eric were no where to be found. I heard that Johannesburg, South Africa was the world's most dangerous city and possibly expected something unfortunate to happen when we arrived there, but in Atlanta??? Finally, someone pointed out that Eric and Sydney had been chosen to do the full body scan, so our hearts were at ease.
Our flight didn't leave until 8:30am, so we grabbed some breakfast and chatted before we loaded the plane. I sat with Zack Philliber (Philly) on the plane ride to Washington, D.C., which seemed to be a short ride compared to the 16-hour flight awaiting us. We arrived safely at Washington Dulles International Airport. By now it was lunch time and we had about 6 hours to kill during our lay-over. Most of the team ate at Fuddruckers, a few grabbed pizza, but after lunch we made ourselves at home at our terminal.
Let me introduce you to our team before I finish the story of Day 1. The captains of our trip were Joe Carp and Clift Dempsey. Mr. Joe and Mr. Clift were a perfect combination because they are both great leaders. They were very quick to get on to one another (out of love and fun) when the other took the lead and made the slightest mistake (I will get to that in a second). Next we had Mr. Gary Glaze who has been on many mission trips. He even went on trips when I was in high school. He was our photographer and the "ham-bone" expert (if you don't know what that is, that is where you use your hand and leg to make a music beat). It was my pleasure to get to know Eric Webster, who has to be one of the most genuine people I know. He has a true passion for Jesus, he is a great teacher, and I was blessed by being on this trip with him. The college teammates were Richard Downer, Zack Philliber, and Sydney Carp. All 3 have made the trip to Sesheke before, so I was interested to learn from their experience. Then came 3 of my students from the high school: Ty Downer, Clifton Dempsey, and Pierce Dempsey. All in all we had an outstanding team that was ready to tell Sesheke, Zambia about Jesus Christ!
Back to Joe and Clift ragging each other...
After lunch, Clift found nothing better to do than to rag Joe about losing 2 team members before we left Atlanta, arriving at the Atlanta airport 3 days before we were supposed to leave (really just a couple of hours), and now Clift found out that Joe had a better seat on the plane than he did. Clift's seat was on the very last row where he could not recline...for 16 hours! We were all laughing pretty hard and it became a joke the rest of the trip. We passed the rest of the time by playing games, eating ice cream, and talking to our family before we left for Africa. I called Lauren and Price one last time to say goodbye. Lauren was out "bargain" shopping with her friend Shawna, but I was so happy that she was occupied. I sure was going to miss my family over the next 10 days, but I was excited to see how God was going to work in my life and work through me to change lives!
Tune in tomorrow for the 16-hour plane ride to Africa...
(To view my "Mission to Africa" photo album, become my friend on Facebook...Drew Startup)
OK, Can I just say I'm glad you finally started a blog! Mercy...I thought I was gonna have to come tell your story for you! haha :) Promise to post an occasional photo or two from time to time :) Thanks for sharing Drew!
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