Sunday, June 17, 2007

BACK IN AFRICAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

It feels so good to be home. I got back about 3 days ago...

Thanks to everyone who prayed for me, arriving back here was not stress-free, but it was safe, Glory to God. I'm back in Africa...

Not only am I finished with months (literally) of traveling, but being back amongst the alive & vibrant people of Nigeria, as well as the freedom that I've always felt here, is a great feeling.
I already made two new friends, one on my flight from Spain to here & then another on the flight from Lagos to Abuja (which was a complete hassle, btw...)

This is my first June in Abuja & It's rainy season here...as we were landing in Abuja, I noticed that this normally dry, almost semi-arid region, has turned to some lush, grassland (??)...I realized that even my coming back from the States & Europe exactly at this time was the Lord's mercy on me, as it made the transition from the West to the tropics smooth & easy. Hallelujah!

After the story that follows, you'll know I'm back in Nigeria for SURE: After landing in Lagos at 10 p.m. & haggling with the taxi driver that took me on the hunt for the hotel where I spent the night, I got back to the airport Friday morning at 9 a.m....after buying my ticket for the 11:15 flight to Abuja on Virgin Nigeria airways. I spoke to the supervisor of that flight, and showed him a brochure of our missionary work & he agreed to waive the fee for my 25 (?) kilos of overweight luggage (since it was a domestic flight, the weight allowance was only 20 kilos)...He also shared his heart with me about the need for safety & protection in his job & asked me to pray for him, which I promised I would do on the plane (which I did). We exchanged information & I was off...
I happily went through the security check-in, where the woman behind me was asked to wait her turn at the red line...."What red line??" I thought to myself...well, never mind...
After waiting till 11:15 (the time we were meant to fly) I called on the Power of the Keys that the Lord would have them be ready as I told Him I was really ready to go (remember the story of 'Stop The Train'??)...about 30 seconds later they announced that they were ready to board...

"Yes!!"

Soon I was in my nice window seat & shortly after, ensued the said conversation between myself & my new friend from Zenith Bank, who was very impressed with our work & asked me lots of questions about living by faith & why I would want to leave America to be a missionary.
About half an hour later (remember, we already boarded a half hour late), we were told that the pilot forgot some document & went back to get it....within about 20 minutes of this announcement, the poor air hostesses were getting bombarded with all kinds of questions & being asked for every which form of compensation apart from sexual favors (as far as I understood, anyway).--Poor girls!...My friend & I were pretty much the patient ones out of the lot, which resulted in us getting some water...(?)

To make a long story short, at about 1 o clock (again--on the 11:15 flight) they had us change planes & they combined us with the 1:15 flight & we ended up flying out at 2:00 p.m. WOW!!

What can I say...I'm back in Nigeria....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yay! Congrats. I prayed for your safety and a good trip.
Lots of love!