Foreshadowing

"12 hours since I began this journey. Not one minute has been void of adventure. The adventure began at 3:30am with the new alarm clock my sister, Alex, got that simulates sunlight. The dim light that progressed as the “sun” was “rising” mixed with my anxiety and inability to sleep are what woke me up to what would be the most eventful day in my travelling life. Stumbling to the bathroom in my sister’s house, I started my day with a cramped but refreshing shower. It wasn’t an hour before we were headed out the door and on our way to the airport. The sky was pitch black except for a strip of orange glaze just above the horizon. That orange glaze didn’t just tell me that in a few hours the sun would appear on the horizon, it foreshadowed the journey ahead of me. The great and beautiful adventure God had planned just for me, had planned to happen on September 19^th, 2009. I arrived at the airport on time, checking luggage was a breeze. My dad was able to get a pass so he could escort me all the way to the gate and see me off before I boarded the plane. While we waited I sat with his arm around mme, my head against his chest, my eyes shut. And, although I’m sure onlookers thought I had dozed off, there was a hurricane of thoughts-the same hurricane that had been keeping me from sleep for the weeks prior. Perhaps a tornado of thoughts would be a better use of words because it’s not like I was living a life of unrest. I felt totally secure and at peace in my Father’s arms despite the weather of my internal state. Again, a foreshadowing of what was to come. Today, situations would seem hectic but I would be at peace, in my Father’s arms. He was the eye of the storm, and that is where this day took place."

I wrote those words in my Moleskine on my flight to Miama from Atlanta. After I had spent a good 5 or 6 hours in the Atlanta airport.

As you can see from that snippet, travelling here was a pretty big ordeal. My flight from Richmond was seemingly going smoothly and on time. Right when we boarded I konked out and woke up an hour later to find that we were still on the runway...

Needless to say, I arrived in Atlanta and my connecting flight had already left. Making arrangement to get to Honduras was relatively easy. Delta had already rebooked me (Go Delta!) and it was just a matter of waiting to leave and waiting to hear from people in Honduras to make sure someone would be there to pick me up. Sure enough, I got a call from Dave Fields, one of the Loma de Luz missionaries RIGHT before I boarded in Atlanta saying that he would be there to meet me at the airport.

I met several very sweet people in the midst of my travelling and had a chance to talk to a lot of loved ones back home. It was a real blessing to see how supportive all these strangers were of what I'm doing. On the Richmond flight I told the couple sitting next to me about it and the man was very sweet talking about how inspiring it is and we got to discussing his missionary connections in Honduras. By that time, several people had started listening to the conversation. When we were getting off the plane he insisted on getting my bag down for me and as I was walking out another kind man offered to carry it off the plane for me. That was a true blessing considering my carry-on weighed a good 35lbs. Then, on my flight from Miami to San Pedro I met two girls, one from Colombia and one from Venezuela, they were so excited for me and were a lot of fun to talk with. So-God was watching over me the entire time. He ensured that I wasn't scared, confused, or alone. I REALLY appreciate that. It was a very potentially scary situation for someone travelling alone for the first time but there wasn't a single moment that I was worried about what might happen or concerned that things wouldn't work out.

Finally-I arrived in San Pedro Sula at 9pm (11pm our time) after a long day of going in and out of airports. That night we stayed in San Pedro with a very sweet couple who I'll see again this weekend at a conference we're going to. This morning I took a bus to La Ceiba and had lunch with the Fields. Then, they took me to my new living quarters where I spent the rest of the day up till now getting my room put together and unpacking.

So far-I've really enjoyed being here and have felt really at home with everyone I met. Praise God.

This picture is of a rainbow I saw on my way to Miami. It's cool to see rainbows up so high.