We are so thankful for a God who goes ahead of us and takes care of all of the details in this very difficult move. We say “difficult” because of what we left behind. Some things are temporary such as leaving family and friends. Other things are permanent like selling our house, giving away our dog and resigning from our jobs. It was very difficult to say “see ya later” to family and friends! We will miss seeing you whenever we want, but thanks to technology, we can still communicate.
We have seen how God has prepared for us to be here. His provisions really started showing up at the beginning of Him calling us to Swaziland. It has been amazing how he has used friends and family to both be in prayer for us and support us. This has made it possible for us to come and do the work that He has called us to do. We are truly thankful to God and to our support team.
More recently, His hand has been in our travel to Swaziland. We saw him at work right away. Our day started early with a very interesting trip to the airport. We had a 6:30 a.m. pickup scheduled with a shuttle service to travel from our NY hotel to the airport. The driver arrived 30 minutes early and was mad that we were not in the lobby ready to load. When he saw our luggage, he flew off the handle. We had confirmed at the time of reservation that the luggage amount met their standard requirement and we had no overages according to their company policy. He stated that this was beside the point and now he was unable to pickup his remaining three passengers. (This would have made 11 passengers in this van…plus luggage…not sure what they were thinking.) He cussed us, shook his head and gave us mean looks all the way to the airport. He called his company while driving to report the “problem”. Needless to say, he was very rude. When we arrived at the airport, Greg told him to have a nice day and may God bless him and he shook his head, got in his vehicle and drove away. We quickly re-grouped, loaded our luggage onto carts and headed to the airline check-in counter. This is when we began to see God at work. We were one of the first people in line and were helped by a nice lady. We cannot remember her name, so we will call her “Angel”. She asked us how our day had been so far and Greg told her it had started out a little “rocky”. She inquired of what had happened and Greg gave her a quick synopsis of the morning. He told her we were moving to Africa and that we usually did not travel with this much luggage! She simply said, “Let’s see if we can make your day better!” As she checked in our eight suitcases, three of them were a little over the allowed weight. She told us to keep one suitcase with us for a few minutes. Angel checked in all the other suitcases without any extra charge. Then she weighed our carry-ons. We did not know that carry-ons now have a weight limit. Three out of four carry-ons were over! She instructed us to take some things out of our carry-ons and place in the unchecked suitcase. Greg then placed the suitcase on the scale and she sent it through knowing it was overweight. She was definitely a Godsend! As we proceeded through security, they sent us through the pre-screen line so we did not have to take anything out of our bags nor did we have to take our shoes off! We just had to take items out of our pockets and walk through the detectors! The 14-hour flight went well and we were all able to sleep some. Everyone we encountered with South African Airways was very nice and helpful. We arrived in Johannesburg on time with all of our luggage! Praise the Lord! Our driver was a familiar face due to previous mission trips. He was right on time and very helpful along the way, especially at the border. We were able to bypass a very long line and we are still not sure what strings he was able to pull; however, we are very thankful. After crossing the border, we stopped by a market to see the McAdams family and met their team visiting from Georgia. For those of you who do not know, the McAdams family moved here about four years ago and are members at Westwood Baptist, our home church. The Clyburn family, also Westwood members, is serving in Swaziland as well, but are currently in Durban for a few days. We are anxious to see them too. After leaving the market, we arrived at the furnished three-bedroom apartment that we will be staying in for the next few months. The apartment is such a blessing and it is nice that we do not have to run all over town to get necessities to set up a place to stay. Another example of how God has gone before us! It just so happens, that the AIM director for Swaziland, Scott and his wife, Marcia are visiting Swaziland and are staying in the apartment next to ours. Scott helped us unload and carry our luggage to the apartment. He then told us that another local missionary, Julie, prepared dinner for us and he drove us to her house. We were so exhausted and hungry at this point. When we arrived at Julie’s home, our red Land Cruiser was sitting in the driveway! (If you are not familiar with the vehicle story, go back a few blogs) Dinner was great and again, we were so thankful for a home cook meal! We followed Scott back to the apartment because we had no idea how to find our way back. This was Greg’s first time to drive in Swazi! He was scared to drive but someone had to do itJ We all showed our trust and rode with him!
We are so thankful for your support and for following us along this amazing journey!
