Travel Day (23 1/2 hours)

So this is going to be a short post, but just letting everyone know I finally made it to Malawi! Although my luggage wasn't quite as fortunate (hopefully it will be here by Friday?). I didn't realize how long I was going to be on a plane, so although I did nothing but sit on a plane for over twenty hours today, I am pretty tired. However, I met some cool people with big dreams and that is always exciting. I set next to a lady starting a school for deaf children in Zambia, and a man from Ethiopia who has been living in San Diego and was taking the pastor of his church for a two week visit home with him to look into establishing better training for pastors in Ethiopia. I also watched the sunrise from 35,000 feet up. Absolutely beautiful. "God's glory is on tour in the skies." Thanks for all the prayers that helped get me here safely. Can't wait to start interacting with the communities around us! EEK! :)

Day 1...or not...

So I woke up to a call from some random number at 3:45am this morning. I of course ignored it and went back to sleep. When I woke up to my alarm at 4:45am I realized I had a voicemail from none other than Delta Airlines telling me that my flight from Cincinnati to Washington had been cancelled. Great start to my trip, huh? I immediately called back to try and start finding another way to DC, and let dad take over when he finally got out of bed. I'm not going to lie, it was stressful and at first I wanted to cry, but then I just had to stop and pray that God wouldn't let this situation interfere with the fire I had in my heart for this trip. I couldn't let my spirits be dampened! So I tried to relax, and after an hour and a half on the phone, I had been completely rebooked for the same flights the next day. Cincinnati to Washington DC to Rome to Ethiopia to Malawi. Ideal? Maybe not, but another day of waiting wasn't going to kill me at this point! Plus, it would give me some extra time to spend with mom and dad AND to read my teaching manual (I'm currently 63 pages in and it is 150).

And here comes the coolest part to all of this...if you talked to me about this trip in the last week, you would know that I have been feeling completely confident about everything EXCEPT traveling alone internationally with multiple stops. It has been a source of anxiety for me, and something I have been praying about and have asked others to pray about for me. That is why my unfortunate change of plans was really a blessing in disguise...with my new travel itinerary, I will be meeting up with another girl on the trip in Washington DC and traveling on the same planes with her all the way to Malawi.

Within five minutes of finding out that my original flight had been cancelled, my dad said "God works in mysterious ways." I actually got mad at him for saying that. Turns out he was more right than I could have imagined. God works in mysterious ways, and sometimes as eager as we are, it is best to do things on God's own time.

So I'm excited to be leaving for Malawi, a day later than planned, but still just as on fire for the trip, and maybe even more confident and with less anxiety than before. Thanks be to God. :)