Oh, the travels. I requested window seats (per usual) for my flights to Uganda. This usually turns out to be a smart move. It usually results in extra room and a place to lean if I fall asleep. It usually means I don’t have wake up when the other person needs to get of their seat or when the attendants push the beverage cart down the aisle and slam into your leg. In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t flown internationally in 10 years, and I forgot that 9 hours is a really long time to be on one flight. I forgot how often you have to get up to stretch your legs or use the restroom, and how awkward it is to try to wake up a 60 year old man (who took a narcotic sleeping aid) in order to get out of the window seat. I did learn my lesson, but found myself in the same situation on the second flight (10 hours this time) and both flights home. =)
Another thing that’s changed since 2002… You no longer have just three “premium” movies to choose from as in-flight entertainment. (I think the quotes are warranted… the movies on my return flight from the UK were Rugrats: The Movie, Collateral Damage, and that ridiculous Britney Spears movie.) Now, you have HUNDREDS of movies, HUNDREDS of albums , DOZENS of television shows, several video games, and even language courses to choose from. It certainly helps pass the time while you’re waiting for your neighbor to wake up and evaluating the decision to drink 32 ounces of water before the airplane even took off.
All humor aside, the travel to Uganda was totally blessed and free of complications! PTL! The team arrived at DFW 3 hours early for international check-in. I’m proud to announce that we packed our donations expertly, and all 13 donation suitcases weighed in at just over 49.5 pounds. We proceeded through security to a restaurant where we visited and exchanged excited stories, and I had the opportunity to meet some of the team members for the first time. (Well, the first time face-to-face. Cathy facilitated some really great Skype sessions with the entire group in the weeks leading up to the trip.)
While I was thrilled to meet the entire team and see sweet and familiar faces, I was over the moon to hug Lydia Mathis for the first time in months. For our non-Wacoan readers, Jay Mathis is the pastor of Grace Community Church (the church Brandi and Stanton attend) in Waco, and his lovely wife Lydia is on Generations’ Board of Directors. I met her years ago when we both volunteered for CareNet, but I was blessed to receive some intense prayer, encouragement, and spiritual counsel from the Mathises earlier this year when Brandi was diagnosed. Lydia is a firecracker, and being around her for any length of time leaves me with the intense desire to go home and journal about my hilarious family, read my bible like I have a desert thirst, take 2hour walk with God, and listen to 27 straight hours of praise music. She is a huge blessing in my life, and we tripped over our words for a solid hour because we were trying to catch up on 4 month of life commentary before we finished lunch. :p
As I mentioned above, the flights were relatively uncomplicated. I did watch a movie – by myself and uninterrupted – for the first time in years. It was certainly enjoyable, but most of my moments were spent listening to Brandi’s iPod and resting in the Spirit. For a little history: When Brandi was hospitalized in May, the ICU was very loud. Not just bothersome noise, but extremely painful, sorrowful, troubling sounds… and way too much whispering behind curtains. I confided to Jay and Lydia that I was concerned those sounds might overwhelm B’s efforts to rest and stay prayerful and hopeful – especially at night. No more than 2 hours later, Jay and Lydia brought an iPod to the hospital, loaded with 800 praise and worship songs! Brandi was able to listen to it in the ICU, and even more importantly, as she road in the back of the ambulance by herself to Dallas for an emergency tumor debulking (that they cancelled upon her arrival).
Brandi was kind enough to lend me the iPod for the Uganda trip, and I took great solace in the fact that I was listening to the same songs she had listened to earlier this summer. It was tremendously motivating, and in an instant those songs took me back to May 24th… to a place of complete vulnerability and an intense desire to allow God to sustain and lead me through the coming days.
That’s the exact place my spirit needed to be in preparation for what I would see and hear and feel in Uganda.
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