As we are going through and sorting things and processing, we will put up some posts that were written and never posted. Some we never got time to type, but looking back are very “prophetic”. Some were started and never finished. Hopefully we are able to be a little more disconnected and not let emotions dictate (too much-we still want to be real). They were written before, edited now, but not too much. We’ll try to let you know ahead of time when it was written.
This was written in the last month or so.
The day we left the bible college really sucked. We had something precious stolen from us by a national the kids thought was their friend/elder/pastor/someone they could trust. So not only did we have to hold our children as they wept the tears of sorrow and saying goodbye to their friends, we had to help them mourn an unexpected loss. Cybil had a tough time and bawled and bawled, fairly rare for her. The students were visibly uncomfortable as they knew what happened too and who did it. We pulled out of the college, in the bus, by ourselves (we drove ourselves to Lusaka and just left it at the airport in the morning) and Myron starts singing, “I will follow Jesus, I will follow Jesus, I will follow Jesus…” Out of the mouths of babes!
To recap the day, we had loaded the bus the day before. We drove down to the main campus and parked and began saying goodbyes, starting with the ladies. The kids there had made cards and flowers for our children, it was sweet. We had a few gifts to give so Brian took care of that while Kelly started the process of goodbyes. Carol (Lackson’s wife) was having a hard time. Brian said she came up to him, said thank you and just started weeping. Kelly wasn’t there at that time, but as we started the goodbye hugs Carol was still crying. We later found out from our missionary friends that it is VERY RARE for Zambian women to cry like that, so we should hang on to it as it was very special.
We walked around the campus and said goodbye to a few of the workers, to Alex the Deputy Headman and a few others. There was a group of pastors there at the time and we were looking for George. We found one group, but he wasn’t with them. There was a Pastor Henry (not the one from the bible school) in that group. What an amazing bunch of guys. Brian has met many of them each year as they came for training and helping at the school. They were very disappointed to hear that we were leaving, but when we began telling them why, they immediately understood. And then they prayed. How awesome-the tears flowed and the prayers went to heaven. Isn’t it just great how the Spirit moves people on what to pray and how to encourage, just at the time you need it? He is Good.
We continue looking for George and finally found him. The students took a break in class and came out to say goodbye. That is when we found out about the theft. Someone else offered to take care of that issue for us so we left believing it would be taken care of. Sadly, it never was. (And that is where I have to ask, isn't tolerating sin a sin itself?)
We stayed at the good ol’ Zebra lodge. We had gotten Paul and Lori a room, but since they didn’t come in, the lodge offered to apply it to the meal charge so we weren’t out any money anyway. Had a good meal, went to bed and hopped on the bus in the morning. We stopped at a friend’s house and exchanged some money and got a few boxes of luggage from them to take back.
The airport wasn’t too horrible, but we did have a few problems. We had 23 bags/boxes, we started with 22. One chest was too heavy, which we knew, but the BA agent assured us it would be okay. Not so. Brian stayed back to rewrap it while Kelly continued through with the kids. We hadn’t eaten so we thought we could get a bite upstairs but they were closed. That was okay because we had to head down through security to the plane as soon as we made it up. Brian caught up to us finally and we waited only about 15 minutes to then get on the plane.
That flight was 10 hours. It went pretty good. The travel agent had booked us in the bulkhead so Henry had a seat to sit in! It was a nice option for the few minutes at a time he would do it. He was teething that week and spent a lot of time on the airplane nursing. Thankfully he wasn’t completely weaned yet. The flights were uneventful. No puke, no big poops, lots of sleeping. We got a taxi in London and went to a really nice hotel. We had planned to let the kids swim, but we just didn’t make it. Henry was still crabby. They had a really nice buffet so we ate and everyone had hot baths. All went to bed and we were up the next morning for our next flight. We checked on all of our luggage and supposedly it was all there. One piece did make a detour to Manchester, England before getting to Minnesota though. This next flight was 8 hours, not too bad but Henry was a lot crabbier and the plane was a lot fuller.
We arrived in Chicago and began the process of collecting 23 bags, 6 of them oversized. We had 12 carts of luggage to go through customs. Luckily the customs people were great and didn’t ask anything and let us pass through. American Airlines was right there to take all of our luggage and we rushed through to the complete other side of the airport in 2 groups and made it there with about 15 minutes to spare. Everyone (but Kelly) was asleep before takeoff. We arrived in Minneapolis to Kelly’s mom and sis-in-law, Brian’s folks and bro and girlfriend. An hour later we had all the luggage loaded and given an address to send the missing bag to.
We stayed at Brian’s other brothers where we finally crashed. We finished the journey the next day and unloaded at the farm. We saw Kelly’s folks that night. The following week was MEA and break for Wheaton, so we had family around on both sides.
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