By Jessi Moore
…and we are off! Thank you to everyone who prayed for our team. We have made it safely to Rwanda! Our journey to get here started with everyone meeting at the airport at 10, I know I had very mixed emotions between excited and anxious to see what God had in store for our team this time around. Once information was passed out and number tags were put on checked bags we went to get signed in! The rest of the team left me to watch the carry-on bags… don’t worry nothing got stolen! After checked bags were put in, we were ready to go through security – everyone’s favorite part – haha! It went smoothly and we made it through alive and well checked. We then went to our gate to get settled in and then went on the mission to find lunch. Everyone went very sophisticated with their meals which were Caribou, sweet and sour chicken, and Burger King. We were all settled in our gate and had no issues getting on the plane and settled. I was very impressed with Karina. She sat in front of me and the entire time sounded like she had a wonderful conversation with a stranger. It encouraged me to at least once on the way there to talk to a stranger for at least a minute. I succeeded, but first everyone had a great plane ride and we were in Washington Dulles.
Karen kept Annie and I company on our trip to Dunkin’ Donuts to get some donuts for our hungry stomachs. We had a short layover in which we saw how long Karina’s phone cord was, which was very entertaining. We again boarded our next plane with no issues. When we walked on my jaw dropped… the first class seats where extremely nice, the whole plane was very nice. Now due to time changes this was the flight to sleep on but none of us got very much sleep. We all enjoyed the screens in front of us to entertain us and Kirsten read a good book. After a very very long 7 hour flight we made it to Brussels. After a minor issue of separation from other team members we reunited and got on a shuttle to our gate. On this shuttle I completed my mission and talk to a stranger and I learned we have a lot in common. We both have a strong love for children she runs an orphanage and gives uniforms and clothes to her orphans. She was a very kind lady and I was very proud of myself for stepping out in faith and talking to her. That was another point of this journey where I was very encouraged.
We made it to our gate and waited for boarding to happen. Kirsten slept and Karina, Annie, and I all colored. We got in line to board and made it on the plane! My mom and I both took melatonin and I fell asleep very quickly and while I slept around 5 out of the 10.75 hours of our flight, my mom was not blessed with as much sleep. The plane landed in Uganda and we waited on the plane for about an hour while passengers going from Uganda to Brussels boarded. We then had a quick 35 minute flight and we landed. We made it to Rwanda at last after long hours of traveling. To say I was overjoyed was an understatement. I could not believe it was happening that I was back in the country that I loved so dearly. We got off the plane and got our visas and fairly quickly found all our bags and were packing them into cars to come to the guest house. We made it to the guest house and everyone was happy to be “home” or at least home for 12 days. We found our bedrooms and started to unpack and then we smelled the beautiful smell of food cooking. We came out to see dinner all ready for us. We sat down, said our prayers and dug in. It was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed every bite. After dinner we had a short team meeting just to go over possibly what tomorrow may look like and what to expect. Bruce ended it with an awesome devotional. We then all got ready for bed excited and anxious to see what this trip holds for each of us.