The journey

So many times over the past year I have used this word. I think it's perfect to describe much of life. For now I'm focusing on the process of preparing to go on the trip with this team and a huge faith-stretching time as we worked toward buying our airline tickets.

journey

This word can mean "a trip, traveling from one place to another" - sure. While that is what we did, and it was a LONG journey in that way, it was also "a passage from one stage to another."

From the time that Alli and I returned over a year ago, through the Sponsorship launch in May, the planning of the trip activities, the fundraising, the prayer time, the Bible study, the many meetings to discuss details of airline fares and packing lists, the emails and prayer requests and conversations with hundreds of people who wanted to know why in the world we were going to Africa, God took us on a journey like only He could.

Last year I typed up a simple bookmark with prayer reminders on it for our first trip to Swaziland. One request was that we would experience what God had for us, and for people to please not pray for everything to go smoothly, because truly that is not how faith is stretched or grown. There were moments I doubted that request, but knew it was the right thing. Trying to be courageous :-), I repeated that sentiment this time around. Some family members may have regretted that, but I really felt strongly that we were to surrender our plans, and ask God to lead us through what would build us into stronger believers.

Guess what? Everything didn't go smoothly.
Sometimes things just didn't even GO.

We became weary and stressed and pretty discouraged some days. The neat thing was that through that, our team of 9 really bonded and shared the emotions we were facing individually, so we weren't alone. I saw Marilyn quickly lead us into prayer on so many occasions, whenever we mentioned a burden. I heard others open their hearts and ask for wisdom and felt the compassion and tenderness in the room from the team. After Ken realized his job was going to prevent him from going on the trip, we mourned together. We were sad to not have his presence, but we also hurt for Marilyn knowing how she'd wanted to experience Swaziland with him. Then she offered to stay home with him, and give the money she'd raised toward our family's trip and help keep our little boys for us. Such selflessness and love!! We didn't feel it was time to give up yet, though we were getting closer and closer to the time to depart and knew that seats were filling up and we needed an answer or clear direction. When we were pretty sure God was not going to provide for my family of 4 to go, I was told to continue trusting and that the team would wait on us to have the money for our tickets, even when the majority was ready to purchase them already.

Through those trials, the testing of our faith did produce patience (James 1:3). It showed us His plan was much better. One huge example was those airline tickets. LaShea, Marilyn, and James frequently checked tickets prices with different airlines for months. Marilyn called several travel agents to try to find the best price for our dates of travel. We got the same basic quote over and over for months. The price was approximately $800 more per ticket than Alli and I paid last year. That was painful and very hard for our family to raise since we were buying four tickets. As fundraisers closed and we were blessed with proceeds and donations from others, we let ourselves get a little hopeful. Then the money stopped coming in, we had saved and earned all we could by doing extra jobs. We were almost to the 'one month till departure' point. It was clearly time to buy tickets, as far as we could tell, but our family just didn't have the money and we as a team needed to purchase them all together.

Then, on July 5, Marilyn was given the contact info of another agency to try. God was all over it.

She called and was given a flight for nearly $600 per person less than the other estimates. 

We also would receive allowance for three bags each, which would save us potential extra baggage fees. Then, we found out we'd have brief layovers in London each way, so could even explore an additional country most of us had never seen. 

We were so amazed! If we had bought tickets when we felt it made sense from a human perspective, we would have left two of my family members at home. We also would have spent over $4,000 more than was needed as a group!!

To say that we were flabbergasted and astonished is putting it mildly. We cannot explain the fares' cost. We couldn't even find the same price online anywhere on the British Airways site. All we know is that we had a large need and God filled it. "Exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine" - that is what God did BEFORE we ever left Alabama.Ya'll just wait to see what else He did!