Friends, family, strangers… WE MADE IT! WE’RE IN INDIA! The journey is just beginning here, but I think it is safe to say that we began our adventure before we even stepped foot in Bangalore.
Our travel day madness began in the Atlanta airport when we realized we had left our printed visas at the AIM camp an hour and a half away. The quest for a printer in the airport (which you would think would be an easy feat) was to no avail. Luckily, a friend of a friend of someone who works for AIM said they could print the visas at their home in Atlanta and drive them to the airport. These beautiful souls indeed dropped off our visas, but we only had THREE minutes to spare! We checked our bags as the airport employees assured us there was little to no chance of us making our flight.
When we rounded the corner for the security checkpoint, the line was insane! Thanks to Jess, our fearless leader, and her boldness, the group got to cut some of the other people in line. After I got through security, without shoes on my feet, I ran to meet two of the other girls who had already made it through and pleaded with the lady at the gate to hold the doors open for the others.
Our reaction when we saw the rest of our group running towards us was one of sheer shock, excitement, and lots of leaping for joy! We had done it. We made our first flight! We had prayed for Jesus to show up on this trip, and He did. He already came through! Next stop, Chicago.
After we landed in Chicago, we took our sweet time and had lunch, which ranged from caramel covered apples to McDonalds’ pancakes (all very nutritious of course). We had a three hour layover and nothing could go wrong, right? That was quickly proven incorrect when Taylor Solberg, one of the girls on the team, had her last name spelt incorrectly on her boarding pass. As the rest of the plane was boarding and after close to an hour of reasoning with the airline workers, we got a thumbs up from our leaders: Taylor Solbert was good to go! As Taylor herself said, “God is bigger than a ‘T’ in my last name.” Next stop, Abu Dhabi.
Thirteen hours and 3 airplane meals later and we were in the airport in the United Arab Emirates! The only things that stood in our way were another boarding pass with a “T” in Taylor’s last name and a four hour plane ride to Bangalore. Apparently Abu Dhabi’s airport doesn’t worry with spelling because Taylor boarded the plane without a hitch! Next stop, BANGALORE!
We made it! Our gracious hosts Mary and Prakash greeted us with water, mango juice (which is extremely delicious), and these awesome jasmine flower leis! And after a short bus ride, we finally arrived at where we will be staying for the next month!
You could say there was some major spiritual warfare on the way here, but we are here nonetheless. It could have been easy for us to give up or lose hope on this 33 hour journey, but of no power of our own, God gave us the peace and fortitude to make it all the way here! Our God showed up. Our God prevailed over visas and misspellings and security lines. If His glory can be shown through merely the trip here, then how much more will it be expressed through the softening of hearts here in India!!!
God bless!
Josh
