Swaziland Mission Trip Log

*I am part of a nine member team from Fairwood Church that is spending two weeks serving the people and missionaries in Swaziland, Africa. The next few posts will be updates on our journey.

Days 1 – 3 (Thursday – Saturday)
“44 hours”

The first three days of our Swaziland adventure take place primarily on planes, three of them to be exact. We took off from Seattle at two o’clock and headed for Paris on an Airbus 330, via Air France. It was a nine and a half hour jaunt that went by fairly quickly. There were lots of great movie, TV, and music options to choose from on our personal video players. I read a little, slept a little, and ate a little. We arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport in France at around 7 am Friday morning and all I can say is… maybe the French should put a little effort into that horrific place. Seriously, France, please spend some money from your, “Food for Oil” scandal… I mean "campaign" and fix that thing up.

From Paris we got a little taste from home and hopped (walked) aboard a Boeing 777. To my recollection this was the first time I have ridden in a 777. To be honest it felt like every other commercial jetliner that I’ve ever flown in. I think coach has a way of making you feel that way. Everything is small and you feel closed in upon, but all that aside, it sure beat trying to drive from Paris to Nigeria. During this magic carpet ride I met an extremely drunk Scotsman named Dean. It was fun to talk to him, though it was very tough to understand him do to his heavy Scottish accent combined with all red and white wine he had been drinking. It got a little weird toward the end of the flight when he ended up taking my picture so he could post it on his Facebook, but I figured, “All publicity is good publicity.”

Upon our arrival in Nigeria I was so excited to finally meet the prince to whom I’d been sending my credit card and personal banking information to for all these months leading up to our trip. However, much to my shock and dismay I found out that he was tied up and couldn’t meet me at the airport as we had arranged. A nice man on the street told me for $50 USD he would ensure I'd see him when we return home; these people are the best!

After a lovely baby wipe bath in the Lagos, Nigeria Airport, I happily took the chance to chat with my sister Erica online. It was nearing 8 pm local time in Nigeria and our conversation was cut short; it was time for us to board our final aircraft for the flight portion of our journey. At around 10 pm on Friday night the grand daddy of all aircraft (at least for now) the Boeing 747 rumbled down the runway and took off into the Nigerian night sky on its way to Johannesburg. That’s at least what DJ told me happened; I was asleep before take-off. Sitting in a seat for hours at a time watching TV and movies while being served food and drink is tough work!

Although I slept for a few moments at the beginning of that plane ride I wish I could have slept a few more. The first two flights were on board Air France and the programming and service they offered were truly great. South African Air, was adequate I was just tired of being in the air. Not being able to sleep was frustrating, it’s not usually something that’s a problem for me, but for whatever reason this time it was. I walked up and down the spacious (if you’re an ant) aisles of the vessel, stretching and looking at all the other people who were fast asleep in their seats. I was jealous of them and part of me wanted to run up and down the aisles screaming just to be spiteful, but I didn’t, after all I value my record of never going to prison. I knew that had I acted on crazy thought like that the story of the mission trip would include bail money and many tearful conversations with my wife as we waited for our lawyer to help us out.

Finally just after 5 am local time we touched down in Johannesburg, South Africa host of the 2010 World Cup (yawn). We were all just thrilled to be done flying. We could have been in Slovakia and charged with the task of driving the rest of the way and we would have been game as long as it didn’t include another plane ride.

With 12 of our 14 bags in hand (yes, they lost two) we headed towards customs. Doug Myers, the missionary we’re working with met with us after our passports were stamped helped us get our rental car secured. Shock of all shocks, our rental car was not actually there. With the few hours we had to kill we had a tasty breakfast at one of the airport restaurants. The Johannesburg Airport was looking great and ready to handle all the traffic that will surely accompany the World Cup in 2010.

We put a bow on Saturday and our epic air journey by enjoying some time with the Myers family. We had a buffet style dinner together and collectively attempted to figure out where we were and how we got here. It feels good to be in Swaziland, I'm ready to serve and look forward to a couple weeks without a flight.

About last night...

We had a fantastic night last night at Live. We are calling the month of July our "Music Month." We have four guest worship bands leading all month long and we finish with our first ever battle of the bands on the 29th to close it out. This is all in an effort to expose our students to different music styles and to stir up those musical gifts that may be lying dormant within them.

Our night and series started out with recording artist Jamie Bonife and her band leading worship. Jamie and her band are from Eastridge Christian Assembly up on the plateau (Sammamish, WA). They did a great job of engaging and leading our students in worship.

After some great worship time I had the pleasure of introducing our students to a youth pastor who has become a great friend of mine over the last year and a half. His name is Tyler Sollie, he's the youth pastor at Eastridge Christian Assembly, he is a great leader and incredibly fun to be around. He spoke about what it means to truly worship. He should know something about it too! Not only is he a great youth pastor he's also a tremendous worship leader (some people get all the talent). The students loved Tyler and it was a great start to our, "Music Month," with P. Tyler, Jamie, and the band.

Next week we welcome in The Brandon Bee Band. God is doing great things at Live, I hope you or a student you know can make it out during our Music Month, we'd love to see you.

Ready or Not... Here We Come!

It's July 1st and that means it's time to begin our summer internship. This morning I was joined by a group students who are ready to grow spiritually all summer long. It's been a busy few days leading up to the start of internship, but when the students pulled into the parking lot I knew it was worth all the pressure I was feeling.

This year we have four of our youth staff members helping organize and operate the internship. Interns meet and work at the church on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday each week for the months of July and August. They work together on ministry projects, receive teaching from our church staff, study the Bible, read a few books, and enjoy hanging out together all summer long.

I love the time we get to spend with our students throughout the summer. It's fun to see them grow spiritually, and not just take the summer off from God and the church. Helping students develop a love for God and his house is truly one of the coolest parts about my job. I'm looking forward to a busy and productive summer.