Not Plane Old Travel | Uganda Trip #11
Today I start with a long post. It’s 3:30 am and we have arrived in Uganda. Otim (oh team), our usual driver, was at the Entebbe airport when we arrived. We are now in a rainy trip across the country.
We started our journey at a restaurant at MSP arriving there at 4 pm on New Year’s Day. We got to watch the first half of the Michigan game against Alabama. “We” are 1) Mike Evans, planter of Faith Community, New Richmond, and current Site Trainer of Training Leaders International (TLI). TLI provides the curriculum that we use to train the pastors we are in Uganda to serve. 2) Stu Dix, the planter of The Village Church of Baldwin and a summertime employee of Glacier National Park (along with his wife Cheryl and daughter Sarah are park ranger there) and 3) yours truly. We have made this trip about twelve times together and the privilege of doing the work we do and doing it with friends of mine is a great, great gift.
As we load the plane, I get an aisle seat next to an elderly man (which is really saying something for me to call someone elderly). I’m always on the lookout for the chance to move to another seat where there are two or more empty seats together. Mike and Stu are in the same row and have the outside two aisle seats with two empty seats between them. I turn and look at the row behind them-I struck gold! All four seats were empty with the plane nearly full. I slide over into the aisle seat in that row and the man next to me gives me a thumbs up. I’m “feeling it.’’
A few minutes later my gold disappears…quickly. A family of seven comes in with dad dragging a toddler by the arm, a mom seeking to comfort an infant, and two boys and a girl in the 6-10 age range. Their seats were in three different rows and the kids had carry-ons with no idea what to do with them. I helped them get things in the overhead bin and find their rightful seats. The children were understandably excited as they were on their first plane ride. They were in for a long day as they were headed to Nairobi, Kenya.
Everyone got buckled in and announcements were made, and we were off on time. About 15 minutes into the flight the ten-year-old boy taps my arm. Could I help him get a movie going (his parents were preoccupied with the little ones)? I finally settled in and got a movie going and about a ½ hour into the movie the man next to me taps me and points out that his screen is not functioning very well. I tell him I don’t know what to do, but I will ask a flight attendant to reset his screen. I get the attention of the first one that walks by and mention the need and she said she would address it.
Back to my movie (another tap) and the youngster wants to know how much longer it’s going to be. Up to this point, we have not gone an hour into the 8:20 trip to Amsterdam, with a matching trip to Nairobi. I show him how he can track the flight on his screen. I would say we had close to a dozen of these encounters throughout the flight. The two boys were sitting in the row behind Stu and Mike. They had contests seeing who could flip the fold down trays the quickest back into their closed position. They were having a blast. Stu and Mike, as they would get a slight push from the row behind them, not so much.
The last ½ hour was especially noteworthy. The younger of the two boys behind Mike and Stu wanted to know why the picture of the plane on the flight tracker wasn’t pointing down if we were going to land pretty soon. I introduced him to the elevation tracker, and he would report the descending numbers out loud for the neighbors. We were now in the tray tables up, arms rests down and seats in the upright position phase of the flight. The older one decided this was a good time to do two things: to push the button that called flight attendants and to unbuckle his seat belt and stand up. I encouraged him to stop and was joined by a flight attendant who was trying to get her section under control and safe. We landed and as I left one flight attendant thanked me three times for helping with the kids.
I don’t start doing “God’s work” when I land in Uganda. Ministry is a way of life and God uses the journey as much as the destination. Even though there is a time for rest, a time to pull away, a time to attend to self, God is not to be boxed into our lives, but the driving force in our life. This approach more accurately reflects a gospel-inspired life.
One big surprise during the flight to Amsterdam was that Jay (son of Brian and Jen Crim) and Emma (daughter of Carl and Julie Gaede of Tutapona fame) Crim approached me while we were in flight. When we unloaded, we chatted a bit in Amsterdam airport (they are working with Tutapona in eastern Europe working with refugees). These young marrieds are experiencing joys and pains that are unique for Americans. What a treat to see them! The picture is of Jay, Emma and us.
This is getting awfully long. I think I’ll wrap it up for today and pick things up in Nairobi in my next post.