That's a Wrap

We would like to thank all of you who followed this blog and prayed for us! Your partnership for the sake of the gospel of joy has enabled us to go further and longer than we ever would have on our own. May Father reward you all for your faithfulness.

Thursday morning, June 30th, we had a time in the morning to digest and unpack the trip and all we had done and seen. It was an important time in the Spirit as we came to see things from God's perspective. Later we had a time to pray of and encourage each other, sort of an abbreviated "Barnabas" circle.  Afterward we got one last chance to walk around the base and absorb as much as we could of the beauty and people. We packed up and were on our way to the airport by 9:30AM PST.

At the airport there was a final last test of our patience. Lines, lines, lines and just when we thought we would pass out more lines. We waited to check in for about and hour at least and then waited to go through customs to exit the country for another hour, which pushed us right up to the limit to make our flight to Charlotte, NC. It was a smooth flight, thankfully, but one that was running behind schedule. When we finally got off the plane we only had about 1 hour and 5 minutes to go through immigration and customs, re-check the couple checked bags we had, go through the TSA checkpoint and then get to our plane to board. We thought it would be impossible. All of us were in a scramble, some going this way others going that. Miraculously we all ended up at the gate to board our flight, coming in pairs of two. they held the flight an extra ten minutes for us, because our team of 18 was large enough to make that sacrifice. An extra miracle was that Brandon lost his boarding pass for this flight so had to go through the extra step of getting another boarding passed printed in the already impossible line of checkpoints we had to go through.

But through it all we managed to keep spirits lifted up and encouraged by the grace of God. After two flights full of great and divinely blessed conversation/interaction with other passengers we touched down PDX on time around 10:20PM exactly 2 weeks later from the time and place we departed!

Some of the team getting ready for take-off on the way home

Our team was really encouraged by the compliments we received from the YWAM staff, that felt refreshed by us and quickly bonded to us. Even the TSA agents enjoyed us, saying "you guys made my day." Now if that isn't favor I don't know what is. Great team. Great purpose. Great God.

Thanks to all.