The Flights to Mozambique

4:30 AM on (Thursday, May 24th):

Quite an early start to what is the most gruelling leg of the journey from the comforts of the business of Charlotte, NC to the drastically slower pace of Mozambique. Meeting us at the airport is a young entourage to wish Sarah Beverage who is on this trip with us to Johannesburg ("Joburg"), South Africa. Sarah will be met by Brian Harrell who is the leader of a group of missionaries that covers the entire country of Mozambique for the International Mission Board. Sara, now entering her senior year at Hickory Grove Christian School, who will be giving up the next six weeks of her summer helping the Harrells in (city) by teaching young women in Biblical Motherhood as well as ESL to the locals. Sarah has aspirations to possibly be on the mission field herself someday. this trip will help her in making that decision.

7:30 AM (Thursday, May 24):

Depart Charlotte, NC for 2-hour flight to JFK Airport in New York

10:45 AM (Thursday, May 24)

Board flight from JFK for 13 hours flight to Johannesburg ("Joburg"), South Africa.

7:36 AM (Friday, May 25):

Once in Joburg, we are met with the news that Brian's flight from (city) has been delayed. Sarah, who was initially travelling with the guys, now appears to be on her own from Joburg to (city). As men with wives and in most cases daughters are left with a bit of uneasiness about leaving Sarah to board by herself and head to (city), Brian's hometown.

10:45 AM (Friday, May 25):

As the moment arrives for Sarah's departure, the guys walk Sarah up to the gate to turn her loose with a lone empty seat on the flight beside her -reserved for Brian. As a final glance is made to the escalator, Brian emerges from the top of the stairs with perspiration pouring from his brow arriving only a mere few moments before departure. Incredibly Brian will make the flight on time. A sense of relief comes over us all.

11:00 AM (Friday, May 25):

The rest of the guys on board the bus (that is correct) and head to the runway to board the plane for Pemba, Mozambique. The flight has less than twenty people, including pilots and a lone flight attendant. Most seats are full. Departure is 11:30 AM.

Pemba Airport receives only one flight per day from South Africa and typically only one departing the same day. As we fly over the expansiveness of South Africa and Mozambique, it is striking the lack of civilization that we witness looking down on the countryside compared to the cities that we just left. We pass over mountains and rivers headed for Northern Mozambique, very close to the Tanzanian border. To our East as we look out our plane windows to the seemingly endless Indian Ocean as we enter the last leg of our trip.

2:10 PM (Friday, May 25): 

Arrive in Mozambique

Monday

Today was a really great day for our team!  We started out with breakfast and a time of praise and worship led by Jason's wife (Amanda) and then Steven led us in a time of devotion. They both did a fabulous job. It was a wonderful time of coming together and reflecting on the Lord's goodness to us His people.

The remainder of the day we worked! When I say work, I mean some good old-fashioned manual labor type of work. Digging trenches, leveling and cutting tanks, and moving water! It's almost surreal to watch this system come together. The locals are very intrigued to learn how all this works together to produce food. One of the guys is traveling inland to buy some freshwater fish tomorrow. Lord willing everything will be close to up and running tomorrow afternoon. So far everything has gone really well.

We have been able to share multiple times through the phases of construction and one of the young guys took a Bible home with him yesterday to read and study. We are supposed to see him again on Tuesday at ESL for follow-up. Please continue to pray that God would bring people to Himself over the next few days.

We made it to South Africa!

We made it safely to South Africa and are looking forward to breakfast at the Mug and Bean. We have one more connecting flight to Pemba later this morning. Then we will spend the evening at a local spot and make the four-hour jeep ride up to the Smith's tomorrow morning. Please continue to pray for us and Sarah as we travel. Everyone is doing great!

Change of plans...we drove up to Jason's house tonight. Everyone is doing great!