Logistics

What an amazing trip to be a part of.  We are so thankful to our Lord for allowing us to have this experience with such an amazing group of students and leaders.  The opportunities that He placed in front of our team were unique, unexpected and definitely faith builders.  We could not have asked for a better team, better hosts or better speakers this trip.  We want to thank all of you who prayed and supported us during this trip.  The Lord was truly exalted during our trip and it is our hope that He remains the focus of those who experienced this trip.

Faith building was a huge part of this trip.  One aspect where my faith grew was in regards to logistics.  As Jimmy said many times over the course of the trip, the theme of the trip was transportation.  From the first flight being delayed even before we left Seatac to the final flight out of San Francisco being delayed the big issue was transportation.  Seeing how God provided for us during these stressful situations once again proved to us that He is in control and his provisions are always sufficient.

First there was the flight out of Seatac that has been chronicled previously in the blog.  The transportation theme continued when we went arrived in Pekanbaru where we were to have a bus and a van meeting us, a bus for the team and a van for the bags.  48 bags to move is a lot of suitcases!  The van did not show up but somehow we fit all of the bags on the van and still fit all of the team.  Pretty amazing.  I think packers from Ikea would approve. 

Even before we hit the bus we saw that the Lord had our back.  Last year on our trip I had to open about 20 of our 30 bags in front of customs agents in Pekanbaru and explain the contents to people who did not speak English and who would have liked us to pay taxes on the things inside that were meant for the orphanage.  This year we had even more bags and were expecting to have to pay some "extra taxes" upon our arrival.  Being that we were sponsored this year by Chevron there was an expediter there who helped us get all of our bags through and I only had to open up two bags.  We were through customs in 10 minutes.  If you have ever been to Pekanbaru you should know this is a world record time!

Back to transportation. So there were several mix ups regarding pick up times and even whether or not we had buses scheduled especially in the first several days of our arrival.  I was pretty frustrated at first thinking that I was the one who needed to be in control and on top of the situation.  That was when He reminded me that He was in control and that everything happens for a reason and in His perfect timing. Once that happened things seemed to go much more smoothly.  Resting in Him is such a relief.  It frees us to look at what blessings we have in our life and how stressing out about the details only take our focus off of His glory. 

One of the things we heard from some of the returners was that they thought there was too much down time where we would spend an hour or two a day on camp between activities.  Well thanks to a busier schedule and having to use Chevron buses, which needed to use a special bridge for over-sized vehicles that made each trip about 10-15 minutes longer, there was no down time for us.  In fact we were burning the midnight oil just to fit it all in.  When I asked the returners if they thought we got more in this time they all agreed that we could not have fit anymore in. 

We will be updating more in the next several days so please check in regularly over that time to hear about specific activities that stood out to us.  Again thank you for all of your support.  We really felt it while we were away and it was very much appreciated!