We have arrived
Thank you for everyone who joined in and prayed us through our journey to Malawi. It has been God directed the entire way.
Our journey began Tuesday morning about 2am with a last minute trip to the storage unit to find Melissa’s contact refills which were placed in a bag in the day before. We found the 24 hour access available sign to be false and we were unable to get in. But this truly wasn’t an indicator of how the rest of the trip went.
After returning, Joe’s parents kindly drove us to the Charlotte International Airport at 3:40am and then waited until we were checked in to pray for us.
Check in went very well….WE DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY FOR ANY OVERWEIGHT BAGS!! This is huge for us. When we move, we do move, meaning we take books, medicine and a few other comforts. The counter clerks for United were very helpful and hospitable. We have learned that smiles will get you a long way.
Our first flight left charlotte at 6:00 am and landed an hour later in Washington D.C. In D.C. we were changing carriers to Ethiopian Airlines, and fortunately the Charlotte clerks were able to check our bags all the way to Malawi, but were unable to print boarding passes for us. Once we landed, the hunt was on to find out if we had to exit the terminal to get boarding passes, or if the gate clerk could provide them. The gate counter was able to provide them and we learned we were only able to take on board 1 carry-on of 15 lbs. or less. HA! This is a complete joke, anyone who has travelled knows that an empty bag alone can weight that much. We were reluctant to release our rolling carry-ons, but in the end we took out what was valuable, reorganized, paid them to place the bags in the cargo hold. They then wanted to weigh our laptop bags. Both Joe and Melissa’s bags were over 25lbs! We were blessed with clerks who chose not to charge us for them being over the 15 lbs. limit.
While we waited, we met a few other American couples headed to other African countries. We boarded our Ethiopian Airways 767 around 10 am and were off.
We watched movies, read, and napped. Around midnight we landed for an hour in Rome to refuel and get a fresh crew. On our leg from Rome to Ethiopia we slept most of the time.
We arrived in Ethiopia mid morning. We knew we needed to purchase an entry visa but other than that we didn’t know much. The visa purchase was fairly easy, except the officers where unaware that the airlines had indefinitely cancelled the afternoon flight to Malawi and kept asking why we were spending one night in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. One of our main goals was to wait in customs long enough to make sure that the luggage we checked all the way to Malawi didn’t come out and disappear. It didn’t. It went straight onto Malawi like it should have.
We exited baggage claim, and as we were searching for our hotel shuttle transport, we locked eyes with a man who looked very familiar. It was our friend, Sunny, who we knew/met while working in Uruguay in 2007. He works for the US consulate and is now stationed in Ethiopia. He happened to be waiting to pick up someone else. How good is our God?!?
Sunny was so gracious to take us to dinner Wednesday night and point out a few of the sights along the way. We had a great time, and it was great to leave the hotel. Ethiopia was colder than we expected it to be…in the 50’s. We didn’t have enough clothing with us in our carry-on, but we were able to layer. Sunny also brought us some awesome snacks for the plane ride the next day. Never underestimate our God.
Me, Joe, and Sunny
Thursday morning we were up early again and back at the airport at 7:30 am, this time boarding our flight to Lilongwe. This flight was about 6 hours total, with one stop. It stopped in Lubumbashi, which is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A few passengers got off the plane and a few more got on. This was the first place I have ever landed that doesn’t have a security fence around the airport. Also it has these small paths leading in and out of the bush onto the runway. As we were landing, we saw people coming out to see us land. The man sitting next to us said they are probably waiting for some relief planes because the UN and other organizations have been involved there for many years. He also said that even though it is called a democracy, there isn’t much about it that is democratic.
It was a quick one-hour hop from Lubumbashi to Malawi, and thankfully entry into the country was very simple. The test was then to see if all of our bags made it. The entire baggage claim area consisted of one, half moon shaped carousel about 20 feet long. We’ve never seen anything like it servicing planes so large. Needless to say it was total chaos. If you finally got near to get your bags, the problem was then getting out. However we were surprised and amazed when we saw that all of our bags made it without problem and in a timely manor.
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for our safe journey, we have arrived and have enjoyed our first week.
Please pray for next week as we begin a tour around the country shooting interviews for the programs. The district coordinators will also be starting to train the pastors in their region.
We are so excited to be here and we will let you know more about the culture, the people and the country soon.
Joe and Melissa
Thank you for everyone who joined in and prayed us through our journey to Malawi. It has been God directed the entire way.
Our journey began Tuesday morning about 2am with a last minute trip to the storage unit to find Melissa’s contact refills which were placed in a bag in the day before. We found the 24 hour access available sign to be false and we were unable to get in. But this truly wasn’t an indicator of how the rest of the trip went.
After returning, Joe’s parents kindly drove us to the Charlotte International Airport at 3:40am and then waited until we were checked in to pray for us.
Check in went very well….WE DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY FOR ANY OVERWEIGHT BAGS!! This is huge for us. When we move, we do move, meaning we take books, medicine and a few other comforts. The counter clerks for United were very helpful and hospitable. We have learned that smiles will get you a long way.
Our first flight left charlotte at 6:00 am and landed an hour later in Washington D.C. In D.C. we were changing carriers to Ethiopian Airlines, and fortunately the Charlotte clerks were able to check our bags all the way to Malawi, but were unable to print boarding passes for us. Once we landed, the hunt was on to find out if we had to exit the terminal to get boarding passes, or if the gate clerk could provide them. The gate counter was able to provide them and we learned we were only able to take on board 1 carry-on of 15 lbs. or less. HA! This is a complete joke, anyone who has travelled knows that an empty bag alone can weight that much. We were reluctant to release our rolling carry-ons, but in the end we took out what was valuable, reorganized, paid them to place the bags in the cargo hold. They then wanted to weigh our laptop bags. Both Joe and Melissa’s bags were over 25lbs! We were blessed with clerks who chose not to charge us for them being over the 15 lbs. limit.
While we waited, we met a few other American couples headed to other African countries. We boarded our Ethiopian Airways 767 around 10 am and were off.
We watched movies, read, and napped. Around midnight we landed for an hour in Rome to refuel and get a fresh crew. On our leg from Rome to Ethiopia we slept most of the time.
We arrived in Ethiopia mid morning. We knew we needed to purchase an entry visa but other than that we didn’t know much. The visa purchase was fairly easy, except the officers where unaware that the airlines had indefinitely cancelled the afternoon flight to Malawi and kept asking why we were spending one night in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. One of our main goals was to wait in customs long enough to make sure that the luggage we checked all the way to Malawi didn’t come out and disappear. It didn’t. It went straight onto Malawi like it should have.
We exited baggage claim, and as we were searching for our hotel shuttle transport, we locked eyes with a man who looked very familiar. It was our friend, Sunny, who we knew/met while working in Uruguay in 2007. He works for the US consulate and is now stationed in Ethiopia. He happened to be waiting to pick up someone else. How good is our God?!?
Sunny was so gracious to take us to dinner Wednesday night and point out a few of the sights along the way. We had a great time, and it was great to leave the hotel. Ethiopia was colder than we expected it to be…in the 50’s. We didn’t have enough clothing with us in our carry-on, but we were able to layer. Sunny also brought us some awesome snacks for the plane ride the next day. Never underestimate our God.
Me, Joe, and SunnyThursday morning we were up early again and back at the airport at 7:30 am, this time boarding our flight to Lilongwe. This flight was about 6 hours total, with one stop. It stopped in Lubumbashi, which is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A few passengers got off the plane and a few more got on. This was the first place I have ever landed that doesn’t have a security fence around the airport. Also it has these small paths leading in and out of the bush onto the runway. As we were landing, we saw people coming out to see us land. The man sitting next to us said they are probably waiting for some relief planes because the UN and other organizations have been involved there for many years. He also said that even though it is called a democracy, there isn’t much about it that is democratic.
It was a quick one-hour hop from Lubumbashi to Malawi, and thankfully entry into the country was very simple. The test was then to see if all of our bags made it. The entire baggage claim area consisted of one, half moon shaped carousel about 20 feet long. We’ve never seen anything like it servicing planes so large. Needless to say it was total chaos. If you finally got near to get your bags, the problem was then getting out. However we were surprised and amazed when we saw that all of our bags made it without problem and in a timely manor.
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for our safe journey, we have arrived and have enjoyed our first week.
Please pray for next week as we begin a tour around the country shooting interviews for the programs. The district coordinators will also be starting to train the pastors in their region.
We are so excited to be here and we will let you know more about the culture, the people and the country soon.
Joe and Melissa
