First South Africa Update- traveling

January 27, 2015 | 3:30pm (Indiana time) 

I sit in the window seat, watching a water drop slowly quiver its way to the top of the window. Glancing down, I see snow-dusted fields, the last that I will see of them until at least August. The thin but transparent cloud cover adds to the illusion that everything on the ground is one shade or another of white. If you're wondering if this whole moving to Africa thing feels real yet, the answer is most definitely not. I didn't even cry my eyes out at the airport, because after all, it is only a see you later. I am still at a loss for words. Is this really happening? 

As I was reading my Bible earlier this week, God gave me Song of Solomon 2:10-13 which says: 

"My beloved spoke and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.'" 

I feel God calling me away for this season of my life. For so long I have felt the desire to do something MORE with my life, and the day has finally come. I know He's going to teach me some powerful lessons and grow me more than ever before. I am going to need Him more desperately, more often, and in more tangible ways. He's going to strip me of any need outside of my need for Him. None of this is going to be easy. I want to thank everyone for their continued prayers and thoughts and messages; this is going to be crazy in the best way possible. I can finally say it for real: IM GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!!! 

January 27, 2015 | 11:35pm (Indiana time) 

I've been on the second plane for a little more than 5 hours now. Carly's and my plane was late leaving, so it arrived about 20 minutes later than expected. We only had an hour and a half layover in Washington, D.C., and the delay cut it down to about and hour and ten minutes. We ended up having to take a shuttle and two trains to our terminal, and by the time we got to our gate it was about 5:10 (our flight left at 5:40). As we approached the gate, it looked strangely empty. I heard Carly next to me say, "Oh, are they boarding already?" Turns out, we were the very last ones on the plane. I'm sure we would have been fine if we had taken a little longer, because the plane left on time half an hour later. All of my fellow interns (except for one, who is a returning 2nd year intern) are on this flight with me and it has been absolutely amazing finally meeting them for real. It is such a strange and wonderful thing to recognize people you've never actually met before, but for whom you have been praying and who have been praying for you! We all immediately clicked, and I'm already looking forward to spending the next year with them. 

Now I'm sitting here on the plane, all the lights turned out and most everyone asleep. I can't sleep. My eyes burn from tiredness and I'm exhausted, but the adrenaline still hasn't stopped. Everything is still so surreal, and I'm sure it will be for a while. I really want to sleep, but here I sit, writing this instead. I'm torn between the desires to eat a mountain of food and to run a couple laps. My legs are sore. 

That's about it right now. We still have a little more than an hour until the plane lands, and even then, we will only be landed for an hour. We won't even get off the plane. Then we will take off again and have another 8 1/2 hours of flight. 

January 28, 2015 | 8:15am Indiana time, 3:15pm SA time

I finally was able to go to sleep sometime between 3 and 4am Indiana time, and I got a solid two hours at least, judging by the number of Lord of the Rings soundtracks I got through. We now have about 2 and a half hours left on the plane! It's strange, because all the shutters on the plane are pulled down so people can sleep, so it's really dark in here, but it's daylight outside. My internal clock isn't sure what to think right now. Is it 8am or 3pm??? In about 20 minutes the crew will serve us lunch, the third meal since we've been on the plane.