God's Infinite wisdom (read: irony)

Well, six days after first leaving Seattle I have arrived. Along the way I: met a traveling minstrel, was the fourth member of a gospel quartet, sat next to one of Michael Jackson's former doctors who was obsessed with serial killers (please pray for him), got bumped from my flight TWICE, landed in Jo'berg with no clue what to do. Stayed at a house with two lovely old ladies (one of which was losing her mind), had dinner with four professors from Brazil, took the choppas (busses, transit) around Maputo, met two of the most delightful Colonels from the British army you could ever meet, and was in an airplane for a total of 26 hours.

There's too much there to tell in detail, so you'll have to ask me about them when I get back.

I got to Nampule about 11:30 am this morning (Saturday, July 11th). My plane arrived more than 2.5 hrs late after getting bumped, and then delayed, but by God's grace Victor and Christina were running very late and only got to the airport about 10 minutes before my flight. Nampula is much nicer than Maputo, it's more of a country town, much slower Smaller. The geography and climate is pretty much like vase expanse of nothing between George and Moses Lake on I-90 back home. I'll post pictures maybe sometime next week when I've taken some.

Anyways, I titles this post God's infinite irony for three big reasons. The first, is that except for seattle to LA, I didn't sit by English speaker the whole way. I was next to Frenchies and Italians and the Mozambicans the whole way. SO, I was looking forward to spending my time talking and making conversation, but God forced me to take A LOT of time just praying and reflecting and slowing down before my real journey started.

The second point of irony, is there were about 3 times during my flight (two bumps and one major delay) i was worried and freaking out about making connections. Each time, I found myself going back to having to just rely on God and ask him to pull through. And each time he did.

The third point of irony is now that I'm here at the orphanage, I feel very at home. The first reson is good. I'm surrounded by beautiful mountains. Just like seattle, I now have landmarks and fee sourrounded by something and know that I actually am somewhere instead of floating in some vast prairie. Also, the sucky point is that we're right underneath the flight path for the airport. Thankfully it is a small airport, but so far I've heard three flights. All jet engines. all loud. IT seems that no matter where I live I can't get away from these stinkin planes.

So I am here with all my luggage. When I settle down into life a little bit now I'll let y'all know how it its. And thanks so much for all you're prayers. Not say that I feel blissful or happy 24/7, but I defintely do feel all your prayers and they have indeed made a difference so far.

TJ