around the world with Jesus

I’ll admit, that often when seeing other people my mind wanders, wondering their story. Like one time, I saw a pink Cadillac with a Mary Kay sticker on it and just three burly men were in the car…what’s up with that? What is their story?

I’ve flown a number of times, but never have had an experience like today.

I’ve been to Africa a few times and have met some absolutely wonderful people from remote areas that I would imagine could experience some big culture shock in my country.

Today, a woman from Mali flew next to me from Chicago to Paris (I’m on my way to Armenia). She was experiencing significant culture shock. She didn’t speak English or French (it was an Air France flight) or any other major language. I’m not sure what language she was speaking. The only way I got her name/country was when she showed me her passport. She’s in her 60s and the passport didn’t have any stamps in it. I didn’t understand the no stamps part.

The flight attendants…and I’ve not seen this before…were drawing pictures of cows and chickens on her menu, so she’d know her dinner choices. They even made cow and chicken noises. She got chicken.

When the plane started backing up from the gate, she got visibly scared, and kept holding on to the seat in front of her. I tried to calm her down. The flight attendant asked me if I wanted to move. “Nope.”

She looked at my cell phone with awe, as if she wondered what it was or something. As we started speeding down the runway, she grabbed my arm with both of hers and held on tightly for quite some time.

I grabbed my camera towards the end of the flight and took this photo…

She loved seeing it. I think it may have been one of the first digital cameras she’s seen up close.

Anyways, while it’s certainly none of my business, I wonder if she was visiting family. I wonder if she needed medical treatment. Vacation? Someone’s guest for a presentation or something? Wander-lust?

That all being said, she’s a child of God, and a special person. I don’t need to know her story, and will never learn it. However, He knows her and understands whatever language that was quite well.

So I’m on the road again, meeting up with the team soon in Armenia. I’m looking forward to blogging more about that…

I told the team when I last saw them to let me know what they wanted, and I’d try and bring it to them when I meet up with them later this week.

Here’s the list of what they requested:

• Dove Dark Chocolate Promises
• Tazo Green Tea
• Burts Bees Chapstick (the regular kind, either comes in a tin or a tube)
• Dove Milk Chocolate Promises (in the bag)
• Excedrin Migrain
• Diet Mountain Dew
• A coat left in the boys room in the intern house
• Reduced Fat Skippy Peanut Butter
• Guitar Strings (I guess Chad needs more strings)

• Tortilla Chips and Salsa

Some of those things are for individuals, and some are for the whole team. Don’t tell them (or do they read this? we’ll see…) but I also brought some pumpkin pie filling and stove top stuffing…they’ll celebrate Thanksgiving in this part of the world, gotta have some taste of home.

If you were in a place like Moldova or something for a month, what would you want from home?

I’ve loved the last 11 days…lots and lots of time with family, staying late at the house and coming home early…and earning Incredible Pizza tickets. I’ve eaten some great food, and laughed with (at) our Presidential candidates.

Did you see them the other night? Great stuff.

I think it’s imperitive that leaders have the ability to laugh at themselves. We’re facing serious times, but we can’t be serious 24/7. Both candidates had some great lines. My favorite lines from McCain were about Hillary’s potential support and his willingness to help Keith Olbermann decorate the MSNBC office, and the favorite Obama lines were in regards to his not being born in a manger, because he wasn’t. It was a fun night.

It reminded me of President Bush and Clinton, etc. and thoughts they share at the Washington Correspondent’s Dinner.

Anyways, I’ll hit the road again tomorrow in the midst of a busier than usual fall. I look forward to sharing thoughts from the road…and then to getting home to family again soon.

Here, Claire gives us a bit of a tour and her thoughts…

Then, we went back to the small church building (it’s actually more of a home) where they fed us and we had a service for about 25 kids. What a wonderful time. There’s a family from the main church in Sarata that’s sees this village as their mission…we loved partnering with them for this day. (We also provided a lot of groceries for the church and food for the ministry.)

While there, I met Maria (not her real name…). We were sitting down, and there were balloons on the floor and we, not knowing each other’s language, got in a mild balloon fight. Fun. We palled around for the rest of the afternoon.

I then learned her story. She’s 10-years-old and has a little sister. Her father has been gone for years and her mother left last year as well. She’s taken care of her little sister for months now. This church found her, and has been helping her. In fact, the couple pastoring the church are letting Maria and her sister move in with them. She’s now well fed, warm and has some adults who love her and are telling her about Jesus.

The larger church is working towards perhaps starting an orphanage to help children such as Maria and her sister.

Great girl, fun afternoon, honor for Convoy of Hope and our interns to partner with churches like this.

Today we're about an hour from the capital of Moldova in Sarata Galbena. I'm sitting in the first Pentecostal Church sanctioned by the Soviet Union…a miracle story (blogged it in June).

Tomorrow we'll work with this church to host a Convoy of Hope outreach. We're finishing the bagging of 500 bags of groceries, we'll soon set up and then pass out even more invitations in this village.

Clear and beautiful day.