On the Road to Rwanda

I'm sitting in London Heathrow Airport after a 10 hour flight from Phoenix Easter Sunday night. My daughter and I are on our way to Rwanda to help with a youth conference held there, sponsored by the ELCA. Because I had such a public anxiety meltdown last July when I was supposed to go to Rwanda (see previous Rwanda posts) I decided to not tell anyone about this trip. No one but my immediate family knew I was going. No staff. No board members. No one. Kind of fun keeping a secret.

If you read the other Rwanda posts you got a sense of the anxiety I can experience before such trips. This trip I had done pretty well. Until Tuesday of last week. On Tuesday I received my first traffic ticket in the mail. I had a very challenging conversation with people close to me. I came down with a fever! Not good stuff for one prone to anxiety. But I kept practicing my skills. And even though I had some moments, from Saturday night on I was calm and ready to go. Ironically, I began to get a bit anxious because I wasn't feeling anxious, even though I was flying with the virus still in play. I was a bit nervous my anxiety would rob me of Easter but we had a great Easter morning at Grace!

From here we have a 10 hour flight to Johannesburg (Both BA flights were business class thanks to our points!) Then a 3 hour layover. A 4 hour flight to Nairobi. 3 hour layover. 1 hour to Rwanda. We arrive there 5:30 Tuesday evening--9 hours ahead of Phoenix. That's a long couple of days!

We will return home April 1. No joke.

Keep us in your prayers.

I will send as many updates as I can.