(due to certain political reasons this blog will be censored very badly)
so with my second family in the H*ly L*nd, I'm sitting in Ir*n, connecting Global with these people of Tehr*n. YOUR WORLD WILL SHAKE, because God really comes through in every single way you can believe.
Q: "Has it been a disappointment being away from the group?"
A: Yes, its very hard to be away from everyone, its hard to think that life could even go on, but we have to sacrifice things for the Glory of G*d.
Q:"Being a M*ssian*c J*w how does it feel giving up the H*ly L*nd?"
A: Sjoe, that was a hard one, what made it even harder was possibly not spending the end of the journey with the team. It still haunts me at night.
Q:"How do you know that G*d wants you, where you are? And hearing that a lot of family and close friends said you were doing the wrong thing, what kept you going?"
A: I took a step of faith, I knew that it was a possibility, and i never doubted until everyone else started asking questions. To be honest after that i wanted to "wuss" out, but now being in this place I know G*d needs me here.
Starting from the beginning...
The date is 3 Oct 2011
I woke up in a hot room, Jarred had gotten up to make food, putting on my shirt almost in a rush of panic because i was late for breakfast, i have this feeling i should see when my flight leaves Cairo to Dubai. I was positive that it left on the 6, but yet it was nagging on my heart. I picked up my SAA black ticket holder and re-checked. With a great big panic I ran outside. Tripping over my bag and then the fans power plug I stumble across Jono who is sitting emailing. With a great rush of adrenaline I let out 3 of the worse words a traveller can say "I leave tomorrow". I knew it would take me a day to get to Cairo alone. Jono looks up and says "don't worry buddy, we will get you on the bus that leaves tonight". This was the biggest shock I had to deal with. Sitting in the bus station I see a small Arabic man sitting busy looking at me. It was freaky to say the least but yet i knew that tonight this man will be my seat partner.
True as bob, this limpy man sat next to me. he had a dark brown cane and smelt of smoke. I wasn't very impressed because I knew this trip might be my last one before heading south to my home. I knew the possibility of traveling with my team was getting further and further out of reach. The bus was soon full and off we went, on our way to Cairo. Out of no where the man next to me starts to talk to me. "I'm Walid, 23 year old, I work at the lighthouse" a sense of agony came into my body, it was 11:30pm and the night before I didn't sleep. I sank in my chair and underneath my breath I prayed "let this be effortless, Amen". 5 minutes later this man was in tears, why? Because he was traumatized by love, the love of his earthly life, I tried to preach about Jesus but I couldn't, not even Christ would come. Looking at his face, all scrunched up I knew the gospel isn't words, its not a simple gesture of "Jesus died for you" but rather "Jesus loves you" and so I tried to be as supporting as I could, he didn't want to hear about religion, or that everything was going to be okay, he just wanted someone to care, and thats what i was called for that night, just to care. People don't want to hear what we have to say, mostly people just want to be heard. When they are heard only then will they listen.
We arrived in Cairo, at 5am, my plane was leaving in 5 hours time. Walid helped me get a taxi and shared the fare with me...or so I thought. After dropping Walid off, he told me the fare shouldn't be more than 150 pounds. Of course I knew I was being cheated but, I haven't slept for 2 nights and hearing of how Walid's wife left him of 6 months of what seemed to be wonderful marriage I wasn't going to argue. On the way to the airport, I realized I didn't have enough money on me, I only had euros, so as any human I panicked and the evil taxi driver said he would take 15euros, of course he would say that he was going to be a lucky man today making over 300egypt pounds in less the 5 minutes. but I didn't have the energy, I just gave it to him o get him off my back, he wanted more but I snapped and told him to be quiet and to get me to the airport.
Walking into the airport leaving the crooked situation behind me, praying for forgiveness I entered an even more corrupt system, with only 10 egyptian pounds in my wallet, a few slips and about 5 turkish lera two very kind "official workers" came up and kindly asked if they could help me, and as an eager traveller I accepted, after walking towards guard gates to get to the counters to check-in a very buff looking man wearing what seemed too look like a navy suit spoke Arabic to the two "kind" gentlemen who were helping me, a quick turn a whisper came from the "nice" man saying "come give me 10 pounds quick" so thinking this was the entrance to a possible freedom I gave the man the rest of my money and he then replied "don't you have more". If evil was an emotion, then that was the outcome, almost full of rage a reply from the bottom of my lungs snapped: "give me my 10 pounds back" the two men rushed off in a quick heart beat, and there went all my money. As I took a step into the next phase of the airport the confused navy buff man thing, stops me and says "Emirates counter will open in 1hour 30min". No cash, no energy, and 2hours remaining, this could have been worst.
After waiting my sentence I passed the guards, and again I was asked for 20pounds, and I just simply said "in your wildest dreams, buddy". Counter 37, Emirates flight number EK755 to Dubai, thats it, thats my counter, no-one was there. Eventually the when people did come out of the offices they filled counters 38-41...Yes leaving me out the picture, so I went to the back of the line, almost the edge of screaming and potential blood, I prayed "where are You? I can't feel You". I finally got to the front and guess what, my ticket was the wrong ticket I was booked for the later flight. Forgetting my passport I just sat on the uncomfortable steel chairs. After a quick call and a long prayer, I got up and set off to get my passport, on my arrival to the counter then check-in guy handed me my ticket and replied "I got you a seat for this flight, enjoy" grabbing my passport everything was beginning its turn, I was on my way to Dubai, setting off for Ir*n.
Stay tuned for the next bit.....coming to this website soon