A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO CHURCH, My most amazing trip – We have never been able to give proper attention to our missions field in the way of visits. So in 1997, I had a bright idea. Loosely interpreted, that means a crazy idea to most people. I learned United Airlines offered an around the world ticket for only $2500. If you know travel, there are some single roundtrips costing that much. So I proposed a trip which would stop at every missions field of the IPCC except Mexico which was easier to reach than the others. The Missions Board approved, but the numbers interested dwindled the closer the deadline got. I got down to me and our friend, Ron Bower. We were to start at the Brazil Quadrennial Convention. Going with us there were others who stayed for the duration of the convention and returned home. I was concerned that the Brazil convention would be the highlight of the trip with ups and downs along the way. I was very wrong. The Brazilian convention, as always, was a powerful and exhilarating experience. We stayed for the bulk of the convention and then caught a Kenyan Airlines plane from Sao Paulo to Johannesburg. That flight was about an hour and a half late, but, not-to-worry, we had a layover in Johannesburg. Flying all night, we landed and rented a car. We drove, on the left side, to Pretoria, the capitol and saw some sights and returned to Johannesburg. On the way to the hotel, I got turned around and ended up in downtown Johannesburg at night. It was in the heat of the Apartheid upheaval and was none of those white Afrikaners were anywhere in this neighborhood. I remember stopping at a light and leaving enough room between us and the car in front in case we had to make a strong getaway. We got to Nairobi the next day. Would this be an expected valley of the trip? Not on your life. You can’t visit Kaimosi without being impressed with the work being done there. I believe that may have been the trip we traveled into the desert for a groundbreaking. It was more like a sand-spreading service, about 200 miles south of Sudan. We were supposed to have a baptism, but there was not water in town to be found. Later on in the trip, we went south to Masai Land, near Kilimanjaro. There, we visited a church where the people had met under a tree until a tiny church in the coal country of West Virginia raised money to build a nice church. On the plane that night with all the reading lights seemingly turned off except mine, I couldn’t sleep but for recalling the amazing day’s activities. My secretary said the article I wrote that night, “I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked” was the best I had ever written. I had been so moved. We arrived in Bombay at about 2 AM. Getting into Columbus on the way to the airport, I recalled I had left my shot records at home. But I had never been asked for them and to go back would risk missing my flight so I proceeded to the airport. This morning, I got up to the immigration officer and handed him my passport, complete with my Indian visa and heard the words, “Immunization Records.” Stuttering, I told him I left them at home. “7 Days in the hospital quarantine,” he said. I said, “But I’m leaving in 5 days!” He wouldn’t budge. I said I could call home and have them faxed, but to no avail. We talked, he shook his head and I was about to do what I don’t believe in doing, reach in my billfold to strengthen my argument when he called a superior over who eventually waved me through. There has been an outbreak of Smallpox or Yellow Fever in Africa and they were checking everyone coming from Africa. Whew! Seeing the sights of our Bethel Foundation’s work has always been impressive, with improvements to see each trip. From India, we went to Hong Kong where we once had a missionary, but after booking the trip we learned he had died. So I decided that would be two days of R&R in Hong Kong. That idea changed when I attended a missions conference in Virginia Beach and met a Bible smuggling missionary who ran a station in Hong Kong near the Chinese border. (Hong Kong was a British colony until July that year.) He agreed to let us come. You see, 27 years earlier while in the Army, I read the book, “God’s Smuggler” by Brother Andrew. He so impressed me and I thought, “Oh, how I wish I were that brave!” The missions compound was about a hundred steps up, but we made it with our bags. I was assigned two trips with five people from the Philippines. We were given instructions and I packed my old garment bag with Bibles and evangelism books. We got off the train in China and had to go and get a visa and then go through customs. We had been told if there was a crowd to try to sneak around the x-ray machine to avoid getting caught. (No, I wasn’t that brave. An American getting caught would simply be cursed out and his Bibles taken away. But the Chinese recipient could get 15 years in prison.) The first trip went so well that I decided I would double-down on the second trip. I had so many books in my garment bag that when I took it off my baggage cart to carry it across the border like I had clothes in it, my shoulder slumped terribly. I tried going around the x-ray like we were told but got stopped. So I put my bag through the x-ray machine. When it came through, I grabbed it, but it was falling off the cart and I got nervous and just grabbed the whole bundle and went on my way. I’m sure my face was red. Going down the corridor toward a corner, I heard someone yelling behind be. But I don’t understand Chinese and just kept on going, but nobody ran after me. As I turned the corner, I was so relieved and had never felt the prayers of people, particularly those in Kenya who knew what was planned. I don’t know if the border guards just have a quota to catch people or if the x-ray could tell I had books. All I know is that I got two huge bags through and one little and tiny Filipino lady in my group got caught just carrying a small back pack. From there, we went to The Philippines and saw much of the great work there, flying up north to see one of the schools. We stayed in the gracious home of a couple who had both been dentists, but they had quit dentistry and started a grain business. I remember them preparing a meal of miniature fish that looked like small worms. It was supposed to be an expensive delicacy. But I was hungry. The services were great and crowded. Through Seoul and to Honolulu we went. This two days was to be a rest period. I had only stopped at the airport before and been wanting to see the USS Arizona, which was one of the most moving sites I have visited. Bubbles still pop up from the leaking fuel tanks as they have since 1941. We rented a car upon our arrival and drove round the entire perimeter of Oahu, going through mile after mile of Dole pineapple plantations. Every stop on the trip had been a highlight. The previous December, I had an hour and 15 minute flight to Chicago. Sparing you the details, I had more problems on that short flight than we did on this trip with 19 flights, 8 nations, 35,000 miles, and 33 meetings in 33 days. It was the most amazing trip of my life and oh, how I would like to try it again!
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 11:14:43 +0000
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