10/4/25-10/6/25
Beginning of first flight (to Türkiye)
You know how some decisions you make, you don’t realize they’re life altering until after you make them?
Well that’s how I felt hurtling through the air in a big metal bird, on my way to bird named country to have a 17 hour layover, before reaching my final destination.
I Got settled into my plane seat, ready for the 10 hour flight to Türkiye. When the plane took off, my whole body felt heavy as I was pressed into my seat, making my eyelids droop. As the wheels of the plane left the ground, I found myself smiling at the flying sensation that always puts me to sleep on plane rides. And just as my eyelids began to shut, my consciousness drifting away, my eyes abruptly opened, as a thought entered my mind:
“I’m flying to Eswatini to serve the Lord. The one true living God.
I’m leaving my country, my home, and when I come back I may never be the same.”
Flying out of the Atlanta airport in Georgia, It really hit me:
My life is changing right now. And when I return, I will be changed too.
Midway through first flight (to Türkiye)
The Lord MOVES.
With or without your permission, whether or not you deem yourself worthy or ready. He moves. So RANDOMLY!
Dark plane rides often become processing times for me; when I’m not sleeping or watching my movies (which can only last so long), my mind tends to run through all the thoughts and emotions I didn’t process throughout the day. On this flight, my thoughts and emotions came out in overwhelmed tears to my teammate Merydith, at the back of the plane, waiting for the cabin bathrooms.
As my emotions subsided, and our conversation turned more pleasant, Merydith struck up a conversation with this middle age woman taking a walk around the cabin.
The first thing I noticed about her was the intentionality in her eyes; I felt invited into their conversation just from the way she looked from me to Mer when she spoke to us, even if Mer was the one who prompted the question she was answering.
If you were in my shoes, you definitely wouldn’t expect to be used by the Lord. But with minimal prompting this woman started telling us her whole life story; before we even got her name (Ashaya, I think) we find out she’s Turkish but lives in South Carolina, and that she’s taking her parents to Türkiye so her dementia-ridden mother can be home again, possibly for the last time.
As this stranger pours her heart out to use through her story, I know me and Mer are both thinking about how we can ask if we can pray for her. Eventually, due to pure Jesus-prompting, I asked the woman if we could meet her mom and pray over her on the plane….
Even flying over the Atlantic Ocean, on an international flight, pouring your heart out in tears by the cabin bathrooms, if you meet a complete stranger with kind eyes, God will use you. You really just have to let Him.
Van drive to Nsoko (finally in Eswatini)
I want to be Present
56 hours of travel later; two 10 hour plane rides, a 17 hour layover, and a van ride, and we’re almost done with our first travel day (more like travel weekend lol). As if it was gone in an instant. That made me feel like time was moving too fast. And then, falling asleep on the way to our ministry care point lodging, I realized how little of Eswatini I had taken in on the drive thus far.
I want to take it all in. Not just the country, but the reason I’m here. The fact that the Lord has sent ME to serve in this country, in this role, with these people, RIGHT NOW.
I want to be here, and I want to be wide awake.
Isaiah 6:8
THANK YOU GOD
For sending me.
Ps
Traveling has brought my computer to the verge of death (shout out to Kenz for letting me use her computer to write this and all my Swaziland blogs!) so if you feel like praying over my super old and dinky computer that would be much appreciated lol <3
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