Safe, Sound and Sleepy in Maputo

Children performing in the Seminary chapel on the tile floor that John Linson installed

We gathered at MV First Church at 1 AM Saturday. After loading up all the luggage and supplies and group introductions, MV First Pastor Russ Gumm prayed a blessing on the 10 member NCO W&W team and we were off.  Pastor Gumm and Leonard Lashmit were our gracious middle of the night drivers to the airport. Pastor Gumm’s prayer and your prayers were evident even when we arrived at Port Columbus. We were able to stack our containers and luggage right at the vacant United counter. It was way too early to check in but the electronic scales were on so we were able to weight everything and juggle things around to comply with the weight requirements for United and the new weight limits on carry ons imposed by Ethiopian Air. So when the counter opened we were not only first in line, we were ready for the weigh in. Everything got checked in without a single hitch or excess weight charge even the oversized box containing the Jesus Film tripods. Our 45 minute flight to DC was uneventful. In fact it felt like it took longer to navigate through Dulles to our next plane than it took to get from Columbus to DC.

The next hurdle was to check in and have our carry ons weighed at the Ethiopian gate. Again the process went smoothly with no bags overweight. After a nice breakfast at a sandwich shop up the concourse we boarded our Ethiopian 777 for the long leg of the journey.  And I do mean long...over 12 hours in the air plus the taxi time with take off and landing.  These new planes have spacious seats and lots of leg room but even a nice new seat gets old after 13 hours. The flight was full. I do not recall seeing any of the 300 plus seats empty. The movie/entertainment monitors only worked hit and miss for many of us so we were not quite as entertained as we had hoped.

 On this long leg of the trip we jumped forward 8 time zones (later we got 1 hour back going on to Maputo). So about 3:30PM Eastern time the sun set and we were in the dark until about an hour before landing in Addis Ababa. The sun rise was beautiful as we approach the airport this morning but it was coming up when our tired brains where fully aware it was about 11PM at home.

8 AM Sunday morning (midnight Saturday back home) it was sunny and about 70 degrees in Addis Ababa as we arrived and transferred to the final plane of the day. We were herded confusingly through the Addis Airport only to come back out where we went into the terminal an hour earlier and bussed out to the edge of the tarmac where a 737 waited to fly us on to Maputo.  Thank the Lord this five hour flight was sparsely populated. Most of us had at least one empty seat beside us. I had a whole three seat section to myself. It was nice to get to lay down and try to sleep at least until “lunch” was served. It was mid day and we were hungry but  it was still a little hard convincing our bodies it was 11 and not really 4 AM. I have to say Ethiopian Air fed us well and often. In between meals on the long flight they even left the galleys open so we could get up and have a snack as we pleased.

We arrived in Maputo right on time in the early afternoon. The weather was beautiful. Sunny and warm and a light breeze to make the humid are bearable. We were greeted at the airport by Dave Restrick, from the Seminary, Tim Sharrock, and Carlos (still learning names) who is here from Argentina to oversee the construction of the recreation facility. Once we all got our room assignments, got our lights and fans working, we were treated to a wonderful supper prepared by the Restricks and Carlos’s family who are here with him for this project. We discussed work details for tomorrow as many of us nodded off from the sheer lack of sleep the past two nights. As I wrap this up setting on the veranda of the beautiful chapel, I am reminded that the very tile I am sitting on was laid by Johnny Linson during his very last Work and Witness trip. He knew he was dying but asked God to give him this one more W&W trip. God granted Johnny the strength and he and his crew from Ohio completed the daunting task of tiling the entire inside and the veranda of the chapel. Johnny lost his battle with cancer three months later. His work here at the Nazarene Seminary testifies to Johnny’s faithful and selfless service to the Kingdom of God and is an inspiration to our team as we set out on this next two weeks of working and witnessing the extraordinary things God can do when ordinary people say yes when God calls them to “go unto all the world”.