South Africa: Day 1

Now that the kids are in school five days a week, a new world of possibilities has opened up. Not the least of which is an opportunity to leverage my skills and experiences toward a short term mission trip. Last year, when Brian returned from a business leader development trip to Indonesia, he told me that 2011 could be my year!

And when I was asked to join the team going to South Africa, it lined up with the wish list I'd given God:
1. English-speaking country. Yes! Because my years studying Latin provided me no useful spoken language skills...
2. An opportunity to invest in leaders. Yes! Southpoint church is bringing together all their small group leaders -- high school, college & adult community groups -- to a retreat where we can cast vision and develop leadership skills in a fun environment.
3. A role where I can add unique value. Yes! We are producing a conference for small group leaders using content I helped develop and am passionate about. And it's my favorite event format: half training time; half round-table discussion where leaders can interact over how these big ideas actually play out in group life.

So, I am beyond excited to be a part of this team. We leave Good Friday and take the 16 hour flight to South Africa, where we arrive the midnight going into Easter morning. We will worship Easter Sunday at Southpoint Church and then work with the team to prepare for the retreat. The conference will run Tuesday - Thursday. And then I begin the return journey on Saturday, April 30th.

Day 1
Cant believe it’s here: today I leave for South Africa! I pack in the morning & then mom picks up the kids at 3pm. Brian graciously drives me to the airport after we stop by Target. I inadvertently lose my phone while trying on purses. We have to turn around and go back for it, but it’s there in one of the purse rejects. First moment of panic – check! …. so, that’s out of the way.

We meet at Hartsfield at 5pm. Our team is led by Jana Guynn, director of Married Life -- who is also bringing her 16 yo daughter Quincy; Chris Kim -- LTR teammate and director of Theopraxis who will be communicating; Jamie Waddy -- singles coordinator at Buckhead Church who is known for her dance moves as well as being a utility player -- she'll be hosting; and me. I'll be producing.

Jana & Quince were flying on buddy passes. But Chris had set the rest of us up on window seats. Fortunately it was not a full flight & the middle chair was open for all three of us. Jana & Quincy lucked out and got upgraded to first class and the fully reclinable bed/chairs! The flight is smooth. One Ben Stiller movie & four chapters of a new book later and it’s midnight… I decide to try and sleep. Dude on the aisle has restless leg syndrome, so I more or less dozed for 6 hours. (At 3am, they serve breakfast, which feels a bit cruel even though it’s 9am in SA.) But somehow I manage to sleep really well from 6-8am.

At 8am ATL/2pm SA, I ate a pizza “breakfast.” After watching 'Letters to Juliet', we landed in Johannesburg. Two of Jamie’s friends who live in SA were waiting to meet us at the gate. We hung out at the food court for an hour talking tourist attractions, and then it was time to board the 7:40pm (SA). flight to Cape Town. While Jana & Quincy lucked out on the 15 hr. flight; Jamie, Chris & I were upgraded by some friendly ticket agents on the 2 hr. flight to Cape Town.

So it’s 9:30pm SA/ 3:30pm ATL when we land, and we are a bit loopy. We meet up with the amazing Pam Stabler & the wonderful Coleman family who are there to greet us and take us to our hotel. You would think we would crash, but after taking much-desired showers, we discover we are really hungry and have a second wind. So at 11:30pm (5:30pm ATL), Chris gets behind the wheel & we decide to explore Cape Town.

Believe it or not this town shuts down at 10pm… everything was deserted. No late night restaurants… no fast food… just the gas station convenience store, baby! And yes, we did get dinner there: chips & ice cream. Classy, huh?! But the hour we spent driving around the docks & empty streets let Chris practice driving on the left side of the road. And that turned out to be a very good thing.

The three of us returned by 1am. But Jamie & I stayed up chatting til 3:30am. And then the alarm went off at 6am (12m ATL). Happy Easter!!