hi my dear family and friends!! first of all, i miss you all so much :’)
*Disclaimer* This post was originally written in the midst of travel day craziness and I am just now finding time to get it posted hehe.
What an exhausting past few days it has been. Our travel day began on Saturday (June 7th). We arrived at the Atlanta-Hartsfield International airport at 9:40pm and pulled an all-nighter until our check in time at 6:00am (minus a one-hour nap I was able to squeeze in). You might be thinking, Sophie, you are a crazy person, why would you want to pull an all-nighter before your travels? Well, 1. I am a crazy person sooo you guys should be used to it by now.. and 2. It’s wild out here and sleeping in the atrium of ATL just wasn’t in the cards for most of us. But take heart, our time spent in the airport pre-departure was filled with sweet memories and team bonding! We played an intense game of BS (which my squadmate Bri says stands for Begone Satan.. side eye), watched a movie, did multiple Starbucks runs, and chit-chatted n counseled one another. The Lord definitely used the time spent in the airport to glorify Him! I was amazed at the opportunities we were given to witness! In fact, one specific example happened in the bathroom as I was getting ready for the night. I was just doing my thing, washing my face and brushing my teeth, when a woman came to wash her hands next to me with her little daughter. We got to talking and she began pouring out her heart out to me. I was so amazed because I felt like the Lord put me in the right place at the right time, and through it I got the opportunity to pray over this family and provide some love, comfort, and a hug :).
After a long 13 hours in the airport, we were finally able to get on the plane and out of Atlanta! Can I get a HIYAAA? Ok, but buckle up because this is where things get so fun *insert sarcasm*. For some context, my squadmate Abigail and I have been given the role of logistics for our squad. This means that we are in charge of the coordination and oversight of all travel day logistics. As you can imagine, navigating check in, bag drop, movement to and from gates, and various other little details for a group of 35 people is extremely overwhelming! But me, Abigail, and the leaders worked together to make it all happen and we got there eventually. So, we land in Newark, NJ for a cute, not so little, 5-hour layover. At this point in our travels, I had been pouring every part of myself into serving and leading the squad, but I was feeling very empty and overwhelmed. I felt like I was trying to pour out of an empty cup and I needed to be filled back up again! I had been thinking and planning and doing on repeat for the past 34 hours and I was emotionally and physically drained. I had a good cry on some dear friends’ shoulders and ended up enjoying a real sit-down meal which did wonders for my spirit. Praise the Lord for my squad and my sweet friends. They have been the biggest blessing and my greatest joy. They picked me up when I was down and for that I am so so grateful! They knew exactly what I needed. At this point, I am feeling refreshed. I am feeling ready to go, ready to serve, and ready to get to Guatemala finally!!
Maddie and I had a genius idea to get snacks and chill in front of a gate whose flight was departing to Europe to try and get our brains off of the stressful day jajaja. While we were sitting there enjoying our peace, I started working on my customs paperwork. I had a question about our flight number so I called my leader to problem solve. As we are chatting on the phone, he goes, “wait a second, the flight board says it’s been canceled.” These are NOT words any of us wanted to hear. This also meant that I had to go back into full blown logistical mode! For the next five hours I tried to problem solve and serve my team as best as I could with the resources I had. We got our bags from the baggage claim and camped out. Connor (our squad leader) and I worked for hours trying to get food, transportation, and lodging vouchers by talking to gate agents, calling customer service, and filling out various customer service forms online but we got nowhere. We then changed courses to finding hotels that would lodge our group of 25 people (our group of 35 was split into two different groups because we couldn’t get us all on the same plane lol, so my group of 25 people were stranded in Newark and the other group was stranded in D.C.). I called tons of different hotels, motels, and transportation services, all while having to run these options by Connor. The added cherry on top was that everything I relayed to Connor had to be relayed to leadership in D.C. and GA. I will spare you more detail, but let me end here: by the end of the night I had decided that if my flight got canceled again, I would come home. The only thing that kept me in that airport was my team and the amazing support and comfort they were to me!
After much deliberation and prayer, we decided to brave another night in the airport instead of venturing into Newark. We found a nice spot in the airport that had *not* fluorescent lighting and it happened to be right by airport security. My friend Graham became friends with the airport police so they watched over us all night which was also comforting! We eventually got on a flight the following day (so day 3 of travel) and made it to Guate!!
Y’all the take away from my travel day experience is gonna be brief (although you know I’m a yapper so there’s more where this came from). Basically, listen to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was speaking to me throughout this whole experience, and it was amazing to see how he spoke to others on my team as well! When God’s involved, nothing is a coincidence. There were so many moments during my logistical struggles where God was so clear and His hand over our travels was so evident! Anyways, hmu when I get home if you wanna know all the details, but imma leave it at that for now.
Nos vemos
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