How our 2 days of travel turned into 15 – Part 1

Hey friends! 

The last month has probably been one of the most surprising turns of events I’ve ever experienced. Let me start with our human plan and then I’ll tell you what actually happened. Our plan was to spend the month of June wholeheartedly serving the people in the mountains of Honduras, building their church and building stronger relationships. We planned to have a women’s event toward the end and then a kids day too. We planned to have a week of debrief at the beach and then leave for ministry in South Africa!! We were going to make it to Africa! We planned to have a 24 hour layover in New Jersey where family could come for a few hours to visit.

 

Okay, now that you know our plans let me tell you what actually happened. There’s a quote that says “people plan and God laughs” and I can’t think of anything more fitting to describe what happened.

 

Our first week and a half went according to plan, then people started to not feel so great. We sent them down off the mountain to be tested for Covid. Next thing we know half of the group is off the mountain in quarantine and we can’t leave camp to go into the community anymore. This means no women’s or kids events. But God is still good. We are able to build stronger relationships with the teens serving with us in our camp, we laughed a lot and had beautiful conversations that never would have happened. 

 

The time comes for us to leave the mountain and go to the beach for that week of debrief before we move to our next country. We get the news that myself and 3 others will not be allowed to go because we were exposed to someone who tested positive later. We have to quarantine for a week and see if any symptoms arise. But God is still good. We have the opportunity to rely on Him more than was previously necessary, we create beautiful memories with the 4 of us stuck in a room together. We remain symptom free.

 

Freedom day arrives! We leave with all the quarantine friends with negative tests in hand. Our plan is to meet up with the rest of the squad for a day at the beach and then leave Honduras together. We get so close to meeting up with them, then we find out some peeps in the other group have tested positive. They all have to stay in Honduras and we’ll be leaving without them. But God is still good. We found out before we hugged all our squad and didn’t have to quarantine again.

 

The 17 of us make it to New Jersey and it’s so wonderful to be on US soil again…the first time in 6 months. A few of my squad mates get to see their families and everything is finally going according to plan…until we arrive at the airport for our flight to South Africa. 

 

Wow, this is getting long. Read the rest of the story in my next blog. 

 

Joy and peace,

Rebekah