The last two or three days of the trip were travel. The first day was traveling to Entebbe from Soroti and if you watched Facebook, you probably saw some of the pictures of the zoo we went to. It was very interactive, many of the team even held Rock Pythons on their shoulders!
That night we drove to The airport and said our goodbyes to the Suttons, Simon, and Henry, then made our way through the airport to one of the four gates they had in Entebbe. Wes Yarber took out his guitar and I sang to get the others started. Bekah Estes, Abby Allen, Michelle Bain, and Rachel Allen joined in and we sang for 30 minutes before we had to board the flight.
The flight to Brussels was not as long as it seemed on the way to Uganda as it was coming back. The plane landed 20 minutes after take-off for a stop in Rwanda. 8 hours later we found ourselves in the place we dreaded most. Once we exited the plane it was time to say our first goodbyes. Melodie and Bekah Estes were staying in Brussels and visiting some family in the Netherlands. The rest of us would be together a few more hours before departing for our own destinations in the US. We said our goodbyes to the Estes, then a few hours later said goodbye to everyone else, Mike Partain, Rachel Allen, Pam Gates, and JoJo Keinke were the only ones left with my family as we flew from Brussels to Chicago.
From there we had a bit of trouble getting from the Chicago flight to the Detroit flight and ended up missing it altogether. Pam stayed in Chicago and was picked up by her son, JoJo and Rachel had other connections, and Mike stayed with us as we were rerouted to Flint. From Flint we drive down to Detroit to find that our luggage we had checked for the Detroit flight(the one we had missed) was still in Chicago; it had never boarded a plane. Ah, well. It’s just one more thing to add to the list of problems we’ve faced on this trip. But, we’re back home now.
The the more opposition you face, the greater the reward you will receive. Satan only wants to stop good works from bringing glory to God, so the more pressure you feel, the more resolved you should be to finish the task set for you. This was and is God’s mission, He will sustain it, He will provide; and He has.
We can’t wait to do it all again next year! If you missed any of the trip you can read all about it here or visit the Hope Mission International page of Facebook!
–Jared Allen