Saturday, October 24, 2009

14 Hours in a Middle Seat


We went to the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport and we waited...
We flew to Atlanta and we waited...
We got on the plane in Atlanta and we waited... 3 hours before pushing back from the gate

I was in a middle seat for 7 hours. The people beside me took Ambien sleeping pills. 4 hours into the flight I had to use the bathroom but I could not wake up either of them, I was miserable. When we got to Paris I was very relieved.

We arrived in Paris after our flight was supposed to leave for Kenya. We rushed through the airport and had to go thru security again. The flight to Kenya was waiting on us. It was about 7am local time and on the way to the gate for the Kenya flight I passed by a bakers booth. I smelled fresh baked bread long before I saw his booth. When I got to the booth I looked at beautiful pastries and bread. I saw one fresh load of bread that just had come out of the oven and it was labeled with a sign that said "5." I don't know if it was 5 francs or 5 euros, but I knew my credit card could handle 5 what-evers. Then I looked around and I could not see any other people from my group. I was completely alone in Charles DeGaule Airport in Paris, France. So I went to the gate and boarded the flight. We sat at the gate for another 35 minutes before pushing back from the gate. Just dang.

I was assigned another middle seat. 3 hours into the flight the girl sitting beside me moved next to her friend and I got an isle seat. Woo Hoo!! When we arrived in Kenya we rushed through customs and into baggage claim. When I got to the baggage claim area the first thing I saw was 4 police officers with AK-47's slung over their shoulders in a group chatting. Wow! What a way to say "Welcome to Kenya."

Monday, October 19, 2009

Shadowfax


I loved my motorcycles. I named each motorcycle I rode "Shadowfax." This is a picture of me in Tombstone, Arizona on a Suzuki V-Strom 650. My most loved bike was a 1992 BMW K-75s. I was wondering how I was going to pay for the trip to Kenya when my dad ran my K-75 into an abandoned house. He broke his shoulder, cracked some ribs and lost a finger nail. He also gave me $3000 for the bike. This paid for most of my trip to Kenya. My tax returns paid for the other $500 for the trip, $425 for shots and $200 for spending money. God loves to take bad circumstances and turn them for good.

Jiggers Video

Jiggers are bugs that crawl into the children's feet. We put a cement floor into the school to protect the children's feet from the bugs. Check out this video to see:

Jigger Removal: 3 Min. Video

Medical Mission Video

After several of you told me how much you enjoyed the video. I decided to show several videos first and then send out my pictures and story. Here is another video about the medical missions that Newspring did around the Segera Mission. This is the largest Medical Mission that the 410 Bridge has ever hosted.

Medical Video: 1.5 Minutes

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Video from June 2009

When my church Newspring announced our foreign missions trip, I knew I would go. I didn't have the money, but I knew I would go. The vision was clear: Help some of the poorest people in the world, Make the name of Jesus famous and Show his love. Check out this video made by Will Rodes Newspring's Video director. This Video is performed by the Newspring Band using video from my trip in June and is set to the "Desert Song" by Hillsong United. I am the guy is the goofy hat and can be seen for about 3 seconds. Click below to see.

June Video: 7 minutes