Our Airport Adventure

Hello,

Some of you might have heard about the airline crisis traveling from Nairobi, Kenya to Bujumbura, Burundi. We arrived at the airport at 5:00AM, Sunday the 16th. Rather than let the huge delay get the best of us, we had a church service on the streets of the airport. We worshiped for around two hours. Several local news stations recorded our signing. After some worship, Daniel gave a short sermon about God calling him to Mexico, and how God has been working in his life recently. While we were worshiping, people asked excellent questions (questions that allowed us to spread Christ’s glory) One guy asked if we were a professional choir, and wanted to meet the choirmaster. An airport security guard came to talk to us. Mrs. Crews thought he was coming to shut us down; but instead, he said: “I wish I was not in uniform so I could dance to your music! I’m sorry I have to go back to patrolling.”

CURRENT ELAPSED TIME: 5 hours.

Only God could do something like that. A few hours later, they let us into the airport check-in area.

CURRENT ELAPSED TIME: 13 hours.

Once we were inside, we waited in the check-in line for 2 hours; and were almost to the desk when the guards accidentally started a mini-riot. They called for people of a certain flight to come to the line we were waiting in. EVERYONE rushed for the desk, even those not on the called flight. After another hour of waiting, we finally checked all 25 of our bags; and went through passport control.

CURRENT ELAPSED TIME: 20 hours.

In Kenyan airports, they have a “holding cell” for passengers waiting to board. While waiting, almost everyone slept; except Melanie who went ballistic due to two cups of Kenyan coffee. Finally, at 2:45AM we boarded our flight, only to wait another hour until takeoff. We finally took off; landed in Bujumbura, Burundi an hour later; and then promptly fell asleep. In the end, what should have taken around 4 hours ended up being a 25-hour ordeal. During our time at the airport, we saw a wide display of human character... I praise God that our team was able to remain cheerful and positive from start to finish. Everyone was kind, polite, and Christ-like; which was a “simply lovely” witness for Him.

TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 25 hours.

Thanks for taking the time to read this; and God bless!

Because of Christ,
Gabe