Friday, February 24th

And so it begins!

This morning started at 4:45am in order to make it to Due West UMC by 6:00am to meet the rest of the crew. Steve was nice enough to show up a little earlier to prepare coffee and light snacks. After a brief pray by Matt, our crew got underway for the long drive to the ATL Airport. We arrived on time and in good spirits. Everything went extremely well at the airport…we were all quite impressed seeing as we have 3 probies (1^st timers). We boarded the plane and sat back for the 4 hour flight to Aruba. Yes, we are on a mission trip we just had to stop in Aruba for our connecting flight. Anyway, due to the bad weather in ATL, we had to taxi for a little under an hour. The flight took off and was a little bumpy at first. I wasn’t in the vicinity of Dillon and Stacy, but I know they were both clinching their armrests with all their strength.

A few hours later our feature film, “The Big Year” ended. I agree with the critiques, not Steve Martin’s best film. It was getting to be lunch time and all I could think about was food. Over the intercom comes one of the stewardesses… “Ladies and Gentlemen, the ‘Fasten Seat Belt’ sign is turned off. For your safety please keep your seat belt on while seated. We will be coming through the cabin to offer water and coffee, and it is our pleasure to have an honorary stewardess on board today. Scott will be serving our remaining snacks to you so please take one item each.” Out pops Scott with a lovely decorated basket filled with the extremely underrated Biscoff cookies and lightly salted peanuts. The only thing I could think of was the email we received right before we left from Steven (Associate Pastor at Due West); “…and whatever you do, don’t embarrass us.” And something along the lines of “remember who you are and whose you are.” I guess Scott didn’t get the memo. After making it all the way down the isle on a B737 (180 passengers) Scott received a round of applause and a set of pilot wings. We are all so proud of him. Oh, I’m not done yet…Scott decided to join his fellow air-men once again on the next flight. He insisted that he assist in the pre-flight presentation and sported the life preserver.

The final flight from Curacao to Barquisimeto was on a little puddle jumper. It was by fair the smoothest flight out of the three we had today; however before getting on the plane I think Dillon may have had a minor heart attack. You see, Dillon is not the biggest fan of small planes, especially those in which you can see the propeller. He finally opened his eyes as the plane came to a stop in Barquisimeto. We arrived there at 11:30pm capping our 15 hour travel day. Man oh man, are we tired. We took a good hour and a half to get through customs before our Venezuelan friends could wonderfully welcome us back: Dan, Nancy, Samuel, Laura, and Willie. We finished our travel by enjoying some of the local cuisine at Pollo Sombroso. It is such a blessing that we made it here safely and without any fault.

As we unloaded all the bags and supplies, Sam jumped right on pumping all 25 of the soccer balls for the children that we brought. We concluded the evening with prayer and fellowship from Stacy. Man it feels great to be back in Venezuela. It was comforting to hear everyone say, "we’re home" as we pulled up to the seminary this evening. The truth is: the welcome we received here makes it sure feel like a home away from home. Continue to pray for us. We love and miss you.

-VZ Crew