A series of (very) unfortunate events… and a faithful God.

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         Well, the events of the past week are
proof that life cannot be predicted or planned out. Everything seemed to be
almost perfect when I was thrown into such unexpected circumstances that I am
still somewhat in shock. This is probably going to be the hardest blog I’ll
ever have to write… bear with me, it may get rather long.

          So where do I even begin? I’ll get
right to the heart of matter and start by saying that on Sept. 15, I boarded
the plane in Atlanta with my fellow leaders and the participants of the Africa
Awakening, and we flew to Washington, D.C. Int’l airport. After a layover
there, we boarded the 14-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa with much
excitement and anticipation. We survived the plane ride and arrived in South
Africa at 3 pm on the 16^th and made our way to customs and border
control. Waiting in line to go through passport control, we started getting out
passports and laughing at the pictures, and joking about knowing where your
passport was at is something that is helpful. (How painfully ironic now!)
Someone asked to see mine, so I went to get it out of my travel wallet, where I
keep all my important travel documents at all
times. I opened it up and felt my heart and stomach flutter as my passport was
not there. Taking a deep breath, I began to search through my backpack and
stared in disbelief as I realized I did not have my passport on my person at
all. Trying to stay calm, I left to go back to the plane and look for it, and
Matt came with me. After having a hard time finding someone to help us, we got
back to the plane, and the workers cleaning it checked my seat for my passport
(we were not allowed to go back on the plane and search for it ourselves.) They
said they found nothing and so I searched my backpack again, and again found
nothing.

          At this point I was still holding up
ok, and trying not to panic. We went back to the border control and tried to
find out what to do, and were met with no information, and officials who seemed
to care less and were unwilling to help, except to inform us again and again
that without a passport, I could not cross the border. Really!?! Of course I
couldn’t! But it seemed that finding out where to go from there was not an easy
situation. The next few hours are a bit of a blur in my memory, consisting of
being led all over the airport, into an extremely sketchy home affairs office,
waiting endlessly, being informed that my passport was found, waiting endlessly
again, finding out that it was not my passport but somebody elses, and breaking
down several times throughout these events. I was still in shock and couldn’t
believe this was happening to me! I simply couldn’t fathom what had happened to
my passport, and wanted to just cross over that border more than anything.

          Then suddenly, an immigrations officer
who had not talked to us before heard about the situation and came up to Matt
and I and Amber, who had crossed back across the border to talk to us and find
out what was going on. Within a span of about one minute, she informed me that
I was being denied access into South Africa, that Matt and Amber needed to
cross to the other side of the border immediately and that I needed to follow
her. That was probably the hardest moment I’ve ever had to go through. Already
an emotional wreck and terrified of what was going to happen, I said goodbye to
Matt and Amber with many tears and followed the officer away from them and from
everyone I knew and into a foreign airport completely alone. I felt so sick and
in shock that I nearly passed out, but calling on God to hold me up, I managed
to hold it together. I was led back into the home affairs office and informed
that I was lucky I hadn’t gotten arrested during the past few hours and that I
was about to be deported back to Canada. A man wrote up a document that I found
out later meant nothing, and gave me that and handed me over to South African
airlines to send me home. However, there was no flight back to Washington until
6:00 pm the next day, which means I had to spend over 24 hours in the
Johannesbug airport alone. And trust me, an airport in South Africa is not the
safe place it is here in North America. I made it through only by the grace of
God, and He truly surrounded me with His peace and comfort, and I could feel
His protection surrounding me. Knowing that I was covered in prayers by my team
and by family and friends back home meant more that words can say.

          During this time my family back home
and the other leaders in Jeffreys Bay were making phone calls and doing
everything possible to get me into the country, but to no avail. Once I was
denied entry there was nothing anyone could do to get me across. So I survived the
24 hours in Jo’burg and finally got on the plane back to Washington D.C. after
some more stress and not being sure they would get me on the plane or not. When
that plane was taking off, I was so overcome with pain and sadness that I was
leaving Africa, and my heart felt like it was breaking for all that had
happened and the fact that things were going on in Jeffreys Bay that I was
supposed to be a part of. I was supposed to be running to see my kids at the
Joshua Project with them jumping into my arms. I was supposed to be introducing
the students to J-Bay and to ministry and to be watching them experience new
things and grow together in Christ. I couldn’t understand why this was
happening.

          I won’t detail all the following
events, but suffice it to say that after many more small trials, I finally made
it back home, arriving late Thursday evening after 4 full days of airport and
airplane travel… over 40 hours on planes in total, and with no luggage except
for my backpack and pillow.

          And
that brings us pretty much up to date on the situation. I’m at home now, and
getting all this passport stuff sorted out… it’s more complicated than I would
have thought, and hopefully within not too long I will get a new passport.

          After going over the events of my
passport going missing carefully, we have come to the conclusion that it must
have been stolen. The only time I could have misplaced it was while walking
onto the plane in Washington, and if that is the case and I did drop it,
someone picked it up and did not report it. Otherwise, it was taken while I was
on the plane, either by the passenger sitting next to me, or by the cleaning
crew in Jo’burg. The fact is, Canadian passports are extremely valuable in
South Africa, and theft is very common.

          And now I’m left in a hard situation.
It’s been hard not to get angry and question God. Why did this happen? It doesn’t
make any sense! Everything had fallen into place so perfectly for this trip!
Support had come in just in time, and I was at a point where I was SO excited
for what was ahead. The team of 41 participants is absolutely amazing and I
couldn’t wait to get to know them better and walk alongside them and pour into
them, and serve them by cooking for them and whatever else was needed. The
leadership team is also incredible, and the prospect of being surrounded by all
these amazing people for the next 3 months was breathtakingly wonderful. And
now here I am at home, and I feel like I left my heart in Africa. But God is
faithful, and I know He has a purpose in all of this, but in all honesty, I
cannot see it right now in even the smallest amount. But He has held me up and
sustained me, and I will continue to trust Him and I know He won’t fail me.

          So please continue to pray for
guidance and for the path to become clear for what to do now. Whether I’m
supposed to go back or if I’m supposed to stay home is very unclear right now,
and going back is going to take a miracle since the money I raised for this
trip was used for flights and I also had to pay for more flights to get home
once I got to Washington. However, on the plane ride back to Washington, God
spoke to me two things very clearly. This is what He said. “If I want you to go
back to Africa, I can get you there.” (This was with almost a humorous quality,
as if getting me back to Africa is such an easy thing for our incredible God to
do.) And secondly, “Trust me.” I felt it so strongly and clearly that there was
no doubt in my mind that it came straight from the heart of God to mine. And
so, I will trust Him! I don’t know what His plan is now, but He is the God of
the impossible, and He has promised to do more than we can ever ask or imagine!

          I will keep updating on the passport
situation and whatever happens next.

          Just a verse God gave me this morning:

         “But
you would be fed with the finest of wheat;

                   with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

                                                                        Psalm 81:16