Week 1: Ben Yaptim

Our first few days on campus have flown by, and we're seeing God provide some unique opportunities to share the gospel with Middle Eastern college students. Over the first 2 days, our team had spiritual conversations with 30 people, and presented the gospel to 20 more people. We weren't sure what to expect but we are thankful for each of these people we've been able to connect with. We also have bibles that are printed in our country, in the local language, which is a huge resource for us. We hope to go through our entire box of 20 new testaments over the course of our time here.

I'm enjoying learning about the culture here and trying my hand at the language. Along with that comes many embarrassing and awkward moments, but luckily both sides have just been able to laugh them off.

One thing that's surprised me is how many people think that we are German. There is actually a decent number of Germans here, and while most of us on the team are of German descent, I guess I assumed it would be obvious that we are all Americans. Today I was mistaken for a Middle Eastern, (which I thought was hilarious).

I have dubbed this week "ben yaptim!" week - which means "I did it!" As I order food on my own, navigate the bus routes and subway lines, and find my way around campus I am excited to learn I can exist in a foreign place. It's a feeling I've felt a few times before, but also different now as I lead the team and help others live in a new place.

Today I was able to sit down and talk with 9 different women on campus, which was really fun - especially because I was with Hayley, a girl on my team who is a student at USD. We met two women whose names mean "Secret" and "Melody" in their language; they were especially fun to meet with. Please pray that we'd be able to meet up with them again in the coming weeks.

I hope to share some photos this weekend, so stay tuned for another update :)

We made it!

The 4th Journey summer project has hit the ground in the Middle East! Our first 48 hours together as a team were pretty eventful as we traveled to our secure location.

We gathered together on Sunday, May 18 for a final night of briefing and then took off from MSP airport on Monday, May 19. On our first flight from Minneapolis, we sat on the tarmac for an hour waiting for a lightening storm to pass. Luckily it moved fairly quickly!

We landed in DC with plenty of time for a bite to eat before boarding our 5p flight to Frankfurt. An hour after take off, someone had a heart attack on the plane and we made an emergency landing in Boston. After 2 hours of sitting on the tarmac while the pilots worked on paperwork and the passenger was removed, the pilot announced we would be taking off.

Shortly after taxing to the runway, the pilot announced there was a problem with the engine and we would need a replacement part, if they could fix it at all.

We waited in our seats while a tow truck came to tow us to the gate, the maintenance crew replaced the fuel valve in the engine, and then the crew did more paperwork.

After another 2 hours on sitting in the tarmac, we were ready for takeoff again.

We landed in Frankfurt at Noon, 5 hours after we were scheduled to arrive. Since our connecting flight to our country was scheduled for 9am, we weren't sure when we'd be re-booked.

Because we were so late we had to deboard the plane on the tarmac, where we waited for airport buses to pick us up and shuttle us to the main terminal. We then waited in line after line to get our tickets rebooked.

Thanks to a wonderful Lufthansa ticket agent named Christoff, we were able to get seats on the 945pm flight to our final airport.

We landed there about 1am, and then spent 2 hours getting through customs and picking up luggage. Thankfully this all went smoothly - and we even got a toblerone on the flight :) I think this is also the flight where I lost my iPod, but I'm not totally sure. I'm still hopeful that I might find it, but it's probably gone forever.

Now that we were in the right country, we had just a 2 hour ferry ride left to our final destination. Because they only run a few times a day, we had to spend the night in the city. Luckily a fellow staff person met us at the airport and arranged for a hotel and bus. It was 4am by the time we got to our hotel, and we were so tired from our travels we slept until Noon the next day!

After grabbing some wonderful middle eastern food for lunch and touring around a bit, we walked to the ferry station. We were quite a site: 17 Americans who had been traveling for 60 hours trying to navigate the narrow cobblestone streets with 2-3 bags per person. We only walked a kilometer or so, but it felt like several miles!

The ferry ride was 2 hours, and once we docked, we boarded another bus to take us to our apartments. By then it was 9pm and we were greeted by the staff team here and some yummy lamb pizza. Needless to say, we were relieved to be "home"!