Safe In Lusaka

After a two days’ journey to the continent of Africa, I find myself in the city of Lusaka. I still cannot believe I’m halfway across the world. On the flight over here, I met some interesting individuals. On the first leg of the flight from LAX to Washington, D.C., I sat beside an intriguing graphic designer named Derek, who does art for Adidas Kids T-shirts and Wrangler jeans. Derek also has his own T-shirt label – “Manifest.” The second leg of my flight was a 14 hour trip from D.C. to Johannesburg, South Africa. During that flight I met a man named David Woods who claimed to be going to Maputo, Mozambique on a mission trip to build 1000 churches. “I’m with Marantha Workers. We’re going to build Seventh-day Adventist churches.” I replied, “I’m Seventh-day Adventist, too.” What a small world! The last leg of my journey was a flight from Johannesburg to Lusaka, Zambia. I sat beside an older, retired lady from Indiana. She was a teacher by profession and was going to a small town for three months to teach 11th/12th grade Biology/Chemistry at a Wesleyan mission high school.

Finally, we landed in Lusaka. As I was getting my visa at the Immigration Office, I noted a tall, Caucasian male who was getting his visa at the window next to me was headed to Chipata, Zambia. It turns out Todd Templeman, and ER/IM 5th year resident at University of Illinois, Chicago, was going to be spending time with Dr. Ang at Mwami Adventist Hospital, too! Edward Martin, executive director of Adventist Health International’s Zambia projects, picked both of us up from the airport and took us to our respective lodging – Todd to the Holiday Inn and myself to the Lusaka Eye Hospital. I am thrilled to be here, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me.