never never land

If you're friends with me on facebook and kept up with our travels to Uganda and back then you know that my luggage got lost in never never land. I've not really stopped long enough to write a blog about just how funny this situation was....not so funny at the time. Crazy the things God will use to teach you, break you and refine you. Apparently this trip to Uganda He chose luggage to be that "thing"...

Let me back up and share this so that you get the full blow of the situation. Two weeks before we left for Uganda I ended up having surgery on my bum to remove some hemorrhoids (that's not shameful at all). Not the ideal time to say the least but if you've ever had them, a bad case of them, you know that traveling on planes for 36 hours with them isn't ideal either. All the members of my immediate family have had to have surgery to remove them so I knew this day was coming. I called my dad one day and asked him how you knew it was time for such drastic measures and his response was "you'll know when it's time." IT WAS TIME. So here we are 2 weeks before leaving the country and having surgery. All parties involved knew the timeline we were under and I was assured that everything would be healed in time. LIE!! That surgery was such an ordeal and to this day I am still having some issues. Just 4 days before we left I was advised not to go because my incision was not closed. In fact I was told it would be several more weeks before that would happen. WHAT?!?! How is this the first time I am hearing this. Needless to say the secret that I had kept under wraps went public because I was asking people to pray that the Lord would cover my behind, literally and figuratively and that I would be "healed and sealed."

After seeking some wise advise from some medical professionals I had a plan of action to care for said wound while in a 3rd world country and I was on my way. One of those measures was that my lower half needed to stay clean and dry so I needed to change undies at least 4 times a day. Two weeks x 4 times a day...you do the math, that's a lot of undies. After stocking up because I certainly didn't have that kind of a collection I was ready to go. I had a 2.5 gallon zip lock back in my luggage that had 55....YES, 55 pair of undies in them, along with other necessary supplies.

Also note worthy---my good friend and boss, Eric Johnson, came by to pray for the team before we left Pineville. He specifically prayed that my healing in Uganda would be a testimony to my Drs who said it was ill advised to go. Who knew his prayer would be answered in such a crazy way.

Fast forward to our departure day. We were a team of 8 that checked in 16 bags. That check in process was fun and the people behind us were not happy but on well...we paid just as much to fly out as you did. As we were loading our bags onto the cart I literally reached down and touched my bag and said "Lord please let me see this bag on the other side." So fast forward another 36+ hours when we landed in Entebbe, Uganda after missing flights and being rerouted through Cairo, Eygpt. We all gather around the luggage claim and out comes a bag, then two.....and when the belt stops moving we have 14 bags. I start looking around and realize one of the two missing was mine. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! I gave a courtesy laugh for the team but immediately had a little internal panic attack. Amber didn't get her bag either so we made our way to the claim desk and began the paperwork. Mind you...3rd world country, small airport, most of their claims are done on paper not electronic. My hope of seeing my luggage any time soon was not high.

My only hope was that my first year in Uganda two of our guys didn't get their luggage until we had been in country 48 hours. Well that 48 hour window came and went and still no luggage. In fact when we called the airport to get a status update they couldn't even tell us where our luggage was at the time. How does that happen? So began our two week adventure of living as true Africans with only one change of clothes in addition to the clothes on our backs. And you know what....WE DID IT! And I think for the most part did it gracefully. There were days where I would realize something else that was in my bag that I probably would never see again and would yell for a minute, humorously. BUT...I did it.

Within a week of coming home Amber's bag arrived in Alexandria for her to pick up. As of today I still do not have my luggage...no one can tell me where it is. And let me be the first to tell you that airline companies and travelers insurance makes it incredibly difficult to get reimbursed for luggage in hopes that most people will just give up. Confession: I might be there. Most days as I sit on hold I end up telling myself "it's just stuff"...granted a few valuable things were in there but it really is just stuff. Still holding out for a miracle that my undies will return but I've replenished a few in the mean time.

Lessons learned:
1. I can live a lot more simply that I thought I could.
2. I will pack in a carry on every time I go to Uganda because I can!
3. I hate American Airlines, the Paris airport and Cairo.
4. I might be African after all!!

PS...if you're in Entebbe, Paris, Cairo or New Orleans and you want to check on my bag feel free. Blue and gray rolling duffle with lots of undies.

Who knew never never land really exists? Hope the people there are enjoying my stuff!

PSS...I didn't have a single problem, complication, etc from surgery the entire time we were gone. Praise the Lord for his faithfulness and provision!