Friday, September 13, 2013

DAY 0 - TRAVEL DAY

Day 0 – Thursday

Well, the day finally arrived after 3 years of planning and thinking about it and months of preparation….Climb Kili Day 0!

Sitting on a KLM flight next to my new friend Dinish from Hamiltion, CA as we jet our way to Amsterdam from Detroit on the second leg of our travel to Kilimanjaro (JRO).  Dinish is on leg 1 of going to Mumbai to go to his homeland.  He and I and a couple of hundred other pilgrims on the way to Amsterdam, many of us just passerbyers to our final destinations somewhere in the world….His, Mumbai…Mine, Kilimanjaro, the Rooftop of Africa.

Steve, John, Ned and Shannon
My fellow sojourners are up in rows 21 and 23: Shannon, Steve and John.  Four great men who God has seen fit to intersect the paths of our lives for this awesome life adventure…the Climb To End Poverty.  What a truly awesome blessing it is to be able to do this with four friends and have people supporting us as we raise money for the Jubilee Village Project.

As the flight attendant walks through and passed our “Refresh Yourself” hot towels, I’m thinking that in about 5 or 6 days after being on the mountain, I may really be wishing for such an attendant to walk by us on the mountain and ask if we want a hot towel.  Same goes with the glass of red wine I’m sipping…although we might want to be breaking out champagne if we are successful in reaching the summit of Kili on September 20.  For sure the two coney dogs and large Mountain Dew that I ate in the Detroit airport are the last American comfort foods that I am going to eat for some time now.

It is exhilarating to know and not know what lies before us…comforts and certainty behind…rocks, thin air and uncertainty ahead.


Lord, thank you for blessing me and the boys for being able to do this.  For the great health that makes it even possible.  For a wife that allows me with a smile to follow my passions and dreams.  For resources to pay the bills…and most of all for friends to not climb alone.  God, you are so good to me.