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.
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| 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.
