We got up at 4:00 AM on Tuesday and went to church. The plan for the day was to deliver 30 Youth Group Mission Team members to LAX where they would begin their long journey to Malawi, Africa. We offered to pull a large trailer full of luggage with our Toyota Highlander. We arrived at Northside at about 5:15 AM. The entire team was soon packing duffel bags with donations, weighing luggage, tagging luggage, packing luggage into cars and onto the large trailer. I figure there was about 1,320 lbs of luggage on the trailer alone! This flurry of activity took a little over an hour. We took team pictures, and then a small caravan of vehicles headed out to LAX. The Northside Youth Group has been planning and preparing for this missions trip for at least the last 6 months.
Tracy and I had the privilege of taking our Nick, John (the Youth Pastor), Sarah (John's wife), Layla (Sarah's BFF) and Nic (another Nick!) in our car - 7 seats, 7 people, it was cozy. Needless to say, we didn't drive up the Grapevine grade at 65 MPH. It was more like 40 MPH at a few spots. When we stopped near Bakersfield, one of the other drivers looked at the trailer, and our little Highlander and said, "you would think they would have had someone with a V8 pull that thing!". I had to agree.
Somewhere near that point, John the Youth Pastor realized he had forgotten a camcorder. So he got on the phone and within 30 to 45 minutes, we had a camera ready to pickup just off Interstate 5 in Castaic (just North of 6 Flags Magic Mountain). That detour only took 15 minutes, and we were off again!
We had a rousing good time on the way. There was a fair amount of nervous excitement in the car, which made for some good traveling-fun. I learned a lot about the Bachelorette, the latest iPhone tricks, a few words in 'Malawi-ese' and got to know some great people for the first time!
We all met up near the airport, so we could all drive in and unload at the same time. We needed to do this because you are not supposed to camp-out in the unloading zone waiting around for others to arrive. The caravan all hit the road together with just another mile South to the airport. We were all looking good, except for the one car that got on the North-bound freeway entrance (they arrived at the unloading zone safely after everyone else was probably gone).
Just as we were entering the airport, we were stopped at a security check-point. The Security guy motioned for me to stop (I guess we looked a little suspicious with our big trailer full of something mysterious covered by large tarps). He asked me what I had. I told him we were a part of a group of 30 people who were departing for Malawi Africa on a missions trip. He immediately understood and told us to go on through. I'm sure he heard a similar story from the next 8 cars.
When we found the international departures- Lufthansa Airlines drop point, I felt like we were on a Swat Team prepping for an emergency situation. We were double-parked, with a small bus also double-parked in front of us. The trailer was sticking out into the lane of traffic to our left (there was not enough space for me to pull forward and get the trailer out of that lane). We all jumped out and immediately began ripping off the bungee cords and tarps covering the luggage. Then we hauled 30 bags off the trailer and made 3 piles of ten bags each on the sidewalk. Everyone had their carry-on bags out of the car, and Bobs-your-uncle, we were ready to go. We gave Nick a very quick hug, and told him we loved him and to have a good time. We said goodbye to everyone else, then jumped back into the car and hit the highway. It wasn't exactly the way I wanted to say goodbye, but oh well, what cha gonna do?
Check the Northside Short-term Missions blog for details on their trip. The blog will be updated frequently while the team is gone.
Nick sent us a text message yesterday. He said, "Arrived late yester - bags have not - having an amazing time - love u both"
We can't wait for his next text message!
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