what a trip...#10

hello everyone,

i wanted to send a final email and tell you about the last day of outreach in slovakia and the crazy trip we had coming home.

i woke up sunday morning with a terrible hacking cough...the previous day of fighting my allergies in bonovce and then singing for three hours in a very smoky bar really did in my immune system. knowing that i would have to sing five songs at the outreach in about an hours time, i downed a few bottles of water and tried to talk a lot to get my voice back to where i could at least hold a simple tune.

the main concert of our outreach was scheduled for 9:30am at the cultural center in dubinca. that is a very early time of the day...especially for singing!!!

we arrived with all of our gear, the theater/cultural center was quite comfy with a high ceiling, plenty of stage space and much to our delight a grand piano backstage. i quickly grabbed my guitar and started tuning as everyone scurried around setting up the equipment. people started filling in the seats.

ada, the slovakian girl i'd recruited to play piano with me last night had found the grand piano backstage and began playing. i came over with my guitar and we found ourselves in an impromptu worship set. it was a beautiful way to start a morning. the feeling she evokes on the piano is very pleasant and haunting. i talked her into helping me play my new song again today...and then it was time to start.

there were about 100 people present, and i found it difficult to tell the difference between the church folk and the visitors. the slovakian band opened, then i came out with my guitar. matusch joined me for the first two songs, and his voice really helped hide the scratchyness of mine.

we finished the set with the whole team coming up and singing "here i am to worship" together. then the team shared the skits and a couple of them shared testimonies. the service was getting a bit long, so curtis shared the message, but had to rush. there was a nice altar call, and we spent a good half hour praying for folk. however the whole morning was a bit of a downer, i think the fatigue of going so hard for three weeks is finally catching up with us.

after the service us and many of the local believers drove to a building that they are trying to buy to be their next church building. so we walked around the building praying for god to give it to them at a very cheap price, and for many lives to be transformed through the work of the church in that building.

we then went and ate some lunch, then we all hopped on a bus with the people of the church and drove out to an old castle ruin. it was a great way to finish our missions trip. with our team and the local believers and translators, laughing and taking pictures of each other. finally we returned to our hotel and began packing for the early morning drive to vienna where we would be flying out at 10am.

it was a sad night since we had to say goodbye to our four translators who we bacame very close to during this last week. one of the special moments was when i had one of them a girl named danielle pray for me. both her grandfather and father had prayed for me, and so with her praying for me i had three generations of a strong christian family blessing me...wow...powerful.

lastly i said goodby to matusch. he has been a translator for the last three missions trip, including the one i was on two years ago. we are like brothers. we can get into with each other (especially since matusch likes to dink with the volume knobs on the sound system in the middle of a song, which really can irk a musician.) but i truly love matusch. and while we were there i got the dream of helping him start a chi alpha type ministry at one of the major slovakian universities. for only $500/month, he could have a standard salary and operating budget. here in the US it takes about $3000-$4000/mo. to facilitate a campus ministry. so i will be working with him and the other chi alphas here in montana to see if we might be able to partner to make this happen. matush has all the skills to be a successful university minister...he is passionate, committed and has a drive for excellence. please pray with me that this idea would grow into action...the way to change the spiritual culture of a nation is to start with the university students.

monday morning we piled in the two vans and headed for vienna. little did we know we were about to have one of those terrible airline adventures.

at the border, our driver was not allowed to cross into austria, because he had let his passport expire, luckily we had a slovak still with us so she hopped in the driver seat and we continued on to the airport.

we boarded the flight and had an uneventful hop to paris. the flight was a little late getting to paris, so we started walking quickly to the gate where we were to board for JFK. when we got to the gate it turned out to be the wrong one...so we started jogging/speed walking to the correct gate, as the loud speaker is blaring out "last call"... jack is lugging a backpack full of pottery vases, one of the girls purchased for family...the zipper comes loose, and in the middle of our rush the pottery goes flying everywhere...as they stop to pick up the mess...we rush on to let the gate people know we are coming. we make it onto the flight but all of us are very high strung now and it takes us a good hour to calm down again.

we land in JFK and find out our flight to salt lake city has been delayed, because of a storm from 5pm to 8pm...then later to 9pm...then 10pm...finally 11:30pm. we've spent 7 hours in the airport hanging out, and we've now been up for 24 hours. so we board the plane put all of our luggage away and settle in for the flight. then the intercom fires up and the stewardess tells us some bad news. they were hoping to get some pilots that had enough sleep hours, but none showed up, so everyone must get off the plane.

we find out the next flight won't be until 7am the next morning, and the airline will not give away any hotel vouchers, since the storm outside has cancelled so many flights that the hotels are full. so we are going to have to sleep on the floor of the airport. i remembered that the burgerking lounge had some padded benches, so i instruct our team to go claim some. i wait and get our new plane itinerary...then head up to the lounge. i end up sprawled out on the comfy BK bench, sleeping in my suit and tie with my suit jacket pulled over me as my blanket.

i sleep for a good 5 hours, although it was not very quality, just sleeping away the hours helped kill the doldrum. finally we head to the new gate and stand in a long line to get our new boarding passes. five of us get seats, but the last two people in our group are not given seats but are put on standby.

fawn ends up with a seat, but unfortunately jack is left behind...he will have to catch the next flight out at 4pm. i give him some money for food, but feel terrible that he will have to find something to do for the next 8 hours.

once on our flight, it appears we may not even get off the ground, because they can not get the intercom working. by now i'm feeling desperate (and so are many of the passengers). i am just praying desperately that they don't ask us to leave the airplane again, if they do there are surely some people that might short circuit (including me)...but finally they get it fixed and we take off and are finally in the air.

(a little sad side story...two planes over from us there is quite a commotion with police cars and ambulances surrounding a plane that has the markings from south africa. i find out later on the news that a man hid himself in the bay of the landing gear, trying to hitch a free ride. but he ends up getting killed by the landing gear and so the police were extracting his remains from the plane as we were dealing with all of our crazy flight stuff.)

i was sitting in a very spacious exit row seat, feeling very blissful about finally getting on with the flight and feeling like all the adventure was done, when one of the girls from the team yells my name. i turn around in my seat to see one of the other girls having a major seizure in her seat. (this girl has had some personal trauma in her past, and part of the reprocussions of those things is that her body sometimes shuts down with a seizure...especially if her schedule, eating, sleeping gets disrupted, which with our crazy trip home was certainly the case.)

the stewardesses begin yelling out for a doctor, because by now this girl is having a seizure and vomiting all over herself and her seat, all the while her eyes are zombied and staring straight forward. i rush back and kneel next to hear grab her hand and start talking to her. within seconds three men approach us and let me know they are doctors. we lay the girl on the floor so she won't choke on her vomit and they begin taking her vitals. i try to encourage her that everything will be okay and i also attempt to let the doctors know what her condition is and how to deal with her.

at one point there is talk of doing an emergency landing in pittsburgh. but i convince them that i think it is not necessary...once the doctors find out that her vitals are still very strong, and that she is not in serious biological danger, they agree. about 15 minutes after it started the girl finally regains her senses. we slowly get her to her feet and take her to the back of the plane to have some privacy, some fresh air and some water. i clean up the vomit as best i can and retake my seat...wow what a long strange trip!!!!

thank god the girl recovers her strength, ends up retaking her seat later in the flight, and feels good the rest of the time. i walk through the plane and thank the kind doctors who jumped in and helped.

after we get off the plane we find the nearest restaurant and have a big meal, before retiring to our hotels for a long night of sleep (we have been traveling for almost 48 straight hours). luckily jack makes it back right on time, and the next day we all say our goodbyes to each other and head off our separate directions. some to boise, some to pocatello, and some to montana.

we have been together every day for the past three weeks and it is a little strange to think that we won't be around each other tomorrow or the next day. we have become a little family and the memories we had together won't soon be forgotton.

i don't make it all the way home, instead i pull over about an hour from missoula to take a small nap, which turns into a 5 hour nap...before i finally finish the journey and end up at my house.

as many of you know we just got a chi alpha guys house, which i moved into just before i left for slovakia, so i leave one mission field and launch into a brand new one. there is already a new guy living in the house, his name is graeme (graham) from iowa. so after another long nap, i take him out to eat, so i can get to know who he is and find out if there is any way that god can use me to speak into his life...so ministry doesn't stop it just changes...all part of the great adventure of serving Christ!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who helped by giving money and by praying for us on this missions trip.

Thank you to Curtis Cole for leading this trip with such wisdom, patience and grace.

Thank you to the team for giving me lots of grace in the morning (i'm not a very good morning person :) and for all the talents and gifts you poured out on the people of poland and slovakia.

Thank you to anka, ada, matush, becca and jack for singing and playing with me at the outreaches.

Thank you to Lance for forming the blog site and keeping it updated with all our entries.

Thank you to Jesus for all the gifts you gave me on this trip and for using me to help build your Kingdom, i am truly blessed to call you my Lord, my Father and my Friend!!!!!!!!!!!!

tata....scott