End of my time in the United States for this year

Dear Friends,
Greetings from Washington D.C.! Tonight I am tucked away in an Embassy Suites hotel room in Arlington, Virginia. I flew in to Dulles International Airport in D.C. from Louisville, Kentucky late this afternoon. In the morning I board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Juba, South Sudan via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The stay tonight is what is known as a "forced stay." I had to come to D.C. today because the timing of the flights is not right for same day D.C. flight and African flight. The good part about a forced stay is that Ethiopian Airlines picks up the bill. I suspect that they have some sort of a deal with the hotel chain, maybe discount based on volume. At any rate it is a really nice room, or really a suite. There is a living room of sorts on one end, a mini kitchen and bathroom section in the center and then a bedroom on the other end. There are two big screen tv's....good grief Charlie Brown!

The bad news is that with a nice hotel come big price tags. They want $2.00 for a little bag of m&m's, I don't think so! So dinner was the Manager's Hospitality this evening....free Diet Coke (other people were having the free alcohol) and all the popcorn I could eat. I'm becoming very fond of popcorn!

I am very aware of the fact that tomorrow I head into a time of uncertainty and that the level of comfort in my life is going to diminish rapidly. I am appreciating my last night of drinking tap water and having a thermostat. Malakal, the town in South Sudan where I will ultimately land has been without electricity for three days now, not unlike what the our states here in the US which were hit by Hurricane Irene are facing, except that with Malakal this is going to be more chronic.

The end of the planning is at hand. Planning lists, what will I need, what might I need? What does one take to a place that has food shortages and where electricity is not consistently available? I hope I've planned well enough.....I have heard that the border between Sudan in the north and South Sudan has been closed by Sudan. This means that supplies are not coming in to the new country. Supplies like kerosene and propane. This means that cooking options are limited. If electricity has been out for three days and no one can get hold of kerosene and propane what does one use for cooking? Apparently charcoal is one alternative and I have been told that the charcoal in South Sudan is not treated with chemicals as ours is here in the states. I do have a solar cooker with me but it won't arrive for a while and I have never used it before.

My luggage will be taken to the Mission Aviation Fellowship on its arrival in Juba. Piece by piece it will be delivered to me in Malakal over the course of weeks. Part of the planning has been to try and prioritize what I need first. Plates and silverware in the first box. Most of the books I am taking with me are later on. Books weigh a lot, theological education is a beloved and expensive vocation.

In the midst of all the packing, anxiety and travel I have been contemplating yet another tension in my life of faith. Being a Christian does not guarantee safety or a smooth ride. "God does not promise life without pain, God promises to walk with us in the pain." On the other hand, I do believe that when I am walking in God's will that God goes ahead of me and prepares the path, the way. You might see why I spend time contemplating these two ends of the spectrum.

While I am in Ethiopia it is likely that blogspot will be blocked. If this is so I will blog at debbiesjourneycontinues.wordpress.com. Please feel free to join me on my journey at that blog if this one is not accessible to me. I don't know if blogspot will be available in South Sudan or not; so check them both out and keep walking with me on the journey.
Blessings,
Debbie