Amazon Journal (cont.'d)

9 April 2010

8:10 PM

We are well on our way to Atlanta having arrived just west of Washington, D.C., and will soon be entering Virginia airspace.  We are cruising at an altitude of 35,995 feet with the exterior air temps running at -45 degrees F!  Brrrr!!  We will have roughly an hour between landing in Atlanta and departure for Manaus so Atlanta might be an interesting experience.

So far our band of intrepid travelers is handling all the travel via American airspace really well.  Josh is still not convinced that air travel is a good thing, especially during take-offs and landings whichh he really dislikes!  But I'm determined to make an air traveler out of him yet.

Ah, here comes the drink service.  So I'll sign out until later.  A very uneventful flight that has so far brought us right back past Asheville and roughly right over Hendersonville.

10:38 PM

Yes!  We have boarded our flight bound for Manaus, Brazil.  It has already been a long day but way cool to actually hear the flight attendant speaking Portuguese.  Very exciting indeed!  Now we are truly on our way to Brazil.  Our departure was soundly started with a baby screaming bloody murder just in front of Chris.  Sorry but that just made me laugh out loud.

Our flight is a little over five hours long and we get a sandwich to eat.  Good thing because I am hungry again!  I have now gone an entire day without a computer, Facebook, e-mail, Blackberry, text messaging, or any technology other than my iPod.  And wow, it feels really great to not be completely plugged in and constantly available.

At 11:40 PM, we are now flying east of Daytona Beach over the Atlantic on route to the Caribbean.  We have left the continental US.  The sense of anticipation grows with each passing mile.  By tomorrow evening, we will be aboard our boat on the Amazon River.  I still can hardly believe that I am on a foreign flight.  God is truly an amazing God who has so richly blessed me with dear friends and His amazing love.  I told Chris this afternoon that when I left Balsam in January that I was broken and hurting.  I really didn't believe I could be healed of the heart-sickness that had built up over months.  Yet, he guided me to a new church family that has cared for me and touched me in ways I did not think possible.

I believe God began the healing of my broken heart long before I first walked through the doors of First Methodist Church of Waynesville.  I believe he began the healing using a new, young Christian who served as my encourager.  Tony kept reminding me who it was that really mattered and gave me the courage to make the move that would truly help me to heal.  That is a debt of gratitude that I will never forget.

But the intense healing began with a choir that from my first introduction to them treated me with total acceptance despite my being a total stranger.  Yet, that healing only intensified as a result of something a former professor of education at Western said to me as we approached the observance of Lent.  Eddie has many reasons to rightfully be bitter, angry, upset.  But, he has overcome that and has encouraged me to release old pain.  I was searching for something to give up for Lent and did not want to choose something trite.  As this was my first celebration of Ash Wednesday and observance of Lent, I wanted to make a choice that would truly enhance my spiritual condition and draw me closer to God.  I wanted to release my anger and bitterness and truly move forward.  I told him this and he suggest that I pray God's blessings on all who had hurt me during the 40 days of Lent.  This became what I gave up for Lent.  As I moved through that 40 day period, I felt each day that the burden of anger, bitterness, resentment, and betrayal began to drop away.  The hurt will always be there but God showed me that I could indeed leave it behind.  And, so, on Easter Sunday at the 8:30 AM service, I stepped out to join Pastor Sandy Giles in front of the congregation to formally join First Methodist Church.  I count it a great honor that David Traynham stood with me and that Willie really surprised me by joining him.  There are times in our lives that are truly seasons of change.  In Ecclesiastes, Solomon eloquently teaches us this when he says:

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;  A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;  A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;  A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;  A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;  A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

(3:1-8, KJV)        

My time to heal has come.  My time to weep has passed.  My time to laugh, to feel the joy of the Lord, has come.  My time of silence has ended.  And, my time to speak is the here and the now.  I pray that God grant me the courage to boldly proclaim my faith and to ever remember the wonderful blessings of His grace.  A new beginning has come and I will boldly move into this new phase in life.  Thanks be to God!