Flights Booked ... it's definite!

It is Tim posting as a guest blogger on what is supposed to be a joint blog, but up to now has only been Rachel’s work. On Thursday afternoon we received an email from Emmanuel International, to say that our flights have been booked and paid for (up to this point they had only been on hold).

Tuesday 7 September departing at 1920 from London Heathrow on a BA 767 to Dar-es-Salaam. I guess that means we're actually going! All this preparation and planning, and now finally something is more than pencilled in. Life is going to change!


Today I enjoyed our Sunday morning routine of croissants and coffee for breakfast, realising we don't have many more of these left. What are we going to do when we get to Iringa? Can we learn to make croissants, as I'm sure there are no French patisseries there? We should be ok for the coffee as we'll squeeze a cafetiere into our luggage. Anyway, all this to say we're leaving a life we're fond of for something new and unknown. But we go, knowing this is path God

has opened to us and, as our daughter Amisadai

said, “So that we can help people.”

The reality is also sinking in that we're not going to make it on our own (we're going to struggle to move out of our house in the next three weeks and have it ready for tenants by 1 September). But that's ok, since what could be perceived as a point of weakness is actually a point of strength and cause of appreciation. We were never meant to live life alone. Nor is our venture simply an individual pursuit. So many of our friends from the different aspects of our lives have got behind and underneath us – for which we are so grateful – that it feels a whole community venture. It’s just that we are the ones actually going. But everyone else’s part is just as needed, whether that be buying a recipe book, or fixing something, or saying a prayer, or looking after the children. So, “Thank you.”