The Journey Begins!

Its 6:30am on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 and it is the coldest of the previous years of mission trips. We start off at the Cedar Rapids Eastern Iowa Airport, Delta airline arrival terminal. I pull up to see Julie Gordman standing in the back of her van, rear doors open and the team members pulling bin after bin out in such an orderly fashion that gives an assurance that we only send the best of the best over. I join the team inside and start the process of accessing the 18 action packers, 4 bags, and 2 boxes of equipment.

Now is the fun part, checking them in. How this works is the airline allows the 1^st bag free, 2^nd bag at a cost of $100 or less, and any additional bag for $200. So our team members only check one personal bag each and then we allot an action packer, bag, or box to each person until all are checked baggage. So this means that each member could be checking in up to 4 bags per person (Spanda Inc pays for any additional bag cost). We take equipment and supplies over in this particular manner because, it costs less than shipping, equipment is more secure and efficiently delivered.

The most amazing part of the process of packing this equipment and supplies is that we are spot on in weight. It amazes people how, considering our method of weighing is having someone stand on a scale and have them hold the container to measure its weight, thank you Jennifer Hicks Pershing for being that person.

So it is 7:15, all baggage has been checked in, tickets issued, now the next hurdle making it through security. I watched carefully while the machine was flagging our checked baggage. Each bin that was flagged was carefully opened and searched. The Delta security were friendly and even asked my help to instruct on how we put the zip ties on the action packers correctly so they could secure the items for us.

At 7:45, all baggage was cleared and tagged to Nairobi, Africa where it would meet up again with the team. As I gave my hugs and thank you’s to these wonderful and gallant people, I walked away with the sound of Mark Cannon and Jim Chalupsky coordinating a team cheerleading shout out “GO TEAM” and “GO DELTA”. Today is a good day, let’s all pray for safe travels for both the team (pic left to right: Carolyn Hamilton, Jennifer Hicks Pershing, Lauren Cannon, Jim Chalupsky, Mark Cannon, Joan Chalupsky, Sharon Dieter, Dr. DeAnn Fitzgerald) and the equipment/supplies.