From beautiful, mountainous Swaziland!

*This post was written on Wednesday, May 20th, the night we arrived in Johannesburg. I am just now been able to connect to the internet, and it is the evening of Friday the 20th here in Swaziland. We will be sure to bring an update as soon as possible regarding our most recent activities here. But just to say this much -- we are loving it! The country is beautiful, and every hour we are more excited about being here!

We Have Arrived!
Tuesday morning, May 19, we left for the Columbus airport. The ride was very tight, seeing as we had four large suitcases, a guitar, golf clubs, a carry-on suitcase, a backpack and a laptap computer bag! Brent’s sister, Bethany, drove us there, and Michaele’s brother Ben met us at the airport for one more hug. Everything went smoothly, and even though we were concerned our bags would be too heavy, all four of them were just under 50 lbs! We need to check a third piece of luggage for Brent because he was encouraged to bring his golf clubs. This did have an extra fee – BUT, praise God! – the day before we left, someone had given us a check for that exact amount! God knew what we needed even before we did!
From Columbus we flew into Atlanta and met up with Barbi Moore, the global outreach coordinator for Bethany First Church . The layover was pretty short, but it gave me (Michaele) one more chance to buy Starbucks, and both of us a chance to use our cell phones one last time to talk to our parents.
From Atlanta we flew to Dakar, Senegal, where we had a 2 hour layover, but did not exit the plane. As we followed the plane’s route on the screen in front of us, we were both reminded again just how huge Africa is! Our stop in Dakar, at the western-most point of Africa, was only the halfway point to Johannesburg. After plane refueled and we were engaged in some routine security checks, we left again for Johannesburg, South Africa. Our departure from Dakar was 6am local time, 2am Ohio time. We arrived in Johannesburg, after another 8+ hour flight at 4pm, local time, 10am Ohio time.
We were able to sleep a little bit on the plane, and the ride actually did not seem quite so long as it sounded. Customs and passport checks in Jo-burg were a breeze, and all of our luggage came out safely into our hands. We could not have asked for a better trip!!
After checking into our hotel tonight, we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant with very good, authentic food. Japanese cuisine in South Africa! It never ceases to amaze me, how small the world is.
Tomorrow morning we will board one more flight on a much smaller plane for the hour-long flight into Manzini, Swaziland. Once there we hit the ground running! This next week will be spent in preparation for the GO Team from Lenexa, Kansas, which is coming in on the 29th.
We so appreciate all of the prayers that have been prayed on our behalf! The safety, ease, and swiftness of our trip is a testimony to God’s provision and care during our travel.