God Never Change

In Nigeria, personalization of vehicles is done often by adding slogans somewhere to the exterior.  A book of these slogans could be compiled. Here's one for that book: "Every Problem is a Lesson: God Never Change."

In Jos, one of the most common means of transportation is Nigeria's version of the rickshaw, which is locally called a keke (or keke-marwa), in Hausa. The ekes are ubiquitous in Jos, ever since the ban a couple years ago due to the attacks that were happening from motorcycles.

Aviation Note

Received this from our aviation department today:

Praise the Lord!  After many years of work and planning from people in Cameroon and in the US our “new” plane is ready to depart for Cameroon.  This Cessna 207, or “Soloy” as we often refer to it, has been at JAARS for the last two years being overhauled and modified for service here in Cameroon.  Tom and Bruce are planning to depart from North Carolina today April 18, 2012 on an 11,000 km flight to bring the plane to Cameroon.  They are planning five to seven days to make the trip.  Please join us in praying Bruce and Tom as they fly to Cameroon! Below you will find two links:  One to see the planned route and one to get current updates of their position.  Rejoice with us as we look forward to how the Lord will use this plane to advance the Bible Translation Movement in Africa. 

The planned route:  http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=KLKR-KBGR-CYYT-LPPD-GMMH-glrb-DGAA-FKYS&DU=nm&S  

To follow their progress:  http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Bt7W6rZD2ZYQ00Bvf8IjFjhUzJH2PFZv

Visas by 9 AM, Milestones Achieved...

Our passports with visas arrived this morning by 9 AM!

In God's kind providence, our visit home resulted in accomplishing many objectives:

• Re-adoption MN (birth certificate included)
• Medical appointments
• Dental appointments 
• SSN 
• US passport
• Visas
• Applied for Certificate of Citizenship
• Family, Friend, Church re-connection and introductions!

Still to do this week before returning this weekend:

• Family and Friend time
• Taxes to complete
• Pack
• Last minute miscellaneous

Where in the world is this sign?

Home. For a Few Brief Weeks.

Frequent Flyer Miles for Adoption

Travel expenses can easily constitute half or even the majority of the costs of an international adoption.  In our case we are preparing ourselves for up to $10,000 in airfare alone depending on how much advance notice we have before travel.

Below are two ways frequent flyer miles could help us in flying Douala-Addis Ababa-USA-Douala anticipated before the end of this year:

Ethiopian Airlines

If you will be flying Ethiopian Airlines in the future, would you consider signing up for Sheba Miles and using our number as the referral member number?                 Our number: 00034394231  

Once you fly on a round trip flight with Ethiopian Airlines our account will be credited 5,000 miles.  If ten people do this, it will pay for one of our flights from here to Ethiopia.   

Do you know someone who may fly on Ethiopian Airlines?  Feel free to pass this information on!

Lufthansa

Lufthansa is a partner of Ethiopian Airlines and Lufthansa miles from their Miles & More Program can be used to purchase Ethiopian Airlines flights.   

Would you or someone you know who has accumulated Lufthansa miles consider donating a frequent flyer ticket when it comes time to buy our tickets?  

Number 5 of 5!

Just returned from the airport with our final bag! Since it has been so long, we had almost given up the hope of seeing it again.


The Numbers Required to Secure Our Luggage

• 0 of 5 bags arriving with our flight, but 3 the next day, 1 the day after that, and the final one today
• =1 week, 4 day wait
• Enduring a 3 hour plus standing in line (after our night flight) to immediately claim our lost bags at the airport
• Over 20 phone calls to 5 different countries (Cameroon, Morocco, France, UK, USA)
• Conversations in French and English
• Making a detailed report of the last container's contents (English and French)
• 5 trips to the airport (one of them taking over 3 hours)
• One detailed document of all the vital information related to baggage claim

Q&A
What is the first thing you want to do, now that the last piece of luggage arrived?

• Chris: trim my beard (my clippers were in the bin)
• Elizabeth: put on make-up!

Why it Took So Long?
We are pretty sure it's because the right side strap fell/broke off, the strap on which they had attached the baggage sticker information (destination, name, etc). The sticker above was a new one they made after matching our container with the info and photo we emailed them.

Lesson learned
Instruct the gate agent to stick the luggage sticker on the container itself!