Welcome to South Africa

Out of the cold our team met at the Gerald Ford Airport of Grand Rapids. You wouldn't know from the picture that we were headed south, real far south.

Our flight out of Washington, D.C. took just 14 hours as we had a good tail wind. That helped us reach speeds over 700 MPH. I know that some of our team were able to share with people on the plane about what were doing. One was in a discussion on the reliablity of the Bible.

Upon arrival in South Africa we were hit with the temperatures in the high 80's. The jackets, coats and scarves are gone for now. After clearing Immigration in Jo'Burg, South Africa we waited for our luggage. After some time of waiting and not seeing one piece of our 10 pieces of checked bags we were told that since we would be flying to Zambia the next morning that the luggage was being held for us and would be on our next flight. (We wonder if the night shift at the airport is going through our stuff. Will the Johnson family get their peanut butter and packs of M & M's?)

We are staying at a hotel near the airport. (Story: The shuttle driver took us to the wrong hotel. We unloaded walked up to the counter only to find out we were at the right chain of hotels, just the wrong one. We should be just a couple of blocks down the street. Back in the shuttle, same seats.)

Now we are settled in and after a meal we are headed to bed, with various forms of jet lag.

We leave the hotel on Saturday mornig at 8:50 AM to head to the airport. Next stop Zambia and the Johnson's.