Coronavirus Sent Me Home from Africa

Friday, the 13th. I have never considered this day to be anything special before, however, Friday, March 13, 2020 will likely be a day I remember for the rest of my life. 

I was in The Kingdom of eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland. My co-leader summer and I took a day to go to town and get some logistical things done for our team while the others went to our normal ministry site. While they were playing with the kids an hour and a half into the Southern African mountains, I was  on a lunch time one-on-one call with my leader back home. He was up at 4:30 in the morning on his way to the airport so why not call me? It was a completely normal call and when it ended I didn’t really expect to hear from him so soon. 

However, just a couple hours later I found myself texting him because of a news article someone showed me. It said Lesotho (the country we had planned to go to next) had closed its boarders and wasn’t letting anyone in. Their government decided to do this because they had 0 cases of the Virus and didn’t want to get it anytime soon. I get it, but it did throw a wrench in our plan. I texted Jeremy and within the hour Summer and I were on a call with him, tears lightly rolling down my cheeks as He told us we would have to cut this trip short and head home to America ASAP. 

The next several days happened so fast. That Friday afternoon our participants came home from ministry at 5:30pm. Immediately we gathered in the living room and had the conversation about what was goin on. We informed them they needed to have their bags packed and ready to go before the next morning. By 8:30am on Saturday we were packed, in the van, and headed toward the boarder of South Africa, hoping we would get there before their borders closed. By 8:45pm on Sunday we were on a plane headed for the States and by 4:45pm on Monday we were back home.

I need to clarify something. We were not taken out of Africa in fear of getting the coronavirus. We left because with so many countries closing its boarders we knew that within a matter of days we could be stuck in eSwatini without the ability to get home to America. 

Our trip ending early was for sure not the easiest thing but I honestly have a peace that surpasses understanding. From the moment we were told we had to go home I’ve had this idea in my head that this does not happen. What is going on is honestly a big deal which means God has to be doing something great! I’m so excited to see what He’s up to and how He is going to use all this for our good and more importantly HIS GLORY. 

I’ve been trying to avoid the phrase “I was supposed to…” I was supposed to spend three months in Africa. I was supposed to come home at the end of April. I was supposed to go to Lesotho. I’ve been avoiding saying things like this because they’re not true. I had plans to stay in Africa for three months but clearly the Lord’s plans were different and I was supposed to be home. 

On that Friday, in a matter of minutes, all 12 of us went from having pretty solid plans for the next couple months to having absolutely no clue what life was to look like even a couple days in advance. Talk about having to be dependent on the Lord. We may not know what we’re doing for the next month or two, we may not know why we’ve been called back home, we may not even know when we’ll have our next set of plans, but above all else we know who we’re serving. At home or in Africa we will trust in the Lord and in his plan. And we will sell our leftover hand sanitizer outside the Walmart to make a little extra cash.