One week ago, I was despairing. We had been planning for Wesley and I to come to America to visit our family and supporters, but between raising $10,000 just a few months ago to buy a car and our move and busy summer, I hadn't been able to save or raise the $3,000 needed for our airfare. I was considering if we should cancel the trip.
Sunday evening I was at the hospital with a friend, and when it was time to leave, I threw my phone into my purse while I climbed on a motorcycle taxi to go home. I had been away for two days, so between greeting my family, unpacking, dinner, baths, etc. I didn't look at my phone again until the next morning. When I unlocked it, I realized that the screen must not have been off when I put it in my purse, and some internet windows had opened from inadvertent "purse dialing." As I moved to swipe those windows closed, I realized it was showing an advertisement for Qatar Airlines ticket sale. I had checked prices for tickets on Qatar and found them more expensive, but with the ticket sale, they had $1,200 fares for Nairobi to Washington, DC. "Great!" I thought, that's $2,400 for the two of us...already a good savings. Then I kept looking and found that they were offering a deal where purchasing an adult fare allows a child under 12 years to fly for free!
I was seriously amazed, but couldn't get too excited. I had 15 hours to buy the ticket, but only $550 in my bank account. I called my parents at 9pm their time and begged for help. They transferred $700 to my account with the understanding that I would keep raising money to pay them back as soon as possible. I went to buy the ticket, and my card wouldn't go through because of a fraud block. So I reserved the itinerary and crossed my fingers and prayed until morning Pacific Coast Time to call my bank. Oh wait. I forgot it was Labor Day. So I kept on praying for another 24 hours when I could contact the bank, and 12 hours before my reserved fare expired, the transaction went through! We had tickets!
In the meantime, a family who has been supporting us for some time emailed me that they would like to give us a $1,000 gift for our travel! So that covered our airfare, and some other gifts had come in to pay for our airfare from Washington, DC to Portland. Then another friend contacted me that he would like to buy our cross-country airfare with his frequent flier miles. Within an hour we had sorted out all our airfares, from Nairobi up to Portland.
It was such a testimony of God's blessing to us, at the moment when we really questioned if we understood God's plan for us. He is so faithful to us.
So Wesley and I will arrive in Portland on 26th September at 8pm, and I need to start scheduling dinners and lunches and coffees and meetings with all of you! Please email or Facebook me to set up a time to get together between the end of September and the end of November.