Travel Plans in the Days of COVID

At least we can still travel by bike!

“Due to the huge amount of calls at this time, none of our staff is available to speak to you.  Please call again later.  Goodbye.”  A click, and then a dial tone, and our attempt to secure plane tickets is thwarted again.

This is not a great time for travel.  Stay at home orders are everywhere.  COVID-19 is spiking in nearly every state of the US and we’re seeing new spikes in parts of Africa and India. One travel website has a helpful map of travel restrictions by country, but it is equally disheartening. Most of the world is closed and the few countries that remain open leave the rest of the world wondering if they do so out of necessity, ignorance or hope.

In the midst of this we hold onto hope that things will open up eventually. When we came to the States (just as COVID was hitting) we had roundtrip tickets. So we still have our return plane tickets back to the islands—or we sort of do.  Last week we got an email from SwissAir letting us know that there had been some changes to our flight schedule and asking us to click if we would agree to them.  We scrolled down to check the change.  Sure enough, our flight to Zurich had changed by a day—but our flight to Africa…it was gone!  No flight at all.  We let SwissAir know that we could not agree to this flight change, but that was as far as we got.  Swiss Air simply doesn’t have flights to Africa at this time.

Biking destination- ice cream!

Later that week we spoke to our teammates on the islands.  The islands are one of many countries that have closed their borders with only hints and rumors of when they may plan to open them again.  Added to this are the rumblings that the country could stay closed for reasons other than COVID.  Closed borders mean greater control of the country, and word on the street is that the Islands’ president is going to keep the borders shut for as long as he feels it is useful.  So even if we were able to get that illusive flight to Kenya, would we be stuck there?  Unable to connect to the islands? 

So it is our hope to return to the Islands.  It is our hope to do so in September.  It is our hope to reunite with our teammates and welcome new teammates to our team with the coming of 2021.  And yet, we see that we must hold onto our plans loosely, for COVID has changed everything.  It is our hope to travel back to the East Coast next month, but we are finding difficulties there too. Phone lines are busy, flights are cancelled, and States are changing their recommendations almost daily.

All of this leaves us in travel limbo.  It is normal for us to plan and make plans.  It is also normal enough for those plans to change—by a day or week.  But this is a new level of uncertainty because it’s coming from all sides.  How do we plan for the unknown?  Many of you can relate.  We have friends who are pursuing new jobs, buying a new home, planning weddings or switching schools, but with so much uncertainty hanging over them. We’re all in this unknown together. So we make tentative plans, we hold things loosely, we pray, we hope.

Ready for a streamed gathering on Sunday

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our son is feeling all better now— thank you for your prayers. We got to have a distanced visit with an old friend from college and got to meet his wife and children for the first time— we are thankful for the connections we are able to make in spite of the pandemic. We have been able to help sort and organize Megan’s parents’ garage (they’ve lived in the same house for 40 years)— it is nice to have projects and to feel helpful. There have been several encouraging stories from the islands about islanders seeking, reading on their own and asking good questions during the lockdown.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our colleagues on the islands as they follow-up with these islanders that are seeking truth. Two of our teammates who are still back on Clove Island have been sick for the past week (possibly with COVID). They are monitoring their condition closely, please pray for full and quick recoveries. We found out one of our longtime island neighbors who we call Ma Riziki has a cough— pray for her healing. Pray for us as we make plans- especially where they impact others. Tom has been working on some writing projects- pray for wisdom about what to do with them once he’s finished.