{"id":1058,"date":"2014-06-24T17:10:34","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T21:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/?p=1058"},"modified":"2014-06-24T17:10:34","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T21:10:34","slug":"whats-it-like-to-arrive-in-a-foreign-country-for-the-very-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/2014\/06\/24\/whats-it-like-to-arrive-in-a-foreign-country-for-the-very-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s it like to arrive in a foreign country for the very first time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our first arrival in Paraguay years ago\u2026\u2026..<\/strong><\/p>\n

We finished the missions training May 1973 full of excitement and zeal to serve God in a foreign country. Prayerfully asking God for His guidance in our lives we began traveling to raise support with the plan to leave USA in January of 1974. \u00a0God provide for us though His people and we left the USA for Paraguay.<\/p>\n

Excitement and zeal will carry us along for a while but then . . . .<\/p>\n

We stepped off the airplane into the heat and humidity of a summer day in Paraguay, seeing armed young men standing at intervals as we were guided into the airport building, hearing a language spoke to us that we didn\u2019t understand\u2026..that is when enthusiasm starts to dwindle.\u00a0 We followed along with the crowd, standing in line, slowly moving forward until it was our turn to show our passports. \u00a0At this point our full attention was on one man knowing he could deny our entrance into Paraguay, who did not smile as he looked at our passport, asked for proof of immunizations record. I realized I was holding my breath waiting for him to \u201dOK\u201d us. What a relief it was when he stamping our passports handing our documents back to us. \u00a0But relief was short lived as we passed on into the luggage pickup area and we were surrounded by men urgently asking if they could pick up our luggage, asking for our bag tags. \u00a0At this point I\u2019m thinking please step back, let me get my bearings, we are capable of picking up our own luggage.\u00a0 But they were insistent, wanting us to choose one of them.\u00a0 Don picks one man with a promise of a set amount of money to be given to him once we are through customs.<\/p>\n

This man was immediately our new best friend giving Don, advice as they lifted our luggage onto a cart. Again we are in a slow moving line moving towards customs where 4 men are standing behind a low table. As we approach, the men behind the table motion at our luggage and our new best friend picks up our luggage placing them on the low tables, unzipping each one.\u00a0 Now you must realized that each of our suitcases had been carefully packed with carefully chosen items, weighed, stuffed with a couple of more items, weighed again, sat on to press all items down and to force out any extra air, then zipped up again and weighed to just two pounds under the 70 pounds we were allowed.\u00a0 These same suitcases are now being flip through by strangers. Then with a wave of the hand we are dismissed and our new best friend begins lifting our suitcases off the tables.\u00a0 We begin frantically trying close our suitcases over the items that have sprung back to their original size.<\/p>\n

We moved on through the doors to be greeted by our new missionary co-labors. Whew! \u00a0What a relief. We made it through the first of many trips through airports and customs.<\/p>\n

Hard, uncomfortable situations will erode zeal and enthusiasm.\u00a0 But God and the Word of God is what sustains us.<\/p>\n

Palms 3:5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains<\/span><\/strong> me.<\/p>\n

Deu 32:4<\/strong>\u00a0 He is<\/em> the Rock<\/strong>, his work is<\/em> perfect: for all his ways are<\/em> judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is<\/em> he.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our first arrival in Paraguay years ago\u2026\u2026.. We finished the missions training May 1973 full of excitement and zeal to serve God in a foreign country. Prayerfully asking God for His guidance in our lives we began traveling to raise support with the plan to leave USA in January of 1974. \u00a0God provide for us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62048],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-our-life-experiances","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/don-flower\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}