From snowstorms to sandstorms

It snowed 2 to 3 inches here in Seattle yesterday. Tomorrow's high in Guinea-Bissau: 94 degrees. After living in California for two years, snow feels like the Ice Age. The mid-90s sound great. Can't wait to get to Africa.

Tomorrow I'll be traveling from Sea-Tac Airport to Amsterdam, then Lisbon, where missionary Tom Crompton and I will stay overnight at a Portuguese hotel. Tom and his family lived in Ghana for 16 years, but this will be his first time in Guinea-Bissau (GB). This will be my first time in Africa. On Thursday morning, we will fly from Lisbon to Bissau, the capital of GB. From there, we will take a two-hour trip to the city of Canchungo. It is in this city of 7,000 that the missionary house and the school built by FLAME Ministry (www.flameministry.org) is located. And it is there that I will spend most of the next three weeks of my life. And it is there that I will make my last stand against Malaria, if I ever contract the disease. I have to take a pill every day that fights bacteria growth. The pills are also used for fighting acne. God-willing, my acne pills will do the trick and I will be malaria-free.

Tom first asked me to join him on his journey to Africa two months ago. At first, I thought it was too short notice. Ever since returning from Iraq, Jordan and Switzerland in September, I've been eager to travel the world -- but I wondered if it would be over-ambitious to presume I could get three weeks off work, get my immunizations in order, and do everything I needed to do to go half way around the world. It was an answer to prayer -- to visit other parts of the world -- but one that seemed to come too soon. After thinking about it for a while and much prayer, though, I realized that there will never be a perfect time in my life to visit Africa, a place that I've been interested in visiting for the last few years. Besides, it's a good time in my life for such an adventure.

After making the decision to go, I hustled to get plane tickets, get immunizations, send all my info to Tom so we could get visas (which thankfully came through a few days ago), and buy lots of mosquito repellent. By God's grace, I was able to finagle enough time off work for the trip on short notice. So now I'm at my folks' place in Seattle, popping down acne pills and dreaming about clear skies and really really warm weather.

I will hopefully be able to keep this blog up to date, though I may not be able to add new posts too often since the city of Canchungo isn't WiFi friendly. I'll visit Bissau a few times during my time in GB and will have access to Internet cafes, thankfully.

I appreciate all your prayers and words of support. Feel free to leave a comment on this blog or send me a note at chriscollins101@gmail.com. Hopefully, I will return Feb. 16 nicely tanned, fluent in Portuguese (the official language of GB), a more worldly and wiser man, and acne/malaria-free.