In an effort to get my house in order before I for such a long time, my mother and I worked day and night in the 48 hours before my departure last nigh. After not sleeping at all on Thursday night I left Goodland yesterday morning to go to Irene's for the last send out prayer... and ran out of petrol just after I came through Mamelodi on the Hans Strydom extention.
This strange little disaster brought the wonderful blessing of seeing Erna, Jason and Oelof who came to my rescue. And by God's grace I was still able to catch the end of the prayer time at Irene's with my mother. After Jopie and Nelia also prayed for my I went to Dickenson Ave to get the last few things, and I wanted to cry when I greeted the dogs and the cat.
Back to Goodland for the last scuttles and off to the airport quick quick quick... Ma dropped me, Ethie met me and escorted me around as I checked in, changed money and bought water - het calm wherewithall in the new aitport building was such a help, because by this time I was feeling like a rag wrung dry. And I really miss Eugenie.
Elizabeth Jordaan and I discovered that we were on the same flight earlier in the morning, and she got them to put us next to each other before when she checked in. So after I passed through passport control I found her waiting at the gate - it was a real honour to fly with her, and a comfort.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Northern Highway Part II: The Plan
Mission
To fly to the northern ends of the Earth and travel from there to Jerusalem overland (as far as possible) claiming each place I set my feet for the Kingdom of God, picking up stones as far as I go (and collecting the stones from NH1 in Istanbul) to present to the Lord on Mount Zion in Jerusalem in a prophetic act proclaiming that the stones of the North are crying out, because the people are not worshiping God, and that all of creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
Timing
To start from the northern most town in Greenland on 22 July and finish in Jerusalem 40 days later on 30 August. Due to the way flights aligned I am already departing for Greenland tomorrow, 11 July. I’ll fly via Cairo and sleep in Copenhagen on Saturday night, before I leave for Greenland on Sunday. After arriving in Jerusalem I’ll have some time to catch up with friends there before I return to SA via Jordan and Egypt on 10 September.
Route
SA-Egypt-Denmark-Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Islands-Norway-Scotland-Ireland-Wales-Cornwal-England-France-Belgium-Netherlands-Germany-Poland?-Austria-Hungary-Switzerland-Italy-Greece-Turkey-Syria-Jordan-Israel
Companions
Eugenie indicated early on that she would not be able to join me for NH2. In Istanbul at the end of NH1 a friend prayed and felt that I am to expect various interesting companions to join me for parts of the way. None of these have been revealed yet, and I am currently making all arrangements as if I will be travelling with the Lord alone.
To fly to the northern ends of the Earth and travel from there to Jerusalem overland (as far as possible) claiming each place I set my feet for the Kingdom of God, picking up stones as far as I go (and collecting the stones from NH1 in Istanbul) to present to the Lord on Mount Zion in Jerusalem in a prophetic act proclaiming that the stones of the North are crying out, because the people are not worshiping God, and that all of creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
Timing
To start from the northern most town in Greenland on 22 July and finish in Jerusalem 40 days later on 30 August. Due to the way flights aligned I am already departing for Greenland tomorrow, 11 July. I’ll fly via Cairo and sleep in Copenhagen on Saturday night, before I leave for Greenland on Sunday. After arriving in Jerusalem I’ll have some time to catch up with friends there before I return to SA via Jordan and Egypt on 10 September.
Route
SA-Egypt-Denmark-Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Islands-Norway-Scotland-Ireland-Wales-Cornwal-England-France-Belgium-Netherlands-Germany-Poland?-Austria-Hungary-Switzerland-Italy-Greece-Turkey-Syria-Jordan-Israel
Companions
Eugenie indicated early on that she would not be able to join me for NH2. In Istanbul at the end of NH1 a friend prayed and felt that I am to expect various interesting companions to join me for parts of the way. None of these have been revealed yet, and I am currently making all arrangements as if I will be travelling with the Lord alone.
The Northern Highway Part II: Recap on the Vision
Foundational Scriptures:
There is a Highway
Isa 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.
Jhn 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Creation and the Great Commission
Jhn 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Mar 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
Rom 8:19 “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” Jesus did not only die for mankind, but for the world.
The ends of the Earth
Isa 49:6 “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Isa 62:11 Indeed the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the world: "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.
Vision
To travel along the Highways from the ends of the Earth to Jerusalem:
- claiming the highways of the world for the Kingdom of God,
- interceding on behalf of creation for the revelation of the sons of God in every nation along the way, and
- bringing the message to Zion that her salvation is coming.
Strategy
The strategy involves the following:
- fly to the “ends of the Earth” as the Lord directs and makes accessible,
- build an altar there with stones from Mnt Zion to proclaim that the foundation of the Highway is in Zion,
- travel over land and sea from there to Jerusalem claiming every place we set our feet for the Kingdom of God,
- collect stones along the way to present to the Lord in a prophetic action on Mnt Zion saying that “creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed”, and
- meet believers along the way who can testify of Isa 49:6 and confirm Isa 62:11, pray with us and send us along our way.
The Northern Highway Part I in hindsight...
Before we started out we received a word that the Lord would keep us as in a glorious carriage, and that we would pass through many dark places and wars, but that they would not touch us, because He would keep us in His perfect peace. Back in SA after the Northern Highway Part I we could not help but have the feeling that we somehow failed. We were facing many questions:
- How did it happen that we never took proper notice of the expiry date of our Russian visas?
- Why did we get so sick?
- Why did we not find a surface way over the Black Sea?
- Was it right to leave the stones in Istanbul when we did not actually reach there over the surface?
- When we called our mother to say our flight has landed she told us that our grandmother passed away that Easter Sunday evening that we were flying home.
In contact with other prayer missionaries that work in Russia I was told that confusion and miscommunication is a general problem in the Russian territory. The kind of mental dullness that we experienced in our oversight of such a vital detail as out visa expiry date was also nothing new to them. This is some consolation, but still I could not understand where we got out of the “Carriage of the Lord” where He promised to protect us of this kind of thing...
In praying about the Black Sea, and why we never managed to reach it when we tried to go there from Istanbul, I felt that the Lord has dealt with the Black Sea in another way, and that this is not our battle to fight. This is a principle regarding all the sea covered surfaces in the Highways. Sometimes he will open the way for sea travel, but the mandate is for the ground and the stones...it’s OK to fly over the sea.
The further I move away from this experience in time, the more I feel convinced that we got sick because we moved out of His protection when we lost focus and took up burdens that were not ours to carry. Our mandate was to travel the Highway, take the ground, collect the stones and praise His name – not to take up the battle with the believers of Moscow, or to cry out to the Lord regarding the blood that stains the ground in Volgograd. In our original plan we would have had two days in Sochi before the visas expired. One of these days were lost in our miscalculation of the time it takes from Murmansk to Moscow and the other was the time we spent in Volgograd. The painful lesson seems to be that there are no concessions regarding the little things on the side that could be done on these Highways. He requires absolute and perfect obedience.
The stones are waiting in the right place in Istanbul. The Lord made a way for us to bring them there and prepared a relationship with the local body, for us to leave them with. He has done it – it is done.
Our grandmother’s death was not related to our battles. Her business was done and it was time for her to go Home so she went in her sleep in her own bed at the age of 92. Praise the Lord!
Easter in Istanbul
The next morning was Good Friday and our beloved friend from Israel arrived to meet us in Istanbul. She had been witness to many of the Highway things and the Lord sent her again to come and witness His Highway in Istanbul. Eugenie and I donned our winter gear over our post fever bodies and went to look for her hotel in the rain. This is what she wrote about our time together:
I felt it was right for me to meet up with Johanna and Eugenie at the end of their long journey from the far north of Norway (and Europe) through Russia and pray with them in Istanbul. That was awesome in itself, to be able to connect with them. A big city, but thanks to modern communication and their willingness to navigate the city, they were able to find me in my hotel in the city centre, and then followed three days of calm adventure together. Remember Istanbul's location. The city straddles the Bosphorous. To the north is the Black Sea, to the south the Sea of Marmara, then another narrow bit called the Dardanelles, then the Aegean Sea, and finally the Mediterranean where I was before. There is also another expanse of water called the Golden Horn which separates western European Istanbul. The last time I was so impressed by so much water was on our journey up Africa. To the west is Europe and to the east is Asia. We were staying in the European side. Firstly, we wanted to find a way to the Black Sea. They had planned to cross this on their way to Istanbul but the ferry wasn't running then and they had to turn back and fly into Istanbul via Moscow, quite a substantial re-routing. Armed with a map, we went to the bus station. A long story involving a series of miscommunications, and several hours later, we had travelled north and then across the Bosphorous to the Asian side, and were not far off from where we had begun the journey, only across the water. In order to get back to our hotels before dark, we thought it best to take the ferry and tram and return home. Our symbolic journey to the Black Sea. I took another symbolic ferry ride up the Bosphorous another afternoon, also without reaching the Black Sea. One day. Secondly, Johanna wanted to meet up with JR, with whom we have worked on a number of conferences. She now lives in Istanbul. It was sospecial to spend time with her. After hours of sipping tea at a pavement cafe, JR took us to meet a friend of hers (and I entered the wonderful world of textiles, especially embroidery and carpets), followed by a quick visit to the Grand Bazaar (quick, because none of them enjoy shopping there and the place is somewhat overwhelming since I believe that it has 1000's of shops). We wound our way down to the crossing over the Golden Horn, and said goodbye to JR in the sunset on the other side of the bridge. Very romantic, scenic and memorable!
On the final morning together we spent some time praying in the Sultanaghmet area, a garden like pedestrian square near the Blue Mosque and St. Sophia. Whether people were on their way to the mosque or not, I don’t know, but it felt that we were watching the nations walk past, so many various peoples and languages. It’s easy to pray in the midst of many people, when no one notices what you are doing and you can pray as if in a conversation (which it is!). Johanna and Eugenie’s hotel was in the shoemaker/cobbler area of the city. Early in the morning they were awakened to the tic-tac of the cobblers. The surrounding streets were filled with things pertaining to shoes, finished shoes, leather, lasts, a whole shop window full of amazing stiletto heels and more. But my hotel was in the textile district, clothes, curtains, carpets and rugs, fine lace, bedding and toweling. It described my way home, since I never found out where to see the street names!
I felt it was right for me to meet up with Johanna and Eugenie at the end of their long journey from the far north of Norway (and Europe) through Russia and pray with them in Istanbul. That was awesome in itself, to be able to connect with them. A big city, but thanks to modern communication and their willingness to navigate the city, they were able to find me in my hotel in the city centre, and then followed three days of calm adventure together. Remember Istanbul's location. The city straddles the Bosphorous. To the north is the Black Sea, to the south the Sea of Marmara, then another narrow bit called the Dardanelles, then the Aegean Sea, and finally the Mediterranean where I was before. There is also another expanse of water called the Golden Horn which separates western European Istanbul. The last time I was so impressed by so much water was on our journey up Africa. To the west is Europe and to the east is Asia. We were staying in the European side. Firstly, we wanted to find a way to the Black Sea. They had planned to cross this on their way to Istanbul but the ferry wasn't running then and they had to turn back and fly into Istanbul via Moscow, quite a substantial re-routing. Armed with a map, we went to the bus station. A long story involving a series of miscommunications, and several hours later, we had travelled north and then across the Bosphorous to the Asian side, and were not far off from where we had begun the journey, only across the water. In order to get back to our hotels before dark, we thought it best to take the ferry and tram and return home. Our symbolic journey to the Black Sea. I took another symbolic ferry ride up the Bosphorous another afternoon, also without reaching the Black Sea. One day. Secondly, Johanna wanted to meet up with JR, with whom we have worked on a number of conferences. She now lives in Istanbul. It was sospecial to spend time with her. After hours of sipping tea at a pavement cafe, JR took us to meet a friend of hers (and I entered the wonderful world of textiles, especially embroidery and carpets), followed by a quick visit to the Grand Bazaar (quick, because none of them enjoy shopping there and the place is somewhat overwhelming since I believe that it has 1000's of shops). We wound our way down to the crossing over the Golden Horn, and said goodbye to JR in the sunset on the other side of the bridge. Very romantic, scenic and memorable!
On the final morning together we spent some time praying in the Sultanaghmet area, a garden like pedestrian square near the Blue Mosque and St. Sophia. Whether people were on their way to the mosque or not, I don’t know, but it felt that we were watching the nations walk past, so many various peoples and languages. It’s easy to pray in the midst of many people, when no one notices what you are doing and you can pray as if in a conversation (which it is!). Johanna and Eugenie’s hotel was in the shoemaker/cobbler area of the city. Early in the morning they were awakened to the tic-tac of the cobblers. The surrounding streets were filled with things pertaining to shoes, finished shoes, leather, lasts, a whole shop window full of amazing stiletto heels and more. But my hotel was in the textile district, clothes, curtains, carpets and rugs, fine lace, bedding and toweling. It described my way home, since I never found out where to see the street names!
Sochi (Moscow) Istanbul
We left Volgograd for Sochi after I made the previous entry at the internet cafe in the Volgograd Hotel. Soon after the train departed I had a look at our Russian visas and discovered to my shock that they were expiring the next day. It was the strangest experience, how could this be a shock? Did we not know from the start when our visas would expire? It was like waking up out of an enchanted dullness to discover that impending disaster is upon you – you don’t know what is worse, that you could have been so dull-witted or that the disaster is upon you? The implication was that if we reached Sochi and there was no ferry to Turkey waiting there for us we would be stuck with expiring visas and nowhere to go.
In the face of this realisation of the urgency we were facing the relaxed atmosphere among our fellow passengers was very defined. Sochi is one of the holiday destinations in Russia and our co-travellers were enjoying the first day of their holidays with festive zeal. After our midnight stop at a town that is famous for its smoked fish the party atmosphere among the group of vodka drinkers in the carriage became a bit fishy too... but they left us alone and not being able to do anything to hasten our way or make sure that we would find a ferry waiting for us, we had another good night’s rest.
At dawn the view outside the window revealed that we had left the steppe for the forerunners of the Caucasian Mountains. Soon the train reached the Black Sea coast and we spent the rest of the morning looking out over its blue-grey expanses as we made our way south to Sochi. We could feel the tension rising as we approached Sochi. Just then we got an SMS telling us to read Exodus 14:14: The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
On arrival we grabbed our little bags and made for the ferry harbour as fast as we could. Eugenie had spent a few days in Sochi on her previous journey and she knew exactly where to go. This was expedient because Sochi, apart from being on the longest conurbations in the world (150km), must also be one of the cities with the most pedestrian subways. So we pulled our little suitcases down the stairs through the shop-filled tunnel up on the other side of the street, down again, up again and down and up and...
The beautiful ferry-port building was basically empty with many unused ex-official spaces but we found one place that had a living person in it and were told to look for the ferry-ticket booth on the dock. Out we ran, and over and down not knowing why we were in a hurry because there was no ferry in sight. At least there was a person in the booth, but what she was there for no-one can really say because all she could tell us was that there was no ferry today, or tomorrow or any specific day that she knew of. All she could suggest was that we came back the day after tomorrow...
We spent the rest of that afternoon running around in Sochi up and down up and down with our little suitcases bouncing over the pavements. We went from the hotel to the Aeroflot office to the court back to the Aeroflot office to the home-affairs office back to the Aeroflot office... We discovered that there was no way to cross the border to Georgia that day. There was only a direct flight to Turkey the next day, but they could not sell us the tickets because we would not be able to leave the country after our visas had expired. To extend our visas was only possible at a fictional building that everybody knows about but no one has actually seen. We could not stay at a hotel or book a train ticket back to Moscow because we did not have visas. If we did not leave Russia before midnight the only thing we could do was to hand ourselves over to the police.
We were in the Aeroflot office wondering how the Lord would make His promise of Exodus 14:14 true when the lady in the queue behind Eugenie asked if she could help. She was Russian married to an English man and she offered to expedite comprehension between Eugenie and the lady behind the Aeroflot counter. The result of much talking this way and that saw us sitting in her brand new 4x4 on the way to the Sochi airport where she offered to take us. As it turned out the airport was more than 30 kilometres away and as we drove there the sun was setting over the Black Sea on the day that our Russian visas was expiring.
She stopped at a gas station where she exchanged cars with her husband and he took us to the airport. At the airport he set about discovering the parameters of our problem in his more fluent Russian. We were hoping to buy the tickets to Turkey for the next day and exit passport control to wait in no-man’s land on the airport for the night, but this was not possible. The only hope seemed to be in getting the last flight to Moscow that evening and throw ourselves at the South African Embassy the next day. We bought the tickets with his help and then to our surprise he took us to meet his wife again and they bought us pizza before returning us to the airport, explaining to us how to dodge the corrupt customs officials and what to do when we get to Moscow and sending us off. They said they had their own Spa business and that he was an expert bath builder, but I think that’s only a decoy – they are really angels...
The customs officials were as corrupt as we were told to expect and Eugenie did an amazing job at convincing them to let us go without the required bribe. We were on the flight and off the flight and when we had our luggage in Moscow it was 00:30. Our visas were expired.
The bath-builder told us to ask for the consul when we get to Moscow. The kind lady at the airport information desk helped us reach and he explained that he could extend our visa if we had a ticket out of Russia. We spent the night in the waiting area at international departures and the next day we had flu. With fever and runny noses we made the 3 hour trek through Moscow to the other international airport where Air Turkey flew from. There the adventure of misunderstandings continued for a few hours but finally we had our tickets and every hope that the consul at that airport would be issue the visas just before we fly.
Eugenie’s fever was very high, and while she was sleeping in the waiting room I spent about an hour trying to find a way of spending the last few Roubles we had. I finally got tree cups of hot milk from a coffee machine that we mixed the last cappuccino into – the best coffee in Russia...
The memories of the flight out, the arrival in Istanbul and the finding of the ugly little hotel are all washed in a haze of fever. We spent the whole next day in bed watching Turkish television in a rainy Istanbul.
In the face of this realisation of the urgency we were facing the relaxed atmosphere among our fellow passengers was very defined. Sochi is one of the holiday destinations in Russia and our co-travellers were enjoying the first day of their holidays with festive zeal. After our midnight stop at a town that is famous for its smoked fish the party atmosphere among the group of vodka drinkers in the carriage became a bit fishy too... but they left us alone and not being able to do anything to hasten our way or make sure that we would find a ferry waiting for us, we had another good night’s rest.
At dawn the view outside the window revealed that we had left the steppe for the forerunners of the Caucasian Mountains. Soon the train reached the Black Sea coast and we spent the rest of the morning looking out over its blue-grey expanses as we made our way south to Sochi. We could feel the tension rising as we approached Sochi. Just then we got an SMS telling us to read Exodus 14:14: The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
On arrival we grabbed our little bags and made for the ferry harbour as fast as we could. Eugenie had spent a few days in Sochi on her previous journey and she knew exactly where to go. This was expedient because Sochi, apart from being on the longest conurbations in the world (150km), must also be one of the cities with the most pedestrian subways. So we pulled our little suitcases down the stairs through the shop-filled tunnel up on the other side of the street, down again, up again and down and up and...
The beautiful ferry-port building was basically empty with many unused ex-official spaces but we found one place that had a living person in it and were told to look for the ferry-ticket booth on the dock. Out we ran, and over and down not knowing why we were in a hurry because there was no ferry in sight. At least there was a person in the booth, but what she was there for no-one can really say because all she could tell us was that there was no ferry today, or tomorrow or any specific day that she knew of. All she could suggest was that we came back the day after tomorrow...
We spent the rest of that afternoon running around in Sochi up and down up and down with our little suitcases bouncing over the pavements. We went from the hotel to the Aeroflot office to the court back to the Aeroflot office to the home-affairs office back to the Aeroflot office... We discovered that there was no way to cross the border to Georgia that day. There was only a direct flight to Turkey the next day, but they could not sell us the tickets because we would not be able to leave the country after our visas had expired. To extend our visas was only possible at a fictional building that everybody knows about but no one has actually seen. We could not stay at a hotel or book a train ticket back to Moscow because we did not have visas. If we did not leave Russia before midnight the only thing we could do was to hand ourselves over to the police.
We were in the Aeroflot office wondering how the Lord would make His promise of Exodus 14:14 true when the lady in the queue behind Eugenie asked if she could help. She was Russian married to an English man and she offered to expedite comprehension between Eugenie and the lady behind the Aeroflot counter. The result of much talking this way and that saw us sitting in her brand new 4x4 on the way to the Sochi airport where she offered to take us. As it turned out the airport was more than 30 kilometres away and as we drove there the sun was setting over the Black Sea on the day that our Russian visas was expiring.
She stopped at a gas station where she exchanged cars with her husband and he took us to the airport. At the airport he set about discovering the parameters of our problem in his more fluent Russian. We were hoping to buy the tickets to Turkey for the next day and exit passport control to wait in no-man’s land on the airport for the night, but this was not possible. The only hope seemed to be in getting the last flight to Moscow that evening and throw ourselves at the South African Embassy the next day. We bought the tickets with his help and then to our surprise he took us to meet his wife again and they bought us pizza before returning us to the airport, explaining to us how to dodge the corrupt customs officials and what to do when we get to Moscow and sending us off. They said they had their own Spa business and that he was an expert bath builder, but I think that’s only a decoy – they are really angels...
The customs officials were as corrupt as we were told to expect and Eugenie did an amazing job at convincing them to let us go without the required bribe. We were on the flight and off the flight and when we had our luggage in Moscow it was 00:30. Our visas were expired.
The bath-builder told us to ask for the consul when we get to Moscow. The kind lady at the airport information desk helped us reach and he explained that he could extend our visa if we had a ticket out of Russia. We spent the night in the waiting area at international departures and the next day we had flu. With fever and runny noses we made the 3 hour trek through Moscow to the other international airport where Air Turkey flew from. There the adventure of misunderstandings continued for a few hours but finally we had our tickets and every hope that the consul at that airport would be issue the visas just before we fly.
Eugenie’s fever was very high, and while she was sleeping in the waiting room I spent about an hour trying to find a way of spending the last few Roubles we had. I finally got tree cups of hot milk from a coffee machine that we mixed the last cappuccino into – the best coffee in Russia...
The memories of the flight out, the arrival in Istanbul and the finding of the ugly little hotel are all washed in a haze of fever. We spent the whole next day in bed watching Turkish television in a rainy Istanbul.
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