This is the story of my journey. Please hear this well: I do not have answers to all of my questions. In fact, I am still not exactly sure where this journey might lead. But I am certain that the questions are worth asking—and I am certain that God is a patient, though sometimes demanding, teacher. I am not completely sure about the ending of the story. But the beginning, I believe, was a plane trip to hell . . .
Of course, I was unaware of our destination at the time. No one had written “Hell” on our official flight plan.
In fact, there was an awful lot I didn’t know when I walked out onto the tarmac and climbed aboard a twin-engine Red Cross plane at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport on a bright February morning in 1992. I had made my “reservations” all of ten minutes before when I had walked up to the Westerner wearing an official-looking Red Cross jumpsuit—(I assumed he was the pilot)—and asked, “Where are you going?”
He told me that he would be delivering medical supplies to Somaliland. I nodded at the small stack of boxes sitting beside the aircraft and asked, “Need some help?”
“Always glad for any assistance,” he replied. As we stowed the boxes into the cargo area in the back of the six-seat cabin, I introduced myself and explained why his flights in and out of Somaliland interested me. I told him what I was hoping to do. Finally I asked, “So, could I hitch a ride with you?”
He shrugged and nodded a bit hesitantly: “I can take you in, no problem. I just can’t promise when we might be able to get you out.” His plans had to be tentative and flexible—dictated by weather conditions and the ongoing conflict in Somaliland. “I might be able to get back in there next week,” he told me. “Or it could be two or three weeks, maybe even a month. Things get crazy sometimes. We don’t make definite plans.”
Lees die boek van Nik Ripken in voorbereiding vir ons aanddiens 18 Februarie 2018: The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected. B&H Publishing Group. Beskikbaar op Kindle.
Hier is ook ‘n skakel na een van die stories wat hy vertel van Dmitri wat volhard het in die geloof ten spyte van onmenslike ontberings. Jy kan ook luister na die roerende hartlied wat Dmitri in sy sewentien jaar tronkstraf daagliks gesing het.
