#9 - The trial trip to America!

The trial trip to America was coming up. We still had a few things to arrange: A rental car and a place to stay during the last week. In the first two weeks, we could stay in the house of the pastor and his family! This was super sweet because it saved us a lot of money and it made it a lot easier to communicate with them. We did want to have a place for ourselves for the third week because this was also going to be our vacation week. Besides that, it allowed us to talk things through before we went back home.

By the time it was almost time to go, we found a rental car (fun detail: of course with extra insurance, because you never know), but we couldn't find an AirBnB that was within our budget. As you might recall, we had a few setbacks that year, which led to us not saving as much as we wanted. Besides that, America is an expensive country, not only in healthy food but also in housing. 

Ramon and I are part of an online mentoring program to train families. The majority of the other families in the program are from the USA. We decided to be bold, posted a little message on the FB-page. We briefly explained the situation and asked if there was anyone in the area that had a house/cabin we could rent. In no time the trainers of the program replied they wanted to donate $700, so we could book a nice AirBnB. We did not see that coming and were amazed. Instead of having to pay for a place in someone else's house, we now got to book an AirBnB for free!

Then the time came: September 4th. Our bags were packed (Just carry-on for three weeks!), my mom brought us to the airport (thanks mom!) and our trip could start! After a trip without any delays, kids who did it perfectly and no problems at the border control we walked into the damp heat of Maryland, USA. Eventually, the promised shuttle arrived, which brought us to our rental car. Then we 'only' had to drive another 2 hours and 15 minutes to the pastor's house. I remember telling Ramon: 'there's a lot of stopsigns here in the States and they're a lot more serious about them too, so we really have to pay attention to them.' (This is a fun detail, you need to remember this). Eventually, we arrived at our destination around 11.30 pm, where we went straight to bed.

It all was so good! There was an instant click between the pastor, his wife and us and our kids got along great too! The first week we took it slow. We talked a lot, got to know each other better and then the moment was there: the first time we would go to church! We were looking forward to it! It was drizzling a bit, but nothing could stop us: we had a nice rental car. Kevin and Erica left before us, went a little later and apparently took a different route. We came to a crossing point with a stop sign. I almost saw that sign in time, but not completely in time. So despite me hitting the brakes, and turning my steering wheel as much as I could, I still hit a car that came from the left. The lady of that car was pretty upset and not afraid to show us. Our car needed to be towed. We called Kevin, who came to pick us up. We were a little startled but determined to go to church. Since everything was closed now, we were going to arrange the whole car thing the next day.

Monday came and we made all the calls. The woman on the phone said: 'I see you have the extra insurance. Great choice, because now you don't have to pay a thing. Where are you now? I'll make sure a new car is going to be brought to you.' A couple hours later the car arrived. Where Ramon and I expected it to be a little less luxurious, because we already crashed one, we got a brand new SUV on the driveway!

In the three weeks we were there we got a pretty good image of the church and the potential in it. From the conversations we had and the observations we did, we saw what we could do to help. New friendships started quickly and Ramon and I got more excited with every day passing. We believed things would work out and had a hard time to go back home. We just wanted to start right now? But we couldn't because we needed to follow the right steps to obtain our visas, and we had to go home to start our fundraising. At home a new task waited for me at work: Agape detached me to set up the Missionary Youthwork at our current church. My team and I would move our boys' club to a new location and built on this further. I was looking forward to that too, so we said goodbye and see you soon and hopped back on the airplane. After all, the sooner we left, the sooner we could come back. We hoped.

We're a year further now and the past year was full of new research and trials and errors. Full of going back to the drawing board every time. Because as it turns out, getting into America, is quite the journey on its own.