In the Beginning: Stay the Course or Turn Back? A Terror Attack.

A rough start I guess you could say. My very first Experience Eurasia team and I were off for a summer in Southern Asia, first stop Bangladesh.  Most of our circles only knew the name of this nation from the "Made In" tag in the back of their t-shirt, but within minutes of our first flight taking off B'desh had made national news.  

To say our phones were blowing up would be an understatement, the terror attack going on in the nation we were headed to was being covered by every media outlet.  My crew may have all been adults, but adults with mamas and daddies! A decision needed to be made about whether or not we would continue onward and it needed to be made quickly. 

Upon landing in Hong Kong, I spoke with my area director in the US, our connections on the ground in B'desh, and lots of mamas and daddies including my own. We were told the situation had not yet been resolved, but was moving in that direction and we were given the option to continue onward, return home,  or be rerouted to another country in Southern Asia.  While I'd been communicating with these young adults for months, I'd only met them face to face about 10 days ago and I wasn't sure how they were going to process or handle the situation at hand. I prayed for wisdom and sat down with my team.

Laying on the floor of of the Hong Kong airport surrounded by our luggage and our charging cell phones we weighed our options. I wasn't about to make a blanket decision to risk the lives of these young people because of my own zeal, ignorance, or even my own faith. We decided that if any ONE wanted to turn back or reroute that's what we would do as a team.  They agreed unanimously that if we were still able to get into the country that they wanted to stay the course. I tried to search their faces, their body language for any sign of silent of screams of, "I don't mean it! Let's please turn back!" but I found none. I found only resolve.  We'll all admit we felt all the natural feelings one feels when heading into an unknown, risky situation, but we can all also tell you that there was one very unnatural feeling that overshadowed all the other feelings. Peace. A very surreal peace that surpassed all our understanding. 

I called ahead to let the ground know we were headed their way. Their reply?  Don't go outside the airport when you land until we've spoken, the attack took place 500 yards from where you're staying and we don't know if the road will be opened back up yet. Gulp! We forged ahead.