Did I mention that my first time leaving America was to travel to the opposite side of the world? As it turns out, our flight path had us circumnavigating the globe by the end of the trip. What an absolutely wild excursion for my first time!

I knew from the moment we arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia that this trip was going to be beyond me – in the best way possible. Due to some complications with our boarding passes, we had arrived extremely early – with roughly 5 hours to kill. While waiting for our boarding passes my mother and I ended up meeting a number of fascinating people. I had an engaging conversation with a gentleman whose family had immigrated to the United States from Iran back in the 90s. We talked about faith and belief in God (and his lack, thereof), his plans to move to the Philippines, and his challenges in the states. I prayed with him before we parted ways, and the interaction caught the attention of another man who had struck up a conversation with my mom.

The second gentleman’s name was Terry – and he and his friend, Karen, were waiting to depart to go back home to Oregon. Terry, also a believer like my mother and I, was fascinated by my story of meeting Gio and we spent our remaining hours with him and Karen. He shared about his own travels, some of his own family’s current struggles, and asked us questions about our plans. We also had the honor of praying with him before our departure – which came much sooner than expected. Time flies when you have fun chatting with strangers!

Finally, my mother and I boarded our flight and began the 30+ hour journey to Indonesia!

Multiple flights later we finally reached our destination: Denpasar, Bali! Gio had designed a detailed itinerary for our whole trip, with the intention of showing us a small sampling of the abundantly diverse cultures of Indonesia. I knew from the moment we started planning for this trip that she had a tender heart. Her compassion, servant-hearted attitude and thoughtfulness was on full display – accounting for our budgets, travel time, jet lag, diets and culture shock.

I could tell from my first few days with her, this was the same woman I had grown to know online…there was no hidden agenda, no masked intent or subterfuge. She was genuine. And I was eager to spend this adventure with her.