Kenny part 2
Kenny said hiring a bus and evacuating the Kenema zone was an unforgettable adventure, but it was just a warm-up. They still felt they were safe in Sierra Leone as long as they followed the strict guidelines, but when the country declared martial law, the mission president made the decision to pull everyone out. Way too much uncertainty as the military pretty much has the right to do whatever they darn well please, including confiscating church property or ? The Church always errs on the side of caution when it comes to missionary safety.
So about two months after the Kenema zone was evacuated (and now Kenny was the senior AP, now with Elder Gherkins) Kenny got a phone call from the mission president telling him he needed to arrange for the evacuation of the entire "bush" half of the mission. He was told he had two hours to round everyone up and leave. They couldn't say goodbye to their investigators, to the branch people, nothing. It had to be done in strict secrecy but it broke the missionaries' hearts. They knew the people being left behind would feel sad, maybe angry, maybe betrayed that the missionaries they depended on for so much were just...gone.
That night all 180 missionaries were gathered in to the mission home which of course isn't set up to hold anywhere near that number. Missionaries camped out everywhere. Kenny slept outside. The mission president was frantically trying to make arrangements for flights out. But no one wanted to land a plane in Sierra Leone, and even if they could get that, no one wanted to allow a plane to land that had been there.
During this time, the family at home was going NUTS because we knew the mission was being closed, but we had no idea where Kenny was. We heard all kinds of rumors that they had flown to the MTC in Ghana or other places, and that the missionaries were all being reassigned to new missions. Well, except Kenny, because this all happened during his very last week on mission.
So about two months after the Kenema zone was evacuated (and now Kenny was the senior AP, now with Elder Gherkins) Kenny got a phone call from the mission president telling him he needed to arrange for the evacuation of the entire "bush" half of the mission. He was told he had two hours to round everyone up and leave. They couldn't say goodbye to their investigators, to the branch people, nothing. It had to be done in strict secrecy but it broke the missionaries' hearts. They knew the people being left behind would feel sad, maybe angry, maybe betrayed that the missionaries they depended on for so much were just...gone.
That night all 180 missionaries were gathered in to the mission home which of course isn't set up to hold anywhere near that number. Missionaries camped out everywhere. Kenny slept outside. The mission president was frantically trying to make arrangements for flights out. But no one wanted to land a plane in Sierra Leone, and even if they could get that, no one wanted to allow a plane to land that had been there.
During this time, the family at home was going NUTS because we knew the mission was being closed, but we had no idea where Kenny was. We heard all kinds of rumors that they had flown to the MTC in Ghana or other places, and that the missionaries were all being reassigned to new missions. Well, except Kenny, because this all happened during his very last week on mission.