MORGANTOWN — Mom’s worry.
It’s kinda their thing.
So it’s not a shock to learn Cynthia Shultz has spent the last two weeks with a bit of a one-track mind while her 22-year old daughter, Devinne Sparks, sat stranded in Honduras due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
She’s feeling better now.
Sparks and 15 other members of the Morgantown Church of Christ arrived back in Morgantown early Friday morning after a global pandemic turned a week-long missions trip into a 14-day ordeal.
Church elder Richard Moore said the group learned Thursday that despite the Honduran government’s decision to close its borders, empty United Airlines planes would be allowed to land to retrieve U.S. citizens.
By the time they were able to line up 16 tickets, the bill was $20,000.
“They doubled in price in just the time we were on the phone,” Moore said. “If we would have waited another three or four hours, it would have been over $45,000.”
After two weeks holed up in a missions compound, the group boarded a plane around 1:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon (our time) and arrived back in Morgantown around 4 a.m. Friday morning.
After a quick stop.
“We all sat down and ate Wendy’s cheeseburgers when we got back to the airport,” Sparks said, explaining that all the travelers have decided to self-quarantine for 14 days once they returned home.
“I was really surprised that on our way home there wasn’t one instance where anybody took our temperature or checked us for anything. They mentioned nothing to us about quarantining. Nothing at all,” Moore explained.
Brandon Brammer, a youth minister intern at the church, said the experience didn’t unfold as planned, but it wasn’t a wasted trip. He said he was able to baptize a close friend who traveled with the group once they returned to the church.
“So often we got into things and we’ve all these plans laid out about what we’re going to do, but then you get there and it’s clear that God has something else planned for you,” Moore said. “I felt like our group responded magically to that.”
According to Sparks, once the missions fund is built back up, “there’s no doubt” they’ll be heading back.
Poor mom.
“It was difficult because there was nothing I could do to help her. It made me remember that we’re so small and God is so big,” Shultz said on Friday. “She’s in quarantine, but we saw each other through the door today. I’m just so much happier today — so much more at peace.”
TWEET @BenConley_DP
