more from africa...

We are counting down until the big day...Sunday! The Grand Opening! The projects around the building are going well. We are varnishing and sanding doors, painting bathrooms, building tables, and trying to install an electric well pump for the neighborhood. Pray that God uses us to draw the people to the church on Sunday! Of course we get to play with the kids everyday too! There is a local orphanage called Iris. 600 children are educated there and 100 live there all the time. The owners are portuguese and have become great friends of Isaac and Carol. It was so amazing to see how God is using people from all over the world to impact the lives of these children.

the village of nkobe

We have been spending our days in the village of Nkobe. It takes us about 20 minutes to get there from our hotel in Maputo (the capitol of Moçambique). I don't have much time on the internet, but I was able to post more details on my blog this morning. Check out the link to the right, katherine sharkey! Today we painted the bathrooms behind the new church building! I can't wait for you all to see pictures. I'll have some when i get back to the states. We miss you all!! And we are so thankful for your support! We wouldn't be here without your finanacial and prayer support! Can't wait to tell you all about it when i get back.

we're in africa

here's a shot from the plane.

we made it safely. uneventful, nice ride. no stop-over in senegal like last time i went.

did have an interesting "event" barton got to see on the way to the hotel, though. a lady across the intersection from the shuttle he was on got broken into. a dude tapped on her window then just punched it in, borke the glass, then dove into the car. she of course freaked otu and started honking the horn and floored it and he fell out and ran away as she drove off with a broken window but sparing her life possibly.

tia.

we went to kfc for supper (1/2 of us) and the rest went to a little grill place. both took forEVER to bring the food but it was great food once we got it. we actually made the grill's owner pretty upset by trying to eat the kfc in the grill dining area. what was i thinking? i apologized and actually ended up joking around with the guy, but we still didn't eat the kfc until we left.

tomorrow starts early. 4am shuttle back to the airport for the flight to maputo. then it all begins. we get to see charles and kristen and ben and isaac and carol - and mahlahlela and celeste and the rest of the moz team. and hopefully the changaras and beano (and maybe sharon?)

wish ty were with us. big time. glad jarred's with us. he's totally a cool guy. glad he's getting the experience. it just would have been cool to have ty with us as well even. alas - next time maybe.

ok. i'm going to bed now. thanks to everyone who helped put us here. rob and michelle, tiffany, pastor dino, dr. cheri, kari smith, brandi lambert, the musso's, shane comeaux and the tons of you who gave and are praying for us. we need it daily if not hourly.

thanks for the honor of representing you here in africa!

we leave in 14 hours!

wooohooo!

and the team heading to moz is...

(thanks to kaycee for posting the pic where i could steal it.)

the elevate class of 07. this is also the team going to moz (minus jesus on the right, and the pregnant one on the left - and add in there me and slim.).

pics from colleen

email from colleen:

With only a few days before we leave for Mozambique, I was reflecting on some of the experiences from last year. I wanted to share these pictures with you. These are pictures of the team last year praying with the children around the community to thank God for His presence and rebuking Satan off the land.

I am so excited to think that Now we will get to go in and see those prayers answered. It is such a privilege to serve with you all this year in Elevate and I am so pumped to finish off the year with such an incredible trip to our newest campus!

Can’t wait!

Love you tons!

a must-read

i posted about this here, but this is the direct link to a really valuable article all of us should read a couple times before going next week:

mission blues: beware of re-entry stress

leave a comment either here or on my blog and lemme know what you think....

jambalaya....

Way to go on the Jambalaya sales everyone!! We did so great! Just incase someone hasn't heard- we raised over $4500.00 for the trip!! All I have to say is Praise God for no more LSU games!! woohoo!!!
.....is everyone ready for shots tomorrow night?!?!? (be sure to ask Blake about the shots last year!!) :0)

Well Done Kaycee

This past Sunday night I was returning some Dvd's to Block buster and I saw the front of a movie with Groucho Marx on it AKA ( Kaycee Smith) I have to say I started to laugh pretty hard . Well done Kaycee here is a tribute to the only Elevater who pulled it off to a T.

wooohooo! brooke's in the list now! (and a few other update items for y'all)

everybody but jarred now.

on another note, i talked to ben for a couple hours this morning, and he said isaac is gearing up for us. looks like we'll be putting up one of two verandas that are planned for the church. this one will be for the kids to have kids church outside during services with the adults inside.

verandas r us.

another thing i just learned is the official name of the church is "Igreja Lugar de Cura" - ILC - pretty cool, huh?

last thing - i saw vicki melancon yesterday - she's got her book "End of Watch" about her son terry done and going to print - all proceeds going to The Terry Melancon Chapel (the building where the ILC will be meeting). she's such a cool lady - she's poured so much resource into the church project already, but now all the proceeds from her book as well.

God bless her!

Elevate Garage Sale

alien of the month?

got this from tiffany:

Please join me in congratulating Ms. Katie Fontenot for achieving the extraordinary award of becoming Elevate of the Month. Katie is a true example of the goal is more important than the role. She has a heart for outreach, and a gift of making people feel included, valuable, and encouraged. You can always count on her to be happy and positive about any decision made. Katie serves with Michelle and Tiffany helping make Elevate possible and she works so hard at all that she does. Katie has a contagious heart for the Lord and passion for his people to find what she has- and she will do whatever it takes to make His name famous. If you see or talk with Katie make sure you congratulate her on this awesome achievement. Congratulations Katie! We love you!

congrats katie!!! now, back to work...

a few more docs from goglobalmissions.com

again - these are from goglobalmissions.com's process, but i think they'll be valuable to us for our trip in just 30 days! woohooo!

cross cultural training
faith builders
hearing from the Lord for others
power tools for ministry
practicals
prayer and devotions

check 'em out when you get a chance.

I Knew Katie Was an Alien!

passports

just checking - hoping this is something someone already took care of a long time ago, but i'd hate to think.....

everyone does have a valid passport, huh?

go global training/prep documents

cool study stuff from the folks up at go global in memphis. great trip prep stuff. it is part of the training they're going to run all their teams through - so some of it may be specific to them, but most of it is applicable to us.

common sense evangelism
evangelism
principles for effective intercession
spiritual warfare
short-term missions philosophy - Team Expectations
team unity

check 'em out and gimme some feedback. whatcha think?

special prayer

i want to ask for special prayer for brooke anderson. she is in need of a blog. pray that she would be delivered from bloglessness... that she'd find the blessing of the blog. and that she would abound in her blog.

for real.... do pray for isaac and carol - pray for the church registration process to wrap up smoothly, and for them to be able to work through all the visas and transition stuff of moving to mozambique.

make a point this weekend to pray for this, too - pastor rob ketterling (pastor dino's roommate in bible college) has a team from his church in minnesooota in moz right now and they're going to have a service this weekend at hpc_moz with rob speaking. should be really cool to hear about that. be praying that God starts it all off with a bang - a God-style, grab-your-attention, wow-thank-You-Jesus type of deal.

36 days to africa....

one down...two to go

visit Gabi's!! she's got one- her address is www.gmohnay.blogspot.com one down 2 to go!!

One Phone and a Birch Tree

So the other day I saw big foot eat a lion that looked like a parrot. He ran like the wind and flew like a midget rainbow.

just three to go...

gabi, brooke.... and jarred "media dude" ray... the only blogs remaining for this team. if you have the dunamis unction from the holy ghost to coerse mark stermer to start a blog, i'll personally give you a big wooohooo or something.

i'll be happy if we can get the 14 of us blogging - we'll let pastor mark just call this one his maybe.

then next we have to get everyone to actually post on their blogs... and here.

HEY - big "heads up" - everyone needs to fill out the application and physician's release form. you can download them from the sidebar at the right - at the top.

or here - i'll make it even easier on you:

application
physician's form

Africa is such an amazing country! It has been so cool preparing for the trip so far. From portuguese class to random weekend fundraisers we have been getting ready to go!! Great job elevate. Keep up the hard work!

There really isn't much to see yet, but check out my new blog at www.katherinesharkey.blogspot.com

The Authentic 2nd Post

Barton Pickens said...

Hey Guys this is the second post haha anyways this is awesome that we get to spread the gospel thru small acts of kindness all across the world and live it up for him if you get a chance visit Bartonpickens.blogspot.com its just created so bear with me as I try to get it started

March 13, 2007 5:52 PM

Sorry Blake since I have know clue how to effectively use a Computer I posted the note as a comment to Lauren's post
but now that I have been clued in the blogging is on 36 Days to Africa

2nd year rock!

So if Lauren was the first then it would only be appropriate for me to go second, Completing the second year intern line-up. I can't wait for this trip!!! It is going to be amazing. YEA! YEA!

.....first post!!

well...I'm honored to be the first "elevator" to post on this blog!! (I hope I'm doing this right!!) all of this is really exciting and a bit challenging for me....I'm not the greatest with electronics....so, anyways, like Dan said- here's my blog address- please visit...it will keep me encouraged to post!!
www.completelycaptivated.com
lauren

It's On

Ok, it’s official.  You can post to this blog just by sending an email to the following address.  Be careful – it posts just what’s in your email – signatures and all.

danohlerking.elevate at blogspot dot com (yeah, take out the "at" and the "dot" and make it the punctuation marks....)

So... Bring it on – y’all check in when you get here – leave a comment or a post and lemme know you’re in.

Or better yet, leave a post with your blog address on it.  how’s that for some subtle encouragement to get your own blog?

Posting Via Email

I’m really just testing this, but hopefully it’ll work to let us post on this blog just by sending an email.

recommended / required vaccinations

MOZAMBIQUE, AFRICA: Recommended Vaccinations and Preventive Medications
• Hepatitis A or immune globulin (IG). Transmission of hepatitis A virus can occur through direct person-to-person contact; through exposure to contaminated water, ice, or shellfish harvested in contaminated water; or from fruits, vegetables, or other foods that are eaten uncooked and that were contaminated during harvesting or subsequent handling.
• Hepatitis B, especially if you might be exposed to blood or body fluids (for example, health-care workers), have sexual contact with the local population, or be exposed through medical treatment. Hepatitis B vaccine is now recommended for all infants and for children ages 11–12 years who did not receive the series as infants.
• Malaria: your risk of malaria may be high in all countries in East Africa, including cities. See your health care provider for a prescription antimalarial drug. For details concerning risk and preventive medications, see Malaria Information for Travelers to East Africa.
• Meningococcal (meningitis) if you plan to visit countries in this region that experience epidemics of meningococcal disease during December through June, (see see Map 4-9 on the Meningoccocal Disease page).
• Rabies, pre-exposure vaccination, if you might have extensive unprotected outdoor exposure in rural areas, such as might occur during camping, hiking, or bicycling, or engaging in certain occupational activities.
• Typhoid vaccine. Typhoid fever can be contracted through contaminated drinking water or food, or by eating food or drinking beverages that have been handled by a person who is infected. Large outbreaks are most often related to fecal contamination of water supplies or foods sold by street vendors
• Yellow fever, a viral disease that occurs primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America, is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. The virus is also present in Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Yellow fever vaccination is recommended for travelers to endemic areas and may be required to cross certain international borders (For country specific requirements, see Yellow Fever Vaccine Requirements and Information on Malaria Risk and Prophylaxis, by Country.). Vaccination should be given 10 days before travel and at 10 year intervals if there is on-going risk.
• As needed, booster doses for tetanus-diphtheria, measles, and a one-time dose of polio vaccine for adults.
Required Vaccinations
• NONE