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....