Namibia, Africa Missions Trip: 2008

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Today was our last day of ministry with the entire team. Pastor Eran and Maurice are leaving a day early because Pastor Eran was invited to be the guest speaker for the Valley Forge Christian College Homecoming on Friday.

Part of the team ministered in a village called Kalkfeld, where the Assemblies of God is hoping to plant a church. Once a bustling mining town, many of the businesses have now been abandoned, leaving a large number of people without work. We spent time driving the dirt roads of Kalkfeld, praying for God to provide land for a church. Our team did 2 children's programs (Ray and Jen Bohner each took a turn and rocked it out!).

The rest of the team went to the JOY Centre (Muriel's home for street kids) to paint their building. Wait til you see the before and after photos! Of course, our team loved spending time with the kids there.

Tonight we had our celebration dinner at the most gorgeous lodge tucked away on a game reserve. The view of the sun setting in a pink sky behind the desert mountains was simply stunning. As part of family time, we watched 2 videos from the weeks (which will be posted shortly), and Maurice sang a beautiful song he wrote as a sort of anthem for the trip. Jeanette and Chris presented a "Remember that one time..." list of funny moments. In conclusion, we presented everyone with a gift symbolizing the lessons we've learned here and took a few minutes to speak about the value and potential we had observed in each member of the team. I think it was an unforgettable night for all of us.

Tomorrow, we have one more day to finish the painting project at Muriel's. It will be difficult to say goodbye to these gifted and grateful children we have fallen in love with! Part of the team will be ministering in another town in the morning. We have one last service - a women's meeting - at Ombili, where some of the ladies will be sharing their testimony for the first day.

We may have had our celebration/farewell dinner, but the trip is not over and our prayer is that we will be able to finish strong, with the same passion and focus we had on the first day. As always, keep us in your prayers.

Love and gratitude,

*Pastor Courtney and the team

Monday, October 20, 2008

MONDAY 10.20: safari!

We spent the day on a self-guided safari in Etosha (which is roughly half the size of Pennsylvania). Basically, you travel from water hole to water hole looking for animals (particularly lions :) Here is a list of some of the animals we saw:

Kudu

Oryx

Sprinkbok

Wildebeests

Jackals

Giraffes

Ostriches

Elephants

Impalas

Zebras

the friendliest little ground squirrels (according to Maurice)

and...

LIONS!

Last year we saw a few lions from FAR off in the distance (if we zoomed in fully with our cameras and binoculars, we could barely make out their silhouette). This year we were hopeful but not certain (especially since we were taking a shorter route through the park). Lion sightings are rare (they spend most of their time sleeping). As we approached one of the water holes, Pastor Eran noticed that the elephants were all looking in the same direction and shielding their babies. He told Maurice to scan the tree line, and sure enough, there was a female lion, sprawled out in the shade, watching the animals at the water hole. We were amazed at her size when she stood up (look in the photo of the elephants by the water). SOOO exciting! Already our lion encounter surpassed last year's. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the guest center and then checked the animal sighting log so we knew where to look. As we approached the next waterhole, Pastor Eran once again noticed that the giraffes were all looking in the same direction, and instantly spotted a large male lion laying in the grass! (lion spotting is his secret power :) We shared the sighting with a car parked next to us, and they shared with us that just a short drive toward camp were 5 lions just laying along the side of the road. We took off to find them right away. As you can see in photos, we found 2 young lions laying under a tree literally a foot or two from the road! Unbelievable! We were ecstatic. We figured the other 3 must have left, but as we started to drive away, we noticed 3 more hiding in the brush (two females and a large male). We got within a few yards! Speechless. I alone took 100 photos :) Check them out below.

K, I'm out of time, and we have 2 full days of ministry left before we come home. I'll write back tomorrow!

*Pastor Courtney and the team