Malawi

The Malawi team reports that "all is well".

We have arrived!!! :)

We have safely arrived in Cape Town, have showered, and attempted to catch up on some sleep. Our plane landed around 9:00PM Cape Town time, which is 2:00PM for most of you. We have gotten settled in at our 'home' for the next two weeks. We have great accomodations, and are staying in a very safe neighborhood. This morning our group got up at 9:00 and went with one of our hosts, and some friends, to Table Mountain. There is a cablecar to the top, but today the top was covered by the clouds. The group began the journey up the mountain on foot, but not everyone was successful. There was a great view from where we started the hike that everyone enjoyed. We will see a little more of the city today, and then begin our volunteering tomorrow at the children's home.

Please continue to be in prayer for our team as we minister and learn througout the next few weeks.

Dominican Republic

!Hola, amigos! ¿Que pasa?
As you can see, we have learned some Español since we have been here (You might think it is weird that I am not using any word contractions, but Henrys keyboard is different, and it is hard to figure out how to make commas. I apologize!)
Right now we are packing up and getting ready to leave at 4am tomorrow morning. I would say for most of us the feeling is bittersweet- we are ready to go home, but also want to stay here forever with the kids. We spent our last day with them on Saturday. We went once again to Pajarito, a Dominican and Haitin village. Orginally we were going to stay for the majority of the day, but something fell through with one of Henrys friends being there. So sadly, we were only able to be there from 10am to about noon. We had fun coloring, painting fingernails, throwing balls, making oragami, playing beisbol, and filling water balloons. Some of us had little friends we recognized from last time- it is so special when one of the kids actually remembers one of our names. A few of us have decided to sponsor the kids we have built relationships with.
Right before we left, we passed out clothing to the kids. We were able to make a lot of the kids happy with the new clothes we gave them, but we ran out towards the end. To make up for it, we gave toothpaste and toothbrushes to the ones who were not able to get clothes. I know- that does not really compare to new clothes...does it? We were sad that it had to be that way.
The past two days have been a break from our work week. On Sunday, we spent most of the day a la playa (at the beach). Though it was super fun, most of us ended up with pretty bad burns. I know so far Jenny and Jeff have reported blisters, and all the nastiness that come with it- ¡Gross! Other than that, the beach was awesome!!
Today was our shopping day. We went to about 10 different stores looking for different trinkets for our friends and families. I was a big fan of the DR coasters- I think I bought about 4 sets. By the end I think we were all pretty tired...and hot...and sunburned. I think we liked playing with the kids more than we liked shopping.
Anyway- We are at the end of our trip. I want to go home, and I want to stay here. We have made so many good friends. Some of which are Henry, Aneudy (his nephew), Juanita (his mother), Katherine (his neice), and Jasmine (a family friend). We are going to miss them soo much.
Thank you for praying for our team, and for those of you who have supported us financially.
From the Dominican Team- Rachel Reynolds

Dominican Republic

Hello!

We have had a very busy and exciting couple of days since the last post. Seems we've been going non-stop! We wake up every morning around 8:00 and are served breakfast, then we take off for our first destination of the day. In the past three days, we've been to several different locations. Twice we have gone to Santa Fe, a Christian Children's Center where kids who cannot afford to attend the local schools go to get a little education five days a week. They have a few classrooms and an area to play outside. We went there Saturday morning (a lot of childen came even though it wasn't a school day) and this morning (Tuesday). We did a short Bible lesson and a craft with them and then played games outside. Both times seemed very successful and everybody seems to be building good relationships with the kids there. 

Sunday morning we went to Pajarito, a small, extremely poor village where Henry wants to start a children's center. His goals for us there were just to build relationships with the kids through sports with the older children and coloring/bubbles/piggyback rides (they wore us out!) with the younger children. We are going there again later in the week. Sunday night we went to Henry's mother's church. It was really an interesting experience for all of us. Besides being extremely loud and all in Spanish, the service was not at all what we are used to in format. The congregation constantly took a very active role in the service, shouting and moving and breaking out in song in the middle of the sermon. Everybody was very touched, though, when they broke out in a Spanish version of "How Great Thou Art", and we were able to sing along in English with them. 

Monday morning we went to Sananton, and played with a lot of the kids whose families attended the very nearby church. This was an interesting experience for a lot of us, who discovered how much (or little) we remembered from our jumproping exploits in elementary school. We also got to see a little bit of how they entertain themselves, as one of the local adults came and led us all in a few games, inluding a modified Spanish version of Simon Says.

During church on Sunday night, God laid a vision on Henry's heart. He explained this idea to us later that evening. A little while ago, someone from the church had told him that he could use a wall they owned by the road to paint his ministry logo on. But God told him on Sunday night that it should be used for something different... and that he should have us be the ones to do it. His idea was to cover the wall with the handprints and names of the children of San Pedro, along with a painting of Noah's Ark that he had a big stencil for. So, with the extra supplies money we brought with us, we picked up a big bucket of white paint, a few other smaller cans of blue, red, yellow, and black paint, and went to work on the wall Monday evening. In the 4 hours we worked on it that evening, we had the whole thing covered in white, half of the Ark and its animals painted, and some 90 handprints and names. Several of us were thoroughly covered in paint up to our elbows, too. This evening we finished the project, completing the ark, acquiring at least 75 more handprints (along with our own after we'd finished), and placing the ministry's name in big letters at the top. The wall looked spectacular. It was an incredible experience too, not only for us, but for Henry and for the community. Henry kept telling us how these people who would never have otherwise spoken to him or even given him the time of day were coming up and asking if their children could put their handprint on the wall. One local politician also volunteered a wall outside his house to Henry for whatever project he might want to do with the kids! So many people were brought together for a good cause, and it's something that these kids will be able to point out and remember for a long time. We were really part of something big.

Whew! There's so many more things I could talk about... the food... the jokes... the potholes in the roads... but maybe some other time. It's time for bed... early rise tomorrow!

Some things you can pray for:

Preparation of the kid's hearts to receive the lessons we've prepared

The local community... that the wall we painted would help them realize that they can work together to do something good, despite their individual situations.

Us... for continued energy despite the nonstop activity and unrelenting heat.

Thank you for reading!

-Brian Richards, for the Dominican Republic Team-

Dominican Republic

We are finally here! After a full day of traveling we made it! This morning we worked in the area of Sante Fe and did a VBS with the children. It was a definite success. We all had so much fun! The children were laughing and running around. It was such a great sight to see! As the team leader, I have been here before and some of the the things we are doing I have done before but some also are different. We went to a hospital this afternoon, which I had never been to, and that was tough. We prayed for each of the children and gave them each a stuffed animal to maybe help them feel better. There was a language barrier that was hard to get around. But we managed to some how get what we wanted to say across. 

One really sad thing I discovered today was that the orphanage that I spent a great deal of time in when I was last here is no longer in existance. The government came in a took it away from the people who were running it. This was a very big shock because I was under the understanding that we would be going to visit it again when I was here. The children we all moved to another orphanage in a nearby city but now the city of San Pedro (where we are based out of) no longer has anything for the orphans and they are forced to be on the street. 

On a more happier note, I recognized a couple of the children in Sante Fe when I had not expected to.  

Pray for the weather here. When it rains it makes it hard to get around so we are hoping for a little more sunshine.

Also continue to pray for our team and the children we will be ministering to that it would be a great as the success this morning or better! 

-Renee McIntyre, DR team leader

New Zealand

We just heard word from New Zealand.....here are their words...

We're Here! Kia Ora! Which means hello in the native Maori language. We just wanted to let you all know that we made it here safely! We got in to Auckland around 5am yesterday. We were all very tired and you will not believe that we made it until 8pm (which would be around 4am US time) that night without falling asleep!..crazy right?! :)We started with breakfast at the Fussner's, settled into our host homes and then explored downtown Auckland. We were challenged to walk up to complete strangers in the city with questions to ask them to better understand New Zealand people and their culture. The people that opened up to us were very friendly and were very willing to talk about anything. There are different nationalities here...we love the diversity. It was a very neat experience!We were able to go to One Tree Hill, the park not the show, and it had an amazing view! But it was really cold there so we didn't stay long. After we ate New Zealand hamburgers at BurgerFuel, we crawled to bed and slept for almost 11 wonderful hours.Today we worked with Habitat For Humanity clearing up a site where a house used to be. It was fun getting down and dirty in all the mud! Fortunately they lent us some gum boots.We are heading to dinner now so we will talk with you later. Sorry for the delay in the first post. :) ~Team New Zealand

Team Togo

We're back in the states!

We had an amazing time in Togo (and Ghana). God really moved in the ministry that we did there. We got the opportunity to build relationships with some amazing people and plant seeds for future ministry in Togo.

We want to thank everyone who made this trip possible. Thank you for you support and your many prayers! May God bless you greatly.

Akpe kaka (Thank you)
Team Togo