Post Thanksgiving

The official Thanksgiving holiday is over. We spent time with Sue's family and with Kim's extended family. At both dinners, two good size turkeys were cooked; one in the oven and one in a deep frier. After my trip to Africa, I can't help thinking that either dinner could have fed a small village in much of the world. We have such abundance here in the USA. We should be thankful for this all year round.

Note that on the sidebar I now list some websites and blogs that I read as well as the books I am currently reading. I highly recommend Neil Cole's new book, Organic Church and Church Planting Movements by David Garrison. See a great discussion on this book here.

Thanksgiving and prevenience

Today is Thanksgiving, 2005. At least in the US. Our friends north of the border already celebrated their thanksgiving holiday. If anyone knows why Canada's holiday is in October, please let me know.

Across our nation, millions of families will sit down around a turkey meal and give thanks for the blessings they have enjoyed during the year. It is a good thing to be thankful for our blessings; good health, a job, a home, food to eat, and lots of other things that most of the year we seem to take for granted.

In The House Church Chronicles blog, John White is doing a series to explain the idea of "prevenience". I recommend everyone read this series. Here is an excerpt from part 1:

" The word "prevenience" (rhymes with "convenience") refers to "that which goes before or precedes." The word describes an important aspect of God's character. He is prevenient. That is, He is always at work before we come onto the scene. He is always initiating, in our lives and in the church.

"Prevenience" is most commonly used in reference to grace. Prevenient grace. "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Before we ever thought about God, while we were still lost in our sin, He took the initiative and gave His life for us. Before we ever moved toward God, He moved toward us. He is always initiating. He is always starting things. He is prevenient. "

I suggest that we should be thankful for God's character of prevenience. Think about ways that you have seen this character in God's working in your life. Pray that He will reveal to you how He is initiating the change, the transition that we are seeing in the church in America. Ask Him how you can be used for His good purpose during the next year.

And don't forget to be thankful for the abundance of food on your table today.

This mornings email

This morning in my personal email there was a letter from a brother in Christ, Brennan Basler, asking the question "How desparate are we?" in the church in America. He effectively pointed out how the church in America has become unholy, ineffective, and unrepentant. He points out some very disturbing statistics of the current spiritual state of the average church-goer in America. He ended his letter with this:

Brothers and sisters, as Asaph once admitted: “WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED!” (Psa. 79:8). For the sake of ourselves, our families, our churches, our communities, our nation, our world, and most of all, our SAVIOR, let’s TURN from our sin, and RETURN to the Lord together. He both deserves it and desires it!
If not US, who? If not NOW, when? If not HERE, where?

Also this morning in my work email a newsletter from InformationWeek Daily included the following:

Quote of the day:

Bill Murray: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Dan Aykroyd: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
Murray: Exactly.
Aykroyd: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Harold Ramis: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Ernie Hudson: The dead rising from the grave.
Murray: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together--mass hysteria.
-- Ghostbusters

The quote is humorous, but in the context of Brennan's letter, I've got to ask, are we experiencing a spiritual disaster of "biblical" proportions? What will it take to turn the church in America around, to wake it up, to bring it to its knees in repentance?

I would say it has to start with fervent prayer. Individual prayer. Corporate prayer. Long and hard on-your-knees prayer. Then we need to boldly search out the good soil, as Neil Cole puts it so plainly in his new book, Organic Church. The Body of Christ planting the seed of the Word of God in the good soil will certainly cause an awakening in America.

Some background

I hope that everyone who read the journaling of my trip to Africa enjoyed it. I know sometimes I probably got into a little more detail than I needed but I hope I was able to describe the trip in ways that made it easy to imagine.

While I will remember visiting Africa, the first time, forever, it is now time to move this blog on to a discussion of house church, organic church, or simple church. There are plenty of other blogs out there that talk about house church and I will try to put links to some of those in a list on this blog. But for now, I’ll try to introduce where I am coming from as far as church is concerned.

For the last 2 years, the church fellowship that I have been a part of for a very long time, East Valley Grace (EVG) has been meeting as a house church expression. I almost hate using the word “expression” because it is used so much by the post-modern church movement these days. While a lot of what the post-modern church movement has done interests me, I’m not a proponent of some of the ideas I read from blogs and websites out there. But many times, there will be interesting discussions of house, organic, or simple church on websites that are aimed at the post-modern church movement.

By “expression”, I simply mean that the small group or fellowship that I am part of “expresses” our worship and faith in a small, interactive, home setting. We see the “church” as each of us and all of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ. We don’t see the “church” as having anything to do with a location or building. We practice our faith in a small group that meets in a home, park, or wherever we decide. We see the first century church as our pattern of meeting. Therefore, we always have a meal and communion each time we meet. The rest of our time together we focus on Jesus with the goal of letting the Holy Spirit guide our time of study, worship, and prayer.

This is quite different that the EVG prior to 2003. We were very traditional and small. The fellowship was founded in 1993 by a church planter sent out by the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches (FGBC). During the 10 years of meeting as a traditional, institutional church, we had three pastors, went one year without a pastor altogether, met mostly in rented facilities like a day care center but met one year in a house. We never had more than about 25 official members, and the leadership was always discussing buying our own property although we never really had enough resources to even come up with a down payment because of our struggle to pay rent and salary. For 10 years, I served as the financial secretary and moderator for the institutional EVG.

EVG was the first pastor job for two of the pastors we had. Unfortunately, both of them are now not involved in any ministry. While this personally saddens me, I’m sure that they would say they are following God’s will for their lives at this time. I pray that both of them will use their gifts for the Kingdom again one day.

When our last pastor resigned in 2003, many of the core group of members decided to find other institutional churches to attend. A small group of us decided to continue meeting in a house church expression. I had read much about the house, organic, simple church movement and in 2003 attended the House2house Labor Day National House Church Conference in Dallas, TX. I became convinced and convicted that this was the true New Testament church lived out in small groups meeting at homes, work, parks, wherever.

We still stay in touch with many of the former members of the institutional EVG. For example, Vernie from the trip to Africa was an elder with EVG. Because of his close ties with the FGBC, he and his wife, Amy, still retain membership in EVG. That’s because even though we are meeting as a house church, EVG still is a member of the FGBC. Four of the current members of house church EVG became members of the institutional EVG. So we have an unusual situation in that EVG is a non-profit corporation in Arizona, recognized by the FGBC as a member church, but with no officially FGBC-ordained pastor. Personally, I don't think membership in an institutional church is important although there are many people that do. As far as having an official pastor, those days are definitely past for EVG. Next year, we will decide whether to continue membership in the FGBC.

Last year, through a sequence of events, God brought EVG into fellowship with another house church expression named Living Hope Christian Fellowship (LHCF). We started meeting together and have sort of become a single house church.

LHCF was started by Henry Staggs and John Rowden with the original intent of becoming an institutional church. It wasn’t long before they discovered other small groups meeting in homes. Through their own study, and some other events in their lives, they too became convinced that this was what God was calling them to.

Henry really has the heart of a pastor-shepherd. He is working almost fulltime as a volunteer chaplain at Banner Desert Hospital in Mesa. He faces death and heartbreak almost daily. But God has uniquely equipped him to minister to the people experiencing these life-changing crises. John worked many years in the behavior health area. Because of a severe back injury on the job, John has been out of work for quite a while. He is looking to become employed again in this field. John is also uniquely equipped to work in this field. You have to know him to see this in his compassion and caring nature.

So currently, EVG and LHCF meet in combined meetings rotating between four different homes. For now, it appears that God is strengthening our relationships and presenting unique opportunities for service. I created a website for a network of house churches in the East Valley to help house churches in our area connect. I was extremely blessed to be able to go to Africa for ICDI. We are looking at ways to reach out to the homeless community in our community and city. I am currently reading and sharing the new book by Neil Cole of Church Multiplication Associates (CMA) called Organic Church. I will talk more of the future direction of EVG and LHCF in the next post.

Status of the Orphan Care Center

Sue and I had dinner with Vernie and his wife Amy last night at their favorite place, Mary Coyle Ice Cream in Phoenix. We talked about our experiences in Africa and in getting home. From Vernie's description, he and Ray had quite a time getting around in Paris to do a little sight seeing. He commented that in the city itself, they had a very hard time getting someone to help them or someone who spoke English. Why does this not surprise me? I did not have that problem in Zurich. Almost everyone I talked to was eager to speak English.

The large 13-person team that followed us in the Orphan Care Center building project were able to get a lot done. Vernie talked to Jim and found that everthing was completed and classes will start this Monday. Praise the Lord! There was a lot to do when we left but with a team that large, and the purpose so great, God used them in a mighty way.

I am convinced that God is using Jim and the rest of the ICDI staff in the US and CAR in a great way. Please keep them in your prayers and, if God leads you in that direction, support them financially. The link to their website is on this blog.

Saturday returning home

This Saturday ranks as the longest day of travel I have ever experienced. We left the hotel in Zurich by bus at around 8AM. Because of the time difference, this was midnight Friday night in Phoenix.

I was very fortunate that I was able to check my luggage in Zurich all the way to Phoenix. I was told that I would still have to collect my bag and recheck it at the Atlanta airport when going through customs.

The flight from Zurich to Paris was about an hour 15 minutes. Zurich was very foggy so the view was not good taking off. As we climbed out of the clouds, you could see the hilltops with some villages coming out of the clouds. It looked like islands surrounded by the clouds. By the time we got to Paris, it was raining but the window view was clear.

Landing at terminal 2F and needing to get to 2E I followed the signs and took the terminal transfer bus. It seemed to go forever before arriving at 2E. Everyone had to go through security again and it was pretty simple. I noticed that none of the airports I went through in Africa or Europe ask you to take off your shoes when going through security. It seems like they check people at random with the wand. I had to be wanded earlier even thought I did not make the metal detector alarm.

I made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare. I have to admit that in my haste I mixed up flight numbers 21 and 51. I was reserved on Delta 051 and it was departing from gate 73. Flight 021 was running late and it was departing from gate 75. When I looked at the departures listing I mistook 21 for 51 and, thinking that the flight was already boarding, got into the line for 21. They have agents checking your ticket and passport and asking questions about what you are bringing into the US. Even the agent didn't notice right away that I was at the wrong gate. Finally he did and informed me that I was a stupid American and I need to go to gate 73. No, he really didn't say that but he acted like it. I guess I deserved it. I had time to spend a few Euros on candy and junk to bring home.

When the time came, I got into the correct line, answered the same security questions again, and boarded the bus to the plane. Thats what you do for many of the flights in Paris since they park the planes away from the terminal building. Delta flies a Boeing 767 on this flight. These planes have very little room between the rows. Luckily I'm not very tall or I would have had problems on such a long flight of approximately 10 hours. I did the best I could to get a little sleep. I also filled out the customs declaration form during the flight.

In Atlanta, all international flights come in and depart from Concourse E. We went through the passport check and customs with very little problem. After I collected my luggage, I went through customs without even slowing down. Rechecking the luggage is just a matter of putting it on another conveyor after going through customs. I hopped on the train and went down to Concourse A to wait for the flight to Phoenix.

It was good to be back on US soil after three weeks. I indulged myself with a couple of scoops of Ben & Jerry's coffee ice cream. I was tempted to also have a Krystal burger (slider) but I didn't know if my delicate stomach was ready for something like that.

The flight to Phoenix was just less than 4 hours arriving just before 9pm. That is 9pm Phoenix time. I left the hotel at 8am Zurich time or midnight Phoenix time. Arriving at 9pm meant that the total travel time was 21 hours. Like I said, the longest day of travel ever for me.

I met Sue quickly in the baggage claim area and collected my bag. We were on our way home. Sue had not eaten so we stopped at, where else, In and Out Burger before going home.

In unpacking my bag, I was surprised that it did not appear to have been checked anywhere in transit. I was able to check the bag in Zurich for the whole trip but I really expected that somewhere along the way, in Paris or Atlanta, that someone would have opened it to check it. They did that in Phoenix when I departed three weeks ago. I suppose it was x-rayed along the way.

The trip is over, it is Monday and I'm back at work. I just posted a picture of Ray, Vernie, and I with our African work team at the Mercy Care Center. I plan to post more pictures.

Thanks to everyone who supported my trip to Africa with their prayers and financial support. I will remember it forever and I pray that God will open doors for other opportunities for service.

Ray, Larry, and Vernie with the African work crew at the Mercy Care Center 

Friday night in Zurich

Today was the last day working on the the JTA. We ended at 2pm and all of those who were attending from other European countries left shortly afterward. The rest of us got back to the hotel by 3. Everyone wanted to do some shopping so we each went on our way. I found some chocolates and some other things for the grand daughters. Then I met up with Veronica and Belinda and they wanted to try to find the rest of the group so go to an early dinner.

We did that and went to a fondue restaurant. It was good but I got my fill of cheese. Afterward we went to Starbucks for coffee. I then decided to go back to my room to pack and get ready for the very long flight tomorrow.

The internet connection did not work again. This happened once before this week and it cleared up after I rebooted my system a couple of times. But I could not get a connection. I decided to just write my blog notes for uploading tomorrow.
My flight leaves Zurich at 10:15am. I change flights in Paris and then fly to Atlanta. Then on to Phoenix with arrival at about 9pm. Considering the 8 hours time difference, the day promises to be very long. Hopefully, I can read and sleep some on the flight.

Some thoughts of the CAR

I will remember the two weeks in Bangui for the rest of my life. It is hard to describe the conditions in the Central African Republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_Republic ). Although the infrastructure is in real need of maintenance, they have gone through 2 years of relative peace since the last coup and commerce seems to be alive and well everywhere I looked. The environment for entrepreneurship seems good. Micro-businesses are seen everywhere from the vendor selling phone cards on the corner to the man pushing a huge load of wood many miles to sell in the city.

In the CAR as in all of Africa, cell phones are the new technology hit. You buy the phone and then you buy phone cards to pay for the time as you go. It seems that phone cards are sold just about everywhere. There are even two companies competing for the business.

There are many restaurants and bars but only one we felt was safe enough to eat at. That was the Grand Café. This is operated by two brothers from north Africa and is very nice. They have some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted. The hamburger we had on Saturday night before leaving was very good as well.

There are cyber café’s that give many locals exposure to the outside world. The cost is roughly US$1 per hour. Most of the times that I went to one, every seat was in use.

Because of the looting that took place during the coup two years ago, most places try to maintain some security. The mission guest house and the ICDI office and orphan care center have gated walls with either glass or barbed wire on top. They also have a guard that watches the gate. Most of these places also have a back or escape door. Although the guest house is in great shape now, it was looted and everything of any value was taken in 2003 during the coup. Everything has been replaced by the generous giving of Grace Brethren churches and others since then.

No one can predict if or when another coup will take place. While the current president seems popular with the general population, the army has not been paid regularly. All it would take would be some high ranking officer to become ambitious and get the support of a large number of military. This is played out so often in Africa and has in the CAR many times since it gained its independence from France in the 1960’s. During the two weeks, we were stopped almost every night by military troops for no reason except to try to extort money because they were not getting paid. In almost every case, since we were driving a vehicle with the mission marking, they would just let us go. Occasionally we would get stopped by a legitimate traffic stop where they would check the vehicle registration.

For some reason, they are very sticky about taking pictures of public monuments and buildings. For that reason, almost all the pictures I took were from the inside of the guest house or the orphan care center. We did sneak one here and there of the public street. I will post some of these to the blog as soon as I get home.

I will always remember the men we worked with on the job and how appreciative they were that we came so far to work on this building. How interesting that the leader of the team, Sampson, had worked with Vernie in Bata many years ago. They had not seen each other for around 20 years. All the men were Christians and each morning one of them would pray before we all began work. Even though I didn’t understand what they were saying, I knew it was to our Lord and that’s what mattered.

The team at the guest house that took care of our lunch and dinner and laundry were so great. No only was their cooking great but the attitudes and joy they seem to carry was so encouraging. I’ll especially remember Ann’s laughing. She was always so joyful.

ICDI ( http://www.icdinternational.org ) is doing a wonderful job there in Bangui. Jim Hocking has assembled a great staff, both Bangui based and US based. They are working on so many fronts; partnering with many other organizations like Vision Trust International ( http://www.visiontrust.org ), USAID ( http://www.usaid.gov ), and the Jars of Clay Blood Water Mission ( http://www.jarsofclay.com ). The administration of these partnerships and grants keep Jim Hocking and Bob Belohlavek very busy. The staff in Bangui takes care of all the CAR government non-profit administration.

The next step for the Mercy Care Center will be a building behind the first building that will house the family that will handling the administration of the center. The second center building will be built sometime after that. If funding can be secured for the materials for the house, there will probably be one or two teams next year.

Thursday afternoon

I had intended to post some thoughts on my Africa trip early in the week but it has been much busier than I anticipated. The nature of the workshop combined with the international variety of the participants has created lots of challenges. Although English is the common language used, many of the participants are challenged by that.

I cannot be descriptive of the work we are doing because I am under a non-disclosure agreement. The best description for it I can think of is grueling. It has been a very long week. We plan to end at 2pm Friday because most of the Europeans leave Friday evening. The rest of us leave Saturday morning. Because of the time difference, my arrival in Phoenix should be around 9pm Saturday.

I will plan to put some Africa thoughts up tonight or Friday night.

On another subject, last night when I turned CNN on in my room, the news was all about the hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan. Before I went to bed, 23 people were reported dead. Today, 57 are reported as dead. And now Al Qaeda in Iraq has taken credit for this cowardly act of terror. No big surprise.

How can we defend against an enemy who is willing to die for such a warped cause? The only defense is a strong, unyielding offense. Feel free to respond.

Vernie, Larry, and Ray at Baoli Falls, Central African Republic  

Marcellin, Lisa and Dr. E'bailay at wedding 

The first workcrew

This is a picture of myself, Vernie, and Ray, during the first week in Bangui. No, thats not Ray's real hair. He was just funning with some real hair that was used in the plumbing work. Not being a plumber, I don't fully understand what it was used for but I was told it was mixed with a sealant to create a better seal in the plumbing installation.

Sunday

On our last day in Bangui, we had a morning rain storm to wake us up. It ended quickly and we arrived at the airport at about 7am. Daniel with ICDI was to meet us there to walk us through the process at the airport. And it is a process as we found. We decided to go ahead and get into the initial line before Daniel came. We said goodbye to Bob and joined the near riot line to get into the first door.

Two policemen stood there checking tickets and passports before letting you in. There was no order to this line. There was lots of arguing between some in line and the policeman. At one point, a couple of military troops came out and tried to push the mass of people away from the door. It was push, shove, negotiate, anything it takes to get in front of the person in front of you. We just stood our ground and finally the 5 of us, Vernie, Ray, Steve, Ron, and myself, were let through the door.

Since we checked our luggage on Saturday, we didn't have to wait in the next line where people were checking their bags. So Steve finally determined that we could go around this line and directly to another desk where our boarding passes and passports (again) were checked.

At this desk, an agent decided to take it upon herself to walk us through the next steps of the process. We went by another passport control desk before going into the room where they have the metal detector like every airport. But they don't work here and have not for some years. So every carry on bag get checked by CAR policemen. In my case, the policeman went through my backpack very thoroughly but then waved me on. Interestingly, I could have put anything in my pockets and taken them right through.

We were then taken by our agent into the lounge and to some seats. We were there in record time I'm told. We decided to pool our resources and tip the agent $20 for helping us. Unfortunately, Daniel did not show up.

While waiting in the lounge the flight from Paris arrived. We went up to the observation deck and we were able to talk to the arriving team. There are 13 in this team included the two men that were supposed to be on our team. We said hello to them from the observation deck and then they went on to fill out the obligatory entry form required by most countries.

Before long, the Air France people came in and set up tables to check our bags before boarding. Even thought they had been checked by the CAR police moments before, they had to be checked again. That went pretty quick and we were directed out to the runway where the Airbus 330 waited. At the steps, another CAR agent stopped us and at first would not let us go up into the plane. There was talk between her and the crew a couple of times and finally she let us go. Finally, we were on the plane.

We departed about a half an hour later than scheduled but the flight was only supposed to be around 6 hours. It was a very smooth flight presenting some great views of the Sahara desert.

Arriving in Paris, we actually went up to a terminal gate. First stop is always passport control. Then we went to the baggage claim and waiting at least 30 minutes for our bags. I had approximately 1 hour before my departure for Zurich. I got my bag and said goodbye to the other guys and started walking toward the correct terminal. I didn't get stopped at the customs desk so I was able to get to the correct counter, get my boarding pass, check my bag and get to the gate while it was boarding.

The plane to Zurich was a very small BAE jet that had small seats as close together as possible. I was lucky enough to sit in the middle seat between two French business men who read their newpaper the entire flight. Its was only about an hour and 15 minutes but the crew served drinks and a fair snack.

In Zurich, it was very quick going through passport control and customs. After picking up my suitcase, I was waived through customs. It appeared that they only do spot checks of bags.

I quickly found the Joker bus to the downtown hotels and had to wait until 9pm for him to leave. I got to the Wellenberg Hotel at nearly 9:30pm.

I signed on to their internet service so I could have a high speed connection all week. I will put in some post-trip thoughts tomorrow.

Saturday night

This morning we went to Air France to check our luggage. I had too many of the leather boxes so the inspector made us pay a tax. It amounted to about $4US. Dr. E’bailay came by and again tried to lobby for checking my bag all the way to Zurich. He was told that they were not allowed to do that. So I will deal with this in Parish. We got our seat assignments and Vernie, Ray, and I are all sitting in window seats. I am told that the view of the sahara is very good in the daytime. The whole thing took us 1.5 hours.

We came back and had an early lunch and spent the rest of the day working at the orphan care center. We completed the 4 foot table tops, the 6 foot screen, and installed the last sink. We tried to ready the site for the next team that will be coming in on the same flight we depart on Sunday morning. There will be 13 in that group.

After coming back to the guest house and showering, Bob took us to the Grande Café and we enjoyed a very good American-style hamburger and ice cream. Being Saturday night, the place was packed. There were mostly families, many white, at first and as they left, it became more of a singles place. The people who came in were dressed so nice, it was amazing. When the locals go out, they like to really dress up with very colorful dresses. This was a very nice treat. Again we were stopped by the police on the way back but they just let us pass. I was told later that because they are not getting paid, they are really trying get money from people for their survival.

Everyone was very tired so it was early to bed in preparation for going to the airport early Sunday morning.

Friday Night

Ray and I built tables all day. We finished the last 8 foot table and started working on the 4 foot tables. We decided we would only build the tops and give Bob the instructions on how to add the legs to the tables. He can then instruct the next team on completing these tables. Vernie worked on a variety of projects during the day including completing the cutting of the parts for the tables and one 8 foot screen for the clinic.

Thursday night we put together bags of clothing, soap, and candy to give to the 5 men that we have been working with at the care center. This morning after we prayed and before we began to work, we gave them the bags. They were so grateful. Samson spoke for the rest and he explained how they appreciated that we came so far to help build this important orphan care center. He asked us to take back to our churches much thanks in the name of each of the member of their team. I was really touched by Samson’s sincerity. During the day, as each man finished work, he came to us and bid us ‘bon voyage’.

We also put together bags for the cooking crew that we will give them Saturday at lunch.

I didn’t go to the cyber café tonight because we all had to pack our luggage that will be checked with Air France. Although we don’t leave until Sunday, we have to check our backs tomorrow morning and get a seat assignment. Everyone who has been in and out of CAR talks like the only thing worse than going through the airport on arrival is going through the airport when you leave.

There is certainly some misplaced priorities within the government agencies in this country. When Steve and Ron came back from their trip to a Pastor M’boi Andre’s church, one of the things they noticed is how the infrastructure of the CAR seems to be deteriorating rapidly, at least outside the city. It isn’t much better in Bangui. But people just go about their daily routines while the government leaders are getting rich. Pray for revival in this country.

Thursday night

This was another day of lots of accomplishments at the work site. Since Bob went on a day trip to a Fulani village, Marcelin picked us up and transported us from the guest house to the orphan care center. Marcelin is the fixit guy for ICDI. He has a gift for fixing things, cars, computers, almost anything. It was his marriage that we attended last weekend.

We constructed some more 8 foot tables while Vernie cut the pieces needed for assembly of the tables. Some of the wood is so warped that it takes a lot of effort to pull the pieces together during the construction stage.

It was very hot today. We haven’t had any rain for a couple of days but it has been very hot. The rainy season may be over.

Tonight, our friends Steve and Ron from the Aiken Grace Brethren Church returned from their trip to a very remote mission location. Steve is sick, probably from something he ate during the trip. This is actually pretty common. Many people get sick quite regularly because you meet with people and you have to try the food they serve and you never know if its safe or not.

I am a little concerned about my change of flights in Paris. Our tickets had to be checked with Air France on Tuesday. Joshua, the ICDI secretary, took our tickets to the Air France office to make sure that we had seats on the flight Sunday. You have to do this because they always overbook. Joshua took my hard printed ticket from Bangui to Paris and my e-ticket for Paris to Zurich. My hope was to be able to check my suitcase from Bangui to Zurich. They told him that they were unable to process the e-ticket. So it looks like I will have the challenge of claiming my bag and then checking in for the Zurich flight during the 2 hour time between flights. There is a real possibility that I will miss the flight, especially if the departure from Bangui is late. God is sovereign. I will trust Him.

Interesting fact, there will be 5 of us arriving at the Paris airport and none of us speak French. Bob says that he has never been able to find a helpful person at the airport but is sure that we will find lots of helpful people. We will see.

Wednesday night

This was a great day of work, accomplishments, and seeing how God is working in this country.

At the center, we completed all the door trim and almost all the window trim work. Vernie precut the parts of the 8 foot tables that will occupy the training room and Ray and I started building these. Unfortunately, we do not have what we need to finish the plumbing work and we should finish 12 tables. As of now, we have 2 done. I don’t know how we will do that. But God is sovereign.

We were invited to have lunch with a Grace Brethren pastor named Dr. Augustin E’bailay (not sure how its spelled). God is using him in a very great way. He has started a ministry called (in English) the Center for Ethical Leadership Training. His vision is to provide Biblical ethics training to the leaders in the government, many of whom call themselves Christians. But the country is very corrupt. Three members of his board joined us the lunch, including the president of the board. Every member is a very prominent member of business or government and also members of Grace Brethren churches. He explained his vision to us and how exciting it is to see God working here in this country. We have seen how God is moving in other parts of the world and I was starting to wonder if there was any move of God looking to the future here in the CAR. But this is truly a vision God has put on Augustin’s heart. I feel that it could be the start of something big God is going to do here. But the enemy is noticing. Augustin told us about some nightmares he has experienced that appear to be spiritual warfare. I pray that everyone who reads this will pray for Augustin and the ministry.

After dinner, Bob and I went down to the nearest cyber café and their internet connection is down. It is supposed to be working tomorrow.

After we returned, Bob gave each of the opportunity to call our homes again. It is so wonderful to be able to call home from so far away. It was 6:30pm here but 10:30am in Phoenix so I caught Sue before she left the house for errands, or whatever.

We had our Bible study next and continued with Philippians. Everybody is very tired tonight and Bob will be traveling tomorrow to a remote Fulani village to take some video footage for Jars of Clay’s Blood Water ministry. This village has one of the wells that the Blood Water ministry financed and ICDI is hoping to get financing for more wells.

Tuesday night

Vernie surprised us this morning by cooking eggs and bacon. This was our first treat for the day.

We continued with our wood work at the center. I worked on the window trim. Vernie designed and started building some classroom tables. He was able to finish one and it looks really good. I wonder if I can talk him into building me a new desk for my office.

After lunch, we continued our work during a brief rain. It was nothing like Monday’s deluge. Bob worked with us in the afternoon, working on building some shelf units for the offices.

We came back for dinner and had really good roast chicken. Bob had requested oranges and they were so good. I’m not sure when I have had such sweet oranges. This was our second treat for the day.

Well, today is All Saints Day and it is observed by much of the population here. I suppose it is a Catholic holiday. But since we are all saints, it’s a holiday for all of us saints.

Bob and I walked down to the cyber café but the one we usually go to was closed. They were probably observing All Saints Day. We walked to one a few blocks further and it was extremely crowded. He was able to get on line but I was never able to connect. I kept getting a strange message indicating that I had the same IP address as another system. I tried everything I knew to try from my system but could not clear the problem. They were so busy, it was impossible getting any help from the people there so we just left. We felt really bad because we promised to get the weather for Waterloo, IA for Ray but couldn’t.

After we returned and showered, Bob took us down to the Grand Café for ice cream again. We enjoyed the very smooth ice cream and very pleasant air conditioning. This was our third treat for the day. We got stopped again on the way to the cafe and then on the way back even though we went a different way.

Our devotion tonight was Phil. 2:12-18. It was my night to give the devotional. I just love verse 13: For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose. We had a very nice discussion on how each of us was enabled for this trip. God put this trip on my heart by first giving me a desire, and then enabling me to act on the desire for His good purpose. God is so great! I will have much to share when I return home and my prayer now is that I will inspire others to do something similar.

Monday night

Today was a good day of work at the orphan care center. We did a lot of wood work. All day I sanded strips of wood that will be used for moulding around the windows. Most of this was done in a room that Vernie had rigged up the fluorescent lights to connect directly to our source of electricity. We are connecting wires directly to where the power comes in at the pole. There is no meter or box yet but the power can be tapped into nevertheless. At night, there are some lights that connect to it for security. We connect that wire to a transformer that converts the 220vac to 110vac so that we can run all the American power tools. We actually had to hardwire the lights to the wire that plugged in the transformer. Definitely, not pretty. But lots of electrical tape.

In the afternoon we had a very strong storm. The power went out a couple of times and you could tell that the voltage must have been fluctuating. Every time we used one or two of the power tools at the same time, the lights would go out. This must mean that the tools were causing the voltage to drop to something less than needed by the lights. The storm was over pretty fast but by then it was time to secure everything before Bob picked us up.

We came back and had dinner and Bob and I walked back over to the cyber café. Its seems that every time we do, I am amazed at the sheer chaos in the driving in the city. As a driver or pedestrian, you can’t let your guard down for a second. While we were there, the rains came again. When it slowed down, we walked back to the guest house. But now its 9pm and its still raining. All I can think is how bad is the road to the center going to be tomorrow. It was very bad this afternoon after the storm.

We had our devotion tonight from Philipians 2:5-11. We discussed how we need to follow Jesus’ pattern for humility. I thought about a line from a song by the Newsboys that says, “who am I, that my God should die for me”. Imagine that, God loves us that much. What a praise! And a hope.