Sunday night

After we visited the cyber café, we went back to the souvenir shops. This time we actually bargained and bought stuff to take home. Actually, Bob did the bargaining after we decided what we wanted. This afternoon it was very hot. We were all dripping wet when we walked back to the guest house. A couple of glasses of cold water were just what the doctor ordered.

I spent the afternoon continuing to read. I started the week reading “Church Planting Movements”. I also brought Neil Cole’s new book “Organic Church” and I just couldn’t resist any longer. I dived into it and was spellbound through the first few chapters.

After having a very relaxing evening, we went to the English language church service at the seminary in Bangui. I was told that this was built by Jim Hocking’s father. They had a very nice large sanctuary. Most of the white missionaries and many African’s were there. The service was led by a young African who, I think, is a student there. We did lots of hymn singing. Those of us who were there for the first time stood up and introduced ourselves. Bob then preached a message based on Mark 6. He implored the missionaries to take time for themselves and to trust the Lord to provide for their needs.

We then returned to the guest house and had a spaghetti dinner that had been prepared for us by the staff. It took awhile, but three grown men finally figured out how to work the microwave. Yes, there is a microwave but this was the first time we used it all week.

Then, Bob took us back to the coffee shop we visited this morning, Grand Café for ice cream. Unbelievable as it seems, considering the normal here, we sat in air conditioned comfort and enjoyed some of the best ice cream I can remember having anywhere. What a treat for us!

On the way back, we were stopped again by traffic police (which look a lot like the army). They didn’t harass us but let us go through like the night before. It’s a good thing, because Bob admitted that he didn’t have the registration papers with him. That could have been a very bad scene if they had asked for them. Praise God for His deliverance!

That’s three times we were stopped during the weekend. I think that’s normal.

Then back to the guest house to continue to rest in preparation for the busy week to come.

Sunday morning

Jim is now on his way back to Winono Lake. Pray for his safety on the long journey.

Bob took us to a very nice coffee shop for pastries and coffee this morning. Just a short, about 3 blocks, walk from the guest house. This is a place owned by two Lebanese brothers and is kept very nice. According to Bob, even the water is safe to drink there. Their cafe au lait is very good. Regular coffee, I'm told, is very strong.

Between the guest house and the coffee shop there is a little restaurant on a corner with the name of Restaurant Carnivore. I thought that was an unusual name so I did take a picture in case no one believed it.

Bob took me over to the cyber cafe and I read and answered some emails.

BTW, I have to thank everyone who has been praying for me because my stomach has been feeling much better. I'm praying that I will be able to accomplish much work this next week.

Saturday night

Shortly after I wrote the morning note, the rain stopped and Bob left for the mayor’s office to take care of the official legal formalities of marrying Marselan and Lisa. He returned later for us and we left for the wedding. We were surprised to find that the mercy care center where we have been working had been set up for the outdoor wedding ceremony.

The road to the center has been bad all week but today we came close to getting stuck. But we made to the center. There were lots of people there already and we were shown to our seat by one of the ladies that make up the wedding party. Bob asked me to take some digital pictures with his camera as well as some video with a super8 camera that they have. As we waited, many arrived in the ICDI vehicles. Clearly, Jim sponsored this wedding in a big way.

A choir arrived, with sound equipment on the back of one of the trucks and quickly set up. They were the music during the ceremony and were really great. Everyone was dressed to the hilt. The ladies that were part of the wedding party were dressed mostly in the same pattern dress. Most of the men were in suits. And in the middle of all this mud.

There was a master of ceremony that presented the program and then started the proceedings. First, Marselan’s mother stood and spoke some words. Now everything spoken was on Sango so at least Ray and I didn’t have a clue what was being said. Jim tried to translate as often as possible for us. Then Jim spoke a few words. He got a few laughs. He explained to us later that he explained how Marselan is like a son to him because he grew up next to one Jim’s sons in Yalouke. (This is a long time station the Grace Brethren International Mission has had northwest of Bangui.)

After Jim spoke, several others got up and spoke before Bob got up and read the wedding vows. Then Dr. Hebile, a well know teacher know by everyone, came up and approached the couple who had been sitting on a couch with a table in front of them. He asked each one something and each answered. Clapping followed each so it must have been important. Then he asked them for their symbols, the rings. They put the rings on each others hands and then they kissed. She was wearing a typical white wedding gown and he was wearing a very nice suit. I understand both were provided by missionary groups for them.

After that part, the master of ceremony asked anyone who has been married for 20 years or more to come forward to offer the couple counsel. Several women came up, including Dr. Hebile’s wife. She teaches aids awareness classes for ICDI and is a very good speaker. I have no clue what she said but she had the crowd going.

Then Marselan stepped up and spoke some words to Lisa’s family. He even got choked up as he spoke but everybody clapped in appreciation.

Lots of music by the choir followed while the wedding party prepared the tables with food. We had the typical salad with bread appetizer. When that was done, they brought out lots of different meat dishes with rice and gozo. My stomach has not felt good in several days so I settled with something recognizable, chicken with some rice. I just couldn’t force myself to try gozo. Vernie influenced me on this. They even served us Coke’s. Although they were not cold, at least we didn’t have to drink something that we know would not be safe for us.

I felt like it was a great honor to be able to witness a typical wedding with a Christian theme. There were lots of prayers during the wedding. Of course they were all in Sango but I thought that was great. One observation, probably 60 percent of the adults there had cell phones. All during the ceremony, cell phones were ringing. Cell phones are so popular here because of the pay as you go cards that are available.

As we were leaving, this man that was one of Lisa’s brothers came up to us and told us how much he appreciated what we were doing with the orphan center. I could tell he was speaking from his heart and understood what we had to do to come here. That has encouraged me greatly. I know that these people understand that it’s not easy to come over here to work on these projects but most of the time they don’t show the appreciation.

Jim and Bob next took us downtown Bangui to the river. In fact, we went down to the Oubangui Hotel. I understand that this is probably the best hotel in town. It used to be the Sofotel Hotel. In fact the name is still on the side of the building. We sat on the patio overlooking the river and the pool and enjoyed an ice cold Coke. There is an island out from the hotel, nicknamed the rocks where there is a small military-looking riverboat. As beautiful as the view was, we could not take a picture of the area because of the boat. Jim joked that that was CAR’s navy. Well you got to think about national security .

There were some fishermen dropping their nets and pulling them in so we walked down to where they were right on the banks of the river. We watched them pull in their net to see what they would get but they only had a few small fish. Jim said that if they pull in a large fish they can sell it to the restaurants in town and make enough for all of them. There were about 8 men involved in this enterprise. We waited for them to put the nets out one more time before it got dark to see if they would catch anything. Suddenly Jim point to the sky and there were thousands of bats flying over the river. From our vantage point they appeared to be pretty large. I guess they come out of the fruit trees to go after the insects over the river. I watched and they come down very low over the river. Well, our fishermen didn’t get anything this time but they said they would be doing this all night. Apparently, the do this every night. They were walking out into the river where any number of parasites are just looking for a host and they do this every night. You can’t watch this without being amazed at what people do just to survive.

We walked back to Jim’s car and drive back to the guest house. We got stopped by a traffic stop on the way. Jim showed them the registration and they let us go. We drove right down the main street and there a lots of restaurants and shops. It looks like you can probably find just about anything you need down there.

Jim leaves for the US tomorrow morning. We will be depending on Bob for everything during the next week. Possibly tomorrow, we will go back to the souvenir shops.

Saturday Morning

This morning we were awakened by thunder and a very heavy rain. It has been raining constantly for at least two hours and is showing no signs of slowing down. It is very doubtful that we will attend the wedding this morning. Bob is supposed to do the wedding and it is planned to be outside so we don’t know what the status of it is right now. He said that the location was muddy yesterday from earlier rains so it would be a very bad mess today. So the plan now is for us to stay in and relax today and not risk getting sick going out in the rain.

Friday night

After dinner, we walked down the street to a little market. It was inside of some buildings across the street from a very large Catholic church. It was so dark entering but then there were two shops still open. Bob explained that we were just looking and that we would be back tomorrow to buy. So we have some idea of what kinds of souvenirs are available. Bob and I then came down to the cyber cafe. Tonight the speed is much better than the other night. We will be going to a wedding performed by Bob for one of ICDI's employees tomorrow and will be taken downtown to see what that looks like.

Friday

Friday morning, I felt very good when I got up. My stomach still felt kind of uneasy so I went light on breakfast. By the way, our breakfasts have been instant oatmeal or cereal. This is the only meal that the African crew here at the guest house does not prepare.

After talking to Bob, I decided to work in the morning and depending on how I feel, stay at the guest house in the afternoon. I worked on the trim on some of the doors. It really felt good to do something like that with my hands. It’s good to be able to see the finished product. When things come together well, I just want to say “yeah”. I obviously don’t do enough of this type of thing. Unfortunately, from about mid morning, the sun came out and my stomach started giving me mixed messages.

We came back to the guest house for lunch and I had a very light one. I explained to Bob that I felt like I should not go back out this afternoon. He has been very understanding. Apparently, this happens quite often with teams from the US. Especially with people who have not been here before. The environment is really brutal. It’s so easy to catch a parasite. The culture here is that you have to show respect when you meet someone by shaking their hand and saying ‘bala-o’, Sango for ‘greetings’. It goes without saying, that if you don’t wash your hands after meeting a group of locals, you have to be very careful not to touch your food or put you finger in your mouth, etc.

I am writing this as I sit in the dining area of the guest house looking out the window into the street. I finally took a very discrete picture of the street life earlier. Many of the local people are very suspicious of foreigners taking pictures. Bob told me that one of their leaders some time ago found that National Geographic had published pictures of Africans with no clothes on. So he announced to the people that westerners were taking their pictures and then taking their clothes off in the pictures. Well, enough said about that. Nevertheless, most of the time, you can take their picture for a price. But you still can’t take a picture of any public building, monument, or the airport. National security, you know.

The African lady, named Ann, that cleans and does our laundry came in and asked if I was leaving this week. She speaks very little English and I speak no Sango or French but I find it fairly easy to communicate. My friend Vernie surprised me when he just started conversing with people in Sango almost like it was natural. He spent time in Bata, some years ago, where there was a bible school that taught many of the African Grace Brethren pastors. That was one of the places that was pretty much destroyed during the war a few years ago.

Yesterday when we stopped for a Coke in the village outside of Boali Falls, we met a fellow from Bata who was on his way to Bangui. Jim introduced him to us. He is the dean of the college. They have 6 students this year.

While sitting here, a couple of missionaries who are staying here came by and asked me how I was doing. I just talked to Bob, who is part of a non-denominational medical ministry. He and his wife have been over here, in various locations, since 1997. He said that they see all the denominational groups working together to provide medical assistance to this part of Africa. To me that’s very encouraging. I like it when all the groups work together.

Later this evening, Jim or Bob will be taking is to a shopping area so that we can scope out the souvenir ware to take home. We will see what they have and then go back to bargain on the prices on another day.

Thursday

Wednesday night was not a good night. I experienced what could be travelers’ diarrhea most of the night. In the morning, Vernie had some Imodium that I took. I felt so bad I stayed behind and slept the entire morning.

Even though I didn’t feel good I decided to go on the afternoon trip that Jim had planned for us to Boali Falls, the site of most of the power generation for this city. On the way we stopped by the ICDI office so we got to see that for the first time. Interestingly, it is right across the road from the Presidents mothers’ home. But the road is very bad. You would think he would take better care of his mother.

Boali Falls is about 2 hours outside of town so we got to see some of the country. The road was very good considering what the streets in Bangui are like. There were still lots of people walking next to the road. In addition, it seems like all the kids like to hang out right on the edge of the road. At first that’s pretty scary with all the cars and truck flying by. But that’s just life here.

We passed through several checkpoints but Jim is so well known here that the soldiers just wave him through. There is even a toll stop costing 500 franks for a car. That’s about a dollar.

Jim pointed out some sites where ICDI has drilled wells, some Grace Brethren Churches, and all kinds of trivia related to the food they eat here and how they grow it. It seems that the food stapes here are peanuts and something called gozo, made from the root of the matioc tree. Gozo has almost no nutrients but in the bad times they survive by eating lots of it. Jim and Bob both say that it tastes terrible as well.

Jim wanted to show us one of the generating plants but no matter how he asked the men there, they couldn’t let us in. When we got to the falls, 5 or 6 young boys were outside and went inside with us. One of them was carrying a machete, trying to be discrete. He kept asking me something like “1 time?”. I understood that to be asking if it was the first time I visited. So I answered “first time”. These kids hung on to us while we walked down to a fantastic view of the falls. The falls were flowing really well so they look great. I will upload some pictures when I get home.

When we were leaving the falls, there was a soldier, complete with rifle, that tried to get Jim to buy him a drink. He argued that he protects the falls and keeps it secure. Jim explained that he lives across the street from the president’s mother so what would he want Jim to tell her about his trip to the fall. Jim said he would tell her that the soldier tried to bum a drink from him. The soldier just laughed as we all just walked by him.

Jim stopped in a small town at a coffee shop. The menu, even in French, indicated that was their main offerings. We bought bottled Coca Colas. Jim said they were about 75 cents each. They were even cool. Amazing to think that there we were so far from home enjoyed the “the real thing”.

Jim then stopped at one of the churches. The pastor was not there but the choir was practicing. We enjoyed their singing for a while before leaving. Jim translated what they were singing about.

We also stopped at a couple of guys who were pushing these carts carrying wood. They let us take a picture of the carts and talked a lot to Jim. One of the micro-enterprise things that ICDI has done and plans to do more, is to provide a way for someone to buy one of these carts. They cost about 150 dollars but many of the people rent one for 10 dollars a day. Jim wants to give individuals a way to buy one. These carts are used to transport all the wood from the bush into the city. Everybody uses the wood for cooking. The typical kitchen is a little outside building and they do most of the cooking over an open fire. Sounds like camping out, I know, but this is everywhere, along the street, in the neighborhoods. Returning back to Bangui, I didn’t count but there must have been a couple hundred of those being pushed toward the city.

The entire afternoon I felt like I had a fever and was even having chills. I got a couple of aspirin from Ray and that helped.

We got back to the guest house about 6pm and had dinner. After dinner, I explained how I was feeling to Bob and he asked this lady, who is a nurse, and staying in the guest house for a while to come over and take my temperature. She found that I had a 101 degree temp. The symptoms I experienced are very malaria-like but they agreed that it’s too early for that to occur, plus I’m taking one of the best medicines for it. So we decided that I would go to bed and take some Advil during the night and see how I feel in the morning.

Tuesday night (out of order)

Today was another interesting day working at the Mercy Care Center site. I discovered that I forgot to bring sunscreen so my neck got pretty sunburned on Monday. I was determined this day to stay out of the sun if possible.

Driving to the site is such an adventure with the many pedestrians, mini busses, and motorbikes. Bob has been driving and has done a great job. Today I was assigned to work on the door jams by myself. Ray and I had ripped the mahogany planks to the size strips that we needed on Monday. We had power today using the generator. And we had the same crew headed up by a fellow named Sampson. Interesting that Vernie knew him when he was on an assignment in another location many years ago.

We went back to the guest house for lunch again and had grilled cheese sandwiches with some light vegetables.

In the afternoon, we experienced our first big rain storm. It thundered for a long time and finally a downpour came. We could see how easy it floods here. There is obviously no flood control so the water flows down the street making its way down to the nearest creek. But it sure cooled things off. We stopped earlier than yesterday because there is no light inside and much of the work is inside the center.

Dinner back at the guest house was pizza African style. Add some pineapple and papaya on the side and it was pretty good.

Bob and I walked down to a cyber café to check and send our email. I was able to post the previous two blog posts. Looking at the news, I see that Wilma made it through Florida on Monday. Tonight I prayed for that area as I prayed for the others before.

Walking a couple of blocks on this street at night was interesting. We had several people approach us trying to sell us anything from cigarettes to carvings. The cyber café itself was very crowded with locals getting their fill of the internet. This place had rap music playing in the backgrown and it was very unpleasant for me. I think we will probably go back to the other one the next time since it was less crowded.

We have really been working hard the last couple of days and the other guys are all in bed at 8:30. Sitting up here in the guest house, you can hear people down on the street. People selling things or just walking someplace and talking. But very dark. There are not street lights so all light is from signs or the traffic. I hope to have some pictures of life here when I get back.

Tomorrow, Bob and Jim Hocking will be going to an event that celebrates the completion of a number of wells drilled by ICDI with financing through another ministry (can’t think of their name here). Bob will be taking some video to put on a DVD for distribution. On Thursday afternoon, Jim is taking us to an attraction at a water falls a couple of hours away. This should be interesting.

Wednesday night

Today we continued work on the mercy care center. Our hosts Jim Hocking and Bob Belohlovek went to the presentation I referred to yesterday. They had some challenges with the vehicles. The first one broke down overheating. The second one they used had something broken in the rear suspension. But the presentation went very well.

While Ray continued work on the bathrooms, Vernie and I worked on the moulding for the doors. We only have planks that have to be ripped to the size strips needed. We got that started.

After returning back to the guest house and eating dinner; tonight fish, we got the opportunity to call our wives using Bob's cell phone. It worked great. I could tell Sue was so surprised to hear me. The connection was really good.

Bob and I then walked down to the closest cyber cafe to check email. As I sit here, the speed of the connection is not very good and hopefully it will get out.

Tomorrow, Jim is taking us to the falls for an outing. I'll update the next time on that trip.

The Joshua Tree

The Joshua Tree

Monday October 24

This morning we went to the worksite at about 7am after a breakfast of instant oatmeal and crousants from Sunday. There is a crew of local men working with us and they were already there. I worked mostly with Ray on cutting some wood to be used for the door jams.

This morning our big challenge was getting power for all the power tools. Since the power here is 220vac, to run normal American power tools, you have to use a transformer that drops the voltage to 110vac. They had one wired to the power pole from the power company and the saws and drills running off of that transformer. Some time before lunch, all power stopped. The transformer box was as hot as a firecracker and you could smell something not very good coming from the box. They have a small generator but it also only provides 220vac so we still needed the transformer. So until lunch we did what we could do without power.

During the morning, we had a special visit from the mayor. That is the mayor of the small district that the ICDI work site is in. He welcomed us and through Bob translating, explained how he wanted to help in any way he can. At the end, he said that time is money, so we should get back to work. We got a good laugh at that. Bob explained that his coming over to introduce himself to us is a very big deal.

At lunch, we went back to the guest house and took a breather while we got another small transformer and after lunch we were able to work using the generator connected to the transformer with a long extension cord hard wired to a power strip. They way they wire things up here is certainly not pretty and actually could be considered pretty dangerous but it seems to work, mostly.

One of the ICDI employees who is somewhat of an electrician checked the power and reported that the legs of the power from the power company was not balanced. One leg was over 300vac. That could have been part of the problem. We don’t know but that transformer may be fried.

Vernie was able to get the locks in two of the interior doors. Jim Hocking came by right at the end of the day. He is the director of ICDI. He had been shopping and had a lot of plumbing connections for use to work on during our stay.

We came back to the guest house about 6pm. It was already dark and Bob did a great job of driving back. The streets here are not very wide and there are lots of pedestrians like I mentioned before. Many of the cars didn’t have their lights on. At night, it is very hard to see them while trying to go around the oncoming cars and potholes. There are hundreds of these small minivans that are called buses that stop and go just about whenever they want. And everyone just passes other cars if they slow down at all. I couldn’t wait to get in the shower. While the water can be heated for hot showers, most everyone opts for cold showers. It really feels good in this hot and human environment. This one felt really great.

We then had another great dinner served by the local team that provides the meals in the guest house. We then had our first devotional that Bob has scheduled for us. Every evening after dinner, we will continue through the study of Philipians and have a time of prayer. Bob led our first study and we had a nice prayer time.

On our drives between the guest house and the work site, I have made a few observations. We pass by a statue on a corner, right in front of a gas station for some reason, of the current president, Bozzizo. I was told that when outside the guest house or worksite locations, we should not take pictures of things like government statues or buildings. I don’t know why the president wouldn’t want someone to take a picture of his statue. Also, we pass this very large compound with a huge iron fence around it. Inside, you can see several large incomplete buildings. I asked Bob about them and he said that Libya’s leader, Qaddafi, bought the land some time ago and never went any further with it. Its possible that he was trying to get his foot in the door here and when the coup happened that put the current president in place, he was not welcome. He still owns it but nothing has happened to it.

We also pass and Air France building. Next weekend everyone who will be flying out to Paris the next week, including us, will need to go there for tell them about our plans. That should be fun.

Another observation is how popular cell phones are here. You can buy a phone for around $75US and then purchase calling cards just about anywhere. There are little stands selling the cards everywhere you look. There are 3 different companies that offer cell phone access.

Thursday, Jim is going to take us outside the city to a location where ICDI has another work, possibly the well drilling.

Sunday Night

Tonight, we accepted an invitation and had dinner at Pastor M'boi Adrei's home. He is a long time pastor and church planter in the Central African Republic. It was quite a long drive to his house over some very bad roads but the meal was very good. It was a chicken dish with rice and a mixed vegetable dish. A hot sauce was served that was really hot. I may have to take some home for my friends who pride themselves on eating very hot food. I tried it and it is very hot. We rode back with Pastor M’boi with 3 in the front seat and 4 in the back seat of a very small vehicle. This saved him from having to make two trips for us and I think he appreciated that.

Sunday morning

Blog for Sunday October 23.

Now in Bangui.

We finally arrived in Bangui this morning at about 7AM local time. Local time is 8 hours ahead of Arizona time.

On Friday, Vernie and I traveled to Cincinnati from Phoenix. The flight actually arrived early so we had plenty of time. There we met Ray Hottle from Iowa and Bob Belohlovek, who is the leader of the team. Unfortunately, the other two members of the team did not receive their packets in time and were not able to join us. After a quick bite to eat, we boarded the flight to Paris.

This was the first of two very long flights. Delta is a pretty good airline but like most US airlines, they sure provide minimal meals. I was unable to sleep because it was still too early to my biological clock. I did get quite of bit of the Church Planting Movements book read though. We arrived in Paris around 9AM Saturday morning. The time there is 9 hours ahead of Arizona time or about midnight at home.

Bob was our guide and leader at the Paris airport and he led us down to a bus stop where a shuttle would take us to a room reserved for the day so that we could get some rest. We waited and waited and a shuttle never came to the stop where we waited. Bob was so sure that we were at the right place but finally we went looking for some assistance. To make a long story short, we had been waiting on the wrong side of the building, which incidentally looked exactly like the side where the hotel shuttle buses picked up. We then went to an Etap hotel to try to get some sleep.

I realized in a few hours that I have a big challenge sleeping in the same room with Vernie and Ray. I should have purchased decibel meter to see just how loud it got. In all seriousness, I do have difficulty sleeping in such a environment but I did get a few winks.

Bob took us to a restaurant adjacent to the hotel and we had a very good meal. There we met Steve Taylor and Ron ? from the Aiken Grace Brethren Church. They also were coming to Bangui to go to a church for some training. They are staying at the guest house where we are.

We went back to the airport for the next long leg of the trip. There was some concern when we were checking in at the gate when the attendant mentioned that the flight was overbooked. He waited and waited and finally got the green light to start issuing seat assignments.

Ray and I sat next to each other and were able to chat along the way. Well this is where Air France really beats the US airlines. During the night we got a full dinner and a full breakfast. Very good food. The flight attendants were extremely nice as well. I was able to get some sleep after the very good dinner.

Our flight stopped at N’Djamena, Chad before continuing to Bangui. We were directed to stay on the plane for the hour stopover. We then got to Bangui in about an hour. During that hour, a very good breakfast was served.

When we arrived and left the plane to walk to the very small terminal building, two things were quickly obvious. It was hot and humid and very unorganized. We went into a very crowded room where we were told to complete a customs form. After we did this, our host, Jim Hocking showed up and really took care of the official things necessary to get us in to CAR. The officials quickly confiscated the 7 trunks that were brought by the party and we gave Jim the keys and got our luggage and proceeded to the guest house.

All or our luggage had to be hand-checked by their officials as we were leaving. That went pretty smooth. Since we had been introduced to some of the local staff from ICDI, when these young men grabbed our luggage to take them to the car, I and at least Ray, figured they were also part of the staff. When we got to the car, we discovered that these men did this for some money. Since we just arrived, we had no money to tip them so there was some arguing between them and some of the ICDI staff and then we left in a car. I feel like it was wrong of be to assume that they were supposed to help. So that’s the first lesson of this visit to what is called a third world country.

Apparently, this flight from Paris and N’Djemena is the only one now arriving regularly here. There were hundreds of people waiting outside the terminal, probably to welcome friends or relatives that were arriving.

The drive from the airport to the guest house was interesting in itself. Its hard to describe the disorder of driving in such a place. Most of the roads are dirt. Any paved roads are full of pot holes so the drivers navigate around them. Very few traffic lights. Lots of pedestrians that just walk across the road like they have a death wish. Bob told us that since it is Sunday, its not too bad. We will have to see what its like during the week.

We settled in to the guest house and unpacked. I took the first of probably many cold showers. It is so humid here that it really felt good.

Later today, Bob is going to take us to the work site and we are going to try to send some email. Hopefully, I can email this and something to Sue.

The Night Before

Its Thursday night before the long trip. I took an extra day of vacation today and was able to get a lot of last minute things done. I had a few things I needed to buy and some things around the house that Sue really wanted me to do before leaving. I was able to get all those things done.

Last night, Aaron, John, Henry, and I had our weekly prayer night at John's house. We were updated on Henry's visit back to his hometown, Junction City, Kansas. He described the city as such a spiritual darkness. Although there are a lot of Christians there, there is a spirit that seems to keep them from wanting to grow and live out their faith. Henry said that there are 30,000+ Army personnel that will be returning to the local base very soon and how the city is so caught up in the economical benefits that will come of that. We talked about how the spiritual pulse of the city may change. We prayed that many new believers would return from the war and would cause a transformation, a revival in that city.

In the middle of all the running around today, I was blessed to meet a lady name Wilma. I thought that was pretty funny considering the latest hurricane expected to hit Florida is named "Wilma". While shopping at a Radio Shack, this lady came in who had locked her keys in her car right in front of the store. She asked the cashier at the store for help but he could only advise her to call the fire department or someone to help her. I was moved to offer my assistance. She said she only lived a couple of miles away so I took her home to get a second set of keys and brought her back to the store. During the ride, I found that her name is Wilma and she is from Peru. I explained to her about my trip since I was in Radio Shack buying power adapters. We were talking about the hurricane when she asked me what is my religion. I told her that I was a Christian. She then asked me if I thought God is angry at us, meaning this country, because of all the hurricanes that have taken such a toll on us this year. My personal feeling is that I don't think God causes these things to happen but may, for His reasons, remove our protection from such things. I just find it interesting that Katrina hit New Orleans just before an annual party that is known for his wild activities and now it looks like Wilma may hit Key West before a similar period know for its wild parties. Something to think about.

My daughter, Kim and husband Bradley, along with grand-daughters Audrey and Paige visited tonight. We had pizza and had a very nice visit even though the girls were very tired. It was nice to see all of them before leaving.

The news about the 2 men on our team who had not received their tickets yesterday is.....no news. I'm not sure this means they did or did not get them. Please continue to pray for this situation. It would be nice to find out tomorrow that they did get their tickets and will be joining us in Paris.

I received the new book by Neil Cole, "Organic Church" that I ordered last week. I plan to read it after I read "Church Planting Movements". Be sure to visit The Forum for Uniting and Equipping the Church for Spontaneous Expansion for discussion on this book.

Well, I know this is a long post but it could be the last entry until I get to Zurich. I pray that there will be some way to upload some occasional posts from Bangui. Nevertheless, please know that I appreciate the support and prayers I have received from many people. Keep us, Vernie and I, and the rest of the team in your prayers.

Tuesday night

The bug that seemed to have the best of me Sunday night and Monday has gone and health is just about back to normal. Praise God!

One of my coworkers, Phil, invited me to join him and his family for dinner at his "favorite chinese" restaurant here in town. We had a nice time fellowshipping and talking about the trip coming up. I know I can count on his prayers during this trip. Thanks for your support, Phil!!

I spent some time the last couple of days "ripping" tracks from some of my favorite music cd's to mp3 format. I'll be able to play these on a very inexpensive mp3 player I bought. Its not an iPod but it works for me. Hopefully, this will provide some good Christian worship music for the long trip. This technology is very cool, allowing you to put a lot of music on a very little device that you can put in your pocket or hang around your neck. Its great for things like commuting or walking the dog. I don't do much commuting anymore, since I work at home, but I do a fair share of walking the dog. And I thought it was cool when you could burn your own mp3 cd's. I think portable cd players are on their way out. Coming soon; video on iPod. I can only ask, why?

One thing I did discover about mp3's on the internet, you can't get any for free. At least ones by known artists. Well, you may get a few free ones up front, but only after you give them your credit card number. And then they want you to pay the monthly subscription fee based on how many songs you download. Its probably not a bad deal though. You don't have to buy cd's to get the songs you want when you can download only those songs you like. I haven't explored how many Christian artists are offered in these plans yet.

Well, please continue to pray for the team. I was advised earlier today that 2 of the men have not received their packet with their passports and tickets yet. Interesting that here in Arizona, we got ours over the weekend and the men that are in, I think, Pennsylvania, haven't got theirs.

Sunday night

I have been feeling very good health-wise during the last week or so. Then last night this flu bug attacked me. I had a very hard time sleeping during the night and this morning I have no energy. I am praying that this is a 24 hour flu. I am still trying to work although I can barely keep my eyes open. Thats not much of a problem since I work from home.

Like I said yesterday, this is crunch time for the trip. I got the electronic tickets in my email from the travel agent last night so that situation is all taken care of.

Please pray that this bug goes away very quickly.

Crunch time!

Well, its less than a week before I travel to Paris and then Bangui, Central African Republic for my first ever mission trip. This is on behalf of Integrated Community Development International, a non-denominational ministry involved in well-drilling, orphan care, and education in the Central African Repuplic. I plan to journal the trip on this blog providing I have occasional internet access in Bangui. We will be staying at a guest house and working on finishing out the first building of the orphan care center in the ICDI facility. Hopefully, there will be other outreach activities we can be involved in during this time. Other than myself, there will be my good friend Vernie Abbitt, Ray Hottle, Karl Kaylor, and Eric Yordy. I'm not sure who from ICDI will be there.

We leave on Friday, October 21 and fly to Paris where we spend the day Saturday. We then fly to Bangui Saturday night arriving in the morning Sunday October 23.

At the end of the two weeks in Bangui, we all travel back to Paris November 6. While the rest of the guys enjoy a couple of free days in Paris, I will be flying to Zurich for an HPCP workshop the week of November 7-11. I fly back via Paris on November 12. That puts me back in Phoenix late in the evening Saturday November 12.

Unfortunately, when I received the plane tickets for the trip yesterday, they did not reflect changes made to accomidate my trip to Zurich. I quickly sent an email to the travel agent and he responded quickly. They will be on this first thing tomorrow morning.

Feel free to drop me a note on this blog or email me at ljoh3106@cox.net .