simply grateful

Here is a link to an article covering the 5K race the church I grew up at put on for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering on Christmas Eve.  Its a great article, check it out by clicking HERE

Often mission teams and missionaries come back to the States with stories of countless people giving their lives to Christ.  Lives transformed.  Stories accompanied with pictures of a long line of people waiting to get baptized in a muddy river with a backdrop of an African jungle.  Sure, there were sacrifices of extreme heat, struggles with (ahem) bathroom issues, challenges with the language but in the end, countless people gave their lives to Christ and for that, it was all worth it.  All that leads to this moment of hundreds braving a croc infested river to get baptized.  Insert picture here…   Oh how we long for those days (minus the crocs in the river of course!).  We can't wait to see people coming in droves to surrender their lives to a loving relationship with Christ.  We can't wait to send pictures of people standing outside an overcrowded church building listening intently to hear the Good News of Christ.  We can't wait to send ...

People often ask us what life is like in Africa.  We can't speak for the whole continent, but in our little corner of Africa the electric is sporadic.  Thankfully, we usually don't lose electric for more the 15 hours at a time, but it does happen frequently.  We may go 10 days without losing power and then lose power for the next 10 days straight.  Thankfully, we cook on a gas stove so loss of electric doesn't prevent us from eating!  But, it does mean that we have to use solar powered lights at night.  We have three permanent lights installed in our living room, kitchen and dining room (thanks to installation help from my Dad and some gift money from First Baptist Chester) but the rest of the house we light with portable solar lights.  We also received two solar battery chargers for Christmas from Heathers parents that we can use (and have used already) to recharge our phones, Ipod, and camera.   Yesterday we lost power at noon and it came...