simply grateful

Heather left on June 25 to go to South Africa for back surgery.  The surgery itself took about 3 hours and the Dr. was pleased with the results.  The recovery will take about 4 months before she is back to full strength.  Thankfully Heather was told at her post-op appointment today that she was cleared to fly back for our STAS next week. Today, the kids and I flew down to South Africa to join her and spend a week together again as a family.  She is doing well although still a bit sore from the surgery.  To celebrate we all went to McDonald's together and everybody even got an apple pie to celebrate! Thanks for your continued prayers for our family.

When you say, "We saw Wild Dogs" most people yawn.   Who cares about Wild Dogs?  These Wild Dogs are probably not what you think of when you think of an African Safari.  Wild Dogs, also known as Painted Dogs, are extremely rare to see with an total estimated population to be around 6,600.  Thankfully we enjoyed this rare treat yesterday.  We went in South Luangwa Game Reserve (don't think "zoo", the reserve is 3494 miles square... or roughly a little larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined) and began our search for lions.  We didn't see any lions, but we weren't disappointed when we spotted some Wild Dogs around 2:30 PM.  This pack of 12 didn't run off, but let us watch them for over 30 minutes, even coming within 3 feet of our car to lay in the shade it was giving from the afternoon sun.  There were no other vehicles around so it was our own little experience that we will never forget.  Here are some pics of the Wild Dogs and a few ...

What are the essentials one must understand to become a follower of Christ?  Is Jesus death on the cross enough?  The resurrection?  What about sin?  Sacrifice? Salvation?  What about relationship?  Repentance? Restitution?  What knowledge is required for one to truly commit their life to Christ?   When teams come to join us in our work we focus on things that will aid us in our church planting efforts.  In a recent post I mentioned how we usually visit the same houses four or five times to share stories from the Bible with them that address cultural issues that we think it is imperative for them to understand to make an informed decision to follow Christ... or to reject Him.  The demon possessed pigs is one story that we use because of the belief in witchcraft, demons, etc... in their culture.  We also tell the story of the Rich Young Ruler to help them understand the ultimate worth of following Christ, far...

15 Years Later... From August of 1998 to December of 2000 I served as a Journeyman in Botswana.  My favorite holiday spot was Chobe National Park and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  It has been my intention to take my family back up to this area since we moved to Africa in 2011.   About 9 months ago we began making our plans and reservations to go to this area and I had a great time getting to show my family my old stompin' grounds. Our first day we travelled from Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia down to Livingstone Zambia.  You can see the falls from both Zambia and Zimbabwe.  So after a 6.5 hour drive to Livingstone we went over to the falls so they kids could catch a glimpse of them.  The amount of water going over the falls differs depending on the time of the year.  Currently, there is a tremendous amount of water going over them resulting in "spray" coming back up and raining down on you.  In short, we got wet.  But they kids lov...