Last two nights as Americans

Monday night we met with our church body and friends with no real plan but worship, and that we did. God blessed that time richly as we experienced a beautiful and fun expression of the body of Christ. Community and music touch our hearts like few other things can, we had a blast just worshipping our Savior with His children.

Tuesday night we took a short break for the two of us. We did this date night up! (Special thanks to our dear friends Kevin and Gayle for making it all happen). The night was complete with the finest of the fine, a limo ride and the best dining we could find. We laughed at dinner as we selected the proper forks and ordered things we couldn't pronounce that in less than three days we'll be sticking our hands into bowls to eat things with names we can't pronounce!

Wednesday we fly! See you soon from a new locale...

Historic Win

Is there a better Saturday to have as our last in Lexington? What a day, what a game!
We'll be leaving on Wednesday... glad to be in town for one last game tonight.

GO CATS!!

And LSU, shame on you... I respected the impressive showing of fans, you traveled well, but the stadium-wide chanting during "My Old Kentucky Home" following "God Bless America" and "The Star Spangled Banner" in pregame: despicable, pitiful, and very disrespectful. Welcome to Kentucky, now go home.
:)

intermission

After 21 shots
59 incredible days of prayer
5 authentic cultural meals
352 new friends around the world
2 freshly deceased chickens
and lots of great memories stateside
we are done with our time in VA and have a few days to pack before boarding to head overseas.

We truly cannot say enough thanks to the staff that put on our orientation, the past two months have been a wonderfully challenging time. We have learned so much about the world in which we live, our many misconceptions about life in other cultures, and how we can really make a difference. We are at a point of readiness to go anywhere and do anything, and with a humility to know that we are indebted to the people we want to serve to learn from and live with them. We will be able to do nothing by ourselves, but great things through the help of nationals wherever we go and through the unending power of Christ. God is at work in our world, He cares about our world, and we cherish the chance to join Him in that work. More than learning about the world, we learned about the character of God. We learned about discipline. We learned to know God above all else. We have the Spirit of God within us to direct us... how cool is that? We learned to listen to what we already have. We hope and pray that we are forever changed.

Pray for endurance for us, pray for brokenness for Tanzania. Pray that God prepares some University students that will be ready to receive us and will partner with us in making a difference on their campus and in their communities. Pray also that we will find favor with our airlines in travel, with customs officials overseas, and with local businesses and government officials where we go.

Swahili word for the day is the verb -enda which means to go.

goodbye VA

We have one day left in VA, our last commissioning service. It's hard to believe that our time here is finished, next step is some final packing and then all aboard: destination Tanzania. We are enjoying a visit from Mom and Dad H and friends Jenny and Becky, it's great to see them (I, Michael, can easily say I wouldn't be here now without the 4 of them in my life).


Last week, we had the chance to cook an authentic south/east African meal. The food was simple and surprisingly good, and for the 3rd time running Michael successfully ate sans utensils and napkins. Here we are cooking chapatis, kind of a cross between a tortilla and a pita, but fried. It's good, and the closest we'll get to tortillas for a couple years.

Swahili word for the day is chapati, which means chapati (lit. “flat round bread”)

Last lunchtime brainteaser for awhile:
What is the Southernmost State, Northernmost State, Westernmost State, and Easternmost State?