A year in Africa

From December 2007 through Dec 2008 I will be living with my friends Dieter and Joan Morsbach in Okahandja, Namibia. I will be serving as a Distributed Pastor of Christ’s Church working with orphan ministries, humanitarian aid projects, and community development programs. I’ll also be exploring many of the cultural differences with the youth and how youth ministry is different than in the States. If you’re interested in a short term missions trip to Africa, I can help in making arrangements for that as well. :)

During this year I will be posting to my African Travel Blog. You can find it at… http://africantravelblog.blogspot.com. On that site I will include updates, prayer requests, photos, and hopefully even some video of my trip. I will still have occasional access to my email, myspace, facebook, IM, etc, so we can still keep in touch. Thanks for your prayers and support, and please continue following my journey at my African Travel Blog.

Photo of the Day

The view out my kitchen window

Welcome to Namibia!

It’s always great to see a smiling, familiar face that you haven’t seen in quite some time. Joan and Richard picked me up at the airport, along with one of my two bags. But no worries, I had expected as much so I split up all my clothes and stuff so I’d have some of everything in case that happened. (I wasn’t long without as my other bag was dropped off this afternoon.) Richard and I dropped Joan off in Windhoek where she’ll be staying this week for some preschool training, grabbed a burger and headed back to the plot to get settled in. Unpacking seemed strangely unfamiliar as I usually live out of a suitcase while I’m here, but soon enough it’ll feel more like home.

Sleeping last night was a little rough. I didn’t get to sleep until after 1:00am, which is 6pm to my body clock. So after tossing and turning all night I forced myself up at 8:00am to try and adjust myself. Now I’m doing all I can not to take an afternoon nap so I’ll crash hard tonight and hopefully be good to go by tomorrow morning. Oh the joys of traveling. (7 hours ahead for those who were wondering and didn’t do the math.)

Everybody was asking about temperature. Apparently December is the hottest month of the year, although being in the desert, the nights are still surprisingly cool. But by about 10am the heat sets in until about 6ish when the sun starts to go down. Richard says it typically gets up to about 37-40 C in the day, and down to about 18-20 C at night. He says it will cool down a little when the rains come in January. So there you have it. Maybe I can find a weather widget or something to stick on the sidebar for you to follow.

Thanks for your prayers. Pics of the new pad coming soon!

Fly Happy indeed

Well I must say this has been the easiest, most uneventful flying experience of all my trips to Namibia. Some of it may have to do with not being responsible for 20-some-odd other people. I've blown through security, only twice, with no lines, no waiting. They've checked my passport once. No long layovers. Even the 15 hour flight was a breeze, other than my eccentric seatmate, but even that wasn't so bad. So now I'm waiting in the Joburg airport, almost ready to board my last 2 hour flight to Windhoek. But in my spare half hour I had to check online to see that the Pats sqeaked another one out. Sports analyst Mike says this is dangerous for the rest of the NFL. Everybody may be saying that now they're vulnerable, but I say now they've experienced a little pressure. They can blow teams out of the water, but they can also come from behind in the fourth quarter. This is the third time. So watch out NFL, this "never perfect" attitude will only make this team better and harder to beat down the road. Well I only have 10 minutes left and a few emails to read over. Thanks for all your comments and travel prayers!

Think I'm just about ready

So tomorrow's the big day. I fly out of Logan at 12:15pm to Washington D.C., then on to Joburg. It's crazy that it's actually here, but it still won't seem real until I'm actually sitting on the plane. The past few days have been pretty intense working out all the final details. We had to change my ticket to return in 90 days since I can only get a 90 day visa when I arrive, then I'll apply for my 12 month work permit when I get there. We worked out insurance and I've settled most all of my accounts. My room is emptied of everything that I'm not taking with me. And my two heavy bags are waiting on my sleeping bag and pajamas before they're finally zipped for good. I was reminded of Gideon as I was realizing I wasn't going to fit everything into my bags. I took out a little bit and God said, no that's still too much. Took out some more, still too much, but I squeezed it down to the essentials, and still managed a few fun items.

The support from my church family has been overwhelming. From meeting kids for ice cream, dinner, or breakfast to being prayed over during the service this morning to a surprise going away party tonight, it's awesome having such a loving, supportive community around me. That's one thing I know I'll truly miss over the next year. So thank you all for the incredible encouragement you've been (and will be) to me. It has indeed been my joy. Thanks for all your prayers as I travel. Hopefully my next post will be from the other side of the world!