Home, Home Sweet Home

Apparently WE did not push the right button and our note to you all that we arrived home did not post. Anyway, we're back in the states, and happy to be here. We went on a cruise for our 35th anniversary before flying home from Nairobi. Not to bore you, but we flew to Barcelona out of Nairobi with a day layover in Istanbul. Sounds exotic doesn't it, well it was. Went to the Blue Mosque and Grand Market in Istanbul, relaxed in the great city of Barcelona, both cities with really nice and helpful people. Our cruise left Barcelona and our first stop was in Monte Carlo. Didn't visit the Casino, but could see it from the ship. Instead we took a trip to Nice seeing a medieval castle along the way and then had a wine and cheese tasting in Nice. We stopped at 3 Italy Ports, saw some Rome sites, and had a stop in Sicily and saw Carthage in Tunisia. A great way to wind down from 9 months in Africa and a great way to celebrate our Anniversary. Back to Nairobi for our flights home. We were expecting to be in Des Moines at about 1pm, but in Amsterdam our plane was accidentally loaded with 1200 pounds of empty pop cans, making the plane overweight. Of course they couldn't just off-load it at the loading terminal, we had to taxi to another place to get the cans off. By the time this was all done, we left about an hour and half late, which was all the time we had to switch planes in Detroit. Missing that connection meant we didn't' get to Des Moines until 8pm or so. But what a great greeting we had. 5 of our grandchildren showed up with home-made signs and balloons and were we ever glad to see them and our son and daughter, along with daughter-in-law and son-in-law. Our oldest and his wife and his two kids met us later at my brother's house, So we got to see my whole family other than Mother and sister-in-law who we hope to see later.

We have a little place near Rathbun Lake in Southern Iowa where we're scrunching all our things we brought home, clothing, and of course my golf clubs I got out of storage. It's small, but we're only expecting to me here this summer/early fall and then find another way to thank God for what he has given us.

We already miss all the kids and 'family' we had in Africa. Spending all the time we did with the kids and the people we met, we grew to love them and we're sure we'll eventually go back and see them again.

Our plans now are to try and set up some time to visit with the Grass Roots people in Ohio and investigate and explore other opportunities to do God's work. Maybe some time we'll actually retire. I'm sure our next mission will not be nearly as interesting to everyone as this one proved to be, but we'll let you all know that are part of this blog where we're going and will start a new blog for our new adventure.

Thank you all so very, very much for your support and prayers. There were some rough times and illnesses that weren't any fun, but knowing we were in Africa for a reason and knowing that we had family and friends supporting us helped us tremendously. God Bless You All, Mark and Pam

George

George Wilson is now at the orphanage and adjusting to his new home. He was at chruch this morning and we took some pictures soon to be posted. We went to get him last Thursday only to find out that he had run away from his uncles house. But he showed up on Friday, unfortunately I was sick so didn't get a chance to see him until church this morning. I will be taking him for a check up this week. He definately needs some new clothes so we will be working on that too.
Thanks again to all that took a month of support for him. Pam

Coming home

Just wanted to let you all know that we're headed home soon. We will be back in Iowa May 15th. We'll meet up our kids and brother, rest up a few days, and then set up house at our little place by lake Rathbun.

We will be leaving Tarime May 1st, but figured since we were already here on this side of the world, we would go ahead and celebrate our 35th anniversary with a cruise. We'll be leaving Barcelona, Spain for a 7 night cruise, hitting Monaco, and places in Italy, including Rome, and then over to Tunisa before heading home through Nairobi.

I usually would also share some more photos with you all, but two things are going on. The regular internet is down again, and there is no dial tone on the phone. Last time that happened some of the phone line for our area was stolen. Meaning it could be fixed quickly, or like last time, a few weeks. Also, my computer I use for photos and most of the email and blogging is acting up and keeps shutting down. It has all the photos on it and so I can't share them with you at this time. I am typing this on our small notebook/internet computer that is connected by a USB stick, and boy is the connection slow. It has a very small keyboard and is not much fun for me to type on, so hopefully the internet will come back and my computer starts working.

Pam is off to Mwanza with Edward to have his tonsils out. I don't expect her home before Thursday and depending on how things go, maybe later. Also, she decided to take Rhobi with her. That's the girl with the leg bone problem (see earlier blog)). Her leg is bothering her and is somewhat swollen so Pam thought she would go ahead and see if she couldn't get a doctor to see her.

I'm here at the house waiting for wood to be delivered. I have 6 bunkbeds to build before I leave so need to get at that project. Keep Pam and the kids in your prayers. TIA Mark

Successful days!

Shante, shante, shante sana, (Thank you, thank you, thank you very much) Maxwell Methodist Church for sponsoring George Wilson! (Gotta love that name not African sounding at all!) We still have a couple of hoops to jump threw. Anna, our supervisor, will be talking to the doctor (my connection to George) on April 15 to find out exactly where George Wilson is from. George is actually from Bohemba but it is a village that is very spread out and big. Anna will take another Angel House member with her and talk to the neighbors to find out if his story is indeed true. It seems in the past people have lied to try to get children into Angle House because the children are educated and fed there. I promise to send a picture as soon as I can. Unfortunately my contact to George is a doctor who is now out of town for a funeral, so I can't get a picture to you this time.

I just want everyone to know how grateful I am for George to have this opportunity! Usually the girls get sponsor ship before the boys. I think it because girls have less opportunity here in this male driven society (plus they are so cute you can't resist them). So, thank you again for giving George the opportunity to grow in a healthy, educated, loving and nurturing environment. When George came to visit Angel House he said, "This is a good place, a place that I want to live!". He was very hopeful about his future for the first time in a long time!

I have other news of success too. Derrick who has had diarrhea sense I have been here and not growing, and Edward who has had tonsillitis sense I have been here, were seen at the government teaching hospital in Mwanza (4 hours away) on Tuesday and Derrick is being treated correctly now and Edward is going to have his very rotten tonsils out on April 13. So prayers that Derrick's treatment works and that the surgery goes well. A very special thank you to the person who sponsored $250 for the tonsillectomy. I think they will probably take adenoids with the tonsils because he snores so LOUDLY. Edward is currently the second in his class so he has worked very hard at school this year even though he has not felt well and has been getting huge shots of penicillin. I am very proud of him. I do not feel bad that he will miss a couple weeks of school because I know he can make up the work and be successful.

God is good all the time. All the time God is good!

TIA Pam

BAPTISMS IN THE RIVER

Wow! What an experience! We witnessed 50 baptisms, all done in the Mara River, from babes, to grown adults.

Liz’s dad, Bill, is a Methodist pastor in Charleston, Arkansas. It a town of about 3000, in the western part of the state near Fort Smith. His church is about the size of Pam and my church, 250 members and an average Sunday attendance of about 150.

It’s so hard to describe the feelings you have watching this happen. We had started with an intent to baptize 40. That 40 was made up of some of the orphans, family of staff and staff itself. But while we were doing it, villagers were watching, coming and asking what was going on. We actually baptized 10 more. 50 river, full-immersion baptisms. If you didn’t feel the Lord working that day.....

Pictures portray more than I can say, so here are some for you to look at with some commentary.

Here we are going down to the river. The river is the tree line in the distance

Looking uphill, notice the conga line all the way back.

This is precious. That's Brother Bill on the left, Derick, his soon to be new grandson in the middle with his pastor father Eric on the right. Derick was baptized by Bill and Eric.

Arriving at the river, by the tree line in the background.

Here we are, by the river, waiting for the baptisms.

Some local children and other local people watched.

The baptisms was total immersion.

Doesn't the water look inviting? I don't think God minded a bit.

We baptized orphans and school members. Some brought family. Anna the orphanage supervisor is on the right. She had the order of names and bible.

Here's Mwita. If you remember, there was an earlier blog about our visit to his home for lunch. He's quite a guy and wanted to bring God into his life.

Here's Rhobi. Again, in an earlier blog she was the one we took to Shirrati to have her leg operated on, but the doctor prescribed another type of medicine, which worked! Tell me God and prayers from us all didn't work.

This is the youngest, Nema, an orphan who was left at the police station along with her brother. She has progressed, is now talking and playing like a "normal" kid. She is tongue-tied, meaning she needs that piece of skin under her tongue cut so she speaks better, but she is a precious little girl.

We baptized 40 orphans, staff and school kids, as planned, but when the locals that were watching found out what we were doing, we had 10 more.

Another local lady who chose God, who was really working that day!

Here's Winnie. She is in Nursery school and one that I drive daily to and from her school. You wonder what her future life will be like, but at least she has been baptized, is getting fed, having education provided and growing up in a religious environment.

It's happenings like this that give you hope for the kids here and for their future. Bless those who made this happen, especially Brother Bill and Eric.

Really TIA, Mark

e mail

FYI: we currently can not get e mails. It seems someone climbed the pole and stole the internet line from our area of town, twice. So they are not going to replace the line until it is "safe". That means "who knows when we'll get it back". We are looking into satalite and are going down town to use the internet cafe. Mark and I will try to check e mails every other day or so. If you want a quick reply it won't be coming. TIA Pam

Serengeti

Wow did we have an adventure on safari. We were gone 3 days and 2 nights and saw just about all the important animals. Elephants, Gnus, giraffes, zebra, Thompson gazelle, Grant gazelle, cheetah, lions, leopard, wart hogs, flamingo, storks, hyenas, baboons, monkeys, hippos and rhinos. The first night we saw a group of 5-6 female lions resting in the tall grass on the right side of the road. One picked up her head, sniffed the air and walked across in front of the car (they are not afraid of the cars but run away if you get out of the car, pretty smart) The other lions followed. Seems the first female had smelled a gazelle so the lions surrounded the gazelle and went in for the kill but the gazelle was too healthy and fast and got away. The male lions hide and only come out after a kill has been made kinda like you can get the guys off the couch long enough to fill a plate on Super Bowl Sunday, after you have been slaving over a hot stove all day. Interesting fact: Male lions are the leader of the pride and may have several females often if there are 2 leaders they are brothers. About every 3 years the leader of the pride changes and when a new male takes over he kills all the baby lions from the previous leader. This sounds cruel but it is natures way of making sure the strongest survive.

One day as we were stopped at a picnic table for lunch we saw some elephants close by plus there was a path that lead to a rock where there is a great look out. Mark went to get a picture of the elephant on the way up to the look out. Mark did not see that there was an elephant near the path (how could you miss those huge things? But he did) I drew his attention to the one near the path, Mark was walking in front of me and the elephant saw Mark and was VERY upset, flapped his ears and trumpeted and took a few warning steps towards him. Mark went on up the path, I went back down and hid behind a rock. (Brave person that I am.) Now the elephant is on the path just behind Mark and Mark can’t get back down to me without passing the elephant again. Finally the elephant moved off the path and Mark decided it was safe to come down but the elephant still felt threatened and charged Mark a second time, Mark ran past the elephant and for good measure the elephant charged him a third time just to make sure Mark was going away. This was no baby elephant either it was a bull elephant with a female and a baby. So that explained some of the bull elephant’s behavior. At the picnic area there was a small shop to buy pop and books and souvenirs they called the park rangers but the elephants had moved on before the rangers got there. Every one was safe and we continued on the safari. After the last day we went to a beach hotel on lake Victoria It was so nice to fall asleep with the sounds of waves. But unfortunately they did not have hot water and I also had to wake up to the sound of someone digging out side my bedroom. The whole trip was soooo nice I wish that everyone could have this experience. If you have ever thought of coming to Africa and going on safari I would hope that you would take the time and money to do it. Mark got some wonderful pictures which he will post some time soon. We have not had Internet for several days because someone cut and stole the Internet line in this for this area of town. It is supposed to be fixed on Monday so I hope to send this soon.

TIA Pam

(note from Mark)

Ok, so here's my possible award winning elephant photo, obtained at great personal risk, aka stupidity.

And here's my fellow adventurers watching and getting photos of elephants.