Well, I haven't updated in a while because life is busy!  But, these few stories are too good not to share.  I sure hope it gives you the peace and joy it did me! 

Some of you may know that my parents are now the forwarding agents for some long-time family friends and new missionaries to Mozambique & South Africa.  The work they are going to do is, in short, AWESOME!!  Al has gone over there several times & noticed the need for a mission, so he took the challenge.  Now, keep in mind this man was always one of few, if any, words.  NOW...he won't quit talking!  It's amazing - his passion.  Anyway, he goes into the extreme rural/jungle tribes and helps teach them how to do things for themselves.  He will not give them money to buy what they need, he won't help them problem solve, but he WILL guide them.

For example, last trip he had a tribe that needed something they needed, but the other tribe wanted money.  They came to him and asked for money and he said "No.  You need to figure out how to get it on your own.  Do you have something they might want?"  It took them 24 hours to figure out to trade some cattle & horses to get what they needed.  They have no problem solving skills AT ALL!!  It is unbelievable.  Al wants them to learn to problem solve on their own and develop those skills to learn more about the Bible and be able to teach it to their children.  Another tribe he visited was 4th generation Christians, yet they still had a god they needed to please. After many questions, Al found out they were never taught deductive reasoning that if they worshipped the One True God, there was no other.  Unbelievable.

Anyway, on to my story.  Al & Velma, his wife, left yesterday (Friday) for their summer trip to Africa.  They flew from Denver to DC and had a 3 hour layover.  During the layover, Velma called my Dad to tell him how things were going.  "AWESOME!" she said!  "Really?"  Said my Dad.  She preceeded to tell him about their ticket counter guy in Denver & the extra baggage they had to take over (some missionaries needed some water filter pumps & auto parts to fix things, which were extremely heavy & going to cost about $300 in extra baggage).  He overheard them talking about going to Africa and told them he was a Christian too and asked if they were going on a mission trip.  They said yes, a survey trip for the summer.  He then told them that the extra baggage was on the airlines!  NO CHARGE!!!!  WOW!

Story 2 - Their home church preacher has been against foreign missions for a very long time (long story another time).  When Al talked to him about this particular mission, he thought he really could get through to him.  Well, he told Al the day before they left that he had read their first newsletter and wanted to know if it was really true about the natives not knowing things.  Al said, "Yes!  That's what I've been trying to tell you."  The preacher paused and said, this has changed my life and outlook and I am building a sermon series around your mission statement from the newsletter.  How cool is that?

God is still at work in the US!!!!  WOW!

Story 3 (and last one) - Al has made friends with one of the native missionaries in South Africa and he emailed Al a few weeks ago that he needed to see him when they got there.  Al said sure and made arrangements for that trip too.  The missionary said he had something for him.  Al finally found out that the missionary was given 10,000 ren (sp?) from the South African government for Al to use on his trip this summer!  OMGoodness!!!  God is at work in South Africa too!

I just can't believe all that has taken place in such a short time.  What a Great and Mighty God we serve!  Amen.