Home Safe!

30 hrs and three flights later we landed safely in Oklahoma City @ 7:25pm on Sunday (the very last flight was mysteriously delayed for 1 hour in Chicago.) Our trip was amazing and we are all blessed to have had such a great experience. Pray for us as we readjust to America. Pray that we don't just go on with our normal lives but that we take what God taught us and apply it. We don't just want an experience to remember, we want our lives to be changed and our hearts to be completely focused on Christ.

“There’s a fire, caught up in my bones! I ain’t scared no more! It’s comin’ out tonight! It’s comin’ out tonight!”

Lions Tigers and Bears Oh My!

We are entering into our last few hours in Africa! Our time here has flown by and we are so amazed by all the ways God has moved. Last night we hosted a huge taco night for many of our South African friends we have met. Many of them have never even had a taco before which made for a very entertaining evening. We had about 70 South Africans and Americans all crammed into one living room eating tacos. It was amazing to see two cultures come together sharing memories and eating tacos. yummy! they were great! Either that or everyone was just ready to eat something from home....explanation later!

Today we surprised the team with a safari! We got to see some pretty cool animals and I think everyone got their African adventure fix. Tonight we have another suprise planned for the team. We are talking them to Carnivor. There are only two in the entire world: Kenya and South Africa. We will get to eat all different kinds of wild meat which I know everyone especially the boys will enjoy.

Glenny's competitive spirit continues to dominate Grant in every small competition and dare.  Josh's free style rap has now entertained man and wildlife alike. Not to be beat by Zac who continues to find ways to climb on to the roof of just about everything while still keeping Josh's rap beat.  Khalil is well on his way to learning Afrikaans. Kate is still dreaming about how many African babies can fit in her luggage if she leaves her sleeping bag.  Last night Lauren O and Elizabeth made some guacamole that even the Greek gods would have enjoyed. Today Ethan won the eagle eyes award for spotting the most animals but Whitney was not to be out done and found the elephants after 4hrs of desperate search. Bree was by far the most excited about the game park and took just one less than a eleventy million pictures. Josiah continues to keep the laughter and positive spirits flowing with his one-of-a-kind qwerk! While Jessica still keeps us guessing what's next as she jumped into an outdoor swimming pool fully clothed!  (Remember how it's winter here?!) We are so blessed by this team!

Tomorrow we plan on doing some souvenir shopping. Then we will venture to the airport to begin our journey home. Grant and I have been so blessed to lead this team. They have grown so much and we couldn't be more proud of them. We can't wait to see our friends and family! Thank you for all your prayers and support. Despite a few of us who want to stay forever we can't wait to come home and tell you stories about everything God did while we were in Africa!

We love you! 

T.I.A. translation This Is Africa

Hello again!

We have had so much fun here in Hebron! We are all starting to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, seeing obscure animals, and the language barriers. We are staying at a Rehabilitation Center which was started by an elderly lady named Gretta. She is one of the most incredible women I think any of us have ever met. The story of how she started this Rehabilitation Center is amazing. God has supplied all the funding and materials to build everything at the center. Her story really moved our hearts and we are all very inspired by her strength. She is in her 70's and is still building despite her severe arthritis. She is such a woman of faith and wakes up everyday looking at life like it's an adventure. She loves the Lord so much and has touched all our hearts in many ways.

On Tuesday we worked at the Rehabilitation Center where we... you guessed it cleaned out another storage room. Things we found this time include:
- Wood...lots of it!
- A scary paper puppet
- 2 flippers
- Lots of building supplies
- More wheelchairs
- Lots of carpets
- Broken Windows
- Sadly no coffins this time....Praise The Lord!

Most people come to the center because they are jobless and live in poverty. Many have drug and alcohol addictions. The center provides a place for people to get back on their feet and they also gives them work.  Tuesday evening we held a service with the people at the center. We sang many worship songs and a few people from our team shared their testimonies. It was an incredible evening and God really moved in the hearts of the people in Hebron. We were truly blessed to be used by the Lord to bring these people some of His love and joy!

Today we spent the morning visiting a children's daycare. The daycare is nothing more than a tin shack. There were more kids there than we even knew what to do with. But the team had an incredible time. We were able to play with the kids and help the mama's serve them lunch. We were really touched by this daycare. The poverty level is so high in Hebron that the daycare only charges a dollar a day for childcare and even then some parents still can't afford it. These mama's care for these kids as if they were their own. Before we left we asked the mama's if we could pray for them. We began to ask if there was any specific needs they needed prayer for. The mama's began to tell us that since many of the parents can't afford to pay the dollar a day fee they were running low on food and supplies. This pulled at our teams heart as we had fallen in love with these precious kids. We decided to spend $100 of our team money which will be enough food and supplies to last them two full weeks for all 80 plus kids! It's amazing to think that so little can make such a huge difference. We are so blessed to meet these sweet little ones!

The Lord continues to use this team in mighty ways and we are so thankful! We leave Hebron tomorrow afternoon and are planning a huge taco night with some local South Africans we have met! Only a few more days left God is good all the time!!!

Praise the Lord! ... Shame the Devil!

Hello friends and family!
God is so good! We are just about to leave to our next location so I thought I would hop on here and send a quick message. We are going to Hebron Rehabilitation Centre this morning. The drive is approx 2.5hrs from where we are staying. We will be returning on Thursday in the evening. We had a great week last week. It was incredible to see what God did in and through our team. He has been so faithful to us! The team is doing great!! We can't wait to see what God has in store for us this week. We are just about to leave-- more updates to come! Thanks for your continued prayers as we travel. We love you!

Say Kwamhlanga 5x Fast...GO!

So we found some internet this week.  Here are a few pictures of our last 48hrs in Kwamhlanga (Comm-shlonga) as well as a few from throughout the week.

Adriaan Adams (our host) giving us the orientation briefing and explaining our program.

Arriving at Charity Community Church and Community Care Center

Ok, cleaning this room is our first project in Kwamhlanga.  Simple project right? Just wait until we list just some of the things we found inside...

2 ping pong tables
4 Javelins
3 refrigerators
1 1960's washing machine w brand new drum

4 rats (3 dead)
3 wheelchairs
1 Microwave stuck inside a...
1 Termite mountain complete with angry termites
1 Mighty Thor Hammer
3 cannon balls
1 Welding mask
1 Kayak oar
1 3ft barbie without legs
and last but far from least...
1 coffin (luckily this was new)

Our other projects have been much less demanding as we have played with the children that attend the daycare in the community center where we are staying.

Please be praying for the team these next few days. We participated in house visits today. God blew us away with His presence and power. He showed up in such a powerful way that we are going back to visit homes again tomorrow.  We continue to attend evening prayer meetings and "share the word" with the South Africans.  The language barrier is intense as we strive to show God's love and we are heavily dependent on our translators.  Just in one day we come in contact with up to 5+ languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Ndebele, Sepedi, Sotho and a few more we can't tell apart. 

God is good and we feel all of your prayers. Tonight Josh preached Romans 8:31-39.  Please pray that over us this week--that we can dream big and be more than conquerors in Christ.

Love South Africa

Hello greetings from South Africa!

We have had a great last few days in South Africa! Yesterday we were able to explore and learn about the history in South Africa. We went to a museum, saw Nelson Mandela's house, also went to the soccer stadium where the World Cup was played last summer. Everyone on the team really enjoyed and learned so much. We have two contacts Mark and Adriann they are incredible and have been such a joy to partner with. We have spent a lot of time at Adriann's house. We have fallen in love with his two kids! They host us every night and cook us a feast for dinner! So we are getting fed very well here :)

We leave tomorrow morning bright and early for Kwamhlanga which is a children's community center. We will be spending a lot of time with the kids there and doing outreaches in the community. We are so excited to see what God has in store for us and the people we will meet. We will be there for about a week. I am not sure about our internet connection at Kwamhlanga so if you don't hear from me while we are there you will receive an email when we return. Thank you for your continue you prayers! Please continue to pray for our team as we travel to a new location. Pray for boldness for each individual, for unity amongst our team, and of coarse safety and health as we travel. Looking forward to my next email until then I have asked each person on our team to write a little something to the ones they love back home so I will leave you to read them. We love you friends and family!!! Thanks for your support as we follow after God's calling on our lives. 

From Glenny: Mom, Dad, and Sunnie- I hope everything is going well in Tulsa and that you guys aren't to worried about me. The trip has been so much fun so far! I can't wait to tell you all about it when I come back. I love you and I will be taking many pictures to show you!

From Elizabeth: Mom, Dad, and Evan- I love you and miss you. Everything is great in Africa! I hope you all are doing well. We are eating lots of yummy food! Tell Evan that I am praying for his surgery and a fast recovery. Love you!

From Bree: Yo fam! Everything is great in Africa. I miss you guys! Dad let me know if Brad is ok. Bear I can't wait to watch movies and play. Be brainstorming and ask dad if you can buy movies or whale wars. Boys cheer the Sooners on and take notes on how everyone does. Josie I love you and Peter! Mom I miss you and see you soon eating squirrel. Love you long time!

Josh: Hey mommy- I love you and miss you! Give Alex a kiss for me. Email Jessica back and tell me what you want from South Africa. Guess what they also make chicken curry and it's almost as good as yours.

Josiah: Hey mom & dad- everything is great in Africa! Can't wait to tell you all my stories. Oh we lost our passports....just kidding! Love you guys a bunch and see you in a couple of weeks.

Grant: Hey fam I love you and miss you! I hope Nigel likes the waterpark. The weather here is way better than I thought- it's beautiful! Say hello to Nigel and Ezra! See you in London on the way home?

Whitney: What up my rents? Love you! Do you miss me yet?

Kate: I haven't seen a lion yet but I am working on it. Love you and I miss you boyfriend!

Zac: (this was written in afrikaans good luck translating) Lieve familie, alles goan goed en ek het baie pret. Bid asseldief vir ons uitreik hierdie week in Kwamhlanga. Ek is baie vir julle almal. Ek is lief vir jou Sara! Love, Zac

Khalil: Je t'aimes et je te monques. Le voyage est incroyable. Demain ons vas partir a Kwamhlanga pour cinque jours. Je suis tres content et I'Afrique du sud es une place avec beaucoup de culture. J'apprend beaucoup ons a visite' Soweto et entre' dans une meseume dules protestes de 1976. C'etais genial, j'aimais beaucoup. Il me reste 2 semaines au i'afrique de sud. Je te voite a l'aeroport! Au revoir! Il me reste

Ethan: Mom and dad check your email.

We made it!

Hello friends and family,

We have made it safely to South Africa! Everyone is doing great and the team is so excited to be here. We had a great layover in London and loved exploring and seeing places like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. Everyone is a bit tired due to the time change but they are all adjusting well. We had all our bags make it through the journey praise the Lord! We arrived and were greeted by our wonderful contacts at the airport. They brought us to were we will be living the next few days which is paradise compared to Grant and I's previous Africa trips. The girls and boys are staying in two different houses. Both have hot water, showers, and toilets! We were cooked lunch and received an orientation of what we will doing the rest of the week from our contacts. They have some amazing things planned for our team to do visiting children's orphanages, soccer tournaments with the street kids, painting houses and some possible construction. We will have an early night tonight so it gives everyone some time to catch up on some sleep. They are all in great spirits! I will email you more in the coming weeks with updates on everything God is doing. Thank you for all your prayers as we traveled the Lord has His hand completely over this team. He is good all the time!