Beacon Of Hope International

2012 Mission trip information meeting

2012-01-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

January 2012 Activities

This has been quite an incredible year for Beacon of Hope. As this year comes to an end we have much to be thankful for. Nineteen thousand students have been through our program. After concentrating all of our effort on South Africa for the past eight years the Lord has opened up new doors for us to Zimbabwe, Uganda and Nigeria. Our job is to encourage our partners in Africa and enable them to keep doing what they are doing and find new partners to expand the program into new areas.

Planning for this year's trip
It is only a little over six months before the our summer mission teams will leave for this years trips. We will definitely have a two week trip going to South Africa and a there will also be a two week trip to Zimbabwe. Dates are not fixed yet. It is likely that the South Africa trip will be the last two weeks of July and the Zimbabwe trip will be the first two weeks of August.

The important thing right now is to start getting a list of people who might be interested in participating in one of the trips. We will be having a team information meeting after church on Sunday January 22, 2012. I know a lot of people might not be able to make a firm commitment to go on the trip this early but I would at least like to get a list of people who might be interested and to learn which trip you would like to participate in.

Maintenance and Construction opportunity tripThere are some people that would like to go with us some time but would rather do construction rather than AIDS education. There is a lot of maintenance that needs to be done on Clement's orphanage. He also has a school building that is being built, there is bound to be some touch up to do on the the school building.

Exciting plans from Zimbabwe
You will be excited to learn what Sharkey is planning to get the Smart Choices program going in Zimbabwe. Please be there if you have interest in going with us this year or sometime in the future. We need help with fundraising ideas and help carrying them out even if you end up not going with us.
Trip Information Meeting When: Sunday Jan 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm.
Where: Village Church, 77 Post, Irvine,CA 92614.

Garage Sale
We have a lot of stuff in our garage and I will picking up a whole truck load on Saturday so we will be having a Garage sale at the end of the month. If anyone has anything to contribute to the sale I will be happy to plan to come and pick it up some time before Jan 28. Let your friends know about the sale and inquire if they have anything to contribute.
When: Saturday Jan 28, 2012 at 7:00 am.
Where: Smith's house. 24851 Costeau St, Laguna Hills

2011 Mission Trip Report Event

2011-09-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Beacon of Hope Mission Teams are very grateful to all of our friends and supporters who made it possible for us to take the 2011 mission trip. We would like to invite our prayer warriors, supporters and everyone who has any interests in our mission activities to come and be part of our trip report gathering.

Why: We will serve Malva pudding and other delicious desserts.

When: Saturday October 1 at 6:00 pm.

Where: Smiths' House, 24851 Costeau St, Laguna Hills, CA 92653.

We had two mission trips that happened this summer.

One was to Entebbe and Jinja, Uganda.
The other was to our normal destinations in South Africa, and also a new destination of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Besides this one of the pastors we work with in South Africa is from Nigeria. He went to Nigeria this year to visit his mom and taught the AIDS prevention education program to thirty High School seniors and three pastors. Now the pastors want to continue teaching the program in Nigeria.

Come and hear from the teams, see some videos, consider how you might be part of our program which is now starting to expand beyond the boundaries of South Africa.

Zimbabwe Part Two

2011-09-02T00:47:00.001-07:00

Youth for Christ Zimbabwe.

We finished out Smart Choices program with the Youth for Christ team on Monday. We had them prepare and teach all of lesson four and part of lesson five back to us. They are enthusiastic about the program and did a great job of teaching their sections. We are presenting the program to thirty-three students at an orphanage/private school called SOS. It is financed by a European organization, I think from Germany. It is a secular organization but the administration welcome Christian content programs.

Tammy and others from the Baptist Church go out there weekly to do activities with the kids at SOS and at least two other orphan care facilities. The Youth for Christ team that we trained are doing the whole program and we are just filling in a few spots for one of the team members that didn't show up. They are doing a great job of teaching and are all very enthusiastic about the impact that it will have on the community. It is now Friday morning and we have completed the whole program at the SOS school.

During our downtime in the morning we have visited several orphan care facilities. One lady who is originally from Australia has adopted four girls that live with her at her home in town and she is also responsible for another 96 children who are living at a Youth for Christ campground about 18 Km out of town. They are required to vacate the camp site by the end of this year so they are frantically searching for a location to move them to. They have found a hotel that is available and would be an ideal property but the owner wants $800,000 for it. The caretakers are hopeful that the owners would accept $500,000 and are prayerfully seeking financial support to come up with the money. All of the children that are cared for by this organization have been victims of some kind of sexual or physical abuse.

One family that we have met that also attends Jeff and Tammy's church have adopted fourteen children and are currently living in a three-bedroom house. He is English and she is Matabele and their place is spotless. Considering the children's backgrounds they are all extremely well behaved with wonderful manners and so friendly and welcoming to visitors. As soon as we arrived one of them grabbed each of us by the hand to show us all the shrubs and trees growing in the garden, then a tour of the vegetable garden, and than a visit to the chicken coop before getting a tour of their bedrooms.

It is time to start packing up and getting ready to head to the Bulawayo Airport for the long journey home. I will add some pictures to these posts when I we get back to California so come back and visit this blog in a few days time. Also plan on coming to be part of our trip feedback evening soon. We will let you now the exact date and time shortly.

Glynn Smith

Bulawayo Zimbabwe

2011-09-01T01:00:00.001-07:00

After taking about two hours to get through customs at Bulawayo it was great to see Jeff and Tammy again. The departure and arrival terminal at Bulawayo is an old barn type building that has been acting as the temporary terminal for about 20 years. There is a nice new terminal building (well seventeen-year-old building) that has never been equipped and completed to serve as the new terminal. In spite of our two-hour encounter with customs because of 14 team shirts that I bought in South Africa for our Zimbabwe Smart Choices team and having to pay $84 tax and customs duty on the shirts it still feels great to be back in Zim. after thirty-six years.

We started immediately on Friday, August 26 to train the Zimbabwe team who were all recruited by Youth for Christ. Some of them are also from the Bulawayo Christian Bible League. We also had one Pastor who I mentioned in my last blog that we met at Zodwa's church in Soshanguve who is from Harare. After returning home from South Africa he immediately returned back to Bulawayo so that he could be trained. I provided him all the material that he needs to build a kit to teach the Smart Choices program, so we will see how successful he is at getting the program running in Harare.

On Sunday we attended three services at Jeff and Tammy's church, Bulawayo Baptist Church. Jeff preached all three sermons. The 8am service uses all hymns and one piano player for worship and is mostly attended by the older crowed. We all loved singing the old hymns and based on their gusto the rest of the congregation did to. The 10am service used more contemporary worship very similar to VCI's worship. TK is a very gifted worship leader and they made use of a keyboard, two guitars, drums, and four vocalists. I guess the church was about 80% full and I estimate about two hundred people. They have a great racially balanced congregation. The majority is African but there are a lot of Caucasians as well as coloreds (mixed blood) and even a handful of Indian families. Needless to say everyone we have spoke to just love Jeff and Tammy.

In case anyone should think that Jeff and Tammy are deprived or in danger or living under any kind of hardship in Zimbabwe, I want to put your mind at rest. They absolutely love being here in Zimabawe. Their church is thriving, vibrant and vital in the Bulawayo community. Their members are having such a huge impact on the community and the difficult aspects of their life which we in America might consider to be real hardships are nothing more than inconveniences to them. They simply love living in Bulawayo.

I will end this post here but will try and post one more tomorrow about the progress of the Smart Choices program before we start heading home on Friday.

Glynn Smith

Beacon of Hope International

Phone: 949-305-1922

Cell: 949-795-0042

Web: http://www.beaconint.org/

Blog: blog.beaconint.org

Skype: africanson3

South Africa Wrapup

2011-08-23T11:47:00.001-07:00

I hope that all who have been watching our trip blog have enjoyed all the blogs filed so far. Everyone else on the trip has filed a message so now it is my turn. Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 24 is our last day working in South Africa. You can tell by the messages that everyone has posted that they have all been touched in some special way by the experience. Christina and Anjuli are now safely home with their families. Hopefully they are well rested after a very hectic 12 days where we had very little time to relax. I know that Anjuli said that she slept for sixteen hours after getting home. Christina was not feeling to great when we checked them in through security at Johannesburg for their sixteen-hour direct flight to JFK. Thankfully Christina recovered from whatever was ailing her somewhere along the thirty-hour epic journey.

The report from Soshanguve North of Pretoria is a mixed message. When Mark and I first came here three years ago we were so impressed by the twelve or so team members that Zodwa had assembled and trained. The good news is that most of these young twenty somethings have now found jobs and another is going for an interveiw tomorrow. It seems like the Smart Choices program might be a good launching platform for these young folks to find jobs that are almost impossible to come by. The big challenge now is that all new trainers need to be raised up to fill the shoes of those who are moving on. We are teaching two classes of about forty students each this week. We will wrap it up tomorrow, say our goodbyes and head to the airport on Thursday morning for our flight to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

We spoke to Jeff and Tammy in Bulawayo this morning and they are about as excited to see us as we are to see them and to start the final leg of our trip. We met another pastor from Harare, Zimbabwe at Zodwa's church on Sunday. He is Pastor Shudas (Judas) Bhaudhi and he was very excited to learn about our AIDS prevention program and is planning to come to Bulawayo to participate in the training when we train the Bulawayo team on Friday and Saturday. So it seems possible that we might be able to get the program going in two centers in Zimbabwe. After doing the training on Friday and Saturday we will attend a church service at Jeff and Tammy's church on Sunday and then do a community outreach where we will teach the Smart Choices program with the new trainees to give them experience at teaching the program to others. Hopefully that will be enough experience to enable them to be confident about presenting the program on their own.

I am going to wrap this blog up here, add a few pictures and please look out for an update from Zimbabwe in four or five days' time. Blogging from Zim. might be a challenge as it was in Richards Bay because they do not have power every day so we will have to try and synchronize our blogging with power availability.

--

Glynn Smith
Beacon of Hope International
Phone: 949-305-1922
Cell: 949-795-0042
Web: http://www.beaconint.org/
Blog: blog.beaconint.org
Skype: africanson3

Report from Mark

2011-08-21T11:54:00.001-07:00

Greetings from South Africa to all of our fellow partakers in the grace of God at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church. Please accept apologies for not posting sooner, but we have just in the last couple of days gained internet access. A special shout out to Ruthie Stordahl and our home group that meet at Paul and Nancy Thompson's home.

To date our team has taught about 380 kids and two of our group also taught several days the kids who attend the school located at the orphanage where we stayed the two weeks while we were in the Richard's Bay area. There also was a team from Boston teaching the "Smart Choices" curriculum in Durban simultaneously while we were teaching.

We are now in Soshanguve in the northern part of the country and will begin teaching tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday we will travel to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and be involved in teaching until the 2nd of September.

The response from the school kids has been very encouraging. Many indicated on their response cards to agree to be abstinent and also to learn more about Jesus. The African people are so welcoming and appreciative that we come so far. Our prayer is that they will see the connection between our bodies as the temple of God and choosing not to have sex. It seems that there is a disconnect between what they want to do and the fact that that behaviour is killing their nation via HIV/AIDS. Please pray for them. The heart is desperately wicked, who of us can know it?

Two of our team members flew home Friday the 19th and are now experiencing jet lag, and the remaining three of us get that experience in two weeks.

Thank you for your prayers, little by little, our message is going forth.

Mark

Belated Blog Posts and Busy Days

2011-08-21T09:16:00.001-07:00

Hi All! Sorry for the late blogging on my part...it's been quite a juggling act with everything going on, but I know that if I didn't sit down to blog tonight, my mom just might strangle me through the computer (kidding, Mom). Anyways, I wanted to type out a few quick notes about the trip and what we've been witnessing that past 2 weeks.

This trip so far has been truly amazing. Mark and I worked primarily with Derrick while we were in the Richard's Bay area. The first class we met with contained roughly 120 students ranging in age from about 13 to 15. I have to say, I was pretty darn intimidated, having very little teaching experience (really when I say "little", I mean none), but I slowly became more and more comfortable as the time went on. I think the two main things that made me ease into it were the kids' attentiveness and Derrick's overwhelming passion for the kids. Seriously, I wish I was able to adequately described what I saw. Derrick and his team were so singularly focused on reaching this kids that their joy and excitement became infectious. I couldn't help but enjoy myself.

Besides Derrick's excitement, the kids also just capture your heart. Many of these kids put American children to shame with their manners and respect in the classroom. They not only respect you, but they're genuinely excited to see you, to be near you, and in my case, to run their fingers through your hair. "Personal bubbles" hold no meaning here, and I love it. I think that after you've been mobbed by no less than 40 kids who all want to touch any bit of you they can reach, you gotta ease up on the boundaries. Anyways, I have to say that I have absolutely fallen in love with the South African people, and primarily in our case, the Zulu population in the Kwa Zulu Natal province.

I'm not sure if I could really condense all that I've done or seen during the past 2 weeks into a blog post, but several other things that have made me fall in love are: 1) Kind and compassionate Clement and Thuli, who did everything from feeding us to cleaning our clothes and sharing in fellowship; 2) Incredible worship that you never want to end and will almost always bring tears to your eyes; 3) Kids. Kids kids kids on every side that love you unconditionally just for showing up; and 4) Sharing in furthering the Gospel with Christians from all around the world.

While we have since moved on from Richard's Bay and are now in Pretoria (north of Johannesburg) and are now working with different teams, I want to say that what has struck me this trip and what has brought me personally the most joy is to be able to share life for too brief a time with Christian brothers and sisters from entirely different countries. Usually, when one goes on a missions trip, it's to meet a need or to minister to someone else. In this case, however, I think I have been the one most blessed. I have seen firsthand that there are capable, joyful men and women serving the Lord each and everyday. These are the people who are truly laying down their lives for their neighbor. Many of these people have little resources or are spread thin in their commitments, but have answered the call to help one another and share the burden on a country rocked by HIV and AIDS. When I truly took the time to pause and just see what was going on around me, I was overwhelmed. Clement has opened his home and his wallet to be able to feed, clothe, and school almost 30 orphans. Derrick now works full time as a pastor partnering with schools and businesses in the area to teach this HIV curriculum. And Kenny has left his home in Nigeria to reach out to the people of South Africa and teach people from an entirely different culture.

It's been very humbling to see that there is much to be learned from Christians from other cultures and backgrounds if you are only willing to sit and spend time listening to them. I have been so blessed, and I can't wait to see what else the Lord is going to do. Until then...blessings!

-Branyn

Can't believe this much time has passed!

2011-08-18T09:04:00.001-07:00

Today we left the orphanage. It was hard to go. I cannot believe it has been over a week and our time is done here. The rest of our team goes on to Shangube, please keep them in your prayers!

We said goodbye to the kids at our home away from home. The children were sad to see us go. We were sad to leave. I am so hopeful we can come back. The children sent us off with some children's worship songs. It was very sweet.

This past week we spent more time helping teach at the school in the orphanage and going out to give the Smart Choices AIDS/HIV curriculum to the schools. One school we travelled to was deep into the hills. We went off roading in Clement's car which has serious alignment issues. When we were driving behind him you could see the front wheels well to the right of the back wheels. When we were driving with him I noticed that he drove with the steering wheel completely to the right. Prayed and prayed. Here they have very little concern for personal space and hitchhiking is a way of life. We stopped to ask for directions. The lady just jumped into the back seat to catch a ride and show us herself. Unfortunately this pushed Christina out the other side. So Christina had to jump into the front seat with me. So we continued on the bumpy road with Christina scrunched up on my lap. All new experiences! The public school we went to was very interesting. The buildings are very plain. Nothing on the walls except a single chalkboard at the front of the class. All of the students are wearing uniforms giving an illusion of structure. Some of the kids were not wearing shoes. It had been raining for a couple days and we found out that when it rains here they cancel school, since the roads are too muddy and flooded to walk on. We gave the talk in a large room. We had close to 200 students in the class. They translated what we taught into Zulu. We reached children as young as 4th grade, so we are hopeful that the seriousness of the issue really sinks in with them.

Back at the orphanage we noticed that one of the boys did not have black school shoes. So we went out to the store and baught him a new pair. I cannot explain the feeling that came over us when we saw his reaction to receiving his new shoes. He was so greatful he didn't even know what to say. He was so happy. The next day we saw him in school. Somewhere he had found an old suit jacket to put on over his uniform. He was going around showing off his new shoes. He was so happy. When the teacher told him he had mud on his shoes he bent down and wiped it off with his hand to make sure they kept clean. It warmed our heart!

Yesterday I taught some of the worship songs we do to Jana Alayra to the children. They all loved it so much. All the way to 9th grade they danced and sang. Thank you to Dawn for donating the CD's. The children were so happy!

We have so much to say but so little time with internet access. We are still filled with joy and are still excited to be here! :) I am sure we will all write more when we get home. We love you all!

Anjuli :)

2011-08-13T16:38:00.001-07:00

Forgot to note that the last blog was from me :) -- Anjuli

Amazing...

2011-08-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

As Christina said we have not been able to blog or communicate because of where we have been staying. So we will do our best to catch everyone up to date :)

This trip has been amazing! It is more than I imagined it would be. The Lord gave me unrest and I found peace...He made me uncomfortable in order to bring me comfort. As always I am amazed by His goodness, love and grace.

Our flights here were seamless. We had one minor hiccup with the luggage. We had to take Virgin America from LAX to Dulles, then transfer to South African Air for our flight to South Africa. Virgin is partners with South African Air. They charged us a fee for two extra bags we were taking with items for the orphanage. This fee was supposed to carry us through all the way to South Africa. However, when we arrived at Dulles the lady (who was not kind at all) insisted we had to pay again. She refused to work with us or the Virgin Air representative who walked all the way over to our terminal to talk to her. Thankfully we have the Lord on our side and even stubborn ladies can't get past Him :) We found favor with the man from Virgin America and he refunded our money for the extra bags so that we would not be charged twice. Go Virgin America! :)

We arrived at the orphanage after 32 hours of travel...phew! The orphanage is on a long, bumpy, dirt road. When we pulled in it was 10:30 at night so everyone was asleep. We parked in the dirt lot and went to our quarters. It is a quaint house with a modest kitchen (no running water, no sink, plug in counter top burners), a dining room, living room, two bedrooms and a bathroom without running water...that's right it is washcloth bath time and no flushing toilets :0

The beauty of it all was that it was done up quite well. The beds were all made with extra blankets for us and the rooms were nice and it was very clean. Even though they have so little they worked so hard to make us comfortable.

The next morning we woke up to a rooster...at 3 am. He is obviously not the smartest rooster since he does not realize he is supposed to wait for the sunrise. Every morning I have wished Doug Horn was there to put it out of our misery ;)- We have had a lot of nice quiet time in the mornings thanks to being woken up so early :)

When we were dressed we walked out of our room to find the most beautiful smiling faces staring back at us. Christina gave a big smile to them and the kids all lit up, then started giggling and ran away. No worries though, right away they came back with more friends and we were quickly mobbed by at least 25 children, hugging us and wanting to touch our hair. I have heard it said "For beautiful hair let a child run their hands through it" well our hair is gorgious now! :)

The first day Clemet (the man who runs the orphanage and school) asked Christina and I to teach at the school. It was kind of funny, they just told us to teach...I asked them, "Teach what?" "Anything" was their reply. We have quickly come to realize that this is much of the South African attitude towards things :) So I asked them for at least some direction and they asked us to teach social science. We said no problem and got to teaching. Now the funny thing is, in social science they are learning about maps...of South Africa. Needless to say Christina and I are well versed in the terrain and provinces of South Africa :) We had a wonderful time with the children. After, we cleaned up some glass and rusty nails from the yard (the orphange is built on a space used as a garbage dump in the past). The children were so ready and willing to help. Without a word of complaint. Amazing.

The next day Christina and I taught at the school while the team went to give the Right Choices course to their various schools. I will let them tell you more about what happened there :) Christina and I have been so blessed to spend this time with these kids. Some of them call us momma and every morning the whole team is greeted with hugs and love. Life does not get much better than this. One night we had a girl, Sima, who came to talk with us. She asked us if we liked it in South Africa. We told her we loved it. She found it hard to believe since we were from America. She looked at me and asked if I felt comfortable here. Without skipping a beat I said yes. Then I realized that I trully had felt comfortable since the moment I had arrived. The Lord has given our entire team comfort and a spirit of peace about the entire trip. It is trully amazing!

On our third night here we were able to give out some of the wonderful clothes, shoes and toys we had collected to give them. I can't tell you the light it brings to your heart when you see a child turning in their only pair of worn-out shoes that are too small for a new pair of shoes that fit them just right. No whining over color or style, just happy to have shoes. Oh the joy! I saw kids take the stuffed animals we gave them and just hold it to their faces...again, oh the joy! Putting on used clothes, that are new to them, and modeling it for us with huge smiles on their faces...OH THE JOY!

The next day Christina and I had the priveledge to watch the kids perform. These children are some of the most talented people I have ever met. Their voices lift the spirit! Christina said that she imagined Zulu's would be singing in heaven and I must say that I agree with her! These children have joy. Even in their humble and strained lives they find joy.

Today we were able to go to a wild game reserve to see some of Africa's wildlife. We had room in our van so we were able to take 5 of the older kids from the orphanage with us. Oh, what an incedible day we had. Seeing the wildlife we saw not only through our eyes for the first time, but also through the eyes of a child...I can't even explain the elation. We saw giraffes, wart hogs, elephants, wildabeasts and more! We also had a close encounter with a Rhino! (Imagine my Australian accent) We look out the back of our van, and there, walking up behind us is a white rhino. He gets so close we could have reached out and touched him. He decided he did not like us. He backed up a bit and stomped his foot on the ground and shook his head, as if to charge. The children were freaked out, our hearts stopped, we all froze...then thanks be to God the rhino changed his mind and went trotting off into the bush. Whew!

On our way through the reserve one of the girls asked me why I smiled and laughed so much. I was caught a little off guard, not realizing that I did. Then when I thought about it I realized that I have been genuinely filled with joy from the moment I arrived here. These children make my heart sing. This land shows God's majesty in a way I could never have imagined. I have joy overflowing, so much so that my cheeks hurt! The girls decided to give me a Zulu name that means "ever smiling" :) I have no idea how to pronounce that name in Zulu much less write it but that is what it means :) The Lord has done this for me...given me a chance to be ever smiling in His glory with joy overflowing, oh, I pray that I may keep this feeling with me for always! :) :) :)

hello

2011-08-13T13:57:00.001-07:00

We apologize for the lack of communication to you all! The orphanage we're staying at does not have internet, so no texting, emailing, or blogging. Until tonight...we just arrived in Richard's Bay at a beautiful bed and breakfast run by friends of Glynn. This home is filled with eucalyptus stairways, ceilings, a gorgeous backyard that has a large deck overlooking a coi pond, pool, and bright green grass. The three of us, Anjuli, Branyn, and myself, were overjoyed at the flushing toilets, shower, and yummy smelling soap. We may each take three showers before leaving in the morning for church. tee hee

I can't possibly condense the last five days into one blog...but I'll do my best to express just a smidgen of it tonight. The over arching theme that characterizes my time here is joy and obedience. We've been, for the most part until tonight, with folks that have nothing in the world's standards. Yet they bubble over with joy and generosity that doesn't seem to have an end to it. The couple running the orphanage and school, Clement and Thuli, get up at sunrise and cook, clean, wash clothes, repair the buildings the children live in, raise their own children and do more than I know. There's not much rest for them. The work has to get done, so they do it with joyful hearts.

Thursday, after teaching in their 7-9th graders, Anjuli suggested we pick up trash scattered every where. (At the time we didn't know the orphanage was built on an old trash dump.) So we took some bags and began to pick up glass, rusty nails, and random objects stuck in the dirt. Without a word to the kids, they came over, took the bags from us, and helped clean up their home. We stayed at it for at least 35 minutes with no complaining, whining, or arguing from any of the children! With smiles and laughter, we served each other...yes, four, five, and six year olds served me as I to them.

That's the funny thing about going a trip like this, or any missions focused trip. John Piper says this, Jesus asks us to give up a good thing for a great thing. This is the great thing. God wants hearts willing to obey and then He showers that obedience with abundant joy in the serving. Why do we as Children of God find this so difficult and inconvenient? Have we forgotten Christ's body broken for the trespasses we committed, not His? If we can only have the clarity that a trip like this gives to remain once we're home and back into routine....serving should be like breathing, what else are we to do for whom we call our King, our Abba, our Savior? He doesn't require "pay back", but certainly from the body He's redeemed and soul saved, the heart wells up with gratitude for the new life and the desire for all to share in the everlasting hope of knowing Jesus.

--Christina

2011-08-08T03:02:00.000-07:00

Two teams are leaving on August 8 for the USA to go to South Africa. A team of seven people are from Canada and Boston and they will be working with the Campus Crusade staff in Durban to Present the Smart Choices program to schools in Durban and the surrounding areas.

A team is leaving from California to go to Richards Bay, Soshanguve, and Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. The allards are probably ringing right now to get the team members up so we can be at LAX airport by 4:40 for 7:50 flight.

Here is our California team:

Please watch our Blog for the next four weeks.

Uganda Team Trip Report

2011-08-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

God is opening up new opportunities fo Beacon of Hope this year. We are finaly being drawn to destinations other than South Africa. New doors have opern to Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Curtis and Rhonda who have been on the South African mission trip twice in 2006 and 2007 went to Ugande this an just returned on Wednesday August 3.

Curtis wrote the following On July 23 after being in Uganda a few days:
"Everything here is going great. I am so impressed with what Moses has done. One reason we are doing so much is because he got the program approved by the inspector of education.
The inspector helped plan the program with Moses. Basically we are piloting the program for Uganda. We are going into a variety of schools,primary, secondary, same sex, private and public. The youth conference is 5 youth from 12 parishes from 16 to 26 years old and they will go back home to share the material there."

As Curtis stated Smart Choices is being evaluated as a pilot program with the intention making it part of the school curriculum throughout Uganda. They first had to do a presentation for the Mayor of Entebe and then were taken to Kampala to meet the Secretary of Education and I believe were also introduced to the Speaker of the Parlement. The program started out by Curtis and Rhonda taking a day to training four people to be Smart Choices instructors. Then they took one more day to have the new instructors present the program back to them and they provided feed back and critique. Next is they started teaching the program to the assortment of schools mentionad in Curis' coments above.

Results:
A total of 667 students were trained.
111 Made new commetments to follow Jesus.
512 Are already Christians and wanted help to grow spiritually stronger.
612 Made to aabstain from sex until married.
540 Pledged to be faithful to one partner in marriage.

The schools that were taught the Smart Choices curriculum in this pilot program were:

Entebbe Junior, private school: Students – 72 Ages – 11-14

Mary Reparatrix S.S., All girls private school: Students – 115 Ages – 13-21

Saint John’s School, private school : Students – 39 Ages – 13-19

Entebbe Comprehensive, public school: Students – 58 Ages – 9-17

Jinja Youth Conference: Students – 59 Ages – 11-43

Chadwick, public school, teachers were on strike Students – 237 Ages – 10-6

Sacred Heart Bugonga, public school: Student – 87 Ages – 9-18

Here are some comment provided by students and teachers.
Nugabe Ben Kalisa
“I have loved this workshop because it taught us about abstaining from sex up to when you are married. And we have also learnt to ask our heavenly father whatever we need.”
Ilhan Au (Iuy)
“You guys have taught me a lot. I wish we could teach the future generation about HIV/AIDS.”
Ariyo Roselyn
“I have really loved this workshop very much and I would request God to bless this people who took us through this workshop abundantly because I have learnt so many things from this workshop of smart choices and I believe it will help me in future.”
Tobach Linda Chantal Violet
“I appreciate the advice and I promise to keep my word. So God help me.”
Education Inspector Ndagga Daniel
“This curriculum is recommended for use in our schools, a good program.”
Nakato Juliet
“Jesus film was so nice I have ever watched it. It has taught me a lot like forgiveness, courage, sacrification, loving others, helping the poor. I would like the Smart Choice group to come back because they are really nice and teach well.”
Kabashinga Jane
“I have really learnt to abstain from sex, trust in one God and to have self-control.”

Tim Andrew, teacher
"The workshop is very interesting and educative to the pupils and teachers. It would save many people if done all around the country. "
Anenu Charlotte
"I really thank you for the wonderful empowerment you’ve changed my life and I’ll always remember you. You are always welcome. God bless you all."

Great job Curtis, Rhonda and Pastor Moses. You have made a great start in Uganda.

Call in to the Frank Pastore Radio show

2011-07-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity today July 21, 2011 to call in to the Frank Pastore show The Intersection of Faith and reason to weigh in on a topic that I have something to talk about. The following is an email that I sent him as a follow up.

Listen to the interview

Frank, I love your show and listen to it all the time. Finally you had a topic that I could address in a meaningful way. It was great talking to you today on the air. Thanks for doing this program on promiscuity, and sexually transmitted diseases linked to the release of the new movie coming out “Friends with Benefits.” It is such a critically important topic. The schools will never address this subject in an effective way so I think it is essential that the churches do. Even my own church is very supportive of me taking mission trips to Africa to address the HIV/AIDS problem but so far have been reluctant to do something like this with our own teenagers.
I went back and listened to the pod cast and I was speaking so fast because I had so much to share and I knew I only had five or six minutes to get my message out. I would so love to have a more in-depth conversation with you about this topic and in particular about the Campus Crusade material (Better Choices) that we use in our training. It is amazing as I listened to your callers giving advice as to what they would say to a teenager to dissuade them from becoming sexually active at a young age and it sounded like some of them were reading from our training manual. This is such an awesome program and it hits all the points that your callers were talking about:

What are your dreams? What can prevent you from reaching your dreams? Well, AIDS duh! What is HIV, what is AIDS? How do you get it? How do you prevent getting it?

How do you deal with it if you get it? How do you deal with others that have it without making them feel like a leper?

Why should I honor God and honor the body he gave me? Because I am “wonderfully made,” I am “amazingly and uniquely made,” I am created in God’s image. He knew me while he was knitting me together in my mother’s womb. He has a perfect plan for me. Anything that is unique and one-of-a-kind is always more valuable than anything mass-produced.

How do I make life’s tough choices? You learn to love Jesus more than yourself, more than your own life and He will help you make the right choices.

We are not animals that act on impulse. We are human beings that have critical thinking capability and can weigh the consequences of our actions.

Life is not an event, it is a series of choices and each choice has its consequences.

We show the Jesus film and give them the opportunity to start to follow Jesus. We also challenge them to make a commitment to abstain from sex until marriage.

To date we have had more than fifteen thousand student go through our program and on average 30% claim to already be Christians, 50% make new commitments to follow Jesus and typically 60%-80% make a commitment to abstinence. We are leaving on our annual mission trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe in two weeks and I will be gone for from August 8 through September 3.
Please don’t forget about this topic. I think it would be a great program to ask Pastors to call in and comment on whether they are doing anything like this and if not, what is the opposition?
Frank, one last thing. We are doing a Hymn Sing Concert fundraiser concert at our church on Saturday July 30. The proceeds go towards our mission trip. If there is any way you can work in a SHOUT OUT for us on the air about this, it would be greatly appreciated. The details are on this Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=105459749550179 . We are also going to be doing a raffle of various items that have been contributed. If KKLA or Frank Pastore have any items of value to contribute to the raffle, that would be awesome.

Glynn Smith
Beacon of Hope International

2011 Uganda team

2011-07-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Hear is an email message from Curis and Rhonda after a few days in Uganda .

Friday Rhonda and I taught the 6 sessions to our trainees, and this morning they practiced them back to us. We made it through the first 4 sessions before we had to break for lunch. They did an excellent job. After lunch we went to Entebbe city hall and met with the education inspector and then as a group presented Smart Choices to the mayor for his approval to teach in the schools, which we received. We start in the first two of the six schools tomorrrow. They are viewing this as a pilot project that will expand to many other schools if it is successful, as it meets the requirements that the government has specified for HIV/AIDS education.

My carryon bag with projector, dvd player, laptop, malaria pills, etc. was not allowed on board in Brussels as it was to big they said. Then it did not arrive in Entebbe on our flight. It is still missing. Please pray for it's intact, undamaged recovery.

More news soon.

Finally! The whole team is home

2010-09-03T05:13:00.000-07:00

On Thursday September 2 at about 2:00pm the stragglers arrived at LAX. Travel weary after three weeks of being away from home and a flight home that took a total of twenty eight hours including a one hour stop in Dakar, Senegal and a four hour stop in New York.

Third Generation Smat Choices team in training.

We spent the last two days participating in the training of the third generation of Smart Choices team trainers in Soshangove. They consisted of on of the pastors in training from Ebenezer Christian Fellowship Church, two students from schools that have received Smart Choices training in the past year and other members of the youth group of Ebenezer Christian Fellowship Church.

Second generation Smart Choice trainers.

On Tuesday afternoon we had a meeting with the second generation Smart Choices trainers lead by Thomas Mphara to let know of some of their needs to be able to continue doing the Smart Choices and school discipleship programs in the schools. These included a request for new uniforms, a camera to record their activities, help with transport to get them to the schools, and a small stipend for the trainers to sustain them while not working but still participating in the ministry.

All of the orphans living with Zodwa and Pastor Elias Gomba.

All told we had a very enjoyable last two days with the Soshanguve team but we were definitely in the wind down mode. Thanks again to all who have supported us financial to enable this mission trip to take place, to all those who have been praying for safety and success, and to those been following our activities on this blog. There will be a report back celebration held in both Prescott, Arizona and Orange County, California. Dates and times of these activities will be advertised shortly.

The Longest Day

2010-08-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

I think that today was the LONGEST day ever! We had a meeting with a large group of people that all have an interest in combatting HIV/AIDS. Each one of them had time to share or preach. We got to the church at 9 am and it didn't start until 10:45 and we finished at around 5:30! It's tough to sit in a chair that long! But there were some great speakers.

We had the minister of education's assistant there, as the minister was working with the strike and it is amazing at how much they were asking for the church to get involved in their schools. They are realizing that their strategy of using condoms is still keeping the HIV/AIDS problem at huge rates here in S.A. The only thing that will work is abstinence. Government doesn't want to say it isn't working but the statistics are proving it! They basically encouraged us to take this message into the schools and it is welcomed! That is very exciting! Our schools would never allow a faith based program in them.

Then we also heard from the representative of the National Aids Council. His statistics were staggering! 40% of women from 20 - 35 are HIV positive in some areas in S.A. This number is basically the same for several years now! We didn't even see any dip in the chart that they showed!

We also heard form Dr. Phalatse who was a fireball for Christ! He just said abstinence is the ONLY way to get a hold of this problem and he was powerful and entertaining and really interesting to hear from. We don't know if he has heard of Smart Choices but he covered all that we covered but much more Christ centered! He held nothing back. He and his wife have also started publishing a bi-monthly local magazine and welcomed us to submit articles for publication.

Then Glynn got up and he also did an excellent job sharing what we are doing in the schools and he refuted the National Aids Council (he had already left) but emphasized that only abstinence is going to stop HIV/AIDS not a national push using condoms.

One of our students from Botse Botse school last year.

Then we had Dawie and Lizel Pieterse from Campus Crusade for Christ and they shared how they are working in local communities to help build homes for orphans and community sights for soccer and how they work with local groups to teach skills to people so they can learn life skills to work. They are doing an amazing work all over the world! It was very inspiring to hear all that they are doing as an organization. All of this activity is part of a fairly new initiative by Campus Crusade called GAIN for Global AId Network.

Then we heard from Hospice workers and what they are doing with the sick and dying and what they are doing with the children left behind. They were asking for more help from the churches as well. And asking for people to take in orphans.

Then we also had a group of teens who did a skit that they present in the schools from a group called Life of Art. It was done in the Tswana language but even so you could get the point.

Then there was a group called Love Life and they ministered to those infected with HIV/AIDS kinda like what He Intends Victory does at our church.

That is what made for the LONGEST day ever. But it was also interesting to see so many people working together to help bring relief and healing to so many hurting people.

Tomorrow we are supposed to present the Smart Choices program to church leaders so they can go back to their churches and get the program going in their local schools. (when the strikes end)

Tammy

Safely Home

2010-08-30T09:39:00.001-07:00

5 from the Arizona team and 4 (including Mike L. who was with us only for the first week of the trip) from the California team are now safely home. Thanks for all your prayers and support on this trip...we're happy to be home but still enjoying the great memories we've all created together.

Last few days together enjoying more great fellowship at breakfast

One of our last mornings together on the beach in Durban

Some of us got a tour of the Durban World Cup Soccer Stadium

Here's a slideshow and a link to some of the other pictures taken on this trip. Enjoy!

South Africa 2010

Please continue to pray for the rest of the team (Glynn, Mark C, Bill, and Tammy) as they are still doing some important business in Pretoria and will make their journey back in a few days from now.

Week 2: Greytown Project

2010-08-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

We had another great week in Greytown and again we are amazed at how God has orchestrated a way for us to connect with kids in spite of the government employees strike which is being honored by the teachers.

As a result of the strike, one team had access to the school bus from Shalom Ministries to move some students away from there school to place where it would be safe for them to meet. This was at a preschool (Creche) across the valley. It was a very steep climb in that old bus and it took about an hour to drive the distance. We had to borrow a generator from a neighbor to have electricity to run the video equipment. Shalom Ministries is the church founded by Angus Buchan of Mighty Men and Faith Like Potatoes fame. The second team also had to drive a long distance over very rough roads to reach there teaching destination. There was no electricity in the building and a long cable had to be run from a nearby building to get electricity for the equipment to show the videos.

We also got to spend the evening with the children that live at the orphanage founded and run by Angus Buchan. These kids all appeared in the Faith Like Potatoes movie. Pastor Patrick Zondi who is the pastor we are working with in Greytown used to be an Elder at Shalom Fellowship and is still actively involved at the orphanage.

We have come to the end of the first two weeks of our mission activity. We are spending the day today at the beach front in Durban to wind down and relax after a very full two weeks of ministry. We started out by an OD (Ocean Devotion) on the beach. We took our devotion books with us but ended up just absorbing the glory of God's creation on the beach. We spent the rest of the day buying African curios and walking along the sea front. Some of us were handing out tracts and witnessing to people we encountered. Some of us spent some time in the food court at the casino on the beach front since that was the only place we could find a WI FI connection. Some walked over to the new stadium that was just built in Durban for the Wold cup. Tomorrow after breakfast we will be heading back to the King Shaka airport to turn in our rental van and head back to Johannesburg. We will say farewell to most of our team as they head straight back to the USA. Four of us will rent another car and and head to Pretoria where we will be staying for the next four days. Each day we will drive out to Soshanguve to minister with Zodwa and her teams.

Week 1 wrap up: How God implemented his plan

2010-08-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

We are sorry that we have not had any posts on the blog since the end of last week but since we have left Richards Bay we have not had any Internet connection until today.

In the first week within minutes of learning that there were no students at out first school we received a phone call from someone who said she was running a private school and she heard we were in town and she asked us to come and do a Christian program with seventy students.

One of the other teams found no students at their school and they engaged some kids strolling around. Before long they had a soccer game going and they had the attention of about sixty five kids. While the kids were playing soccer the team leaders contacted the principal to see if they could get a class opened up. She was very supportive and obliged by coming and opening a classroom for us. After they had been playing soccer for a while Mark B. told them he had something to teach them and lead them into the class room. The kids came back for the next two days and by the third day there were still about forty five to fifty students.

Colby Zack and Phoebe were confronted with the horrendous task of trying to get a class of more than two hundred students from two schools through the entire program in one day. Part of our training is to drum into the team that things rarely go the way we plan and to be flexible when the unexpected occurs. This team was ready and up to the challenge and got the job done.

End of week one

2010-08-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

After finishing with our Smart Choices program on Thursday we have enjoyed a day of sight seeing and a day of rest.

We got up at 4am to go to the Hluhluwe/iMfoloze game reserve in Zululand. What a treat for us to see so many animals in their natural habitat. I think the highlight must have been spotting a young male lion! We past him the first time around and when we backed back up he was crouching in the bush. Then he got up and walked right in front of our van and stopped in the road and swished his tail and then sauntered off - as if to say 'oh yeah, I am king of the jungle!' :-)

We were blessed to see a large variety of animals and the most delightful thing was most of them had their young with them. It's a sight to behold when you see baby giraffe, baby rhino, baby elephants and baby monkeys. We were also thrilled to see a hippo out of the water and up on the slope eating grass. This is highly unusual as they easily sunburn if they are out of the water during the daytime but, it was a cool overcast day so he must have thought 'why wait to eat'.

We stayed until the park closed and arrived back home at 8 pm. After sitting in a van for so long only I was thinking that it took us longer to travel 200 miles round trip than it took us to fly from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg.

This morning we said good-bye to Mike Langdon as he had to fly back home today. As we gathered for our morning devotionals he wanted to share what God had laid on his heart. I wanted to share some of what he shared with us. I am so blessed that he took the time to pray over us and God gave him a scripture for each one of us. I thought that I would give you the scriptures that he gave us and maybe you could also be praying for us according to His word for our lives. We are praying for each other as well that we would grow as it says in 1 Timothy 4:12b, that we would set examples for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

Myra Isaiah 41:10 Kelsey Zeph. 3:17 John Col. 4:1 Glynn 1 Cor. 9: 24-25 Mark C. Gal 6: 9-10 Bill Col 3:16-17 Mark B. Ps. 63: 1-2 Sam 2 Timothy 2:1-4 Colby Ps 62: 1-2 Zach 1 Cor. 9: 24-25 Phoebe Philemon vs. 4-7 Tammy Ps. 37: 3-5

In His Service (Tammy)

Teaching in the Schools! - Colby Long

2010-08-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings from South Africa...

Well we started our "Better Choices" curriculum this week. HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, along with the real need, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any time an opportunity to bring God's Truth to the public schools and it's community opens up like this... How can we not take part? Bringing hope to the nations...

All the preparation, organizing, teambuilding, and prayer... all leading up to this week!

As a side note, I think I can speak for all of us, when I say that we could already see God unfolding His perfect plan for all of the work that was ahead of us. God quickly knit all of our hearts together for one purpose: share the Gospel, all for God's glory!

Here is another display of God at work this week, are you ready for this? We've talk a lot as a team so far about being flexible on missions trips, and in all are preparation we found opposition right away... it seemed where God was building a house, the enemy was building right next door. The enemy knew the Gospel was going out to the nations! It just so happens that this week in South Africa, at least in our province, that most of the schools were suffering from a teacher's strike, which in turn shuts the schools down.

No school = No students...

No students = No venue to teach the students...

Right?

WRONG! It was amazing to see God at work, in His perfect will and timing, open up so many doors for the nations to hear His Gospel! By the end of the first day, in all it's excitement and change of plans, we had collectively shared "Better Choices" and the Gospel with over 400 students and locals! Over 400 South Africans were reached! on the FIRST DAY! praise God!

God will accomplish what He wants, when He wants. God is good, All the time...All the time, God is good!

So all in all we finished our curriculum with hundreds of locals in the Richard's Bay area today and saw God do some great work, in educating the people and students about HIV/Aids, and presenting the Gospel through the Jesus Film, Testimonies, and God's Word. Many students were led to the saving truth of Jesus, committing their lives to Him! Praise the Lord.

Thank You for all your prayers, please pray that many would continue to come and hear the Truth of Jesus as we travel to Greytown on Saturday.

In Him - Colby Long

First Day of Training - Kelsey de Lannoy

2010-08-16T14:39:00.001-07:00

What a day!

Kelsey here with the latest on our South Africa 2010 Mission trip.

So we were all up pretty early again for our 7:30am breakfast time. Most of us seem to have our internal clocks running on schedule, although some have needed to take a sleeping pill. Mike is especially happy to have his first full night's sleep since we've been here. ;)

Here's John at Breakfast:

Here's a pic of Phoebe's intense "zebra 'fro" that we get to see every morning:

We have amazing house caretakers (Mark B. says to call them "angels" or "saints") who cook us breakfast and dinner each day. We're pretty spoiled, I guess. This morning they cooked us beef & cheese omelettes. Everyone loved them. I'm not an omelette fan so I stuck to toast and a banana. (The bananas are FANtastic here, by the way!) Myra is all about the orange juice here, so breakfast has been her favorite meal so far.

After we cleaned our plates, it was time for some devotionals. Mark B. put together a great devo for us to go through so today we kicked it off with a study of Isaiah 6:8-9 - "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am! Send me.' And he said, 'Go.'" ....Then we shared how we each responded to God's call for us to go on this mission trip. It was great hearing how the Lord had worked everything together in different ways to make it possible for each of us to go.

We drove over to the orphanage and met with some our South African team members. They were REALLY excited to see us again. They all climbed in the van before we could get out.

We spent time dividing up into teams and designated who would teach what this week. We begin teaching the Smart Choices curriculum tomorrow -- so excited!! We've been studying it for the past few months and now it's finally time to deliver it to the high school students (and to one college...I believe Zululand University).

Then around 2pm we went to the mall in Richard's Bay. We split up into a few different groups and grabbed lunch on our own. Sam, Zack, Colby, Myra and I all bought South African football (soccer) jerseys.

On our way home, we stopped to buy some gifts from a few roadside artists. They had some neat handmade wooden crafts like bowls, wall decor, and also lots of bracelets and necklaces.

Last but not least, we came back to our B&B and had a great dinner and some not-so-great green cream soda.

Thanks for all your prayers. We could sure use them this week as we begin to teach the Smart Choices curriculum in various different schools. Cheers!

A Glimpse of Heaven in Worship - Mark Breyer

2010-08-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Today, Sunday, has been a great day of praising the Lord with our South African brothers and sisters. Worship here is so powerfully led by the Spirit!! Not sure I've ever heard so many harmonies all at once.

We stopped by one of the orphanages that Beacon of Hope ministries has been involved with for many years. The video clip linked below is from that orphanage. Their worship moved most of us to tears! I'm sure you will understand why once you've seen this video...it's a must watch!

Orphans in S Africa Praising the Lord from Mark Breyer on Vimeo.

Tomorrow will be filled with training for our first day of Aids Education, training with our S African partners. Pray that our time with them will be filled with divine appointments.

Orphanage Pictures - Mark Breyer

2010-08-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

We had a great time this morning playing soccer with our newest friends! The kids at this orphanage are mostly all Christians already, but we will be bringing them some great times along with the word as we hold a vacation Bible school over the next few days. Here's Sam and Phoebe with some of the kids who are clearly delighted to see them!

Flight out and first day of activity - John Stupar

2010-08-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

In the wee hours of the morning of Thursday, August 12th an eclectic band of believers left the comfort of their homes in a dozen different cities in 2 states to embark on a mission to South Africa. At about 6 am seven left California and about an hour later six left Arizona to meet up in Washington D.C. to begin the 18-hour flight to Dakar Senegal.

After a one-hour stop they flew another 8 hours to Johannesburg, and another hour to Durban followed by a two-hour drive to Richards Bay, arriving about 2 am. The total travel time was about 38 hours "door to door."

Sleeping beauty

The first day began with a ham and eggs breakfast around 11 am followed by a morning devotional led by Mike Langdon who inspired the troops with Paul's words to the Romans about being a "living sacrifice to the Lord."

Finally Arrived in Johannesburg

The afternoon was spent at the first orphanage in Empangeni beginning with a prayer meeting with 20-plus senior pastors from about as many churches in the surrounding area. After the brief prayer they each introduced themselves by name, telling a little about their ministry and where they were from. Then each team member was introduced by Glynn and they had a chance to say a few words.

One too many Red Bulls for Mike (We're trying to help him with addiction).

Afterwards Glynn, Bill, Mike, Mark, Mark Breyer and John disscused with all the pastors our intentions to work with them in church planting and pastoral training. Mike and Mark both talked about the community and missionary outreach plans of our churches. Meanwhile, everyone else was out playing with the kids and talking to some of the pastors' wives. A beautiful time was had by all on the first day of our meetings.

Upon returning to the Trollip B&B we had a great chicken dinner with potatoes and green salad and chocolate cake. The evening was spent emailing and skyping loved ones back home. Glynn drove a few people out to buy candy, gifts and supplies for the Sunday school class in the morning. The tired missionaries began to retire to their rooms as Mike was preparing his morning sermon and John was writing this record of the first three days of our journey.

August 12 The Flight out

2010-08-12T00:34:00.000-07:00

Mission trip 2010

Here it is the early hours and Thurday morning and we will be leaving for the Airport soon. The California team needs to be at the airport by 4:00am. We will be in the travel mode for about thirty four hours and we will reach our final destination at midnight on Friday night. Remember when you figuring out the time of day where we are, we will be nine hours ahead of Pacific time.

The California team is: Mike, John, Glynn, Jeff in the picture will not be with us, Next is Tammy, then Mark. In the front is Myra and Kelsey.

We will meet up with the team from Prescott Arizona this afternoon.

The Arizona team is: Sam, Mark, Phoebe, Bill, Jessica, Zack and not in the picture is Colby. Unfortunately Jessica is not going to be with us on the trip. We will board the flight to Johannesburg at about 5:00pm and leave at 5:40pm eastern. This is the long leg of the journey from Washington to Johannesburg. This is about an seventeen hour flight with an refueling stop in Dekar, Senegal right on the south-western edge of the bulge of Africa.

So long for now and keep us in your prayers.

The Next Blog will be posted on Saturday evening South Africa time or Saturday morning Pacific standard time.