Update: 10/18/08
Humanitarian aid...the next venture. I will be joining a team from our church, Church At Charlotte, in early February, for a labor-intensive trip to Ethiopia. We will be going to Camp Langano to install floor tile....3,220 square feet!!!!! There probably will not be time to do much Gospel magic on this trip. Hopefully we will be able to get all of the tile installed in the camp dining facility and the clinic.
As you are aware, Ethiopia is an extremely depressed nation. Therefore, we will have to take all of the tile tools that we will need with us. As of today, I have the list of tools, but none of the funds yet to purchase them. The basics that we will need will cost around $800, and that is without a tile wetsaw. All of the cutting will have to be done with a side grinder and diamond blade. Pray with us that God will supply the funds for the tools and indeed give the unskilled volunteers the expertise required to produce a finished product fit for The King.
UPDATE: 8/06/08
The 2008 trip to Romania is over....not history....just over. If it were history, then it would all be in the past. The seed that was planted on this trip is now the future. Please pray with us that those who made decisions to follow Christ will continue to seek Him and grow in His Word.
We had a small, but effective team. There were only nine this year. The team was Margie Simmons, Harvey Galloway, Sherry Vause, June Moon, Peggy and Jimmy Morse, JoAnn and Michael Sasnett, and first-timer Bob Mellbye of Charlotte, NC. Bob enthusiastically opened most of the programs with one of his new puppets, either Rosie the skunk or Jack the donkey(in Arab dress with sunglasses). Michael always treated the audience to an attention-grabbing Gospel magic presentation.
Unfortunately, as we did not receive sufficient quantities of medicines prior to the trip, we were not able to conduct free clinics. After all....what's the use of a clinic if you have nothing with which to treat the sick??
The sea container which we packed out on June 9th, did NOT arrive in time for us to use any of the teaching materials for the VBS's. The boxes we needed arrived about midnight of the last Thursday that we were there. And we headed back first thing the last Friday. Oh well, perhaps we will use some of the things on our next trip.
We had to get up Saturday morning at 2:30am to get to the airport in Bucharest. Some of the team had 6am flights. At that time of the morning one really needs a good cup of coffee. The little cafe in the airport actually did serve coffee...not necessarily GOOD coffee, but coffee. We ordered two cups. Unfortunately we did not ask the price before ordering and being served. What can possibly make two cups of coffee worth SEVENTEEN DOLLARS?
As we started through the ubiquitous security scanning line, the guard spotted something weird in Michael's "bag of tricks". They stopped all of the security lines and
all of the security personnel gathered around to watch Michael do a mini magic show. With smiles on their faces, they happily sent us on our way. The rest of the trip was very uneventful.
Start praying now for next year's trip. Would you like to participate in person? No special skills required. Just be willing to share your faith in Jesus Christ.