Welcome Lancaster

The team from Lancaster arrived on Sunday evening. Yesterday, they helped us clean out the hospital warehouse and unload our medicine container for the Bongolo Hospital. Today we went to the village Ntoum and had a medical clinic with the team (Mama Jeanine, Pastor Jacob, etc.). It was neat for the team of students to experience this ministry.

I was leading worship tonight at our debrief and we sang the song "Give Me Jesus." What a powerful song, it speaks to me in that all I need is Him. Nothing says more than one of my goals this summer: to always seek to glorify Jesus and really hear His voice. Not much time tonight, I'll post something later... Hope House tomorrow.

Please pray for the team that God will speak to them and that they will hear His voice.

Back to Ndjole

This week has been fairly busy seeing as today our first team comes in from Lancaster. We've been working to get the house ready, and it is basically ready. Yes, I worked all week, but I also found myself on the way to Ndjole on Friday morning for a medical caravan. It was kind of a spur of the moment type deal, so it was just me, Joey, and Torey who went. We rode out with Pastor Jacob and Natalie (one of the eye clinic technicians) in a taxi. Got to Ndjole around 12pm and started working. I was mostly on pharamacy duty that day which meant that I filled prescriptions from the consultation station. Let's just say it's nothing like a US pharmacy. We had about 50 people at that clinic. We stayed at a "hotel" with the medical team, so 11 people in this conference room sleeping on air mattresses and other such pieces of furniture. Did another clinic the next morning from about 9:30 to 3:30 for 60 people. What a long day because we didn't get back to Libreville until around 7pm. It was a great trip though.

I think the best part of this village trip was the time I get to spend with the medical team. One thing you have to understand is that this caravan stuff is run completely by them. They do all of the planning and traveling because they care about the people in Gabon. They are a family and you can see it whenever you're with them. Just 4-5 weeks ago, I met them for the first time not knowing what to expect. Now I on a solo trip (yes, our first solo trip as intern) with them and I feel like a part of their family. It just continues to show me what brothers and sisters in Christ really means. If one falls, another is right there to pick him up. We are one body in Christ seeking to glorify God in all of our actions. Family.

Hope House

You may indeed be wondering what Hope House is. It is an orphanage run by one of the Gabonese pastors and his wife (Pastor Israel and Natalie). They have 26 children who have been abandoned by their parents and they all live in a rented house. There are, I believe, 18 boys and 8 girls, and they range from 2 years old to 16 years old. The girls split two rooms and the guys have a "bunkhouse" outside which they share with only 2 bunkbeds (you do the math...). As cramped as it is, they are blessed to have food, clothing, shelter, and love.

We go to HH every Wednesday afternoon to have time with the kids. We sing songs, teach a Bible lesson, and play with the kids. The older boys usually play soccer in the school yard beside the house, girls talk and do "girl stuff," and the younger kids just run around. Today, Steve sent over a plastic jungle gym/swing set for the yard. You should have seen the looks on the younger kids faces. I have never seen kids go down a slide so many times before!

These have so few things, but the joy on their faces is still very visible. They are a family of 26, and the key word there is family. A family takes care of each other, no matter if they are from different parents or of different color (though they are not of different colors). They remind me each week God's goodness and faithfulness, for they are in Hope House because it is in God's plan. He has a lot of things in store for each one of them, I know it.

Next week we're inviting them over to the Bible school by the house for an afternoon of "Olympics." This idea started after I started a long jump contest a couple of weeks ago with some of the boys. It's awesome to be able to connect with them and really be intentional about building relationships with them. I ask that you pray for Pastor Israel and Natalie as we found out today that the owner of the house that they rent wants to sell the house. This means they will have to find another house that houses 28 people or land they can build on. Pray that God would show them where they are to go and what they are to do. This ministry would not have started without Pastor Israel and Natalie.

Check them out!

Quick, before we leave for Hope House. I want you to check out what some of my friends are doing. I have friends across the globe this summer, not all of them have internet, but here are the blog addresses for the ones that do:

http://pngupdates.blogspot.com

This is my friend Charlie who is in Papua New Guinea with his sister Lea.

http://faithlikeachild-emily.blogspot.com

This is my friend Emily who is in South Africa working with an orphanage called Door of Hope.

Please pray for them as they seek God's will in everything they do. Others abroad are Chuck (working with Athletes in Action - Soccer in Paraguay), Jackie (working at an ESL school in Cambodia), and a group of GCC students in Uganda. Thanks!

Another Week

So I haven't posted in a little while due to some stuff going on here in Gabon. I can't say much about it, but just ask my parents or anyone else that might know. Anyways, was at Bongolo Hospital this past week which is about 8-9 hours south of Libreville. If you don't know much about Gabon, find a map and look. :-) We went down to do another scouting trip about what teams will be doing. Primarily they are there to see the hospital and tour the facilities, which are an awesome testament to God working. People from all over Gabon travel hours and hours over bumpy roads and curvy roads to get seen at Bongolo. Bongolo is not only concerned with their physical needs, but also (and most importantly) their spiritual needs. What an awesome thing they are doing. If you get a chance, check out their website http://www.bongolohospital.org It's definitely worth your while.

So we checked out housing, which a family is there as an STMO site where teams will stay. Also, we want to give teams a good experience, so they will be tubing down the river through Gabon. The interns and Tim took it on Wednesday and it turned out to be a 3 hour 15 minute ride, not bad I guess. Nice time to relax and check out the scenery. It was also very peaceful where I got the chance to reflect on my last 3 weeks here. First, can you believe I've been here that long? Second, I was sharing with the other interns last night my goal this summer of hearing God's voice as well as serving and I have had the chance to hear Him. There is still much listening to do on my part, but it has been a start so far. I'm reading the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan right now, and I love (no pun intended) tying hearing God's voice and His awesome love for us together. I challenge you as you read this to reflect on your life and see how much you've been listening to God's voice. How do you do this? Through prayer. And also through times of just silence, like when I sat over the ocean in a tree and heard the waves crashing against the beach. Remember, it doesn't necessarily take missions overseas to experience God's voice. So, sit down and take some time to listen...

Oh Friday Nights in Gabon

So, a lazy saturday morning here. Just got back from helping Romie (a professor at the C&MA Bible School) at her yard sale because she and her husband are leaving in a week or so. Anyways, went out with the other interns last night for dinner. We also went with Mama Jeanine's youngest son Yoann who is nineteen. Nice to have another guy my age, and he is a good English speaker.

We left the house around 7:00 to catch some taxis to the other side of town. Took a taxi from our street/cartier to Snee, which is a big taxi hub a little ways away. (we had six in the taxis every time) From Snee we headed to the restaurant, but our taxi got stopped at the big market police stop. We believe it's because we, except for Yoann, are all white/American and there were six of us packed into the car. Anyway, we all had to get out and show the police our passport copies and the driver had to pay him like 2,000/3,000 francs to continue driving us. So we got to the restaurant around 8:00 after that whole ordeal. At the restaurant, they only had burgers left out of everything on their menu, or say they said, so we all got cheeseburgers and fries. Got our food around 9:00 (same time the Straw's walked in, the only other white people we know in Libreville) and then Lindsay got a milkshake before we left. She wanted it to go, but the concept isn't really prevalent in Gabon. She got them to put it into my empty waterbottle, which I had just chugged down about 2 minutes prior... So we boarded a taxi back to the house. This taxi was the coolest ever because it had stuffed animals everywhere and lights and rap music playing (in english). I started out in the front seat with the driver and Yoann, but my butt was too much on the clutch so the driver made me move to the back while he was driving. So I squirmed my way to the back, which already had the 4 girls in it, and rode laying across their laps. Got to about 2 kilometers away from the house and the driver pulled to the side of the road. Is this where you're dropping us off? What's going on? Yoann's exact words as an explanation, "He go pee-pee." He definitely stood outside of the taxi and went... Oh Gabon. Finally got back to the house around 10:00. Oh what a night.

It was great getting to know Yoann because he is a great guy. He is eager to learn more english and has many things in common with all of us interns. He also has a facebook so after we leave, we will all be able to keep in touch. Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch. I am excited to see where Yoann goes because he has two more years in high school here and then he wants to pursue an education hopefully in the states. We'll see. God is very much working in his life. He has a faith that is strongly influenced by his parents, Pastor Jean-Mark and Mama Jeanine. But it is his own faith, he has gripped it and runs with it everyday. Truly a testament to how God works.

Pic from a while ago

Remember the truck stuck in the mud?  Here, it is.

Getting Ready

So we've been getting the house ready all this week to be team-ready by the end of June. One month sounds like a good amount of time to finish stuff, but we leave next week for a 4-day tour of Bongolo Hospital about 8-9 hours south and then a 6-day tour of Franceville east of Libreville. We then have a week before teams start to come down. So back to getting the house ready.

We have a new dining/eating area for teams and have been working to get it screened in and walls cleaned/painted. Also have a new guys' bunkhouse that needs work (floors, walls, windows maintenance) and also working on little details inside the regular house. This work just means that it won't be very long until high school students will be roaming around here.

I am excited for teams to arrive, not only the fact of more males in the house, but also the spread of God's work in Libreville. We (the STMO staff) are here to support the national C&MA church in Gabon and the teams' presence only testifies to others in the US that the Gabonese church is alive and well. The fact of males in the house does give me motivation for getting to the end of June. It is different living with 5 other girls (soon to be 7 other girls with the 2 arriving on Monday night) and not having any other college guys around. God continues to work through this situation though. I guess living with them 24/7 isn't so bad because they continue to teach me many things. I am glad that we are working as one team with the common goal of glorifying our Savior. I knew that there were others that love to serve and have the passion to go other places outside of the US, but this summer puts it into perspective. It also puts into perspective that Gabon, for me, is not my only mission field. I can't wait to get back and start next school year because of my new freshman hall. That is another field I am excited to minister and instruct in. God continues to show me the essence of missions and ministering to His people: no matter where they are or who they are.

Ndjole

So we're starting late this morning, probably around 9 or 10 which is the reason I can post this in the morning.  Anyway, we were at a village called Ndjole (en-JOEL-lay) all weekend to scout it out for a work project and housing, which is about 3 1/2 hours south of Libreville.  This is the location of the church that the ACAC (my home church) team will partner with when they come down at the end of July.  The pastor of the church is named Phillipe and he has a wife (Verdine) and 3-year old son (Arnold).  He was sent to Ndjole 3 years ago to a small church (7 people to be exact) and basically no home or running water.  Today, however, the church is about 100 people and he has built a home adjacent to the church, but still no running water.  So, like most of Africa, they have a shack: one side has a square hole in the ground which is the toilet and the other side has a couple of buckets of water in it which is the shower.  Not bad, but can you imagine living with that for the last 3 years?

Enter ACAC team because part of their job will be to install a water line from the original pipe to the pastor's house.  This is a huge distance, probably about 250 meters, but definitely a do-able distance.  So we will dig the hole for the pipe and then run the pipe to the house and install 2 each of toilets and showers.  Also, Phillipe just planted a third church and is in the process of building it.  We need to put the roof on the building.  Not much to say about that, I guess.

That's about it.  This week is basically dedicated to working on the renovations of the house so that it is ready to house teams in about a month.  Also, the last 2 interns arrive here on Saturday night, but they are both girls...  I think I'm counting down the days until the first guys arrive on a team.  Just kidding, the other interns are awesome people.  Plus, they might be reading this...

Lastly, please continue to pray for the teams that will come down at the end of the month.  Pray that communication would go well so that they are ready to "hit the ground running" when they get here.  Preparation of their hearts and minds and the knowledge that they are God's hands and feet.  Thanks.

Above are some pictures of the Ndjole. (first one of the bathroom shack, second of the church which is adjacent to Phillipe's house, and the last of Ndjole but only a part of the village)