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)

Interesting Nights

So did another village trip yesterday about 2 hours away from the house.  Everything went smooth and got back around 5pm.  Pastor Joseph called around 5:15pm and told Tim that one of the tires fell off of his truck, or that's how it got translated.  (this is the same tire he had trouble with on the way to the village) So Tim and I left the house around 5:30pm to go help him, along the way...got our spare tire fixed in case we got a flat (30 min. - time is now 6:00ish), picked up Pastor Jean-Mark (his wife was in the truck and has been there since around 3:30 (20 min. - now 6:30ish), picked up Joseph's mechanics (they had to do a bunch of stuff before we actually picked them up, long story...1 hr. - now 7:30ish), found Joseph at the big town outside the village [apparently he hitch-hiked his way about a 40 min. worth of driving] (1 hr. - now 8:30ish), got to the truck where we found Mama Jeanine, Perine, and Natalie; they had: started a fire on the side of the road/started to eat palm nuts (which was mine and Tim's dinner along with sugar cane that Mama Jeanine used a machette to peel for us - an experience all in itself) (30 min. - now 9:00ish), mechanics tried to fix the tire - don't think they knew what they were doing... (2 hrs. - now 11:30ish), start to drive with Tim's van in front but after getting involved in a discussion figure out that the truck is no longer behind us; so drive back and find that the tire has slanted now need to see if the i-don't-know-what-i'm-doing mechanics fix it or not which they do (45 mins. - 12:00am), get the tire up and running and Joseph drives in front; apparently goats sleep in the middle of the road so he has to swerve to miss one of them; bad idea because that causes another tire slant - more mechanic time (30 min. - 12:30am), finally decide to leave the truck on the side of the road where Joseph will sleep in it until tomorrow when the mechanics come back (20 min. - 1:00am).  Now have all the medicine containers, Pastor Jean-Mark, two mechanics, Mama Jeanine, Perine, and Natalie, Tim, and I in the van to go home.  Joseph has bug spray and a flashlight for the night.  Drop everyone off and finally get home around 2:00am.  Yes, that was after the workday, an 8 1/2 hour adventure.  No pictures either because we were in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black.  Yah!  Oh the experiences.  Haha.