On to Zambia!

So, tonight is our last night in Arusha.  The next few days should be quite an adventure for us.  Tomorrow we are traveling 9 hours on a bus to Dar Es Salaam where we are basically on our own for 3 days.  You can be praying for our safety there if you want.  Then, next Tuesday, we are headed to Zambia on a train! The train ride is a whole day and we get to go through some national parks, so I'm real excited about it.  It was definitely sad saying bye to kids this evening, even though we will see them again in 2 months for a couple of days before we head back home.  Our time with them seemed to go by so fast, and I feel like there is so much more I wanted to say to some of them.  But its so fun to know that believers from around the world, and have hope that even though your chance is so tiny of seeing them again on Earth, you will be with them for eternity in Heaven.  It's a pretty sweet deal!  I hope that Spring break has been awesome.  I'd love to get some updates from some of you on what you did and how it was.  Love,

Andrew 

Kili Pictures

Here are some pictures from our climb and also a few of kids.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BaN2bRq0ZOaA

The Day after Kilimanjaro

Wow!! I probably said that word or a similar word once every 10 minutes for the past week as we made our way to the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was absolutely incredible and I'm so thankful we got to do it. I'd love to wait and share details about it in person when I get back, so for now, I'll just share a couple of things. One of the coolest parts about climbing Kili was that all the scenery was so unique and beautiful and it was so diverse. We started out in the very thick, deep green and lush rain forest, then walked through the moorland, where every tree and bush was covered in this lime green moss. Then, we started to get into the alpine desert where it seemed real gloomy and at times we felt like we were in the Lord of the Rings. And if you don't know, Lord of the Rings is both of our favorite movies, so we were freaking out. I was so expecting some orks to pop out from behind the rocks, and I had my ski pole out ready to fight. Also, there were two guys on the trail from Bovaria with voices excactly like Mary and Pippen, making the scene seem even more real. We hiked for four solid days, and then we peaked on the fifth morning. We woke up at midnight to tea and biscuits, and then put on every clothing item we packed because it was absolutely freezing and the wind was screaming. With only our headlamps giving light, we made the pretty steep climb to the peak in a little over 5 hours. At some points the wind would make you stumble back, and it was so crazy not being able to see at all where you were going. You had to completely trust the guide and completely focus directly in front of your feet. It was pretty sad, because we saw a bunch of people give up and start heading back down. I think I quoted every verse I have ever memorized and sang a line from over fifty Christian songs to find strenth and stay encouraged. You only have a few minutes at the very top because the air is so thin, and we kind of tried to stall because the sun was just starting to come up and we really wanted to watch it. It ended up being, without a doubt, the most picturesque and beatiful sight I've ever seen. It was like we were standing on a blanket of clouds, a glacier on one side and steep cliff on the other, and the combination and brightness of the colors of the sunrise was unreal. It was real amazing on the way down because we could see everything, and we could see absolutely nothing on the way up. (Reflection time- Sometimes we have to blindly follow and trust the Lord wherever He leads us, knowing that He knows what's best for us and that future glory lies at the end of the road) We made it down the whole mountain on the same day we peaked. We were hauling down, and by the end, my legs and knees hurt the worst they have ever hurt in my life. So that's even more than I was planning on sharing about the climb, but its so hard to keep it real short. And I still need to share just a few low points of the hike. We both got bad diahrreah one night, which absolutely sucks without a toilet seat and when its really cold. Also, we forgot toilet paper, so we were pocketing our napkins from dinner to use. Also, nights were fairly miserable because we were freezing and did not have great sleeping bags. And because we had to drink so much water in the day, we had to get out of our tents at least twice a night in the freezing cold (0 to 30 degrees) to pee. That was no fun. I think that's it for Kili. It was an amazing adventure and we were defintely blown away by God's glory through His creation. Zach and I also got to have real good conversations, and really share how God is teaching us both so much about His grace. It's so awesome how the first things you hear about when you accept Christ, you continue to be taught and grow in the rest of your life. I'm in awe of the richness of the characteristics of God and so excited knowing I'm no where close to fully realizing the "incredible wealth of His grace and kindness".

I hope you all have a wonderful spring break. If you still don't have anything to do, you are welcome here. We are headed to Zambia on Saturday. Love you all and am praying for a great and relaxing week for you.

Kili Eve!

Hey!!
So the internet connection has been down for a while at the school, or else I would have written much sooner. In less than 24 hours, Zach and I will be on our way up the tallest free standing mountain in the world, Mt. Kiliminjaro. We are so excited!! It's going to be so sweet. Even though I would probably be too jealous to pray for a friend climbing Kili, especially while I was in school, I still am going to ask for prayer-that we would not get altitude sickness bad at all and that we would be completely captivated by God's glory (shouldn't be too difficult).

I can't write too long because its getting pretty late here, but I'll just give you a brief summary of our past week or so. We have been at the school all week. We have mainly been working on this super nice sand volleyball being built. We were working with about 20 other workers, so it was pretty fun. It is also frustrating though, because they honestly are not very hard workers. But its also probably difficult to work hard all day when you are making 2 dollars a day. That's seriously what they make here for an 8 hour day. Sucks huh. The best job we have had this week is building a frisbee golf course on the campus. We got to cut down a lot of stuff with a machete, which is always fun, and we just finished the course yesterday. No one has any clue how to play, so I'm excited about teaching some of the kids. Time with kids has been pretty fun this week. We did our laundry with them, and that was pretty fun. And last Saturday, we got to watch their talent show, which was very entertaining! I have one sad story about a kid though. His name is Freddie and I would love for you to pray for him. We got pretty close to him, but then he started getting in a lot of trouble at school. He has been stealing stuff and just got sent home the other day after he blew his last shot by taking Zach's clock. He was sent home for a few days, but we saw him again today back on campus. However, he wouldn't really talk to anybody and looked incredibly sad. I really feel bad for him.

This past Sunday, we went with Max and Gina and one other couple to this hot spring (it wasn't really hot) in the middle of the desert about 2 hours away. It was an awesome spot and really fun. The water was so clear and there was a little cave you could swim under where Max found a hippo skeleton in the back! And now, I am sitting at Max and Gina's, too excited to go to bed! I will definitely post pictures when we get back. Love you all and pray blessings on each of you. Just knowing people read this encourages me. Thanks!

A Powerful Touch

I want to share a very unique and meaningful experience I had a couple days ago.  This past Friday, I was able to go on what Peace House calls a verification trip.  The point of verification trips is to make surprise visits to the kids who have applied to be students at the school next year, and decide whether or not they should be accepted. This involves talking to family members, teachers, neighbors, and the kids themselves, and also trying to detect for any lies about their circumstances.  It is fairly common for families to be deceitful to help increase the chances of the kid's acceptance.  A kid last year even went as far as moving to a poorer home for a couple of weeks during the time they expected one of the school's visits.  On Friday, there were three teachers, the boys patron, and myself, and our goal was to locate and make decisions on three of the kids.  None of the kids really had addresses, and so it was an adventure just trying to find them.  For two of the kids, we first found the location of their siblings, and then picked the siblings up from their school so they could show us the way.  I knew these kids would all be very poor, but it truly was eye opening to actually visit their villages and homes.  One of the home visits really had an impact on me.  The home, if you can call it one, consisted of two very small rooms with mud floors and no furniture except for a few wooden stools and a tiny talbe.  We sat in there in the dark (no electricity), covered in buzzing flies.  There was a slight smell of cow dung, for many walls in Africa are covered in old, dry cow dung to hold the house together, and this house was no exception to that wonderful technique.  While we were talking to a neighboring mom inside, there was a very small girl standing shyly in the corner.  After a couple of minutes, she gained some confidence and made her way closer to us visitors.  When she got close, I stuck my hand out to her.  Slowly, she put her tiny hand out and gently set it on my hand.  In another minute, she had both her hands on my palm, with all her weight leaning completely on me.  That image of her tiny black hands lying on my big white palm has been very ingrained in my mind since Friday.  I have been thinking, if only hands had minds of their own and could tell their stories, how incredibly different the stories would be of my hands and the girls hands.  Why was she born there in a home where hope seems so dim and I was born in a home and into a family overflowing with hope.  Why does she lie on a mud floor in tattered clothes and most likely hungry, and I generally lie on a comfortable bed in nice clothes and on an overly full stomach? My answer: God's wisdom and understanding is way beyond my own and I have no clue why. But, after a couple of days of mulling over my experience in my head, a verse put a new light on the picture of the hands.  The verse is Psalm 73:23, and it says "Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand." Often times, especially when I feel kind of spiritually dry, I will read Scripture or pray with one hand out imagining it being held by the Lord.  In those moments, I feel loved, I feel warmth, and I feel hope.  Although my situation is a hundred times better in worldly standards than that little girl, our hands have the same possibility of the incredible joy and hope - to be held by their loving and caring Creator and Savior.  God is always with me as he is in that dark, mud and cow dung covered room.  I do pray that her worldly situation improves, that her brother, whom we accepted later that day, is able to bring much needed support to his family through his education at Peace House.  But much more so, I pray she feels the warmth of her sweet, tiny hands being held by her true Father, especially as she has no earthly father.  If you read this, give thanks for God's many material blessings to you, but above all else, give thanks for His saving grace and I encourage you to put out your hand for Him to hold and guide you with. 

One more important thing:

1) Zach and I have just decided that we will be heading to Zambia in a couple of weeks, where we will spend about a month and a half working as volunteers at a missionary training center there.  The opportunity just opened up for us, and after praying and thinking about it for a couple of days, we think we feel led there.  We are very excited about it! I will give more details about it later.

Love you all very much,

Andrew

P.S. Zach loves you all very much as well.  He has been emailing more of his thoughts instead of blogging.  Please email either of us whenever you want.  We'd love to hear personally from anybody and everybody!

Campout Pictures

Hey, here are some pictures from our hike up the river, and also some of our friends at the school. They are on shutterfly again, and the link is:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BaN2bRq0ZOSg

The contrasting pictures

Hey friends and family,
It has been another week here, and we have really done a lot in that time, and have had a lot on our minds. We were at Peace House all last week, and this weekend we got to go on an incredible campout that included the most exciting and beautiful hike of my life. Life at Peace House has really been fun lately because of our growing relationships with the kids. It is so great having a few of them becoming comfortable enough to come and chill in our room with us. Here are some names of the kids we are getting to know the best: Good Hope, Fred, Alex, Andrew, Johnson 1, Johnson 2, Cosmas, and Selamani. I’d love it if you would say a prayer for them. I played some soccer today for the first time, and got absolutely owned. I had the ball go through my legs and popped over my head multiple times. I already knew I was slow, and playing today gave me a new reassurance of that. But now we also have a volleyball court set up, so that has been fun. We continue to do outside work during the day. Lately, we have mostly been digging holes to plant trees in.

This weekend, Zach, Max, Gina, and I drove about 5 hours away to a really neat campout spot. We spent about 3 hours on a dirt road that felt more like a rollercoaster or horse ride. The road took us through the bush, and probably some of the world’s prettiest scenery. We passed Maasai villages, naked kids in muddy puddles, thousands of cows and donkeys, and some amazing animals, like zebra, ostrich, wildebeest, grant and thompson gazelle. We ate a picnic style lunch on the way that I definitely will never forget. We were surrounded by animals and mountains, a smoking volcano, and absolutely no one in sight for miles and miles. We spent two days camping in tents, which is always fun, whether you are in your backyard or in the African bush! On Saturday, we went hiking, and it was so amazing. I wish you could have seen it, because every moment of it was almost breathtaking. We hiked up a river, surrounded by tall cliffs and mountains and palm trees. Some of the way, we were actually walking in the water, and other times we had to do some pretty serious climbing. In the four hours it took for us to get to the source of the river, we saw close to 50 waterfalls both in the river and pouring from the cliff on the side. We finally got to the source, and it was the most beautiful place I have ever stood. On three sides stood a 500 foot cliff wall pouring out crystal clear water from what seemed like a hundred spots. It was like we were the only people on Earth living in the most glorious and peaceful place created. I stood on the face of the cliff for 20 minutes in awe at its beauty and the glory of its Creator. I felt in that time God was strengthening my hope of our future glory in Him and our eternal home.

God let me see one more thing this weekend I’d like to share with you, but it is a grotesque picture, in sharp contrast to the picture of the river source. On our drive back, when we were only about an hour from home, I saw what looked like a dead animal on the road ahead. But as we came closer, the dead animal became a very young dead boy lying dead. He must have just been hit by a car, who we were told most likely just drove off. His mother was wailing on the other side of the road. I was really shaken up after seeing that, especially because I had just seen something so beautiful and full of life. In those next couple of hours, I thought about the sharp contrast between life full of God and life absent of His grace and love. It was so sad, but at the same time I was so thankful to know we worship a God who has prepared for us a glorious home, a “kingdom which cannot be shaken.” He is our only hope in a pretty dark world. I pray that you would thank God at this moment for His wonderful gift, and also pray for those who do not know Him as Savior. Thanks so much for reading about our lives here. You all mean so much to us.
Much love,
andrew and zach