Today it is dusty…

I am sitting in an I-cafe in one of the dustiest places on earth. Opuwo is a small town in the North of Namibia, that is known for all the dust here. In fact they say that they have dust storms instead of rain storms. This is the town where David and Kyle lived while they ministered here eigth years ago. Right now the schools of Namibia are closed, so we had our last day of class last Friday. Our first semester at CHS ended well, we acomplished much!
In the last semester we have made strong relationships with the teachers and other volunteers at the school, and we have been to almost every student’s home. It was a busy time, with Adam and Sara coming to Namibia (they have already been here for over a month!), teaching classes and the home visits. Adam and Sara recieved their 3 month work visas, and they seem to be adjusting to Namibia well. Pray for Adam as he has been struggling with head aches due to dehydration. It takes a while to get used to the dry climate here. We have been here since the 1st of May, and it has not rained at all. We are told to expect rain in December!!!
Next term David is teaching on what it means to be a Christian to the discipleship class, and I will be tackling Aids and sex education with the 5th and 6th grade class. Please keep us in your prayers! We are also praying about the possibility of some adult classes in the new year.
Don Stoll, one of our dear friends and supporters from Columbia, MO, is visiting with us now. He arrived in Namibia a week ago and he has been keeping us busy! He spoke at school to the older students on Friday, spent a few days in Windhoek, and then decided that he would love to see more of the country. On Tuesday we drove to Etosha national park, about 5hrs from our home, and we spent the night night in the park. Yesterday we left Etosha and came to Opuwo, so Don could meet Asser, the leader of the church that David and Kyle planted in 2003. Tomorrow we will head back to Windhoek, and then Don would love to see the ocean, so we are going to the coast on Monday. The Wrights will be joining us on that trip.
On the more boring side of things, I think we are all moved into our home now. We bought salt and pepper shakers this past week, so the only thing we still need is a trash can 🙂 We finally have health insurance, car insurance, and we are now working on getting internet access at our house.
There have been quite a few hickups in the last four months, but we are so happy and blessed to be here. We are optimistic about the future, and we are left breathless when we catch glimplses of  the plans that God has for Katutura, and us.
Thanks to all for the continued prayer and support.
Please say a special prayer today for the other teachers at school as they are travelling and dealing with visa issues this school break!
Much Love!!!

The biggest reason to stick to the speed limit.

Like a tent without poles….

A few weeks ago we went up to the North of the country. It is about an eight hour drive to get up to Opuwo from Windhoek. We decided to camp half way there as we only left at 3 pm, and in order to camp we had to buy a tent. It is extremely dangerous to drive at night as the animal activity peaks after dark. As the sun was setting we saw kudu (we almost hit a kudu, it ran out in front of us and then tripped), giraffes, Oryx, hundreds of warthogs and some klipspringers. Anyways, we bought a brand new seven man tent, it cost us $100, it was the cheapest one we could find. We finally got to the camping spot, we were exhausted and irritated, and hot, and hungry. So we pulled our tent out and as we are trying to set it up we realize that there were no tent poles in the bag. None. Not one. So there we were standing in the dust with a fancy piece of useless canvas. We ended up sleeping in the back of our truck, it has a short bed so we left the tail-gate open. Our feet stuck out into the Namibian night. While I was laying in the truck, wedged between the wheel well and the $10 Chinese store mattresses we bought, I was struck by something. If we were to attempt anything here without God, it would be like trying to pitch a tent with no poles. Even if things work out for a while, in the end it would be a miserable failure. We’ve been reminded of that over and over. Most of the kids we work with come out of such horrible home situations, that only God can make a difference and bring a real change in their lives.
Keep God in the center!

Update! Update! Read all about it…

This is just a quick update, internet access here is “few and far between.” I will type random updates as I think of them:
The issue with the car accident was finally sort of sorted out. We ended up paying the man’s deductible, it was a ridiculous situation. It would take pages to explain the whole story, in short he was threatening to sue us, his exact words were  “bombs would go off,” if we did not pay HIS deductible (his insurance and our told us not too as it would be refunded back to him after he pays it). He was calling us and anyone associated with us at least three times a day, and just causing a lot of problems. We decided to pay the $350 (that was not in our budget) so the issue would be resolved.
Thanks for all the prayers!!

In the last week we went up to the North of the country to visit with the people and church that David and Kyle planted in 2002-2003. It was a rushed trip, but it was well wort it! The people in the village were very excited to see us, and of course we were excited to see them. I will write a longer update on the village visit when we have better internet.
This week we are at school working on tutoring some of the children who are struggling, please pray for us and the kids.
Adam and Sara seem to be adjusting well to life in Namibia. Adam comes to school each day, and Sara stays at home with the baby. Pray for both of them as they adjust to life here with the baby.
The  Hunters are back from their trip to America, it is great to have them back here!
We still do not have health insurance, we applied on the 6th of June, it takes them a long time to approve things here I think.
And the best update of all, WE GOT OUR WORK VISAS!!! We only had 5 days left of our tourist visa, and we were beginning to think we would either have to do the illegal immigrant thing, or hop down to South Africa for several months while we wait for the visa to be approved. But we got it! Praise God for working this out for us!
Thanks for all the prayers, keep them coming!!!

We prayed for faith…

In church on Sunday we were told to pray for God to stretch our faith, I knew when I said the prayer what the Bible says about faith, and how faith is perfected. We are in the midst of a trial right now. We are asking that you pray with us until this issue is resolved.
About two months ago we were in (caused) a minor car accident. So through much worry and drama we fianlly thought that it was all taken care of a week ago. It seemed like the insurance was finally going to pay out, but last night we spoke to the man whose car was scratched up. He is very mad, and says that our insurance refuses to pay him, so now he cannot get his vehicle and is threatening to “take it to the next level.” We are not sure what that means, and why our insurance would decide to not pay all of a sudden. It is quite a messy situation, and we want to be sure to handle it in the most godly way possible. There are many other details, but I do not have the time to tell of them now.
Please take a minute right now to pray for this issue to be resolved soon!

ROADTRIP!

I took these pictures on the first of May, when we moved to Namibia from South Africa. We took a 16 hour long road trip, it was over 1000 miles, and it spanned 3 countries. I took these pictures intending to blog them as soon as we got to Namibia, but the internet is not very reliable out here, so here you go, (70 days later) our road trip from South Africa, through Botswana into Namibia.

 This is the last view of South Africa. The Lobatsi border crossing is about four hours from my parent’s house. It took a long time to get through the border, they still process all the paper work without computers, so we stood in line for a long time. My parents cried, and prayed for us as we set off on our trip. We stopped at a service station to buy some snacks for the road. It is illegal to take meat across country borders, so we did not pack any road trip food. We had two bags of chips and some muffins, but we assumed we would be able to stop at a restaurant in Botswana.

 David refers to Botswana as Afro-Kansas, it is flat, the population is tiny and spread out, and one may see the occasional cow. There are more trees in Botswana though!

 The areas that the main road goes through only passes by smaller settlements, where most people live in shacks or other small homes.It was interesting to see that most of these little informal homes had satellite dishes on the outside. I am guessing it has something to do with the first African world cup.

African bugs leave bigger splats than their North American counterparts…

 It turned out to be a rough road trip. There were no restaurants, we saw one that looked like one would be gambling with one’s life (or at least colon health) by eating there. So we did not eat all day! It was extremely hot too, and our truck was fresh out of Freon. Anyways, not only could we not find a restaurant, but gas stations were scarce too. We had two Jerry cans filled with Diesel, we used up both before we reached Namibia. Also notice David’s fantastic color coordination. He tries to travel in style. Actually he is wearing a South African World Cup jersey, which made the border officials extra friendly : )

Finally the sign we had been waiting for, and praying for, and preparing for for so many years. We were finally in Namibia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made it to the border before night fall, so we decided to try and make it to the YWAM base. We had previously thought that we would stay at a hotel as it is dangerous to travel in the dark because of all the wildlife. In 2002 we hit an Oryx while driving at night, this picture was taken the next morning.

 The night fell fast, so we ended up crawling along the road for the last 200km of the trip. We made it to the base by 10pm, and were welcomed by the Hunters with homemade hamburgers and a warm bed! We were so thankful that the road trip was over, and almost overwhelmed with the thought that we had finally made it to Namibia. We spent many years preparing for this. Thanks for all the prayers, continue to lift us up to God as we live and work in this city.

The most beautiful sight in all of Namibia…

They made it!!!

Some fun things from this week…

We have been looking forward to this week since we got here. Adam and Sara will get here on Thursday night, they leave from Denver on Tuesday night. Please be in prayer for them for a safe and uneventful journey. They have a long layover in London, and a longish one in Capetown. We can’t wait to have them here!
Sunday was David’s birthday, he is now 29, I had fun reminding him it was his last year before the thirties hit, it was fun. This is a picture of his gifts, as you can see I ran out of tape and I had to be creative 🙂 (No one uses those ridiculous little band-aids anyway!)

It was a fun day! He also got a free cooler from KFC, and if you know anything about David it is that he loves free stuff..

And this last picture is of one of the kids at school goofing off…

Have a great week, and thanks for all the prayers!
Love
Sandy…

Today…

Hi all, today I made it to an internet cafe. The connection is terribly slow, we hope to have more reliable internet when we move onto our own place on the first of June. We found an apartment after looking all over the city, I will post later on what an amazing story it is. Let’s just say we were inline behind 40 other families desperate for a place to stay.
We have been in Windhoek for 3 weeks now, we have still not seen the school that we will be working with, as it is school break. We have spent the last three weeks going around the city buying the furniture and things we will need to make our new apartment a home.Thank you so much for all the support and prayers!
Adam and Sara still need $650 a month, but I think they are planning on buying their tickets soon. We look forward to having them here, is is weird only having half of the team.
We have been living at a YWAM base 25 minutes out of the city (the same YWAM base where we met each other 8 years ago). It is a farm situated in the middle of nowhere, we wake up to the sound of fish eagles and baboons every day, it has been great to be this close to nature. We have had time to just breath and think about all God has done to bring us to this point.
Please keep praying for us and keep an eye on this space.
There will be more updates soon!

What a chop…

We finally got the Toyota Hilux that we have been dreaming about. Right now in South Africa this Toyota commercial is pretty popular, I thought it would be fun to share with all of you who are not fortunate enough to enjoy South African tv. If you are viewing this on facebook  click here to see the ad. We leave for Namibia in a few days! Keep praying and watch this spot for more updates.