Trip Home (computer died in Gabon sorry)

Here's the team with Tim and Meredith in the center and the interns on the ends with us at the Compound. We really loved them all so thanks to Sarah, Melissa and Chris. Chris was on our flights to JFK. Good time.

The last alone time with God in Africa

Chris the intern doing card tricks with the girls on the Atlantic leg of the flight

In the Cinci airport at almost midnight. You can see about 8 of the 20 teens. Some others were riding the luggage carousel

I hope you weren't worried that there were no post but the computer went down and I had no way to get on. Thursday we finished all we could on the Wall for CFTAC. You should be proud of the teens because they stayed till there was no more they could do. We had made a bit of a game of getting the cinder blocks down the steep hill. We set up sections that you would take a block to and pass it off to the next person about 20 feet down the hill. Michael Whipple started running his part of the hill with the bricks and I was next so I ran my section then too and It felt good after a while. Finishing up all the concrete and setting blocks in the trenches we finished at 4:30. The Rougier teens prayer with our teens and there were tears shed. Then we got cleaned up as fast as we could, went to the beach to say goodbye to that side of the Atlantic and encourage one another in a job well done. Finally heading off to a Pizza Place. African Pizza is different and pepperoni is peppers.





Friday morning most of us females were up by 8:30. Tim and Meredith made us a big breakfast of pancakes, yum. Then we had a debriefing by Tim and off to the souvenir market. We came back, showered, packed and pastor John Jacques and his wife mama Janine came over with an African dinner for us, then presented us certificate of appreciation for what we did for the church to have an put up to remind us to pray for them and honor our labors. It was a nice ending t the time we spent in Gabon ...... well until the airport.....





Our flight was scheduled for 12:25 AM take off. We arrived at the Airport at 9 PM to find out that Royal Air Morac had been on strike for 5 days, but that we would fly this night. As it took us 45 minutes to get into the door to check in it was hectic but then came the real trial. They were taking on average 8 minutes too process each person.. That for our group alone would be 2 hours and there were a hundred people ahead of us. Our final person got checked in at 12:15 then flew thru customs making it to the gate to find as the rest of us had already .... no plane was there. On a fllight with Air France just 3 hours before us the other Intern went home, Sarah and on her flight were people from Survivor. I found the Hotel they had been staying at. So our plane arrived at 2:30. As we were getting checked in ans loading the plane, one of the workers looked at me an asked if I was on Survivor. Is that a sign for the future,umm... Well, we departed at 3:30, 3 hours late, only to find out we had an unexpected stop on an Island about 40 minutes north of Gabon in the Atlantic called Malabo. We arrived in Casablanca at 10 AM for our 10:45 flight but somehow that flight was miraculously change to 11:45 so we had a little breathing room to get thru. They open every carry on bag, pull everything out and well, that can be embarrassing. Made that flight though and the headed to JFK. We had a 2 hour layover at JFK but had to reclaim our luggage and go thru customs then recheck them. We hit a few snags there, then ran to the next terminal to catch our 5:10 flight which 1/3 of us were running from one terminal to the other at 4:50 only to find out for the good the flight was delayed till 7:50. Some breathing room then. Then delayed till 8:30 and finally took off at 9:30. So a 3 hour delay started our flights, then a 1 hour delay saved us, kind of only to put us behind for JFK, but God is so Good that JFK was freakin 4 hours behind. Got to love all this. Finally at 12:30 we were taken to a hotel in Cinci where we hope to get 8 hours sleep, debrief, head home and we all want Mr Freeze. We really missed Ice Cream in Gabon. So join us at around 5 PM I would say at the one in Sylvania. We would love to share our stories.

Another Day at the Wall

First off you parents of the guys well ........

What gentleman they are. This morning us females were treated by all the young men to a special breakfast of muffins, pinapple and juice ( really gatorade ). They had gotten up early to bake the muffins, decorate the table with palm leaves, make a plate decoration for us and wrote each of us a note of encouragement. It was such a wonderful treat, so be proud of your young men. I have talked a bit about the compound and in the past showed you a look at where we sleep but here is the place we stay. The main floor is where the missionaries and the interns stay plus our big meeting room. Then the upstairs is where we sleep and our 2 bathrooms are. The van is from Bongolo Hospital that they are letting Tim borrow because we are such a big group and we don't really fit in this anyways.

Here is the gate and wall aroubd the compound. Like I said earlier, you need a wall around your property or squaters can build on it too. That's why we are building a wall around CFTAC. There are people already planting gardens on their land.
This is the way we walk to CFTAC. Steve has our 2 first aid kits I made in hand and which have been used daily unfortunately. You can see a group carrying our cooler full of drinking water, which we go through quickly.


After that wonderful breakfast we headed off to CFTAC to continue working on the wall. Totally we have dug, pick axed or machetted a trench that is 500 feet long. Not straight by any means has week have to work around a little creek, trees and of course follow a twisty property line. There was a lot of mixing cement and concrete with a shovel in the dirt. Carry cinder blocks down the hill and placing them along the 500 foot trench. Cutting back more trees. Hauling buckets of concrete to the treeches over trees and around the water. The kids have been amazing . The Nigerian man in charge of the building of the wall is called John and he's a tough man to please. So today as Sam, Kara and I were busy digging a section of the trench he came by and as he approached we all stopped digging, looked at each other and said " he's going to point out something we are doing wrong." There we stood, scared of this Nigerian man who has been calling us to excellence in this wall building, just waiting for the words of do better. BUT to our suprise, no shock, he said " Great job" and passed on by. Sam about fell over and wondered if John had been drinking. No, he hadn't, it was just that we are getting it now. At 12:30 we came back to the compound for a quick lunch and a little rest till we started work again at 2.

This was me relaxing after we ate, reading a section from the book of Luke, next years quiz material. I just happened to read a section where it said " But Jesus OFTEN withdrew to lonely places and prayed" I thought how often do we make time in the day to go to a lonely place and pray. The tree seemed like a nice place to do that.

After lunch we headed back to do a few more hours work on the wall. As we were walking to CFTAC a taxi pulled up and in ot was a young man that we just happened to meet at the beach 2 days ago who is from Kentucky. He was working in Nigeria this summer and decided to vacation here in Gabon and just started talking to us on the beach. Turns out he is a Christian and so he decided to come work with us this afternoon. That what we were doing sounded neat so he came and buiklt the wall with us this afternoon on his vacation. He's spending the evening with us too. His name is Mike and well, I think it is just such an interesting thing he did. Enough about Mike and back to the kids.Many kids are really beginning to drag on day 10 of work, yet they pressed on. They would come up and say to us that they were exhausted but that they could finish up today strong. It was such a blessing to hear that, but then again you had Steve, Big Mike and myself all over 40 ( 2 of us almost 50) hauling, digging and moving stuff with them so they didn't have much room to say anything else.
there was that slight machette in the afternoon with Matt ...... just kidding

Serge showing off his cement work

This is a shot of the end section of the trench we where digging at. We had cleared the brush away. Tyler and Jadrien are working on removing a stump mainly with a machette. Doesn't the tree up top in the center of the pic remind you of Lion King?

This was a man hauling wood on the other side of the wall.

This evening some of our guys went out with Chris the intern to play basketball with some locals. Another opportunity to BE as we say here. Being with the Gabonese is so important. Soon we will have our devotional and worship time, which we do every evening. It has been a great time. Tomorrow we go back for one mare day of wall building. Today we did run out of cinder blocks but they were getting more so we can do the one more day of work. Pray for our strength and for CFTAC to get more money to buy the needed material to complete this job. The total cost for the wall they say will be 17,00. Also pray for Tyler, he seems to be a mosquito magnet or so we think they are mosquito bites. His arms have around 50 bites on them. He uses the strongest deet we have and the rest of us have hardly any bites, so there must be something sweet about that boy. H is getting the royal African treatment tonight as in, we have put up a mosquito net around his air mattress. He's a bit embarrassed about that and I just drugged him with Benadryl so he can sleep without scratching. It's almost over but continue to pray for us. Thanks and good night on our end.

The Village of Chad

the village of Chad

a women walking with her basket

the people who came forward to recieve Christ

the rut in the road

It was a short nights sleep for us and the morning started with a few strange incidences. First was the van not starting at 6:45 AM. I guess I should explain the van and taxis we take around. They are pretty beat up and seat 18 or 19 people. There are 4 seats or benches (some don't have backs) that seat 4 each behind the driver where there are 2 more seats to sit in. The one van owned by the CMA wouldn't start. Tim had us push it out into the street so we could then have it roll down hill where he would pop the clutch and get it started. It of course worked, the kids loaded in that one and the other 2 taxi vans. There are 30 of us total all the time because of the interns that help but then we also needed to pick up the Gabonese Pastor, nurses and workers which added 10 more to our total. On the way a pick up truck tapped the taxi i was in, it was kind of a loud sound but no new damage on the beat up taxi. we got to the area to pick up the Gabonese who were about 45 minutes late. Wejust sat around waiting. There is American time and then Gabonese time. They are a very happy people and very laid back. We could take a bit from them but the time thing is a little tough to adjust to. finally at 8:15 we were on the road to Chad the village.

Now to tell you about the roads here. There are NO ROAD SIGNS!! ANYWHERE!! I have no idea how they know anything, but then again there are only a few main roads. As we were heading south the road would just be missing sections of pavement so you would be going 60KPH and then they would slam on the brakes to go over a 10 meter section that was dirt or there would just be these squares of asphalt gone. (This is for Ben and Ashley who said that Thailand had beeter roads than Michigan. Gabon has Michigan beat by far with terrible roads)After and hour on the road we had to stop at a ministery place to get permission to enter the village. We had to pray while Tim and the Pastor went into get it even though the Pastor had gotten it last week. Strange system. From there the road became dirt and it was unbelievably bad. Deep ruts ran through it and it was like playing dodge ball with the road. It was crazy. Finally we headed east on a single lane dirt road and had to go over 3 bridges that, well, were a few boards and you could see them move under the tires. Okay, do not freak out about that, it was over very small creeks. Finally 3 hours after week left the compund we hit the village of Chad. As our vans rolled in the people were waving at us and smiling. It was like we were royalty. The whole village was there and they welcomed us so nicely. There was no electicity or running water yet they seemed so content.

The first thing was that they had us all come in and sit in front if them. Then Jadrien gave his testimony to them and it made me cry. The Pastor then did and alter call. Many of the village people (no not those village people) came forward to recieve Christ. There was a large group but Pastor Mike had those raise their hands that it was there first and it was around 15 to 20 adults. Jadrien's testimony was an amazing one. Then Mama Janine presented the gospel and a lot of the children came forward. who really knowswith that but a seed was definately planted. After that was our skit about Malaria awareness and again, I must say your kids rocked! Using no words the kids conveyed what they needed and then Mama Janine explaine deach segmant but the villagers were laughing at the proper parts without explaination. I have it on video so at some point you all can see it. It took about 10 minutes and you will love it. Then we got to hand out shoe boxes tothe kids from operation Christmas child from Samaritins Purse. Yes, it is July but Chirstmas in July is wonderful. The not good part of it is that there are never enough biy boxes done the missionaries said and true to form the box of boxes we got hd very few boy boxes in it. We had brought the soccer balls which helped ,but it was not pretty for girls to get a box full of stuff and the boys got one thing. If we fill shoeboxes again this year I now know to push more boxes for boys and mittens aren't a big need here in Gabon. After that we took a lunch break then onto the medical stuff.

After lunch our guys started a soccer game in and ash field and it was quite the animal game we will say. The girls pretty much helped with the medical stuff. We did weight and BP. Passed it onto the nurse who spoke french who would then make an assesment of their aliments. She would perscribe some meds, mainly vitamins and ibuprofen. Then our girls would fill little envelopes with what was perscribed and double checked by the nurse. There were antibiotics given out to but the sad thing was how many of the elderly were extremely hypertensive and there is nothing we could really do for because of the lack of long term abiltiy to get meds in the village. One mans BP was 244/124 which just broke my heart. It was a very good day and an amazing experience. The drive home took us 2 hours and was just as exciting as the way there. I

The days been long and good. Tomorrow is back to CFTAC to continue on the building of the wall. Thanks for your prayers,comments and taking the time to read this. It's been great for all us here too to hear from you. I guess the prayer for tommorow is safety while we build and that we can get a lot done.

The Hope House

Sunset last night, doesn't it just look like Africa

every morning they deliver a lot of bread for us to eat. We are loving the bread

This is Hope House

Yesterday i left off with our kids playing soccer against the Gabonese kids. OUr girls won and our guys lost, but then they did a shoot out with both for fun and that our girls lost and our guys won. One of the Gabonese girls really cut the end of her toe and I had to patch h er up, which is a bit difficult because I couldn't communicate what I was going to do. It all worked out though. Then after dinner we had a bonfire which was fun.

This morning we got up and headed over to Hope House to work. Part of what we were to do was grad the backyard to keep it from flooding as it has been known to do regularly. First we needed to clear out the junk from the area.

So here you have the kids moving stuff over to a cement patio so that the pick axes and shovels could be used.


Here was one of the orphans watching from the balcony what was going on. The last little bit of junk was being taken away.

Steve once again made a plan for how the area should be graded. Seems like his work in the Patrol has made himan expert on such things. After all he does help monitor traffic flow at paving site for the state as off duty details and the man loves to ask questions about things. Sorry to say that because the work area was small and labor intensive the guys did all the grunt work while the girls went to hang out and play with the 16 orphans there.


Kari had just taken a picture of this boy and was showing it to him. Precious don't you think.



Lacey was painting this little girls nails then blowing on them to dry.

Ashley just loving on the kids


Here's Kari and Paulette pushing the kids on a merri-go-round type thing.

Our guys worked very hard at the grading of the backyard. The girls played soccer, duck duck goose and other things with the kids. We only had 3 hours there, which wasn't enough time to love on the kids. Before we left we gave gifts to each of the kids there and that was a bit chaotic because they started fighting with each other to get the others toy. We came back to the compound for lunch and Rougier Teens joined up with us to then go to the beach with them. I had gone upstairs to get something when Jadrien came running in saying " We need you, someone really mangled their hand" . Not what I wanted to here. I got down to the porch and there was a Rougier kid standing there with the palm of his hand all bloody and a gaping wound in his palm. Now mind you I am a butt nurse and it had been a long time since I have seen a gaping wound right before lunch none the less. Got a good look at it under running water and it was a deep one, probably needing 4-6stitches in it but there is no reallt going to the Hospital here. So I cleansed the wound, put antibiotic ointmant on it, butterflied it shut, dressed it and then taped his hand in a position that wound hinder him from spreading open his palm. Pray that he can keep it clean and that my butterflies last for at least 5 days. I think I might see him again in Thursday. After tht we did go to the beach for a few hour and it was cold. Yeah I said cold in Africa near the equator in July.

Tonight we prepared a skit for the village tomorrow about malaria prevention. We will be doing medical stuff for the most part.We get up at 6 AM, leqve at 7 and wont get back from the village till 7 PM if we are lucky. Pray for our time there to be profitable in whatever way God needs it to be. Also there is only so much room we have for water, so that we miraculously stay hydrated and there are no bathrooms so you get the idea there for that one. It's almost 11 here so I most go get that little bit of sleep now. Thanks for your prayers and the kids love reading the comments so keep them coming one and all who read this, if you are a parent or not, leave a note of encouragement as our time is running down.


Just thought you might want to see what is right across the street from our living quarters. Yep, garbage, it is everywhere on the streets. They come by every week or so and pick some of it up. We really don't notice it so much anymore.

Church Service in Gabon

Here we all are in front of the Rougier Church

Today most of us went to the Rougier Church Service, while Tim Brokopp, Serge, Aafje, Tyler and Matt went to a sattelite church. Our service started at 9 AM and went till Noon. Yeah two services in one. For the first hour we had maily singing and praying going on. Now when they pray , they all pray at one time out loud. Wow, now I have a feel for how God hears us. It's quite noisy but cool. The singing was winderful and they did stuf in both French and English for us. Then we had an hour of preaching from Pastor Mike as they called him. Then they did some spiritual dancing for us and after two dances they started pulling us up on the platform to dance with them. It is rather unique dancing in church but cool again I must say. Then they did a few more songs and the offering where we sing the ... Somba ... song and walked around greeting and grabbing each others shoulders for a hug I guess I would describe it as. We loved it. Then the service ended and they had us go out first, the white people that is, and they gave us really African food, yum! Ok some of it was rather hard to swallow without gagging but we had to eat it otherwise it was insulting. Your kids did a great job of getting stuff down. They are off playing soccer now with the Rougier kids. As for how the outreach went in bringing people into the church this morningwell, last week they had 110 total and this week was 250. 25 were us but the children went from 60 to 110 and the teens from 30 to 65, so I would say it worked out pretty well. All the kids just want us to take their pictures constantly. We would get mobbed by them but we are loving loving them.

Tomorrow is the Hope House doing work for the orphanage. Don't know what all it will entail but it will be a great experiece. Can't believe we only have 4 work days left here. It is going by way too fast.

The Outreach

A little girl in the Rougier area we meet

Just a precious picture of this child peeking out the door at us right next to the Rougier Church

This one reminded me of an Ethiopian Child from pictures in the past


Your kids riding on the back of a truck in the Rougier area

A young girl looking out the window as we went door to door.


This little boy was so cute and after I took this pic and showed him it he smiled so big, then followed me around.

at the outreach we did relays and this was Abby denomstrating the crab walk

The boys doing the three legged race but the tie had just come undone. Their faces are priceless

This is how they cook their food in the Rougier area, in a pot over an open fire. You wanna try it?



The outreach today with the Rougier Youth (now I know how to spell it) was wonderful. The day was overcast which was a needful thing, that got us off to a good start right there. At 10 Am we met at their church in this depressing area where the Rougier Lumber Company is in. There are all these house that look like shanties so close together and garbage everywhere. They have electicity but most house have no running water. We had a short time of worship with the Rougier Youth then went out in teams togo door to door inviting the children for the afternoon. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. We wouldbe praying as the Gabonese didthe asking. There are soooo many children in this area and they are so cute. My team walked past the community wash area. They wash their clothes on this cement trough and they also wash their kids in a little bucket there, so yes I have a naked kid pic taking a bath, tastefully done. Serge's teamactually went into the house , sat with the families they were asking to join us and then they prayed with them. At noon we went back to our compound to eat lunch then headed back to Rougier for the outreach. We started with a 30 minute service where we sang 2 songs in French whichwe are very good at now. It was so exciting to do and so different to worship like this. Most ofyour kids want to try it back at Westgate --- somba ----- you'll have to ask them what it means and what you do when you say somba. at 2:30 we head out with the 30 kids that showed up at the church to go to the soccer field to have a time of testimony and then games. I felt like the Pied Piper.Kids were just coming out of their houses and joining us as we walked. Once at the field Paulette shared her testimony and then Gee ( a gabonese youth). Paulette's was translated forthem. Then the games began.We broke them up into 3 age groups, 3-6, 6-10, 10-16. There ended up being about 250 kids there. You should have seen the smiles on the kids faces and how well our teens did at leading the games we each planned for the different ages. It was incredible. The 6-10 year olds we had relay races with them and there were about 70 of them. We had them do a 3 legged race which just cracked us up at how they did it. We demonstrated everything for thembefore each race and they would still comeup with their unique way to do it. The 10-16 group did stuff around soccer nd the most difficult group was this huge 3-6 age. They aren't good at their own language yet alone us English speakers trying to convey what we mean. It was tough on Kristy yet they had a good time anyways. We headed back to the compound at 5 in the van that Tim has which seats 18 and then the back of Pastor John Jaques pickup truck, which fit 14. Looked like we were locals alright. I'll post a pic of what it looked like tomorrow. Don't worry about your kids they were safe , it was more dangerous for me as I climbed out the window of the van to take the picture of your kids in the bed of the truck. I'll do anything for a good pic.

Prayer for tomorrow is that those who came to the outreach will come to the service tomorrow. Also for Mike Whipple who will be preaching at it, for Mike Noward and Abby Nearhood who will be sharing her testimony. Serge, Tyler and Aafje will be going to a satalite church with Tim and Aafje will be sharing her testimony. After the service we will be having an African dinner with the Rougier youth and then a soccer game. There you have the days events. Steve's foot is all bruised but he got around pretty good today, Praise God. I think we are all well. No complaints today. O, you can pray for Kevin's right ear, he got water in it yesterday when we were swimming and it is bothering him. We are trying a few remeadies like a few drops of alcohol in it and peroxide which helped a little but your prayer can do so much more. Thanks, till tomorrow .... Jesus is Lord!

Gabon Days 4 and 5 Here...

This is one of the three girls sleeping room

here is the guys sleeping room, also our walk through Area

ATTENTION PARENTS: Your teens want you to comment on the blog. They really want to hear from you, so write something, I let them read it.

That out of the way here is what has gone on the past two days.

First is a big prayer request: Today while playing soccer Steve either dilocated his little toe or broke it. It just kinda dangles and is all purple and swollen now. The medical system here is like, not good, so we will wait the 10 day till we get home. I have been doing the nurse things I can like checking color,warm, movement, pain, numbness, tingling and know there is not much to do but tape it to his other toes and wear a firm bottom shoe at thos point. He's hobbling around but in good spirits. Not bad for an almost 50 year old guy. Just so you know he continued to play soccer for 15 minutes after it happened.

Yesterday was a planning day for an outreach we are assisting with. We did the planning with the Roche Youth group and talk about a difficult job to do. The didn't speak english and we didn't speak french. It was fun and frustrating trying to plan games to play at the outreach. Then we had to go to the Market to buy stuff for the outreach. We had 4 groups and were each given 10000 African Francs or about $5 tobuy the stuff. We told the teens not to bring anything with them, not even their cameras but I didn't do that. I put the little digital camera Steve just bought in my pocket because I am the Photodocumenter and...... one minute into the market I was pick pocketed and Steve no longer has a little digital camera. The Market was so frustrating for us. Very crowded and not being able to communicate even with the Gabonese teens on our team was just a bigheadache but a great lesson. God being God well, it all worked out and we got what we needed. Became better mimes. Last night then we had the Pastor who will be taking us into the jungle, to a small village about 30 klm south and 15 east of here on Tuesday. Wewill be doing various things but a good portion will be medical. More on a future date about how to pray for that day. It was a very good day, yet exhausting from the aspect of communication.

Today was a day of just relaxation. First we went to catch a boat to this beach across from Libreville. The place where we caught the boat IS where SURVIVOR took off from to start this season and where daily they pick up supplies. So..... here is a picture of me standing where Survivor kicks off. Can you say it will be in my next Video App that I am stalking them.

We got to the beach around 10:30 AM and claimed our territory in front of a verey small hotel. We started swimming, playing soccer on the beach (the accident with Steve happened late in the day there),walking the beachand for Matt and I taking a lot of Pics. We had a wonderful lunch on the beach that Meredith prepared for us. Gee, I need to take a picture of Tim and Meredith so you can know who we are talking about. The teens ate like we never had feed them before. I guess the sun just zaps all the energy from them. The afternoon was spent .....

taking naps and cutting hair????



jumping off the pier ....... it was a lot of fun and we all did it


and being swallowed by the waves .....

The waves were HUGE, over Big Whips head but a blast to play in. I got a lot of sand in my bathing suit as did everyone who frolicked in the waves. there were about 14 of us that did. Only 4 of us females were braveor stupid enough to do this. Mind you, the only injury came playing soccer, so jumping off piers and hugeous (word I made up) waves are not dangerous.

PRAYER REQUEST for TOMORROW: Our Outreach with the Roche(the Gabonese church here) Youth group. We will be going door to door at 10 AM (5 AM your time) to invite kids 3-18 to come. Then at 2PM (9AM) we will start with a short time of worship and then play games ina soccer field with the kids that come. we planned a lot of American type games like 3 legged races, relay race stuff so pray we can convey the how to to the Gabonese children. At the End we will be inviting them to come to church the next day and we will be there too. Several of our teens wil be sharing their testimony so pray for them in this. That God would speak through them to these kids. Thanks forreading and mainly for all your Prayers. Keep it up, we feel it.

NOW leaVe a COMmeNT TO Your TEeN!!!