HOT showers in cabin 4

Posted on November 10, 2014     1 Comment

Most of camp Eden is without water. Well, it trickles out cold so we can brush our teeth and flush the toilets but warm showers are out of the question, unless of course you are Brian or Tim and staying in cabin 4.

For whatever reason the entire camp is pretty low on water but when Brian and Tim showed up for dinner they just looked so clean. Everyone else had taken a sponge baths out of a bucket while Brian told me he actually had to turn the cold water on while he was showering because it was just too hot!! Ahhhh, poor Brian. We didn’t feel the least bit sorry for him.

Besides being low on water, today Dawn and I were able to spend the day with Tara in town looking at different stores to get some ideas of prices, etc. I was feeling such a sense of accomplishment getting 15 suitcases over here with so many of our things but after trying to get my head wrapped around all of the things we will need to purchase when we get here, I was feeling a bit defeated. It also rained most of the afternoon, which isn’t good for the construction site and Rob is also not feeling well.

Please pray the rain holds so we can get the trusses up, and that Rob is feeling better.

Sunday service at Extension 23

Posted on November 9, 2014     Leave a Comment

We were able to attend church at Extension 23 and it was such a blessing (as it always is). Below is a picture of their new church building, it was good to see some familiar faces and many new ones who warmly welcomed us, just as the South Africans do.

After church we went back to Camp Eden and had lunch together (Jim grabbed Michael from the airport). All of us that have been here before had the chance to catch up with old friends, meet a few new ones and just enjoy each other’s company. We already have a few nicknames in our group, and have had more laughs then I can count.

Rob and I really can’t express in words how awesome it has been to travel with this group. We know sacrifices have been made to come here and we can’t find the right words to show our appreciation. We are looking forward to a great week together.

Thank you Jesus for this amazing group of people and for allowing us to be in South Africa, please use us according to your plan.

South Africa here we come…

Posted on November 7, 2014     4 Comments

We are in the Atlanta airport eating a quick dinner and getting ready to board our long flight to Africa.

Everything has gone very smooth so far. Our seats got split up a bit on this upcoming flight, so we are hoping for some seat changes when we get to the gate.

We will let you know when our feet are on the ground.
Keep praying.

Off to Africa

Posted on November 6, 2014     2 Comments

It is Thursday and everyone is busy getting everything in order to leave for 11 days.  It seems like this past month has brought on a world of pain and hurt in my life personally.  I sometimes wonder why we see so much pain, but realize this is not our permanent home, and we need to continue to hold tight to God’s word, spur each other on, and keep our eyes focused on the cross.

Our group will be traveling from 8:00 AM tomorrow morning until late Saturday evening.  I am hoping to post a picture of us tomorrow.  I will have our team members listed out too.

Please be praying for safe travels and being able to check all of the luggage (15 suitcases).  Pray that we have no issues with the computers for J-life (14 of them) that we are using as our carry-ons.  Pray that all of the brick on the building is complete and ready for us.  Pray for all of our loved ones here in the states, while we are away.

And, in all circumstances, that our group will be made more like Christ, and that we will be used to be His hands and feet. 

Lastly, there is a map that has been circulating that shows how far away we are from the Ebola outbreak.  The black star is where we will be. Hopefully this will ease the minds of our family and friends back here that have voiced concern regarding us traveling to Africa.

Posted below are some new pictures of the camp house.

J-life Camp House Progress Report #2

Posted on October 18, 2014     Leave a Comment

We were able to have lunch with John yesterday.  He is in the states for the next few weeks visiting friends and networking with churches.  It sounds like the house is coming along well.  We are deciding on flooring, kitchen shelving, etc.  It was great to chat with John and discuss our future roles with J-life.  It reconfirmed to us why God has put Africa on our hearts and also how we will be able to further God’s kingdom in our new location.

Most importantly – we would like to THANK all of the people and businesses that have contributed to this project so far.  We wouldn’t be able to do what we are doing without your contributions.

Below are updated pictures of the camp house.

Above is a picture of the front of the house, with our view in the background.

Above is a picture of the front of the house.  The middle opening will be the front door.

Above is a picture of the kitchen window.

Above is a picture (birds eye view) of the living room area.

Above is a picture as they start on the interior walls.

J-life Camp House Progress Report #1

Posted on August 10, 2014     Leave a Comment

When John & Lorna and the kids were here in December of 2013 we were discussing all of the details of us being at Camp Eden (J-life South Africa) for a year while we do our training.  One of the original options for us would be to live in a town near by, but we felt it would be difficult to fully know and understand the J-life DNA without living on the farm.  As we continued to pray about our living arrangements, the Lord clearly put it on our hearts that building a camp house would be most beneficial to everyone.  We would occupy it while we are there training.  It will then get used to house future J-life trainees, as well as, renting it out for additional income for J-life.

We are really excited about the progress so far.  We always look forward to any updates John sends us.  We already see how the Lord is using this, in a country where the unemployment rate is so high, it has and will continue to employe several local South Africans.

If you would like to help financially support this project, you can go to our ‘Ways to Give’ page or click here.

Below are some pictures of the project up to this point.

Trip 6 (June 2013)

Posted on June 5, 2013     Leave a Comment

This trip came out of some interesting circumstances God put us in on the last trip to J-life.  You will need to have a little background information to really understand why we decided to travel to Malawi.

1. As we were driving to O’Hare to board our plane for our last trip (Trip 5 – February 2013), we stopped at a bookstore and each of us grabbed a book for the 18-hour plane ride.  The Insanity of God By Nik Ripkin was a book that was highly recommended, so I grabbed a copy and Rob ended up taking it from me as soon as we got on the plane.  The book is very challenging, at so many levels, but it also talked a lot about a small country in Africa, named Malawi.  Oddly enough, neither of us had ever heard of this country but this wouldn’t be the last time we would hear Malawi.
2.   While traveling back from Johannesburg (on the same trip) we stopped at a petro station to fill the van.  All of us ran in to grab snacks while Rob waited.  In South Africa, you don’t fill up your vehicle, someone is always there to do it for you.  While Rob was talking to the attendant and telling him what we were doing in Johannesburg the attendant asked Rob if he would pray for him.  And then he said, “Would you pray for my country?”  And then he said, “No, you need to go to my country….I am from Malawi.”  Rob half heartedly said, “I would love to go see your country sometime.”  While the guy adamantly said, “No – you really need to go to my country!!”  Rob shared this conversation with no one else until later.
3. The next day Jim was telling Rob about a conversation he was having with one of the J-life Malawi staff about the orphan crisis in that country.  Jim looked at Rob and said, “You know, we should visit Malawi sometime and look at what they are doing to help their orphans.”  Rob was beginning to realize he was a slow learner, but the final icing on the cake was what happened next.
4. The day we were leaving J-life to come home, we got to spend a little bit of time with John & Lorna to discuss where the money would go that we were giving J-life from Eggs4africa.  After discussing that, Rob asked John, “If we were to join J-life where would he see our family fitting in?”  And John said, (as I am sure you all see a theme now…) “I think you guys would fit in well with a country like Malawi.”

Five months later we arrived in Malawi.  I can’t even being to explain all of the emotions, that go along with this trip.  Before we left for Malawi, we were excited to see what God was going to show us there.  At the end of the trip, we were so overwhelmed with everything we saw, it was hard for us to sort through all of it.

Our time in Malawi was very emotion-filled, Anthony and Regina and their kiddos were an amazing host family for us.  They were gracious to let us sleep in their home, and feed us more than we could ever ask for.  We loved experiencing a different culture, and getting to know their family.

One funny thing we were able to experience were boiled mice.  On the way from the airport to Blantyre, the location we would be residing in the next five days, we stopped on the side of the road and bought boiled mice (which were really hairy, black mice (all different sizes) dipped in boiling hot water) to eat.  I could barely contain myself from the smell, but was just praying I wouldn’t actually have to attempt to eat one of them.

Yes, we witnessed a few of the guys attempting to eat them…yuck!!

We also traveled with two other men from the North Carolina area.  Our group consisted of John, Jeanie, Rob, Robbie & Robert.  Yes, we had three men in our group, all with the same first name.  I think everyone in Malawi assumed most men in the states are named some variant of Robert.

The other two men were there to look at some construction opportunities for their church to help build the J-life Malawi training center.

Lastly, on the way to the airport we also got to see the baobab tree (Adansonia digitata).  As you can see how small we are in the picture, compared to how big the tree is, it was such an amazing sight!!

Like I said before, it was hard for us to sort through all that we experienced.  God gave us the right people to share this with, and the loving people of Malawi really lived up to their name, “the warm heart of Africa”.  As we go to South Africa to train with J-life for a year, we continue to pray that God will give us our next step in our journey.

Trip 5 (February 2013)

Posted on February 1, 2013     Leave a Comment

We were all kind of getting an itch to go back to J-life.  Mark and Rosemary wanted their 4 older kids to see a different culture and understand how other people live in the world.  We also took our nephew, Kyle.  It was fun for all of us to have so many kids on this trip.  We had 6 adults and 7 kids.

We had asked John prior to going if he could give us a project to do while we were there.  On Camp Eden there is an obstacle course for the youth, and John wanted a climbing wall too.  The youth and women stained all of the wood for the wall, while the men did all of the higher work!!  Yikes – that was high!!

(Rosemary was the only brave women to actually climb the scaffolding!!)

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We also visited Johannesburg and helped clean a store that sold donated clothes.  One day we went and sorted boxes upon boxes of clothes that were given to that store, or transported to a village in the mountains to another group of people.

The highlight was to chat with Cheryl at Door of Hope and see some of their baby houses.  We saw God using her abilities to live out James 1:27

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

We pray that we can continue to work with Door of Hope when we are there.

This was such a fun, eye-opening trip for everyone.  I think we all saw things that will forever be sketched into our minds, and the youth were able to experience a life that looks very different from the ones they live in the states.  God gave all of us a vision of contentment, even when we can’t control our environment.  Thank you Jesus for continuing to show us more of YOU.

I have to include this picture, it is one of the funnier things we saw in Johannesburg!!

Do you think this would raises any safety issues in the states?  Ha!!

Trip 4 (July 2012)

Posted on July 6, 2012     Leave a Comment

This trip came be known as the “orphan trip”.  God put it on our hearts to not only see what the orphan crisis looked like in Africa but to experience it as well – and I can tell you all of our eyes were opened to things we had never seen before.  We were gone for 14 days and spent long chunks of time traveling and hours upon hours in the car.

By the end of the trip our minds were full with everything we witnessed, our trust upon God was at a whole new level, and we couldn’t stop thinking about all of those innocent faces that never chose to become orphans.

We traveled with our two older boys and the Tucker’s again.  Jim had been corresponding with another organization that was doing some work in Swaziland (which is where our sponsored child lives) so with a bit of planning, we were able to travel to Swaziland to see another example of their efforts made at taking care of their orphans.

But by far, the highlight of the trip was to meet our sponsored child!!  It will go down in the books as one of the best days EVER for us!!

Prior to our two-hour bumpy truck ride to his village, we were able to go to the store and buy the family food.  We also grabbed some gifts for the kids.  Balloons were the BIGGEST hit by far, they had never seen anything like it.

One of the most heart breaking things for me to witness, was the day we were able to feed some children at one of the care points in Swaziland.  The dust was flying in the air when we pulled in, and it wasn’t from our cars, it was from all of the kids running to get in line for food.

As you can see in the picture below – each child was given a small container with 1 orange and 1 piece of chicken, some greens, and some rice.  They kept me busy peeling oranges, but what shocked me was that the kids had me peel their orange and then they closed their containers.  I thought at first maybe, (just maybe) the orange would have filled them up and they were keeping the food for later.  After asking one of the helpers at this care point, I found out these young orphans closed their containers to take the remaining food to the rest of their siblings and whatever “family” they would return home to after we left.  My heart broke knowing this was a “special meal” for them (they would only receive a meal like this once every few months) and they were saving most of it for others.

After our time was up in Swaziland we got directions from a local to Durban, South Africa.  We were planning to meet up with John & Lorna and their kids for a few days on the East coast.  What we didn’t know was that we were traveling in the complete opposite direction of Durban.  After we passed all the landmarks that we were told we should pass, we approached the border.

For some reason, it just seemed like this wasn’t going to be an easy border to cross, but no one had given us any indication that this border would be difficult.  First, they questioned us about our car, asked for documentation we had never heard of and then told us we would have to wait for a while.  After hours of trying to obtain documentation for our car, and a guy named “Jon” telling us we wouldn’t want to cross this border, we began to wonder what was really going on.  Second, it seemed every person we came in contact with was telling us something different, and most were speaking a different language.  Third, we were also asked to pay even more money to get across this border then expected.

But finally after thinking we had finally made it, and we approached the border, we realized we were crossing the border to Mozambique, not South Africa.  We did a fast circle and drove right back into Swaziland and pulled our car to the side.  We went back into the border patrol office.  At this point we had gotten the attention of so many people, we were beginning to feel very uncomfortable.  As we approached the office again, with our kids and our passports an older gentlemen, (who had been rude to us earlier about the documentation for the car) said he wanted to see Rob out back behind the building.  I didn’t even have enough time to react and we were all back in the border patrol office, while Rob was nowhere to be seen.   After trying to explain our plan to them, they took us all outside.  Rob appeared from around the back of the building and told us the older gentleman had gotten a map and showed him we were not anywhere close to where we were suppose to be.  We eagerly climbed back into the car, and started our journey back to Swaziland.  We found a hotel to stay in for the night, regrouped and hopped back in the car the next morning with correct directions.

Towards the end of the trip we spent a few days on the East coast, in Durban – South Africa.  We met some J-life staff and also saw these furry, cute creatures, which are vervet monkeys.

Even though this monkeys looks cute (and innocent), they are a huge nuisance to the people of Durban.  You should never feed them and if you do they will start hanging out around your house.  When you aren’t home they will enter your home through a window and eat everything in the kitchen….but boy are they cute!!

We also went to an alligator farm…yikes!!

Managed to get a flat tire (and Tommy wasn’t even with us).

And swim in the Indian Ocean (which was the most beautiful ocean we had ever seen).

A few pictures and some rambling words can’t begin to bring to life, what this trip was like for us.  I know we were all stretched in ways that are almost indescribable, and yet we know God orchestrated the details according to His plan.  Our hearts were growing even bigger for Africa.  We didn’t know how that would play out for each of us but we knew God would use all of these experiences for His glory.

Trip 3 (Jan. 2012)

Posted on January 26, 2012     Leave a Comment

Rob, Tate and Jim returned to J-life in January of 2012.  Obviously this trip was more intimate as there were far fewer people at the camp.  Rob, Tate and Jim were there to lay the flooring in the silos and set some cabinets and countertops.  This gave the guys a glimpse of J-life without all of the chaos that can come with bigger groups.

The three of them were able to get to know one another better and Tate’s favorite part of the trip was picking on Jim.  With Rob’s help, Tate did school most mornings in the silos and then helped out wherever he could.