We Made It to Bangui!

Hey everyone. Greetings from Bangui!

We arrived here early this morning. A little "banguied-up" (sorry, I know it's lame...) but we did. Beth and Rob continue to be somewhat under the weather. They have a cough. I wouldn't call it "nagging," but it is "persistent." I ask you to pray that they will be able to rest today and be 100% by tomorrow.

Five of our trunks didn't make it, including the one with Beth's luggage, etc. Some of my stuff was also put in her trunk at the last minute because my bag was a little over the limit. The biggest problem is that by now we don't remember exactly what was and what wasn't in each of our 14 14 trunks, so the team will go over the stuff in the ones we do have and figure out what exactly we are missing.

Well, Beth has a terrific attitude about the whole thing and I didn't notice some of the stuff I was missing until I opened my suitcase and looked for my little black bag to get my truth brushed and realized my bag wasn't there. Well, I guess I will just have to do without a brush (sorry Dr. Wade) for about a week. Just kidding... But I am not kidding about the 7 day waiting period. That's when the next flight to Bangui from Paris is.

Meanwhile, we hope that none of the important hardware and tools for our project is missing. Regardless, though, we know that God is going to provide. We've been in this situation before and He always does.

We had breakfast with Jim Hocking this morning, who is starting his trip back to the U.S. tomorrow morning. Jim is the Director of I.C.D.I., the organization we are partnering with here on this trip. He is still trying to get cement for our project. He got six bags so far, he still needs another 15 or so. So, please, pray. We need some concrete results here (sorry again). I will post some pictures later on. Right now, I simply wanted to let everyone know that we are here and everything is going well.

As you can see, we are all trying to maintain a positive attitude about our problems. Coming back to Africa again has reminded me that my problems are of a complete different nature than the ones faced by people here in this country day in and day out. Everywhere you turn you see people on the streets with not a whole lot to do. Young men hang around market and public places. Several of them this morning were offering any kind of help with our luggage just so they could get a little coin.

The burden of living among abject poverty screams at you wherever you look. In my mind I imagine people walking and everywhere they go they see signs posted: "No outlet." "No exit." The whole world seems to conspire against them. The sign of oppression is everywhere, from the visible sights of pickup trucks with sub machine guns roaming the streets to the more elusive expression of people's faces denoting fear and perhaps allegiance to a force too strong to conquer, so they think.

Well, part of the reason we are here is to help people see that there is hope. We want so much for them to realize that "greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world." We desire that they come to the knowledge of this beautiful Messiah we love so much. We want freedom to ring true in their hearts. We long for them to sing for joy at the appearance of Christ.

We count on you to help us do that through your prayers.

I will do my best to update this blog as often as I can, but with our project starting tomorrow and my teaching responsibilities starting soon, I can't promise that it will be every day.

With God, for the nations,

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade
itrindade@woostergrace.org

P.S. God was gracious to let me sit by a young man who spoke Portuguese on the flight from Paris. His family is originally from Portugal and we had a great conversation. Pray for Rafael. I am hoping to connect with him again, as he will be here for the next couple of weeks visiting his girlfriend.