Send Our Team Some Wooster Grace Love!!

[Blogger's note: to all our faithful readers, 1000 apologies for not being able to blog Sunday or Monday. Right after teaching at 11 am on Sunday I got on a car and drove to Washington, D.C. with my daughter, Carissa, who needed to go there on an unexpected trip to pick up a passport (they messed up on processing her documents!). So I was on the road for 20 hours on a whirlwind "tour" of the Capital and didn't get back home until 11:45 p.m. last night.

Meanwhile, I am posting here the last post I received from the team, which refers to activities from this past Sunday. Also, you need to know that the team was contacted via Skype to one of our ABF's on Sunday morning. Bill Teach shared with me that Barb mentioned she was concerned about her leg, so we need to pray that it will stop bothering her. I know Bill is concerned. And Jeana had poison ivy, which she believes she got on the flight to Paris -- don't ask me how you can get poison ivy on a plane but that's exactly how she believes she got it and by Sunday it was on her hand, both arms and stomach. Please, pray for Jeana and for the whole team to stay healthy.

Finally. If you are reading this, make sure you post a comment to the team. Having been on a few of these trips over the years, I know how HUGE these comments are. They can brighten the beginning of an inauspicious day or put a smile on their faces after a long and hard day (or both!). If you are not a google member, you can still post a comment by doing it anonymously. Make sure you write your name at the end of the message. If it doesn't work the first time, please try again. Let's flood their inbox with messages of love, we can do it!]

Here is the post:

Today was another full day for us. We started out going to one of the Grace Brethren Churches in Bangui. We decided to go to the Sango service as opposed to the French service because we all know a little more Sango than French and the Sango service started at 9:30 as opposed to 7:30. The service was two hours long. Since they don’t have bulletins or power points, all announcements were read, twice: once at the beginnings and once at the end.
We were received by the pastor before the service in what we named the African Greenroom. After the service and greeting people, we again were taken to the Greenroom and given Cokes and Pineapple pop.
After lunch I was able to make a Skype, (a free Internet phone/video connection like the one used when we spoke to Pastor Bob when he was in Cambodia), connection with Tim in our ABF class. Bill was able to see and talk to Barb. It was funny because Tim positioned the computer so that I could see people coming into our ABF room. I would call out to people by name as they came in and say “hi”. It was great to see so many on Skype. New Horizons. It was like I was there and a part of class. Thanks to everyone in New Horizons who talked to me and prayed for us today!
We left after that to visit our 3rd orphan group. At this group we met a 19 year old named Domitil Bekas. He started in this group when he was young. He started when the group did. He is now 19 and waiting for the woodworking shop to be furnished so he can learn a trade. He is very excited about it. The tools we purchased have not yet arrived. Once they do, the shop will be ready to begin training students. It was really neat to meet a young man who will directly benefit form the woodworking shop that our church helped to build and furnish.

I am also including a picture of a little boy who kept beating me at the foot game that is played along the lines of Rock, Paper, Scissors. It was so funny.

We have been giving a soccer ball to each group we meet with thanks to some soccer players who donated their soccer balls. I am including pictures of all three groups we have met with thus far.

Tonight we went to an English service. It is quite a mixed group of nationalities, but everyone speaks English to some degree. There were people from England, U.S., other African countries and the CAR. It was a taste of heaven as we looked around at the many different faces. When we walked in, we saw the Sawers, a family from England working with Wycliffe Bible Translators that we met in 07 when Val and Zac were with us.
It was so cool because they had three children our children’s exact ages and genders. Val and Zac had a great time with them in 07. Zac and I sat with them. Judith, the mom, was up front getting ready to lead the singing and saw us come in and sit with her family. She told me afterwards that it was such an encouragement to see us come in because she sees many people leave, but not so many return. Their 20th anniversary is this week, so we invited the children over one afternoon this week to play with Zac and to give them some time alone. Before we left, we made sure to get a picture of Zac with Peter, Zander and Rachel.


We want to let everyone know that we LONG to see comments on the blog. So, please, please, if you are reading this, leave us a comment. It is such an encouragement to us, and we check it every day hoping to find some there.

Jeana Harley