Update on CAR trip from Pastors Tim & Doug

UPDATE FOR CHURCH FAMILY FROM PASTORS TIM & DOUG:

Greetings from the C.A.R. We would like to thank you for your faithful prayers as we began our adventure on Tuesday of this week. We are very thankful for our safe travels to the C.A.R. as all of our flights and luggage made it safely. We did get a little worried about our luggage as it was the last four pieces to be taken from the plane.

We arrived late Wednesday night and then turned around Thursday morning to begin the all day trek to the Northern part of the country where we stayed at a Bible Institute where future pastor’s are trained in Bossangoa. Upon our arrival, we had the privilege of joining the director and his family for an authentic African dinner where we were served rice, beef liver in a sauce and goazo. It was a meal that cost them greatly, but they desired to show their love to us and went all out. On Friday, we visited our two schools. Bodali Level One and Bodali Level Two. Please know how blessed we were to spend time with Pastor Jeremy who is the pastor of the church that oversees the two schools. It was also a huge blessing to meet and interact with our two teachers, Samuel and Marc. Please know that these two men are amazing and genuinely love the children. Everyday, nearly 100 children are educated and fed because of your generosity and we have seen first hand the blessing it is to these children.

A few of the highlights of this stop was hearing a young girl recite the O.T. Walk Thru the Bible lesson. Another was seeing orphan children learning to read and write. Yet another was the blessing of playing with the children. We took over two soccer balls and two jump ropes and had the sheer joy of watching nearly 100 children get so excited over these small blessings. Jumping rope and playing soccer with them was an absolute joy that will not be matched by many other experiences.

Finally, because they are so appreciative of our support, they sacrificially gave us a number of gifts from the pastor and the church family. It will not sound like much to us as Americans, but please know it cost them dearly. They gave us some roots which are like potato, bananas and a chicken that we affectionately called Tina. Yes, we camped out with a chicken Friday night.

We love and miss you our church family dearly and consider ourselves very blessed to be representing Grace Church half way around the world. We long and look forward to the day when we get to share all that God is teaching us through this experience. Know you are making a difference through these hand in hand partnerships. Please continue to pray for us as we visit more schools this week and prepare to travel home next Sunday.