Welcome to my page! I went to Africa while I was a senior in high school. This trip was a missions trip with the primary focus to learn about the culture and work with youth in the country.

I am going to put on the emails from our team leader to our families at home on this page. It gives a summary of all we did!

Letter #1
Just wanted you to know we have arrived safely in Maputo, Mozambique.
We
stopped once to refuel and once in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Caressa's
luggage was the only missing baggage but we trust it will arrive soon.
We had 50 minutes to shower and change clothes and we were off to
church
and enjoyed worshipping in English at a local church in the area. A
transformer blew out just as the service ended and so we enjoyed some
tea and cookies out on the lawn in the back of the church by
candlelight!

Monday - We had our 1st team meeting at 8:30am with devotions, prayer
and orientation of the day in the hotel. Our team traveled into town to
meet with an organization called Opportunity International. This
ministry offers loans & banking service to the poorest of poor in order
to help break the cycle of poverty by providing capital resources. OI
took us to the local open air market with about 7000 vendors in the
area
- what a sight to see them selling everything from shoes to meats to
live stock! After a brief stop for lunch we were off to visit a public
school with approximately 150 children.Our team participated in a 30
minute program shared with Youth for Christ representatives including
music, sharing of testimonies (Keri & Karen & Maurice) and plenty of
time afterwards to interact with the children. Many of the children
received shoeboxes from Samaritan's Purse and everyone received one
small book. They really enjoyed seeing their pictures on our digital
cameras. We stopped off at a nearby department store to pick up a few
essentials for Caressa - she is "surviving" just fine without her
luggage and then closed out the day in a seafood restaurant.

Everyone is happy, learning to speak a few words of Portuguese,
adapting
quite well to the culture/food, dedicated to praying and sharing God's
love!

Letter #2

Tuesday -

8:30am - We started our team meeting with focus on asking God to expand
our hearts and see the needs of the people in this country. We had some
good time of sharing and praying.

This day was a "unique" due to the fact that John White and Larry Cox
were able to arrange about 4 different meetings with various government
officials (former Secretary of Dept. of Education, Secretary of Private
Business' and Chief Council for Development) throughout the morning
and
early afternoon. Their time was very informative and productive.

The rest of our group used the day to do a little shopping in the city
and let our bodies get some much needed rest & relaxation. We
experienced "African rain" :) and shopped for capullanas (wrap around
skirts) worn by all the ladies, purchased a few souvenirs and enjoyed
some bargaining on the street with vendors.

8pm - Tonight we enjoyed our dinner with some Mozambique friends -
Sergio (local pastor and works with FEBA - Far East Broadcasting
Association) and his wife
Jildo (National Director for Youth for Christ)

Answered prayer: Caressa's luggage arrived!




Letter #3
Wednesday -
Our day began with team devos & prayer and a challenge to pay special
attention to the names of our new Mozambique friends. We focused our
time on scripture which speaks to the name of Jesus - at the name of
Jesus, every knee shall bow and tongue confess that He is Lord!

We left at 10am for the bush - seeing lots of sights of people on the
streets, vendors with their goods, mothers carrying basket loads on
their heads with babies on their backs. As we left the city and entered
the villages we saw huts, children running behind our van in the rain
and traveled 12 miles on a dirt road taking about 45 minutes due to
road
conditions. We visited a future sight for foster homes - one home is
completed and waiting gov't approval and another is under
construction.
The homes will house orphans in the nearby village and children who
have
very difficult home conditions. On the land were pigs and chickens. The
man behind this project has great faith and quite a vision for helping
the community.

Our next stop was at an orphanage with 400+ children from newborns to
18
years of age. We made lots of new little friends taking pictures,
sharing hugs and smiles and learning more about the work of Arco Iris
ministries. Lunch came around 4pm once we were back in town. Then we
were off to a church and had a wonderful time singing in the street
with
the children of the area and sharing the gospel with them! What a joy -
we gave the children salvation bracelets and pencils and candy.Next we
went in the church for the service and enjoyed beautiful African music
while worshipping God together. Our team even got to share a song in
English for the people which they seemed to really enjoy. Since we had
such a late lunch we went to a local ice-cream shop to enjoy some final
time with the local pastor, his wife and the Director of Youth for
Christ. What a day filled with opportunity!

After a very long day - we are back at the hotel for a good nights
rest.
Everyone is happy, healthy and so blessed! We begin a drive back to S.
Africa tomorrow. Thank you for your continued prayers and safety as we
return to the States on Friday evening.

John and Trudy & team
Maputo, Mozambique 10:30pm


Personal notes:

After the 3rd letter, we drove back to South Africa where we spent a day and a half on safari in Kruger National Park. That place was amazing! We did a day self drive through the park to our camping area and then a night drive with a guide. It was in one of the cool safari vehicles! So that is the overview of my trip! I will post some other stuff later