First stop of the trip North.

We stayed the first 2 nights in Kamanjab, a very small town with not much in it at all. It was interesting that the people that are running the rest camp we stayed at had only been there for 3 months and were previously from Cape Town SA. They were experiencing some of the frustrations that come with moving up this far where you really aren't close to anything. They told us about how they had an incident with their little girl and were scared she needed to go to the hospital but they are 250km from the nearest hospital.

We had a great time in Kamanjab. Right when we arrived we were setting up the tent and the guy running the camp told us to look up, and there was a giraffe. This was all with no fences in between us. They also said that Kudu often make their way up to or near the campsites. Here are some pictures we took while in Kamanjab and i will hopefully put some pics up of Opuwo tonight after the sunset.(I have to get a good picture of the sunset)

Please be praying with us that we are trying to see if this is where God is calling us. So while we are here and traveling around we are praying for God to put a passion and desire in our hearts to be here.

Andila gets sick!

So just the other morning as the kids are lined up nice and neat to come in the room i look in the boys line to see Andila hunched over in a ball and he says, "Mr. Wright, my stomach doesn't feel good." (Most of the kids are sick with something all year long.) So i figured i would wait to see how long this goes to see if something really is wrong. Just a few min later Andila is sitting right in front of my desk at his desk with his hands folded over his mouth and he is looking distraught. Then it hits me that his stomach really isn't feeling well. I give him some toilet paper and send him off to the toilet to take care of himself.
Andila comes back just a min later in the same position. He comes in the door with hands folded over his mouth and gesturing for more toilet paper. So quickly i see that this is more serious than i had previously thought. He comes back a few more times. Enough times that eventually i just had some toilet paper on the corner of my desk so that when he comes in the room i just point and send him back out.
About 5 to 10 mins later i had him sent to our admin/nurse/a lot of other jobs lady, Dorthy to see if she wants to send him home. I ask him a few questions to see why his stomach might be in this state. I ask if he ate this morning and he confirmed. So i asked what he ate, he said, "fat cakes" (a ball of dough fried in oil the size of a baseball or tennis ball). I notices when he said that there was an "s" on the end so i asked how many...2. Then i though... wait i think he eats here at school in the morning. So i asked about the school breakfast, and he said that they had a bowl of oats.
So Andila started his day with 2 Fat Cakes and then came in to school and packed a bowl of oats on top of that. After I heard this, there was no doubt in my mind that he should be sick. He was later sent home and was even gone the next day. Sometimes I guess it is true that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

Missing Home.

You know, no one ever told us how hard it is to be away from family and friends. I know as missionaries that's a sacrifice you make for the cross but someday's it's really hard. You know though, God know's when these rough days come and He has always given us something that reminds us why we are here and that His plans are always perfect! One day we went to the mall to get some things for a gift and our friend George was outside selling beads and he came and talked to us about buying beads and then out of no where he begins to tell us how much we encourage him by just being together as a family. That was just a huge encouragement for us too because sometimes we do feel worthless and just blah in this place but God always picks us up and shows us what we are doing here for His glory!

Oh Sammie.

So Sammie is talking up a storm from the moment she wakes up to the time she lays her head down to go to sleep, even then, there are times she is still talking in her sleep! She is really picking up everything we say. When you have a talking Child you can really see what you talk about it. We were driving and a taxi driver pulled out in front of us and Adam and I both were just like urg and I said Come on and then this little voice from the back seat says, Oh Come on!! whoops! I have to work on my road rage!!

When Sammie has something of ours that she is not supposed to have we always say Sorry Sammie this is not for you. So the other day Adam is helping her pick up her toys and she looks at Adam and says, Sorry Daddy not for you... She says so many cute things and just just can't help but wonder what all is going through her little mind throughout the day.

It is such a joy being a parent! We love it! There is not a day that goes by that I don't laugh at the new things she is doing and saying! She is so smart and such a good little girl. We just praise God day by day for our little blessing, Samantha Joy

LaHarpe Illinois Team!!!

We were blessed to be visited by 7 people from LaHarpe Illinois. There were 5 people that we had known from our trips to LaHarpe and two people that we didn't know before but are so glad that we had the opportunity to get to know. We have been involved with LaHarpe in a few ways. For the last 3 years we have been the missionaries for LaHarpe VBS. It was really cool because these kids saw us as we were preparing to come and now even got to see that they helped to get us here. This was very exciting but yet at the same time it made us very nervous. This was the first team that has come to visit us and to plan everything for them and have everything ready really made us nervous. When we saw them get off the plane the nervousness was gone and the excitement was here.
While they were here we obviously had to go on a quick safari, where some of the team was able to quickly touch a rhino while it was walking by the car. They came to Community Hope School and helped in many ways and really got to connect with a few of our students. We even took grade 5 out to the YWAM base and played softball and hiked the mountains with the students. We then took a quick trip to the coast where they were able to see the beautiful views of the ocean meeting the sand dunes. That quickly is an overview of the trip and there were a lot of times that we had laughs and serious conversations but we really had a great time and are so glad they were able to come out. Thanks LaHapre.

Camp

So we are healthy again and we were asked to help with camp at the church we are attending here. We were leaders in the homes where we stayed with groups of boys or girls. So we all got together in the day but went to our homes to have our group discussions and our in-depth lessons. It was a lot of fun and it was a huge encouragement. I was amazed at the people in the church and their willingness to open their homes to a bunch of kids and how they took care of us while we were there. It really was great to see that kind of hospitality. I hope that all these host know that it was not in vain. There were a lot of the youth that left with a changed mind and heart. There were some decisions for Christ and some people that decided that they really need to change some things in their lives so they can really glorify God.

Our very last session at camp talked about coming back to our first love, Christ. We were asked to close our eyes and to think of when we remember at the very beginning when we met our first love, Christ. We are told that we need to continue to do the things that we did when we first fell in love.

I want to ask you as well, to do what all these youth did and to look back and remember. Then when you have done that, try to think of things that you can change in your life to come back to your first love.

We are all one body and when one part of the body is hurting we need to take care of it. So please lets focus on caring for one another and turning back to our first love so that we can be a shining light to this world.

Sammie's sick....again!

Well i am glad i was trying to get a blog up on here and i go and say that we are doing better but we ended up at the Doctors again today. Sammie's tummy is very busy and full of air. She is throwing up and having diarrhea. So we took her to the Doctors and they gave her an anti-biotic and some things for diarrhea. The only thing is that since she has been throwing up and having diarrhea that she is loosing a lot of fluids. So we are really trying to keep her hydrated. The Doctor did say that if she isn't getting better by the morning that we may put her in the hospital so they can hydrate her and to take care of this. They didn't sound like it was an emergency but that we do need to need to take her in if it isn't getting better. So PLEASE keep her in your prayers. We don't want to have to do this. We hope that we can keep her here at home and get her better here but we will do whatever we have to do. Thank you for your prayers.