going to church

Mark, Dave and Jon worshiped Sunday at Moussambou, about a 20 minute drive from the hospital.

Tim and Kay joined Karen Fitch at the village church next to the hospital. Karen translates by writng down the major points, song verses, and what is going on during the service. It makes it so much easier to be a part of the service if you don't know french!



it rained a bunch saturday night and had a lightning show!

job site pictures

Mark

Kay is leveling the piers for the steel posts.

Tim

Dave

Bongolo at last!

They made it! The flight from Libreville to Mouila was uneventful (that is a good thing!)
Carolyn Thorson, a nurse at Bongolo Hospital, met them at the airport and treated them with a coke and a donut on the way out of town. A small delay, when they had to return to the airport for a forgotten passport. Praise the Lord, a person was found to let them back in the locked up airport and the passport retreived!

The road was in good shape and they made back to Bongolo by 6:30. On the way, there was one scary moment, a boy came on to the road out of the weeds and they came close to hitting him! That is a huge concern when driving there, everyone shares the road and the roads are lined with tall grasses.

Karen Fitch, a nurse, had dinner for them, really good homemade icecream that Becky Thompson made and brownies made by Deborah Walker.

After a good nights rest, the team is ready to start working!

Arrived in Libreville!

The team finally made it to Libreville and to the guest house after a few delays. The Solvigs welcomed them and had a few jobs for them to do. Like painting and fixing some screens. The five team members from the East Coast, left by van to Bongolo so they could get the work started. The plan is that Mark and then rest will fly tomorrow morning to Mouila and the a 2 hour drive to the hospital.


A prayer need is that the officials at the airport will make that flight happen! Schedules aren't really a big thing, when it comes to in country flights!

the trials of world traveling!

A delay in Paris! Doesn't that sound like a good thing!
Not really, the team, now a total of 9, are resting the night at the Mariott airport hotel with food vouchers, complements of Air France. They are rescheduled for a Wed. 9 pm flight to Libreville. They will have missed the in country flight and hopefully there will be seats available for Fridays flight, if not they will have a 10 hour drive to Bongolo on a dirt road! I, Susie, did get word from J Claude, a resident doctor in Bongolo, who said that the road is in pretty good shape.

As I mentioned the Team has grown to 9.
Three from Indiana, Mel Steury, Lavon Yoder, Ryan Springer.
Jason Kalb, who is the, project overseer is from Ohio.

On their way to Africa!

Mark and Jon leaving from Lewiston, going to Gabon!

The rest of the team, is Dave Greene (Mark's Brother), Tim Erdman and Kay Callahan.

Prayer needs:

1. Safe travel! 3 different flights to get to Libreville, Gabon, and then an in country flight!
2. Luggage arrives safely! They are bringing supplies to the missionaries, including a scanner and several power tools.
3. Team will stay healthy!

china trip

Hannah, Mark and Susie, Les Tower and Dwayne Smithgall

Hong Kong

We landed in Hong Kong early in the morning and we had about an 8 hour delay before our next flight. So we took a tour and learned a great deal about Hong Kong from a funny chinaman. For example, there about 7 million people who live there! The most skyscapers in the world are in Hong Kong, 8 thousand! People there love Jackie Chan! It is the busiest harbor in the world! There are some awesome bridges in Hong kong!

Hong Kong hollywood walk of fame!




this view is from 'the peak' way above Hong Kong, a good tourist spot! they even had a starbucks!


Chang Sha Hunan Province China


Dick and Edna Williams were our guides while we were in the interior of China. really good people who love the Lord! we stayed in motels while there and ate at restaurants. yes, we had to use chop sticks and we did pretty good, well most of the time!







Hannah and Susie trying to eat!

this is Reverand Chen, and amazing man who God is using to make things happen in China! He is the President of the Hunan Christian Council and the principal of the Hunan Bible Institute.

We visited the Hunan Bible Institute. We were able to share our testamonies and interview some teachers and students. The picture below is of Gloria Wu, she has been to the States and Ellensburg. She is a wonderful Christian woman who God is using in China! She and her husband teach at the Bible institute and she also does a lot of administration work for the Institute.

a Sunday school class that was tought by the students.

we even played a game of basketball and some ping pong!

Chenzhou Hunan Province China

we traveled to Chenzhou to visit churches, churches being constructed, and wonderful Chinese believers.

we were able to catch in a few sights and even eat a few interesting meals, well not all of us ate everything on the table! There a few times we left more that we ate!

Les is sucking marrow out of a pig bone! Yuk!

we were able to go to a market that was in a small village! how cool was that!

because we were farmers they took us to some farms in the country!

This is just a sampling of the trip, we would love to show you more pictures and tell you much more.