We’re Home! (Okay, so the title is a little cheesy.) Anyway, we arrived home from Zimbabwe Wednesday after traveling 32+ hours. Amazing we’re pretty much over out jet-lag, though we both woke up around 4 am the last 2 days. We had a great trip. It was more amazing than words can express. Luckily while we were there we did take lots of video and tried to explain what was going on and what we were feeling while it was happening. Jason is working hard on those videos so look for them to be posted later in the week. For now we do have some pictures. Here are a few below and you can view all 300+ by clicking here.

Kids from the Children’s Village (one of the orphanages) glad to see us.

Some of the 600+ kids that came to VBS waiting in line for 1/2 of a piece of bread and a cup of water - the snack each day

A beautiful African sunset. One thing we realized is that Zimbabwe is a land of contrasts. It contains unimaginable beauty but equally hard to believe horrors.

The group that braved baobab hill with us at 4:30 in the morning to see the sunrise. It was absolutely breath taking.

New friends from the youth group.

Saying cheese with the sunrise to our backs.

Over all the trip was very eye opening. No matter the stories or pictures you’ve seen and think you know I think its hard to really get a glimpse until you experience life with the people first hand. And by no means can I honestly say I understand how hard it is - because I don’t. I don’t go to bed hungry. I don’t make $10 US a month and have to support a family of 5 when soap cost $10 US. But one thing I can do is not forget. We will be praying for Zimbabwe with renewed purpose and direction. We would love to tell you more about our trip and tell you ways you can get involved.

Finally, we want to say thank you to all our supporters, family & friends for being so great. Also a big thanks to our church & team. We had a great time and couldn’t have done it without you. Also, thanks to Zeb & family for your amazing hospitality. “Oh man”, the trip wouldn’t have been nearly as great with out your company, stories and “shady deals”. We will truly miss you. Thanks to Nathan & Tessa for your hospitality as well. The dinners were wonderful and we enjoyed getting to know you and your heart for the Zim people. Most importantly we thank God for his amazing provision and love. We would not have accomplished anything without you. Thank you.

Packing space is precious when you’re going to Africa and running a week long VBS. Along with 2 weeks of clothes and personal items we have to take 50 soccer balls, 100 bibles, toys, food & enough crafts for 400 kids x 5 days. Needless to say a ton of stuff. Luckily, we get to take 2 suitcases each weighing 50 pounds but space was still tight. Jason’s mom had great idea to save space by vacuum packing our clothes. This was a crazy new concept to us but it worked great. We turned an entire dinning room table full of clothes into one (very heavy) suitcase. Thought you might be as mesmerized as us in how small and compact the bag actually gets. We’ll let you know how wrinkly our clothes are when we get there to see if it really was a good idea.