Blog Update Wednesday April 6, 2011...from Kevin
Praise God, he gave ALL of us another incredible day here in Gabon. Our team was split for the morning and we reunited in the early afternoon. Dr. Mike, Brian, John Jr. John III, and Don continued to show love and medical support at the clinic. Fred, Eric, John W, Dave, Mark and myself spent the morning bringing some completion to our construction efforts. Mid 80-degree temperature and close to 90 % humidity is a perfect recipe for buckets of sweat from all of us. We finished installing the plywood ceiling; finished the installation and welding of 3 windows and have the other 2 windows ready to be installed once the block mason completes an interior wall. Erik’s craftsmanship was put to the test after we installed all of the cabinets he built and he put his full body weight on them to demonstrate their ability to withstand plenty of future use at the bible school. We concluded our construction project by moving 2 concrete septic tank lids using some good old fashion muscle and a few semi-round pipes.
We returned to the house for a quick bite to eat, clean cloths and headed off to meet up with the medical team at the Hope House. Pastor Israel and his wife run the orphanage. This is not the type of orphanage that I would have pictured, they have converted their home into a house large enough to care for the 32 children they have taken in. They school the younger children at home with a large focus on a solid Christian foundation. What a life changing experience to spend several hours with the kids from the home, a number of us helped with portions of medical exams that were conducted on the kids and we all spent time playing soccer and catch along with some one on one communication. Stephen, a teen-age boy who quickly moved away from the group was not interested in interacting with us or the other kids. I made it a point to find Stephen and spend some time. Over the next 30 minutes we looked at pictures of NJ, snow, my beautiful family and family activities, although he only knew about a half dozen words in English and I knew only about the same number in French God was able to allow us to communicate with drawings and motions. His smile when I got up to leave our discussion will last with me forever. This journey we have been on has been amazing, God has reveled himself to each of us in more ways than imaginable. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us tomorrow as the entire team will go on a mobile medical trip to a village about and hour away. I miss my beautiful wife Shelley, and daughters God has blessed me with (Hayley, Ashley, and Lauren) and can’t wait to return to share all the details about God at work in our lives. Thank you for all your prayers!
Kevin
Blog update August 6, 2011....from Brian
I want to break some blog rules and skip right to personal stuff: although I am having an amazing time in Gabon with 12 amazing men, I truly miss my family and can’t wait to spend time with everyone real soon. Tyler, I miss our silly fights- hope baseball started well. Macey, let’s play some softball and eat some sushi! Lauren, I miss your smile… you get sushi too! Noelle… I love you so much. I can’t wait to tell you about this experience… it can't be put into words with this blog. Lets get to it:
Today was a very fulfilling day, and we continue to be amazed at God’s work and how we are learning about each other and God through showing, and receiving love. As Kevin laid out in his blog, the construction guys were doing their thing with the Bible School. The medical guys have just seen the before picture of this and we are excited to see what those guys have had a chance to accomplish.
Our team consisted of Dr. Mike (a great mentor to me in many ways), myself, John II, John III, and Don. We took a quick trip at 830AM to a clinic I was at on Monday at Snei, where Mike needed to go over some patients following up there. We then went straight to the clinic at Avea II. I had spent a whole day there yesterday and it had been BUSY! Word had spread that there was a special Cardiac Specialist who was to be at the clinic these two days. I am NOT a specialist at all! At least I felt comfortable with all of the cardiac problems however, so I was thankful. So we had 22 patients yesterday, 12 today. Not that bad. We had lunch with Mama Janine, Joseph and Pastor Jacob- amazing people, where Joseph (love that guy!!!- I so want to learn French JUST so I can have a conversation with Joseph) showed John II and John III how he makes glasses with donated parts. What a ministry to be able to provide the gift of sight to those who could not afford glasses!
We took a rather long drive to the Hope House. This is an amazing orphanage that was started by some truly amazing and Godly people. Now this was cool. As soon as we parked at the orphanage kids poured into the truck. We immediately started playing all kinds of games. We eventually set up stations to get the kids well checkups/ physicals and everything went smoothly. The kids loved the attention, and I felt like staying there for many more hours! They are obviously starved for attention, but it is comforting to know many of them already know the love of Jesus Christ. Still, there is so much need.
Well that was enough. I could type forever. These guys are great to spend time with while we grow in the Lord together. God is good.
Brian
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