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We all arrived home last evening, after 30+ hours of travel, to a warm welcome at the Cleveland airport. Thank you to everyone who supported and prayed for our trip. We can't wait to share more of our experience with you...once we are well rested of course. 

Game Drive/Safari

Yesterday we visited a baby elephant nursery and got to see them during their lunchtime feeding. 

We also went on a game drive/safari at a preserve and saw zebras, giraffes, a warthog, monkeys, and much much more. 

Checking off all of the animals that we see.

Searching for the giraffes. 

Safari selfie.

Blooper: A failed selfie with a giraffe, the sun ruined our groove.

We depart from the Lusaka airport at 9:00 EST today and arrive Thursday at approximately 17:40 EST. 

House of Joy Visit (Reflection from David)

Went to the Sisters of Mercy (St. Theresa of Calcutta's group) orphanage and hospice yesterday. It was quite moving. It was immaculate. We went to the nursery and their must of been 20 cribs in the room each with a small child or infant in them. I picked up a child about 6 months old and sang her Sweet Georgia Brown and bounced around the room looking at the other children. After 5 minutes we had to go and I had to put her back in her crib. She immediately grasped on to me tightly and started crying. It broke my heart. Thankfully a caretaker came over to comfort her, and Jo Clayton came over and comforted me (another crying baby).

In the hospice there were about 20 men and women with HIV. They were very happy to see us and greeted us with song and clapping. I went to shake hands with the oldest woman to show respect and everyone around her jumped up to enthusiastically shake my hand. Again it was hard to leave them. I just wanted to spend some time and hear their stories.

Next we went to the school. It had orphans and children of the mothers in the hospice. As we walked over some of the older children (grade 3) were out playing and saw us and started waving. The sister turned the opposite way to show us a classroom, I looked at the kids and shrugged with my hands as the group was turning away. They shrugged back so I took off and ran over to them. They gathered around and wanted to know where I was from and what my name was. I asked them about school and what their favorite subject was and they started yelling out what they liked. A few liked science and I told them I was a scientist and encouraged them to study hard and pay attention in school. I started to shake their hands and someone put out his fist to "hit the rock." I added a little flare to it and everyone wanted to hit the rock. I had out both fists as the kids noisily hit the rock. It was a fun few minutes and I wish I had a rocket balloon on me to share with them, but I left the rest of them with a boy at Sunflowers Family Centre. 

This was a extraordinary place to visit. I could spend several days as it was full of love and joy.

Travel to Lusaka

Three hours out of the bush and Katie and I have been upgraded out of truck bed to the back seat. Four more hours to Lusaka...pray for us. 

Completed Storage Pantry

Soya chunks, flour, and sugar to fuel the kitchen and mouths of those who are a part of the Sunflowers Family. 

The beginning of the clothes racks. 

Plenty of cups, biscuits, and animal feed.

Blessing the finished building and all that it holds. 

The team excited to have completed our mission. 

Bloopers: 

We can't always take nice pictures. 

Gibson's Writing (Reflection from Marjorie)

Today was our last full day at the Sunflower Family Center, we leave early tomorrow morning for some downtime in Lusaka before we begin our journey home on Wednesday. I had planned a long blog about our 3 hour Mass of Thanksgiving today and the goodbye party that the children hosted full of dancing, crying, singing, and hugs...but something else struck me deeper. At the end of the goodbye party, The children were taking turns sharing words of thanks and encouragement with us. During this time Gibson shared some of his writing with us. A few days ago I was able to look through some of Gibson's writing and was struck by his depth and maturity. He has a God given talent in writing and is reading as much as he can to help himself grow as a writer. His dream is to write a book. I'm leaving him my copy of The Fault In Our Stars that I read on the plane ride here and hope to send him more Harry Potter books (he only has one of the seven). Gibson's words spoke to me today. I asked him for permission and would now like to share with you what he shared with us.

During my time at Sunflower Family Center I discovered that life gives the great hope when we come together with people we never expected to meet in lifetime. The love shared can never be compared to any price because we were brought together to be united and leave like brothers and sisters. And we made it with the support of many couraged people from Belgium, the land of our father, France, United States, and Spain. These made us know what we can do to the world and not what the world can do for us, by strongly supporting our education. 

This trip has given me great hope after coming together with people I never expected to meet in my lifetime. 

World Cup African Style

1-0 Jonathon shows them how to handle the ball. 

Climbed a mound of dirt to upgrade to box seats. 

The sun has set, temperature has dropped, and the goalie literally lit a fire in the goal box.