Safe and Sound in Lilongwe!

Ndili Bwino! (I (we) are well!)

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update that we have made it to Lilongwe, Malawi. Getting out of Ethiopia seemed to be a bit tougher than first anticipated. A shuttle bus was scheduled to pick us up at our hotel at 6:30am for our 9:30am flight. We were up and ready to go...and waited...and waited...and called...and waited...at about 8am, we finally decided to flag down a few cabs for an exhilirating crazy ride through downtown! Our flight was great, and we met Danny, Lindy, Pastor Dan, Pastor Kenneth, and Christiano at the airport. Of course, we had some troubles getting through customs with our 13 bags full of all our goodies, but Pastor Dan came in and sweet talked our way through with some help of the Holy Spirit :). Also, praise God that ALL of our bags came through without a scratch on them!

We were going to try and head to the Missions Base in Mozambique, but will not make it tonight due to the border closing time. So, we will hang in Malawi, fellowship with our new friends, try and learn the Chichewan language, and rest up for our journey in the morning!

Zikomo (THANK YOU!) for all your prayers and support! Ambu-yay Akudaditzeni (God Bless You!) By the way, that is NOT the way it is spelled, just how it sounds/looks in the English language!

Off to Malawi!

We have made it safe and sound to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! Of course, there were a few snags along the way where the Lord showed us some awesome favor! We BARELY made it to the ticket counter on time in Washington DC. For those of you who are familiar with traveling, each passenger is only allowed to check 2 bags with them for the flight. We had 5 people...and 13 bags (tons of supplies, sound equipment, etc,). Also, each bag is only supposed to weigh 50 lbs. or you have to pay an extra fee. Pastor Mike was trying to be a bit smooth as we weighed our bags and was hanging them off the end of the scale so they wouldnt appear to be as heavy! But, more than half of them were over 50 lbs...normally, we would have had to pay TONS of fees due to the extra bags and extra weight. However, the Lord hooked us up! After speaking with the nice people from Ethiopian Air, we were only charged for 2 extra bags (not even our 3rd extra bag)...THATS IT! No extra weight charges, etc. AMEN!

Getting through security was also a challenge. We TOTALLY forgot that Crystal had a whole bunch of medicine and supplies in her carry on bag...liquids, needles, syringes...all the good stuff! Of course, we were stopped...just as we thought everything was going to be taken away, we all stood off to the side and began to pray. You can guess the rest...we got to take it ALL with us! GOD is GREAT!

During the REALLY long plane ride to Ethiopia with a quick stop for gas in Rome, we were able to meet many different people and explain our trip to them. One of them was a man named Amobley, who is living in Richmond but is going home to Rwanda for a month. After our chat with him on the plane, we found out he was staying at the same hotel as us for the night during our layover. During our conversation, we found out that his brother is HIV positive, and he is really struggling with his sickness. We also found out that Amobley is a believer, but couldnt remember a time where he prayed to give his life to Christ. During dinner, we had the chance to minister to him, and we prayed with Amobley for him to give his life to Christ...right there at the dinner table! We also prayed that he would be able to minister to his brother John in Rwanda and that he would be healed. God is already doing some powerful stuff!

Well, we are off to the airport to fly to Malawi. There we will meet up with Danny and Lindy, stay the night at one of the local pastors homes, then drive to Mozambique in the morning. As for prayer requests, please continue to lift up safe travel, healthy bodies, and for us to have a passion and energy to communicate the GREAT NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST everywhere we go! Also, please lift up our new friend Amobley and that he will be on fire for the Lord!

Prayer requests and schedule!

Please pray for Nick Errato, Pastor Mike Parks, Mike Shank, Crystal (soon to be Mrs. Shank), Jay Summers, Danny Bravo and Lindy Bravo as we prepare to journey to Mozambique! We are all EXTREMELY excited about what the Lord has in store for us!

As for specific prayer requests, we humbly ask for you to list these things up to the Lord:
-Safe travels and healthy bodies with tons of energy to serve!
-Please pray that the engine of the "work horse" vehicle is fixed. This is the vehicle that is crucial to the ministry work and crusades, and the engine "gave out" a few days ago.
-Please pray for our schedule and ministry events. Songo is a brand new area to Whersoever, so we really have no idea what to expect.
-Please pray for Mozambique! In a missions class the other night, Jay learned that the Tete and Angonia provinces of Mozambique have no healthy churches or gospel (except for what Wheresoever has done). So, along with a few other villages in the world, these areas are known as the "Final Frontiers" for sharing the gospel!

Summary of current ministry plans: (subject to change)
Oct. 27th-Team departs US
Oct. 28th-Ethiopia
Oct 29th - Team arrives in Malawi
Oct 30th - Travel to Tete (Mozambique)
Oct 31st - Tete baptism, travel to Songo
Nov 1-3 - Songo seminar & evangelistic events
Nov 4 - Travel to Angonia
Nov 5-7 - Angonia seminar & evangelistic events (considering possible change to Macanga)
Nov 8 - Travel to Malawi
Nov 9 - Team flies back home
Nov 10 - Team arrives in Raleigh

Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers throughout our jorney. We will try our best to update the blog every few days, but there is no telling if we will be able to do so :)