All our bags are packed...

We're ready to go!
Our house is packed up.
Our goodbyes have been said...
Africa, here we come!

Thank you so much for all your prayers. We've been so aware of God's helping hand through all of these busy packing days and the sadness of goodbyes. He has certainly been our shield and strength.

Thanks also for your continued prayers! We have quite a journey ahead of us!

Here's our itinerary:

Friday, March 6th - 10 1/2 hour flight from LAX to London
Saturday, the 7th - 24 hour layover in London
Sunday, the 8th - 8 1/2 hour flight from London to Nairobi, Kenya
Monday, the 9th- 12th - stay in Kenya for 4 days getting supplies, adjusting to time change...
Friday, the 13th - fly to Lokichoggio, Kenya (on the border of Sudan) and spend the night.
Saturday, the 14th - catch small plane to YABUS!

Thank you to all of you who are praying for us!
We'll keep you updated as we can along the way.

Just 8 days until we catch our plane for Sudan!
Here's a picture of our new home awaiting us...

Three weeks to go!

We're counting down the days until our departure from LAX on March 6th!

For those of you eager for some news, here it goes:

The Yabus Bridge cable, which shipped over sea from India, has arrived in Mombasa, Kenya (Praise the Lord!) and is scheduled to arrive in Sudan at the end of February.

We are so thankful that 100% of our outgoing expenses are covered! We are hoping in faith for the final 15% of our monthly support to roll in.

Our house is on the market, and a garage sale is scheduled for Feb. 28th.

Units of time mean nothing to Jonathan, so he has been telling his friends, "we leave in three gymnastics classes!"

Below are our mugshots for our visas into South Sudan.

Moving to Africa

Happy New Year!

We had a terrific Christmas here in San Luis Obispo and a very relaxing week-after-Christmas in Medford, Oregon at a family reunion. Back to work tomorrow.

So you probably know by now that we're moving to Africa this year. Project #1 scheduled for Spring 2009 is in Sudan (see yabusbridge.blogspot.com for details). Project #2 starts in the Summer in Jinja, Uganda. We are very excited about moving back to Africa and cannot wait to see what God has in store for us there.

What is beginning to sink in is the reality of leaving San Luis Obispo, our dear church family, friends and neighbors. Sad. Our roots have gone deep here and it will hurt to leave. On the other hand, we wouldn't want to be unrooted here just for ease in transition. We are thankful for our San Luis family and will miss them when we go.

One thing we'll do when we go (yes I'm writing this down in a public online venue so you can keep us accoutable) is to update this blog monthly. Check back here for updates as we go, and updates from the field.

Some recent pictures of the kids...

Evelyn's new word is "bee-bee" (baby). She loves her baby dolls! I have found her reading books to them, wiping their bottoms with baby wipes, feeding them, rocking and singing to them. Today she proudly carried one of her dolls around in her sling. It was too cute!

Fun at the park!



Cheeeese!!

Susanna from Estonia

We had the privilege of hosting an exchange student for the month of July through the international program, EF. Susanna came to us from Estonia to get a little taste of life and culture in America. We loved getting to know this very smart, very sweet 15 year old who loved shopping, cinnamon raisin bagels for breakfast, diet coke anytime, and a nightly bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. We got her rocking with Guitar Hero, had a fun trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, picnicked at Montana de Oro State park among many other fun things! We said a sad goodbye to her today. On the way home from dropping her off Jonathan said, "I wish she could stay for ALL the nights!" I think this was his way of describing 'forever'.

Triathlon Man

This Sunday Phil participated in the annual SLO triathlon (sprint course) and came in 412th place out of 1,200 people with an overall time of 1:51:04. Unfortunately the kids and I weren't there to cheer him on because of other engagements, but our dear friends David (pictured here) and Lindsay were there to count laps for, run along side of, and cheer on Phil at the finish line.
Way to go Phil!