The Pines Mission

2008-09-01T20:35:00.011-05:00

Kindra and I are in the planning process of leading another team from Valley Church to go back to The Pines in February. So, we will once again start updating this blog with new content for that trip.

I have finally taken some time to re-design the blog so it is no longer a standard Blogger template (Yay! -- as a computer geek, it was driving me nuts). I still have a few bugs to work out and some cool little things I want to add; those will come in due time.

Please be praying for God to raise up a team from Valley who will be able to be a blessing to The Pines. In addition, this is the first time Kindra and I have attempted to lead something like this, so please be praying for us as well. Finally, if you feel led, please be considering financially supporting this team - it has been a financially tight year for us (as I'm sure it has been for many others), but that gives God an opportunity to be glorified by providing for the trip (I've been reading John Piper, if you can't tell).

2007-06-08T10:44:00.000-05:00

Now that nobody probably checks up on this blog anymore, the long-awaited slideshow is here! I apologize for long delay in getting this up.

Here's the deal, it is a very large slideshow and I was trying to fit it all nicely into one song, so if you click the 'Play' button on the bottom-left corner, it will play with music but will go through the pictures very quickly. I still highly recommend doing so :-)

To go through the pictures one-by-one, click on the arrows in the bottom-center bar. You can also look at all the picture in the "gallery view" by clicking on the grid icon in the bottom-right corner.

Kevin

P.S. After posting this, I noticed that one of the sides is cut off... Click Here to view it in a new window.

2007-04-09T06:22:00.000-05:00

As Kevin's previous post said, we have made it home! I want to thank everyone who prayed for us on our trip. This was truly an amazing experience for us, something we will never forget. I hope you got a little glimpse of the amazing and powerful things we had the privilege of experiencing. Again thank you so much. I would also like to thank the other people who went on this trip with me. This group of people made this trip what it was for me. I can not thank them enough for the way they let God work through them. We shared something with each other that can never be taken away. I only hope that everyone can experience this someday. I also want to thank the Niehoffs, Brian and Lois are an incredible couple that God is using in an amazing way. Please continue to pray for them as they continue in this task God has given them. Last I would like to thank my wife. Going on this trip with her has strengthened our marriage in a way we could have never imagined. She is truly an amazing woman and I am blessed beyond words to be married to her. As Kevin also said early please check back for more pictures, as they will hopefully move you the way they moved us when they were taken.

God bless you all,
Scott

2007-04-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

We're back!

After a long flight (3 of them, actually), we made it back safely to Des Moines. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We got in at about 11:00 Sunday morning.

Happy Easter!

Kevin

2007-04-06T16:13:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a short post because it has been a long day, and we got back late from dinner at Ruan's. Everyone is packing and getting ready for bed, which just leaves me (Kevin) to write :-)

Our last workday was today and we got the flat finished before lunch and the afternoon was devoted to cleaning up. Everything came together quickly and it looks very good now that it is finished.

The girls dyed Easter Eggs this afternoon with the kids and we are leaving behind Easter baskets for them to open on Sunday.

As I mentioned earlier, we went to Ruan and Lindie's house for supper tonight - they fed us authentic South African food with excellent dessert (couldn't tell you the names of most of it, but it was very good).

As you probably already know (or have figured out) we will be leaving tomorrow - our flight is at 6:45 local time (subtract 7 hours for Central time). We'll leave for Johannesburg around 8am and spend the day in the area probably shopping and possibly visiting the Apartheid Museum.

Lastly, I want to mention that I am planning on posting a slide show of our pictures from the trip. Between Kindra and myself (the two photographers of the group) our current count of pictures is 1283, so we definitely need a bit of time to put it all together. Keep watching the blog for the link to that. I also will try to post some of my favorite pictures directly on the blog when we get back (as time allows).

So much for the short post :-)

Kevin

Scripture chapter of the day 1 Corinthians 3

2007-04-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

With one work day left, we are very close to completing the flat. Today we got all of the walls primed and painted and most of the trim painted. We only have finish work left on the walls and the ceiling in the kitchen. Jenny and Anne got their hair braided by the house mothers.

For dinner tonight, we treated ourselves to Dros, a popular South African steakhouse chain. Kris tried his luck with driving in South Africa (left side of the road) on the way to dinner and Kevin tried out his driving skills on the way back. No major dents to report in the Combie bus!

The best news of the day was Ntswaki (Pictured in the Purple, front-left) coming home from the hospital earlier than expected. She seems to be doing well - A real answer to prayer. We ended the night with a "Welcome Home" party for Ntswaki, sending the kids off to bed with bellies full of ice cream - the house mothers must love us :-)

Our Devotion of the day was from 2 Timothy 2

2007-04-04T16:18:00.000-05:00

"Breaking" News: We cracked the safe!

Note: This is just an update from the earlier post today... We did lots of more important stuff today than cracking into a safe, so read that post first... this was just a fun little side project.

OK, so here's the back-story on this. Since this building was formerly the offices for a gold mining operation, and since they had pretty much left everything as was and vacated the building, they have lots of safes here, most of which Brian had a key for.

One particular safe, however, was very large and was in the "Cash Office" - no keys or combination was left that we could find, so we did the next best thing - punched a hole in the wall and took the safe apart from the inside. When I say it like that, it sounds very easy...

First, the safe has concrete walls about 1 1/2 to 2 feet thick with rebar on both sides. We went through a variety of tools to get even one hole all the way through. Today Brian rented a rotary hammer and made much shorter work of punching the hole in the wall.

Next, once we were able to squeeze inside (and when I say 'we' I mean Kris, Scott, and Cory) we went to work on pulling open the safe door after discovering the key for the inner gate. This safe had 2 combination locks and a key lock, so we had to pull apart the backs of the locks to watch the cams line up to get the correct combination. We also pulled apart the key-lock since we could not find the correct key.

So, what was in the safe? Like I said in the earlier post, there were 2 additional safes and a lot of books and papers from the mining operation - nothing of any value or interest to us. There were two "mystery boxes" which we found out were cash boxes - empty, of course.

After much searching, we did finally find the keys for the safes inside - not a whole lot of interest except for a very interesting briefcase - with an alarm and smoke bomb!

So, although we had lots of fun in the process, it ended up being rather anti-climatic getting into the safe. It still brought back memories of "exploring" as a kid.

-Kevin

2007-04-04T15:47:00.000-05:00

Today we really got to see the wildlife in Africa, and killed much of it. Jenny was welcomed by a toad in the bathroom this morning, Anne took on and defeated an "African Killer Wasp of Death" (I think it was just a normal wasp), Scott killed two bees, and Mama Agnus and Mama Gift (the house mothers) showed us how to get really, really fresh chicken... let's just say we now know what "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" looks like.

On to more serious matters (not too serious, though), we continued with our painting extravaganza, completing the painting in all 3 bedrooms and priming throughout the rest. The children even came in and helped with the painting; they were very happy to help. Jenny hung curtains in the library and Kris created a beautiful etched-glass window (he attempted to learn the fine art of glass cutting - he didn't do too bad for a newbie).

Tiffany taught the kids an "American" game of tag, the kids did well - they thought it was funny that they could run faster than us, even barefoot.

So, after a few people asked about it, we figured we'd update you on the safe... After renting a rotary hammer (basically, a small jackhammer), we were able to get our first glimpses into the safe to find... two more safes! That REALLY has our curiousity. There's also lots of books and papers and what we like to call "the mystery box". Even as we type this, we've got our people working on the safe... We hope to be in all the way soon.

Finally, but not by any means least, the baby that was admitted to the hospital last week was discharged today - she is looking much healthier and she even got a visit from her mother, who is still in the hospital.

Nswaki, the girl from the Pines, unfortunately may not be coming home by Friday - she may still need more IV antibiotics, but her condition is still improving.

As the week is drawing to an end, we are realizing how much we'll miss seeing these kids and hearing their voices as they play and sing.

Today's devotion was on 1 Peter 4.

2007-04-04T02:13:00.000-05:00

After our morning devotion in 1 Peter, we noticed this:

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." - 1 Peter 5:8

... very appropriate from getting back from the lion park yesterday! As we walked around the park, we were constantly followed by the lions, just watching us.

We have been getting a lot of comments on the blog about our April Fool's prank, some of which we have interpreted to be good-natured, others, not so much. Every night we sit down as a team and compose our daily blog update and on that particular post, we had debated for a while whether or not to put it, whether or not to add "April Fool!" at the end, etc. In the end, we did what we did and it may not have been very funny or appropriate to joke about.

We sincerely appologize to anyone who was mislead, offended, otherwise by the post. We are, however, beginning to feel distracted by some of the fallout of it, which is completely against the nature of why we are updating this daily. We love to hear from everyone back home and we really do all huddle around the computer to read each comment, so please keep them coming. But please do your best to be uplifting and encouraging.

As we all may have experienced, e-mail, blogs, chat, etc. are not always the best means of communicating emotional topics. Those of us who have used computers long enough for this will know well how what we write can be easily mis-interpreted because there is no good way of communicating the tone of the message.

As we read this morning from 1 Peter 4:11, "If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ." This is a wake-up call for us, but also good to keep in mind throughout our daily lives.

Thank you for reading, commenting, and keeping us in your prayers!

Kevin

2007-04-03T15:50:00.000-05:00

Today was a shorter work day than normal but we still accomplished quite a bit. The guys trimmed the doors and windows, Kevin Sanded in the kitchen and Kris worked on the windows. The ladies primed and painted the bedrooms as well as worked and played with the children. Tiffany brought pictures from her pre-school class and the Pines Children drew pictures for her to take back to the class.

The reason for our half day of work was that we got to go to the Boskoppie lion park this afternoon. It was the first time most of us were able to get this close to lions and tigers (no bears, Oh my!). The only thing that separated us from the animals was a fence - we were within inches of them. Several of us were nearly "marked" on, but fortunately, the lions were a bad aim.

The tour was great and we even had the opportunity to play with baby tigers - they are much like kittens but, as you might imagine, they pack a bit more punch and feel like carpet :-)

After returning from the lion park, we treated Brian and Lois' friends Ruan and Lindie to an "American" meal of carry-out pizza. We visited with them and sang a few praise songs. Ruan tried explaining Cricket and Rugby to us... we still don't quite get it.

Our devotion today was Psalm 5

2007-04-02T14:55:00.000-05:00

Today was a productive work day at the Pines. The team woke up a little tired but ready to work. The girls finished sorting through the clothes that were brought and painted two of the bedrooms in the flat a happy sunshine blossom yellow color (Anne's name for it). Anne finished painting a scripture verse in the library. The guys finished putting walls up in the kitchen and bathroom of the flat. The boys even let the girls have a chance at swinging the hammer to put the last wall of the flat into place. The girls are proud to announce that there were no bent nails! We were all pretty impressed with ourselves.

Brian, Kevin, and Kris went in to town to get glass cut to put into the new windows in the kitchen. Kris wired 5 electrical adapters for American plugs so that everyone who comes to the Pines from now on will have "American Power." Kris also made football (soccer) goals out of PVC piping for the kids to play with. They rock!

This afternoon Jenny and Kindra went swimming with the children. They worked on swimming skills and taught the girls how to have "tea parties" under water.

Nswaki (the 10-year-old who has been in the hospital) will be coming home on Thursday! Praise the Lord that she is recovering from pneumonia and feeling better. We have discovered her out of bed and playing with other children at the hospital, and she is really excited to come back to the
Pines to be with her friends.

An update on the new baby: She is still in the hospital but is doing much better. She is now able to sit up and is looking a lot better. Thank you for your prayers for her.

Daily Devotion: Luke 8

2007-04-02T00:34:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's post did in fact include an April Fool's joke - In fact, the whole first paragraph was. The Kunze's are not adopting a child (at least at this time) - after all, they do not even own a pet and the one plant they have is slowly dying! :-) Although they would love to stay longer, the Carey's are in fact planning on returning as scheduled.

Happy April Fools' Day. Special appologies to Jenny's parents - Keep the receipts (or slips, as they call them here) for the shower gifts! :-)

2007-04-01T16:54:00.000-05:00

We had a very exciting day today, Brian and Lois were able to pull some strings with their social worker and the government and after much consdieration have arranged for Kris and Jenny to adopt one of the children, Tsuna, from Thabong. Inspired by their hero Angelina, they would like to begin collecting orphans from every continent. Tiffany and Cory have offered their plane tickets to allow Tsuna to return on their flight. Tiffany and Cory will be returning to the US at a later date (to be determined).

We had a fun day of rest today at The Pines. We were fortunate to have our first day that we could sleep in until 8 AM! Kevin was relieved to be able to finally wash and cut his hair since he was not able to do so since his accident on Tuesday. Cory did an excellent job of cutting his hair.

Then we crammed 28 people, 12 adults and 16 children into a 10-passenger van, setting a new Pines passenger van record on our way to church. We visited a small church which was mostly attended by children from a housing project. Of course, the 28 of us from the Pines made up the majority of the congregation today. It was a wonderful service preached in both English and Sotho.

After the service we came back to the pines and had another Braai followed by playtime with the children in the pool and a stop-motion flannelboard production that would make PJ Homertz proud. The story of creation came to life like no other! We later used this to tell the kids the story of The Creation and the importance of obedience, preceded by a rousing game of "Red Light/Green Light" and singing all the Sunday School Classics such as "Father Abraham", "This Little Light of Mine", etc.

We finished the evening by having a light dinner and home-made ice cream with the founder of Morning Star, the day-care center we visited last week. It was an informative time learning about how and why they started Morning Star and also gave us a better understanding of the AIDS pandemic in South Africa from the perspective of someone who has been on the front-lines for years.

2007-03-31T17:06:00.000-05:00

Today was another day of mixed emotions. We had a light work day and made some progress on the flat in the morning despite Anne spilling black paint all down the stairway - we did get it cleaned up quicly and there's very little evidence of the incident.

After working in the morning we took a driving tour of the surrounding townships. Our first stop was the Phumlani Cemetary - an entire section was for children who died under the age of 4 - Brian said that probably 99% of the deaths were from complications from HIV/AIDS. The number of graves from 2006 and 2007 alone were overwhelming; the section we saw went back to only 2003 but was probably about the size of 2 football fields of tightly-packed, small graves. We estimated around 2500 graves and around 70 from this year alone. An image that will stay in our minds of this was an entire row of empty graves sitting for when they will soon be filled.

We then drove through Thabong and saw the house where the original 6 orphans at The Pines lived with their grandma. Next we stopped at the dump to drop off trash. The people who live at the dump (actually have homes built out of discarded materials) competed to unload our trash for a tip and rights to take what they find useful from our trash. Some of them sell the recyclable items to collectors who come by. Others are just looking for useful items and food.

Our next stop was visiting the two children from The Pines who are hospitalized. Both of their conditions are improving - God is Good, keep the prayers coming.

When we came back to The Pines we had lunch and then (an hour later) went swimming with the children and had a great time. The afternoon was further filled with more light construction work and outdoor games with the children. They tried to teach us Rugby, but it was lost on us Americans!

We finished off the day with a Movie on "the big screen" and popcorn with the kids. They enjoyed watching Cars, the movie in Brian and Lois' flat and we had fun spending time with them.

Our Scripture reading today was James 1.

Thank you for your continued prayer and we wish you a happy Palm Sunday tomorrow... it will be fun to have Palm Sunday around actual Palms!

2007-03-30T14:57:00.000-05:00

Greetings again from The Pines!

We started and nearly finished the framing in the bathroom and kitchen as well as removed the window panes in the bathroom, which will be replaced. The women worked hard on priming the walls in the living area and all 3 bedrooms.

Tonight we enjoyed a Braii, or as we would know it, barbeque. We enjoyed "Grilled Russians" (similar to hot dogs) and boerwors (sausage, similar to brautworst). Kris says boerwors tastes like soap - not all of us agree. The children joined us for the meal - we were going to eat outside, but it turned a bit chilly, so we stayed inside. Entertainment for the meal consisted of Mpho, the youngest boy, falling asleep in his food (literally), and our feable attempts to pronounce the childrens' names correctly (they did pretty good with our names). Their language has many "throat-clearing" and clicking sounds.

Please be praying for the baby who arrived yesterday - she has been very ill and Brian and Lois took her to the hospital tonight. Anne and Kindra were able to make it to the hospital today to visit Nswaki. She looks like she is feeling better, but still no news on when she will be able to come home. Thank you for continuing to pray for her.

Our scripture reading today was Ephesians 2

2007-03-29T16:06:00.000-05:00

Today has been rather eventful and emotional for the team. This morning we visited Morning Star, a day care specifically for HIV-infected children. We were able to have time to get down on the floor and play with the kids. They sang and danced for us, and we were all deeply touched - "This Little Light of Mine" will never again sound the same to our group. All other emotions are still too raw to put into words -we all get tears in our eyes just thinking about these precious children and their circumstances. Despite having this terrible disease, they are still able to sing and joyfully praise God.

The Pines accepted 3 children today from Morning Star whose mother is very ill and in the hospital with no one else to care for them. (See previous post) The ladies took them to the hospital to see their mom and also to visit Nswaki. We read books to her and to other sick children.

The guys continue to make progress on on the flat. The walls of the living quarters are completely constructed and will be ready for finish work.

Tonight we celebrated Corey's birthday tonight with a meal of Bobotie, an authenic South African dish. Following our meal, the children joined us for the dessert and sang Corey "Happy Birthday" in both English and... French? The kids liked the ice cream and thought the apple crisp was... interesting. Corey was showered with hand-made birthday cards by the children, which he will treasure always, and he said it was the best birthday that he's ever had!

The new children are adjusting well and making friends. They were overjoyed to receive a few sets of clothes, some of which were the ones we carried from Des Moines for the orphans. The looks on their faces tonight had drastically changed from what we had seen earlier today. Of course, they still need our prayer in many ways as does their mother.

Our Devotion Today: Exodus 3

As always, thank you for your continued prayers and encouraging comments.

2007-03-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

New Arrivals

Our blog posts to this point have been pretty light-hearted, but we would like to share with you what has broken our hearts today.

Please pray for these three children. The Pines took them in today from Morning Star on a "temporary" basis as their mother is very ill.

Our hearts have been breaking for these children who are likely scared and lonely and in a new place. They seemed glad to be getting a meal upon arrival around lunchtime and they seemed excited to be able to play here.

In about an hour from now, the women are going to visit Nswaki in the hospital.

We'll update later on with how the children are doing - thank you for your prayers.

2007-03-28T15:13:00.000-05:00

1 Day Without a Workplace Accident!

Thanks to everyone who has been faithfully praying for us. We managed to make it through the workday without incident. We greatly transformed the flat today by completing the framing in the main portion of the flat and mostly completing the sheeting.

In the meantime, the women completed the playground project and finished painting in the library. They still managed to find the time to help the guys with sanding the walls.

After work, we had play time with the children. Brian gave motorcycle rides, Kindra and Tiffany played with the girls on the trampline, and Jenny helped the girls ride on the zip-line.

We also enjoyed a beautiful sunset view at the mine tailings (large dunes created from the mining operation) just as a rain storm was closing in.

Please continue to pray for our safety and for Kindra to feel better. Also, Nswaki, one of the orphans, was admitted to the hospital today with a respiratory illness. She is expected to be in the hospital for 7 days. Please pray for rapid healing and courage as the 10-year-old has to spend nights alone in the hospital.

Our Daily Devotion, 3/28: 2 Corinthians 4

2007-03-27T15:24:00.000-05:00

Today we made quite a bit of progress in spite of a few setbacks. The flat is all framed except for the kitchen and the women are very close to completing the coat of kerosote on the playground. Still little progress on the safe, but we are hoping to break through soon :-)

It was a rough day for the Barbers. Kindra was not feeling well, especially in the morning. Kevin learned that falling timber hurts - he received a cut on the head but found that the the hospital is not as bad as you might imagine. Both Kindra and Kevin are doing fine, but could use your prayers for continued healing.

On a positive note, Anne has recovered from her incident and sees no side effects.

The highlight of our day was when children serenaded us with Bible-School songs as we worked and made the time enjoyable. After our work was done for the day, the boys visited us to show us their new hairdos.

2007-03-26T15:50:00.000-05:00

Our first Construction Day

We learned more lessons today:

OSB (particle board) is bigger and heavier in South Africa
Kreosote (wood sealant) does not make good eye wash
Cracking a safe is not as easy as it looks in the movies
Hit the "emergency" button, security will actually come, even after being called off. (Ask Tiffany about Chub)
In South Africa, order Peanut Butter and Jelly, you'll get Jello on your sandwich

On a more serious note, today was considered the "easy day" by Brian and Lois. We started and completed demolition on the flat, hauled OSB upstairs, nearly completed sealing the playground, and delivered firewood to the "#7 Squatter camp". The boys even had time left before supper to try our hand at breaking into a safe, while the women prepared supper.

Thank you to all who kept us in your prayers. Anne had a close-call when she had some Kreosote splash into her eye. Her guardian angel was watching over her and after flushing her eye for 15 minutes (we know, Jenny, RN timed it :-) ) she is feeling much better - Praise the Lord!

2007-03-26T13:35:00.000-05:00

Our First Day at the Pines
We had our first whole day here. It was fun but we all worked very hard too. We cleared out the rooms that will be the flat that we are building, brought up the pieces of wood we are using for the walls, and varnished the kids' play equipment. None of us are feeling jet lag so that's nice. Speaking of flying, I'd like to thank everyone who prayed for Anne's and mine ears (we tend to get a lot of ear pain with flying). We both took decongestants before our flight and didn't have much of trouble at all. The kids that live here are so cute. They are friendly and like to play games with us.

One of the best parts of the day for me was our team devotional in the morning. We all met together as a team before we worked and read through a chapter in the Bible and talked about it. It was really cool to hear everyone's different perspectives on things. God pulls on people's hearts in different verses. We all cooperate well as a team and I feel so happy to be on this trip with these people. It's so evident that God brought all our talents to this place to work together for Him. Some of us are sore from the hard work, but it is so gratifying to see our progress and know that we're doing this to show God's love to these children.

Kindra

2007-03-25T16:29:00.000-05:00

We made it!

25 hours, 45 minutes later! We didn't have any major issues, but we did learn some things along the way.

Lessons learned:

1st class would totally be worth it!
Delta feeds you well
One can spill an entire cup of Sprite in their seat in Atlanta and it'll be dry by Dakar.
Most seats can be used as a flotation device... are you feeling lucky?
This was our pilot's FIRST landing (in Johannesburg)
Those lines on the road... just a suggestion.

Just a teaser for what fun stories we'll have for you when we get back.

For those of you back home, the local time in Welkom is 7 hours ahead of Central time. If you would like to reach us while we're here, try e-mail, commenting on the blog (remember, its public), or we will have access to Skype - it is free to use computer-to-computer and Skype-to-Phone is pretty cheap, too.

2007-03-23T23:14:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting our blog. As you probably know we are going to use this blog to keep everyone informed as to how our trip is going. Please check back often as we plan to update daily. For those who don't know much about our trip let me introduce the team. There are four couples going. They are Kevin and Kindra Barber, Kris and Jenny Kunze, Corey and Tiffany Carey, and Scott and Anne Crannell. It has been very exciting to watch God work as we all prepared for this trip, and we are all looking forward to see how he will use us while we are in South Africa. Well it is now 12:00 A.M. on Saturday the 23rd. in only 9 1/2 hours we leave for the airport and our trip will officially begin. I can not thank you all enough for the support you have us. With out your thoughts, prays, and financial support, this trip could not have been possible. So, on behalf of the team, thank you all. Well, that is all for now. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, and please pray for the hearts of those we will be visiting with while we are there. Look for my next post on Sunday to let you all know that we all made it safely. Until then.....

let IT shine,
Scott

2007-03-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

Jenny here. Kris and I packed most of our things last night in preparation for leaving TOMORROW for South Africa. I'm in awe that the time has come for us to start the loooooong voyage to the other side of the world. We are really excited and can't wait! More later....

2007-03-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's the day before our trip! It's been such a whirl wind with getting ready for our trip--with our team being assembled in December, raising support, and now our trip is finally here. It's been so much fun getting to know all the people on our team and I'm looking forward to seeing how God will use all of us to serve the Pine's Mission in Africa. I'm feeling very frazzled today because there feels like there is so much I have to remember to pack and do before our trip. But hopefully it'll all get done, and tomorrow will be a breeze. I'd like to thank everyone who has supported our team through prayer and finances for this trip. We all really appreciate you and it's so great that your support will help show God's love to the children in another country.