july 27-29 - nzeng ayong

we spent 3 days working with a church in libreville, nzeng ayong. we partnered with the youth and adults in the church to continue building a new, bigger church for them to gather in. during the week we really got to know the people and had a great time! hands down the best work project (for me) this summer.

cooking with the mama's

dance lessons

french class!

faith leaves, langley arrives

this time around we had no break between teams. literally, faith was at the airport and heading to morocco on the flight that langley came in on!

july 17-20 - bongolo!

since the internet was down for 2 1/2 weeks i am going to give a brief overview starting from where i left off...

we took off on the 9 1/2 hour bumpy road to the bongolo hospital. we took it easy for the night and learned about the history of the hospital. the next morning we went to church and then got a tour of the hospital. on monday the team went to work while hannah and i helped out in the kitchen! it was a different kind of work than i'm used to here... it was a nice break! on tuesday we left to go back to libreville. it was a short trip... it would've been nice to stay longer... but it felt nice to get back to libreville and have our intern team complete again!

squished in the van (like this for 9 1/2 hours)

bongolo hospital

faith from ohio

sorry, i know it has been a while since i have updated! i have been having too much fun with our newest team! actually, our interns have been separated for the first time! danielle, lindsay, and torey left for bongolo hospital with a team from massachusetts - southshore - while hannah and i are here in libreville with a team from ohio - faith.

this week we have been busy digging more foundation and pouring cement to build another church in a village called okolassi. this church is very unique because it is literally a church built on kids. everyone that comes to church in that village is a child. and now they are going to have their own church! the coolest thing is that those kids have been helping us with the work and so they have some ownership over the church. what an amazing story to tell people - that you helped in building the first church in okolassi! pictures to come later!!

intern night out

tonight our next team comes in so that means no more fun - kidding! we are really excited for them to arrive. another team comes in on sunday so we will be a full house!!

so last night tim and meredith had a date night, and that left the night open for the rest of us! so we invited some of our gabonese friends to join us for dinner at birdy's bar, which is not a bar but a restaurant! it's a very beautiful place - outdoor and there are actually tons of birds around. there is also a pet store (with a lot of colorful birds) at the same location. and a gift shop. it's pretty much everything all in one! so, us girls got all dressed up and headed out for a night of fun! and lots of laughs were shared =)

zach, joseph, dan, christian, yoann
torey, melissa, danielle, alicia, lindsay, hannah, me

hope house project

i have a rather sad story to share with you today. pastor israel, his family, and the children at the orphanage had a decision to make regarding the hope house. the owner of the house they are renting is looking to sell and so they could either purchase the house or move. since the house is not what they are looking for long term to house all the children they have decided to look for another place to live.

God did answer these prayers and someone in their church has given them a piece of land that is close to the school. the only thing is that the land does not have a house on it and does not have any water or electricity yet (it is supposed to be coming eventually).

tomorrow we are going to look at the land to see what kind of work needs to be done on it. please keep the hope house in your prayers! it is a home to 19 kids who would otherwise have even harder lives. it is an amazing thing pastor israel and his wife are doing for these children! we all trust that they are in God's hands and that he will take care of them!

if you would like to help out with this project to provide these kids with a home you can make a donation to the hope house. please send a cheque made out to the C&MA and list in the memo area "hope house gabon" and send it to:

The Alliance
PO Box 3500
Colorado Springs, CO 80935
Att: STMO - Gabon - Matt Peace

** please note that any amount given in canadian dollars will be in u.s. dollars on a tax receipt.

saying goodbye to lancaster

tonight we had a teary goodbye with the lancaster team. it was sad to have them leave. the house seems so different... so quiet without them. they were an amazing group and they will be missed a lot! our next team comes in on sunday, so we have a few days off to have a little rest... and i can work on getting rid of my unwanted cold!

lancaster!

5 days and 4 nights in ebel-abanga

don't worry, i am still alive and well! we have been roughing it in one of many african villages for the past 5 days! it was quite a sight... 28 air mattresses with mosquito nets on a patch of grass on the side of the road! so those were our beds for 4 nights. every night we "slept" to the sounds of roosters, traffic (and they always honked as they went by), dogs, and snoring. we even got to witness an all-night ceremony with drums and dancing! it was quite the adventure.




these were some of the kids that hung out with us the whole time. the oldest is goomba goomba, then apoona, and the youngest is manya. just so you know, i have no idea how to spell their names... but that is how they sounded!!




during the days we cleared land and dug foundation for a church that is being built. we found multiple snakes that look more like worms (they were small) but are apparently very poisonous. we weren't sure if they were serious or not... a little bit of a language barrier there! this was a huge stretching point for me. i absolutely hate bugs and i came in contact with a lot of colorful and disgusting bugs. i'm not gonna lie, i hated that part of it. if we could just eliminate the bugs that would be wonderful!

clearing the land


digging the foundation

by the end of the trip we were very happy to go back to libreville and have a toilet, instead of a box with a hole in the ground, a shower, instead of bathing in a creek, and a bed indoors, instead of being moist throughout the night and barely being able to sleep. spending time like that really makes you think about what you take for granted at home. thank God every day for what he provides for you! we are blessed back at home, so much more than we even know!

canada day in gabon

happy canada day! no, we did not forget about the most important canadian day even though we're not in canada. we started our celebration this morning by putting canadian confetti on the tables and sticking canadian flag toothpicks in all of the bread.




after dinner danielle and i had cupcakes ready (complete with more canadian flag toothpicks) to hand out to everyone. meredith and tim were even in to it - they were downloading the anthem to play as we handed out our "surprise dessert." and when we finally went to give them out... what do the american's (most) do...? start singing the american anthem :( so tim, meredith, danielle, and i went back in the kitchen and came out eating our cupcakes and then they had nothing but good things to say about canada. canada day is so much better in canada.

the town of ntoum

i tried to post this yesterday but it didn't work... i am really trying to keep this current!!

yesterday we brought our lancaster team to ntoum to do a medical clinic! one of the girls shared her testimony which resulted in many kids that came to know Jesus! also, some of them performed a malaria skit (that i helped put together because of my experience last year). we were missing some props but overall i think it went pretty well! next time i will make sure we have buckets and stuff. and then we went to work with the medical clinics.

for most of the day i was "playing" with kids/attempting to talk to them. i was telling them the english words for some of their french words. they seemed to like that game! they also love getting their pictures taken, so i have a lot of those! they are so adorable, i'm glad i have pictures to prove it! we also gave them a soccer ball and the gabonese whipped the americans (obviously because they are amazing at soccer).