Belated update/Randomness

(Written on 28 June)
Johannesburg
Half of our team is in Johannesburg staying in a rest house overnight en route to Namibia. The other half is flying through London. It is kind of nice to have the extra day to adjust to the time change before we arrive to our destination. The weekend in D.C. with the team was a very good time for us to get to know each other a little bit, pray, and learn more about what the plans are from our Namibian team leaders. It is humbling that our Namibian team is so eager to have us come.

Choose to Wait
Choose to Wait is a curriculum we will be using, which was written by a Namibian woman who is now traveling frequently in Namibia, to the U.S., and perhaps other places to train others. Compassion International has now adopted this curriculum, so if you haven't heard of it, you may be hearing more about it soon. We used this material last time I went (it is excellent), and many of the students had not heard such a message (God's plan for marriage and sex). I hope that this is something we see soon in the States--it is such a universal curriculum, and everyone everywhere should have the opportunity to hear it.

AIDS
I am hearing that the AIDS situation in Namibia has not been improving. Last time I came to Namibia I would ask a classroom full of kids how many of them had lost someone they loved to AIDS. Every kid would raise their hand. This is still beyond my comprehension. About 1/10 of the population is orphaned. 1/10. God tells us many times how much he cares about these orphans…