SAFE and SOUND!

Hello Friends and Family!

I (Amy Whitlock) am writing on behalf of our team to update you on us. Our flights all went very well with no problems at all. There were several times of turbulence, but for the most part it was good. The first flight to Detroit went by quickly, as it was only a several hour flight and then we waited at the airport for a short period of time until our next flight to Amsterdam. We had a little bit of a delay on leaving because someone that was supposed to catch that flight was missing. But they finally came and off we went on our 8 hour flight, which surprisingly to most of us was not that bad. Once we waited around we caught our flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town which took 12 hours so that was really long. At first it didn't seem to bad, but then it got to the point where we just wanted to get off that plane. At last we arrived and had to go through customs and then grab our bags. Everyone managed to get there bags, yet I was left waiting for a bag that never showed up. So I had to make a file with the airport and they said it was delivered so there guess was that it got picked up accidentally. Praise God my suitcase was delivered to where we are staying on Thursday. Everyone who is a host here was shocked and said no one has ever gotten a lost suitcase so quickly. So thank God!! So we arrived to the living hope house around 1 am or so on Jan 6.

Most of us got to bed around 2am because we all felt grubby and wanted showers and then had to be up and ready for breakfast by 9am the next morning. So yes we were quite tired and we still are, but this place is awesome. God is so AWESOME! The beauty of this country just takes my breath away. We have an absolutely gorgeous ocean and mountain view here. We are staying at the Team House which is right on the ocen. So everywhere around us we are surrounded by mountains and God's glorious creation. He is the most marvelous artist. I just can't possibly describe the beauty of it all. Wed was a very chill day for us. We had individual and team devotions, meals, time to walk the beach, time to do a little planning, and then we had worship on top of this gigantic rock down on the beach at night. Today (thurs) we got a tour of a health clinic and different towns that we would be working in. It was insane that in one town there would be really nice places to live and then 5 minutes away people living in little shacks made of alluminum. It was very humbling and a good reminder of how much we take for granted. These people, well some of them, virtually have nothing, yet they are so very joyful. It's like they have everything by not having anything. Quite amazing and I think we could all learn something from that.

Breakfast and lunch are pretty normal here at the team house. Dinner is a cooked meal which had been good. We've had chicken seasoned with rosemary, red peppers, mushrooms, and then rice and salad with that. Tonight we had ribs with rice and salad. And for dessert we had this awesome Lemon Merengue Raspberry thing which was sooo good.

Our team has quickly bonded and we are having a blast together and sharing our love for Christ together. We are all very eager to start doing the Lord's work and get busy loving on the people of this country, especially the children. We begin doing the kid's club on monday. So for the rest of the week we will be doing a lot of planning and then doing some site seeing.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We all are very blessed to have wonderful supporters and we love you very much! Thanks!