Yesterday we had an African lunch here at the IOC and then we met our friends Bryan and Tricia Smith and their three boys for dinner in Dallas. We ate at Ghengis Grill, a Mongolian stir fry place, and then went to Krispy Kreme. We enjoyed seeing them and having some time to catch up!
Last Thursday was Jenny's birthday and she was showered with love by our new friends here. When we woke up Thursday, our door was covered with ballons and there were balloons and "happy birthday" banners all over the dorm! Sam had mail-ordered a "perudo" dice game for her for the occasion! And, over the course of the day, there were three desserts with candles on them in honor of her birthday! She also got a bunch of cards from friends and e-cards from Mom-mom, Pop, and the kids that she really enjoyed! It was overwhelming! What a wonderful day it was for her! Thanks to all those who celebrated with us!!
This weekend was also the end point for David and Helen Lyth from Scotland who are currently serving at Mercy Ships' vesico-vaginal fistula clinic (land base) in Sierra Leone. David is a surgeon there and Helen teaches children and works with the ladies at the clinic. It has been a real privilege to get to know them a bit and we will miss them!
The missions training portion of the course here is done. We have really been blessed by this training! We have covered topics like: Kingdom principles, communication with God, living on purpose, community living, conflict resolution, world view issues, transformational development, the potential of the poor, and tensions in working with the poor. It has really been amazing!! I think this teaching would be well worth the time and effort even if we weren't planning to go to Africa. One of the highlights of last week was a video of Rob Bell entitled "Everything is Spiritual". I highly recommend it. We also thoroughly enjoyed our teaching by Dr. Camille Bishop on world view.
Our kids apparently had a great week at Nanny and Pappy's (John's parents) and are now back at Mom-mom and Pop's (Jenny's parents). We are really looking forward to seeing them again!!
Be sure to check out the links on this site to the Farrell family blog and Sam the Manny's blog for more on the past week!
Love to all, John
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