God's protection in Namibia

So if any of you have been in contact with our prayer chains this is old news to you.....but I didn't post it all till now for two reasons. One I didn't want to scare my family while we are so far away and we wanted to make sure all was well. We "met" a zebra spitting cobra..... first hand the second day at our hunting safari! Elie and I were just running back to our chalet to change into cooler clothes and out of our camo hunting gear from our first hike. We didn't realize it but we probably had walked by it going in and on our way out it fell from an open window to the sidewalk right beside our feet!

 I pushed Elie to my left and we ran I looked back in a few steps to see the snake's raised head and the tell tale hood of a cobra! In a few more yards Elie stared yelling that she had sand in her eye I took a quick peek and couldn't see anything. When we got to the lodge and described it the owner, Kobus and his wife Annette, were immediately asking us to describe it and got milk which they poured in her eye to wash out the poison. While we weren't really sure all the signs pointed to as they call it a zebra snake and they explained that they spit. Kobus said 9 out of 10 times they are perfectly accurate up to 8 feet away! We were much closer than that! Now after the fact we think he was resting there and the maid saw drops on the window pane that most likely were his venom. What I also haven said is that we are VERY remote! It is an hour drive to the next town but to be safe Kobus flew us in his plane. An 18 minute flight where they flushed her eye, gave her drops of streriods and antibiotic ointment. They also put a patch over her eye and told us if it was blurry at all in the next 24 hours we should have to fly immediately to Windhoek. It was scary but afterwards I know I was truely being comforted by God! I just knew she would be ok. At one point I reminded her that the apostle Paul was bitten and God protected him. Her reply was " I'm not Paul!". Bless her heart she was in a lot of pain and very scared! She really was brave and it was amazing how quickly she improved. She is perfectly fine now! The next post will be all about our amazing hunts and our new friends Kobus and Annette Honiball from Africa Thirstland Safari!
Sorry photos won't upload on my iPad! 😢

The trip and our first day in Africa!

Sorry I am having trouble adding the pictures so this post will just have to be boring!

So the journey began February 16 at 12:40, our flight leaving Anchorage. All our luggage was a bit of a pain including the ammo we took for the hunt in Namibia and the help from Chris to get locking cases and the right distributions that stayed under weight! It was crowded and cramped. The next leg was from Seattle to Atlanta. Our layover was only an hour and the flight was over booked. So in the hassle they asked people to check their carry one bags. We had many valuables that we didn't want checked but at the gate they made us check them. Oddly not everyone? At first I said ok but then they insisted the would be checked clear thru to Johannusburg! So for this flight, the 5 hour layover in Atlanta and the 15 hour flight to Africa we didn't have any of my meticulously planned and purchased activities and snacks! Ok Lord we had to trust You to keep them safe and live without it all! Thad had only his neck pillow! But praise the Lord we slept, and watched movies. Elie still had her backpack and never even got into  

The flight really was very nice roomy enough seats to sleep and while we didn't get a window seat we at least were together and the food and service was very good. We landed in Johannasburg at about 5:40 pm local time February 17th. Just so you know it is 11 hours ahead of Alaska time! There we were greeted by two people! The rifle permit company that helped get our ammo approved ( a long process) and the owner of Eland Guest house, Mike. They were both very nice and helpful. sadly by the time we got done with the permit it was after 7:00pm and dark. So our drive to the Guest house was not very climactic! It was raining and we do love a good thunder storm!  We slept well and the time change woke us early so we enjoyed a quiet morning and tried to get a video of the birds singing and the pool at the guest house. We enjoyed visiting with our host and looking at his garden. Then he took us to the airport again where we flew to Windhoek! 

Why are we going to Africa?

Pray for us! we leave soon!

So now that you know more about us...why would we travel 28 hours and spend two months of our time in another country? To explain, Thad and I first felt the call to full time ministry we had such an urgency! God is moving and the time is short! Now that may have been 20 years ago! Am I that old!?  We have no less urgency to share the Gospel with those who haven't heard or refused to accept the gift of salvation. I will be honest in that the years out of full time ministry have been challenging because that feeling has not gone away! So as we began to talk with our good friends, Collin and Julie Brown, our hearts stirred within us!

 

Julie and Collin Brown

We really feel God hasn't released us from Tok, so we can pastor our own church. So we felt a Missions trip would be a way to serve that need in our spirits. The Browns have shared their love of Africa and been so helpful in teaching us and helping us make contacts for our trip I can't even begin to express our thanks! I will clarify that living here is not a burden but it has been a dry season for our call.

Now it will help that while it has been -20 below (farenheit) this week in Alaska it is forcasted to be 92 degrees when we land in Africa! We also enjoy travel and adventure so it will be exciting!

 

So about our trip... 

We leave Tok Saturday February 13th and travel the 6 1/2 hour drive (300 miles) to Anchorage where we will buy the rest of the things we need for travel and some items for the mission there. We allowed extra time because we didn't want to start the journey tired! We will then fly out of Anchorage on Monday night/Tuesday morning just after 12:00 am. The adventure begins then with 4 plane changes till we arrive in Johannesburg South Africa on February 17th 5:40pm there time. It is an eleven hour time change from Alaska. There we overnight and hope to rest and begin to acclimate to the time change some before we fly to Windhoek Namibia. That brings me to another awesome God moment!

 

From the previous blog you may remember that we love to hunt. So we did hope to do some hunting while in Africa but our budget did not allow for a paid Safari..... We thought maybe we could make contact with friends of the Brown's and see what worked out. Then we had a call from someone, "are you interested in a hunt and aren't you already going to Africa?" a friend is selling one at a great price it has to be used this year but we thought of you.  http://atsafaris.com/    (here is the link if you are curious)

 

To clarify at this point we had mostly given up on out trip. We had some trouble in relation to our business. We have a contract that was suppose to be complete for the year in November and technically is still not done. We didn't think we could travel until it was done because of the income it represents and because of our commitment to the work. So this opportunity was an amazing blessing for us and at less than 20% of the cost we felt it was God confirming that he still wants to bless us and it is his will for us to go now! We decided that we would just have to trust God for the rest of the details. And of course God is so Good! We were able to fulfill another significant portion of the contract last week and while we don't have as much cushion for our finances we should have enough to cover our travel. So in a nut shell GOD has made the way and given us the assurance that we are still in his will!!

 

We will be hunting for about eight days and the owner and Guide Kobus Honibal has been very gracious and helpful. He agreed to transfer the hunt to our name, he is not charging for Elie and will let her hunt as well, we will be trading for the use of his guns, they have an amazing lodge and it is all inclusive while we are there. Most exciting is that they are Christians too!

 

Besides all that we have been so blessed already by the people of Africa! Since we have been planning this trip in a fairly short amount of time the contacts with people there have been crucial.

We can't wait to meet them in person. I will add more about them as we do and you too will see what an amazingly generous and kind group they are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

commitments. When we recieved this text we thought, we will