(click photo for expanded version)
We arrived home around midnight Sunday and 18 hours later returned to the airport to pick up 3 of our favorite people from Argentina: Terence Roberts (in photo), Gerardo & Adriana Muniello. We've been enjoying showing off all 480 square feet of our house, some favorite hangout (most of which include food). Together with 20+ youth leaders from our local church and the 10 Argentines, we are working long - but fun - days to pull off this fabulous youth retreat called "EJE".

[The event happens this weekend, so if you think about it, please pray that it will have a lasting and positive impact on the kids who go through it.]

One of my favorite photos from our time in Ethiopia. This was taken in Nakempte just after we delivered some of the 1200 lbs. of books to the school there. These kids came out onto the grass airstrip to watch the plane take off (something which hadn't happened in months). I was timid about taking their pictures until I showed them the image on the back of the digital camera, at which point, they all eagerly lined up asking for their portrait to be taken. My brother-in-law, George W. Randall, took this photo of me taking a photo of the kids.

P.S. - If you would like to see how that particular photo turned out click here.

I just emptied my pockets and found change from 4 countries: Mexican pesos, a few British pence, Egyptian piastres, and Ethiopian birr. But that didn't help me at the gas station where we are now - Miami (which some people say is part of the U.S.)

We are presently in Florida at our area director's home in meetings with Latin American colleagues about how to work together more effectively. We've also met with Neal Hegeman from Miami International Seminary. They're interested in acreditting our online youth ministry course (the one we've been working on for the last 2.5 years).

We will arrive back home in Mexico around midnight this Sunday, and 24 hours later we go back to the airport to pick up a group of Argentines who are in Mexico to help run a really cool youth retreat which has been very effective in helping families in Peru, Chile and Argentina. This will be the first time it has been run in Mexico - and it's going to happen at our church. This retreat is the culmination of 1.5 years of work by our friend, Veronica, and the other youth leaders at church. It's a pretty intensive and we'll be swamped until it's over on Sunday night the 23rd of January.

The next day we leave with the Argentines to visit Northland church in Central Florida. This is a reciprocal visit since Northland personnel travelled to Argentina last September to initiate a partnership with St. Andrew's Church in Buenos Aires. Our role is to help facilitate the relationship. We'll return to Mexico the 2nd of February...glad to sleep in our own beds again but with happy memories of incredible people and projects we got to be involved with in 5 countries on 3 continents.

We just arrived in the London area after an amazing time in Ethiopia. This is the first opportunity we've had to get online - and i only have 4 minutes to write - so this is going to be short.


(click photo for biggie size)
Our time in Ethiopia was like something out of a Discovery Channel program and i can't wait to tell you more about it (soon). We're fine and no one got sick. We got thru Ethiopian customs with all 600 kilos of books and the schools there were thrilled with that gift.