We Made it

Team at Entebbe airport with luggage

23 hours after leaving Portland we arrived safely at the Entebbe airport near Kampala.  Team is healthy and in good spirits.  Dr Moses and John, our driver met us and took us to a local guest house where we got to bed shortly after midnight local time.  We will have breakfast at 8 and hit the road for a 7 hour drive to Soroti.  We are excited to be here and get started on our ministry.

Sunset 2018 Uganda Team Ready To Go

 

The first short term ministry team from Sunset for 2018 is heading to Uganda. The team of eight from Sunset will be joined by a young man from Rolling Hills Community Church. This team is going to the Nakayot Peace Village to complete construction on a medical clinic and build a nurse's hut. The team will be camping at the Peace Village. We will do our best to keep this blog updated but connections in the Peace Village are likely non-existent.  Stay Tuned!

We are home!

Keeping this blog up to date was a bigger challenge than I expected!  We had very limited access to the internet.  Morning Star Farm where we did most of our ministry has no electricity, only solar.  In order to send an email we had to start the generator and then get on line via a satellite connection.  Very expensive in this remote part of the world.

Our team did a great job.  We stayed healthy, and engaged fully everyday in the ministry opportunities that were presented.  Morning Star Farm is a peaceful oasis in the midst of a busy demanding world.  It many ways it was a place of peace for each of us.

thanks for hanging in there with us and covering us with your prayers. Some highlights from our time in Zimbabwe.

Leaving Morning Star Farm

We just completed Tuesday in Matopos, Zimbabwe.  We got started at 7:30 with a time of devotion.  Heather Witherow had prepared an excellent daily devotional that each of us took a turn in leading the discussion and prayer time. Breakfast was at 8 and most of the women left at 8:30 to spend the day in a local school training teachers in early childhood development techniques.  The guys along with Susan Payne spent the day installing “wicking beds” for three widows.  These beds have been developed to help them grow vegetables. The travel to the sites was as much work as preparing the beds.  The dirt roads are in terrible shape because of the torrential rains they had recently.  We road in the back of a pickup.  Tomorrow we will finish some of the projects we started on Monday.  Monday and Tuesday morning were cloudy and very cool with quite a bit of wind. Tuesday afternoon the clouds cleared and it was comfortable warm.  Our team is feeling great and in good spirits. 

Wednesday was a pretty physical day for most of us.  We dug a lot of post holes and installed 6 more posts for the “goat race” that will be used to hold a goat in place while it is being sprayed for ticks.  Several went to visit a nearby preschool where they read to the students.  Others attended a local Bible study in the afternoon.  The weather was beautiful today and we will be able to have our evening meal outside. 

Today, Thursday we left Morning Star Farm and are currently in Bulaweyo. We will head to the train station in about an hour for an overnight train ride to Victoria Falls. The team continues to be in great health and unity.

We have had an amazing time here in Zimbabwe. It is such a peaceful place.  Watch for a time where our team will share after church.

We made it to Zimbabwe

We have arrived safely in Matopos, Zimbabwe.  We flew from Johannesburg on Friday morning, John Witherow met us at the Bulawayo airport and a couple of hours later we were at Morning Star Ranch which is operated by Chris and Norman Ferguson, ministry partners of the Witherows.  The weather is beautiful.  A little warmer than we expected.  After a wonderful dinner we went to bed pretty early after a long couple of days traveling.  Most of us were up around 6 AM Saturday and had a great time of catching up with the Witherows and Fergusons.  After breakfast we enjoyed a time of devotion and prayer.  Then we took a 2 ½ hour walking tour of the ranch.  John and Heather built a fairly quiet Saturday into the schedule to allow us to catch up to the 9 hour time difference and jet lag.  The team is healthy and enjoying our time here at the ranch.  We appreciate your continued prayers. Today (Sunday) we worshipped at a local church where our team did ministry with the children and Dan and Jim got to share a message with the adults.  Tomorrow we will be doing projects on the farm.

Made it to Johannesburg

Our mighty team of eight left Portland on Wednesday morning May 24. We arrived in Johannesburg on schedule at 5:35 PM Thursday local time.  Made easy connection to our guest house where we had dinner and then early to bed.  The flight from the US went smoothly but was a very long 16 hours non stop.  This morning we are up at 6 AM will have breakfast at the guest house and then head back to the airport to catch our 10:30 AM flight to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Sunset missionary John Witherow will meet us there and take us to Morning Star Ranch where we will be staying.

Having trouble downloading pictures.  Check out our team members Facebook page for picture.

Sunset Team to Zimbabwe ready to go

A team of eight from Sunset is ready to head out on Wednesday May 24 for Zimbabwe.  We will be working with Sunset's long time missionaries John and Heather Witherow and their three boys, Micah, Caleb, and Jake. Our ministry in Zim with be with the Witherow's ministry partners Chris and Norma Ferguson at Morning Star Ranch.  Our team will be involved in a variety of ministries and projects during our time in Zim.  We greatly appreciate your prayers.  There is only solar power at Morning Star Ranch so the frequency of our blog updates is uncertain.  Please keep checking in.

Brad and Sheri Schlief, Dan and Susan Payne, Mike and Gail Hildenbrand, Jim and Rosemary Zook