Last Night in America!

I have just put Oren to bed at 'Grandma Jean's and Papa Dave'' house for the last time. He was noticeably quiet and reserved. He had spent several hours before running around with his cousin's Miriam and Gabriel, but as we prepared for bath and bed, I talked about this being our last night in America he said again he missed his red house and was feeling sad about it.

So tomorrow is our last day here. We will go to church with my parents and do a mission moment, then have lunch, finish packing and head off to Dulles airport. Our flight leaves at 9:30pm.

This week has been a good last week. We received 6 new suitcases as an anniversary present and have been packing them. What does one take in 6 suitcases for a 5 year trip. Legos, for one thing, as well Winnie the Pooh and a stuffed elephant, and a d0zen dvds. It is great to have an ipod, by the way because I have about 100 CDs to take along.

We did alot of visiting this week. We saw my brother Jonathan and his son Fletcher who is about the same age as Oren. Here they are at the zoo in Baltimore. (No that is not a giant Burundian tortoise!)

We also met an old friend of mine, Jeff Kenney at the Smithsonian in DC. We had lunch and Oren got to ride the metro. That was his favorite part. Jeff, who does alot of international travel warned us that theft from baggage was so out of control in Nairobi and Johannesburg that putting any valuables in checked luggage was tantamount to throwing it away. So we have had to think carefully about what we are stowing where. Rebecca is very strategic and we have at least one or two outfits in every bag, so if some don't arrive we can still change our underwear.

Part of my spiritual preparation for leaving in the past month has been to run 8 miles per day in the mid morning. I precede it with a morning devotional. It has been very helpful to focus and I have been praying for many of you as I run. I feel I have heard God's voice when I run, as well as face some of my deepest anxieties about this next step. Right now I am at peace with my anxiety.

Last night I stayed up late and watched Hotel Rwanda. It is one of the most disturbing movies I have ever seen. To think that we will be trying to bring peace to a nation in which 1,000,000 people were macheteed death in a civil war is daunting. We also started taking Larium, our antimalarials. One of the bad side affects to be on the lookout for is hallucinations, anxiety, nighmares and psychotic episodes. After the movie, I don't know if I will be able to tell the drug reaction from my state of mind. I do know that one of the projects we are involved with in Rwanda is a program to help reintegrate some of the perpetrators of these acts back into their neighborhoods. With my human eyes it is hard to imagine what reconcilliation would look like in the face of the magnitude of the crime and the unbelievable number of people involved in perpetrating it.

I think I will bring Out of Africa to watch on the plane to get a less morose perspective on this move.

Rebecca is looking more and more pregnant and Oren talk regularly about his little brother (who he still calls Banjo). Rebecca is also feeling some anxiety about the discomfort of air travel. Please pray that this will not be too much of a problem.

I have really enjoyed hearing from many of you. Please keep us in your prayers this week. We will be landing in Bujumbura on July 22nd after 2 days of travel. We will be starting a new job in a new language almost immediately.