Connections

Made it to Johannesburg! In fact the plane even arrived early. I had four seats to myself on the 14 1/2 hour flight. Nancy Sue arrived early as well. One of my bags arrived and the other is "coming". Thankfully the bag with my clothes arrived.

Leah and David Preston came to pick us up. Roy and Rose Tibbitt came for supper. (They have both been with Wycliff Bible Translators and help run this stopover on the way to... Leah and DAvid are beginning a 4 year term here in Johannesburg. They have been working in Mozambique prior to this.

Connection one...
Roy and Rose are wondering where to next, which might be Peterborough ON (just down the road from me!). Rose is very interested in literacy and ESL and she might help set-up some training. God must have a good sense of humour. Bringing me to Johannesburg to meet Roy and Rose.

Connection two...
Leah is the daughter of Ted Pollock, a missionary to Africa, who I knew of from my Pittsburgh days. In fact she knows Tod Custer from Ellwood City, the area where Paul and I ministered in Pennsylvania. We have others in common as well. We sang several times "It's a small world after all."

We also are getting names of connections for Maxwell for Sena work in Mozambique.

And this is just the first day!

First Leg Complete

Well, I've made it the first step - to Washington Dulles airport. A puddle-jumper airline on a rainy day from Toronto to Washington. I've spent the time catching up on e-mails, cleaning up inboxes and other administrative tasks. Wi-fi in the airport is great! Not too long now before my flight boards to Johannesburg - next leg (14 1/2 hours) coming up. Keep up the prayers!

Just about 24 hours from now I'll be on the plane ready for take off! The final preparations are coming together. This is always the most frantic part of the trip. Once I'm away, then it is what it is. So, thanks for your prayers especially in this preparation time.

(Pictured is Maxwell Mpitinyanga with his wife and 5 children. )

Maxwell in Malawi has things well in hand. But as always, I expect that there will be many things that aren't as I expect! Just the nature of travel in general and travel in particular in Africa. Hopefully I will be meeting with Presbyterian Church of Canada partners in mission who minister in Malawi. We've made e-mail contact, so now we just have to get together in the short time I'll be in Blantyre.

Basic itinerary:
Apr 20 - 21 Fly to Johannesburg, South Africa
Apr 22 - Fly to Blantyre (spend 3 days)
Apr 24 - Travel to Lilongwe (ground)
Apr 25 - Travel to Chitapa (Northern Malawi), here we will work on the Lambya primer.

Please be praying for myself, Patrick Malasy and Nancy Sue Laminack who will join me in Malawi
* safe travel
* good contacts
* safety of family and churches while away
* protection over the Lambya primer team and their families
* God would be glorified