From Brad

I got this email today from Brad! So you can hear about how the trip has been so far from the horse's mouth. :)

Hey yall, They have an internet cafe where we are staying. Things have been going well on the trip so far. We really have been doing nothing but travelling since we started. The different countries are fascinating. Reality sets in when we had a short layover in brundi today and you could just see the vast rural country side with dirt roads and many foothills. We had many delays of one or another in all of our flights so far. We calculated that we traveled 34=36 hrs straight from Chi to Addis Abba... 4 hrs in Rome for fuel and a part... a luggage handler ran the lift into the wing of our first flight this morning so we had to change planes.

the funniest thing so far was we get to rwanda, get our 19 bags and are moving out to the parking lot and a friendly american strtikes up a conversation with some members of our trip. He looks familiar... it turns out to be senator Bill Frist who is here on some medical mission work for a couple non-profits. I got his card, and a few pictures... I will try to load some later if I get a chance. The computers here are a bit old. Everyone's doing well.

Tomorrow we go to cross the boarder in the Congo where we will really see what war torn Africa is like. Rwanda is clean, Kigali is big, mountainous and very populated. Reminds me of Jamica... Tonight we have nice acomodations with a cold shower and beds with netting. We had a good meal of mushroom soup, fish, fried potatoes and some passion fruit for dessert. It was good. I ate it and took pictures :)

I guess the burning question everyone may have is am i safe... yes, I haven't felt unsafe at all.. probably at greater risk of bugs than people at this point. Everyone is very friendly. Yeah, they don't have OSHA out here, and there isn't much of a strict sched for day to day activities. Buildings of bamboo and mud, but modern looking ones too. The planes have all been new boeings... not much to say. We are all doing well. The real meat of the trip is still ahead, so keep that in prayer.

Our group is praying for EB's family as her granny passed away, and I truley wish I could be there to celebrate her life. I am sure God hears our hearts from over here too. I was pleased to hear that EB had a good OB appt today though.

I've taken lots of pictures and will continue to do so. Hopefully will be able to send some soon! I miss everyone and look forward to updating you on how we are ministerring out here. I love you and miss you all!Brad