Hello!

Well Hello everyone. I have made it into another country again. Wow so much is happening and has happened since I got here. Each day is full and intense I have allready seen and prayed for people that have been healed as well has many of the others on the team. It is overwhelming most of the time at the condition and how many children and adults that there is that are in need. But we serve a God who is unlimited in His resources! Please be praying for the organization (I can't mention name) and all of the staff here. There has been a lot of attacks on them this past week and half. The weather is great. Hot during the day and cools off during the night. It is so wonderful being a part of such a great thing happening on the earth. I miss you all!



Love,



Jarod

Ps. The internet is really slow and unreliable right now, I can't even get to my blog right now so please dont get mad but I will tell you all when I get home if I am not able to make the blogs go into more depth!

People I will miss!

These are the members of the Church in Pennar that we built for them. This is also were we went to Church all of the Sundays that I was there. Pastor Hinney (26 years old) is in the front middle. They were the nicest people!
This is Charles, Tammy, and DJ

Chicken Dust

This is where Charles and I stopped for chicken dust (fried chicken) one day. It was along a road in a village. It was some of the best chicken!

Johannasberg, South Africa

Well I just got done eating supper at the Varughese's. They are family friends of my friend Priya who lives in Chicago. They came and picked me up at the Joberg airport and fed me supper! My plane leaves at 10 am in the morning it will be about a 3.5 hour flight. I have another baggage praise report! So you are only allowed 20 kg of baggage on domestic flights. When I checked in at the airport today my one bag was 24 kg and the other 25kg, the lady there was very nice I explained what I was doing , she called her supervisor and got it cleared to go all the way without having to pay an overage fee! Praise the Lord!
I said my goodbye's to Charles, Tammy, and DJ today, I think DJ (8 years old) probably was the hardest for. He has been calling me his big brother while I have been staying with them. Maybe I will be able to meet with them in the States when they are back there. They will be in the states for 1.5 years raising support. They are trying to get me to come back when they come in May of 2009! I told Charles I will have to talk to God on that one! Haha
I have experienced and done so many things in the past month and i now have three months ahead of me, I have and will have lots of things to share and show when I get back. I really enjoy reading your comments and e-mails that you all have been sending!
Prayer requests: For the people to be open, travel saftey, and health safety (malaria), For God to use me in ways that I am not capable of yet!
Until next time God Bless - Jarod

Praise God

Well the team is on their way back to the U.S. today. It was a great experience working and interacting with them while they were here. They touched many lives during their stay. We went on a safari yesterday with them before they went back. I went out to the church this morning and did some final finishing touches to it, while Charles is driving the team back to Joberg. I will be leaving here this coming Monday Afternoon, a month sure does fly by that is for sure, God has really done some amazing things while here i will have lots more to share when I get home! with lots more pictures! I love you all and send Gods Blessings!

(The picture is one from the Safari)

Orphange

The team had some shoes and clothes to give away so we went Tuesday afternoon and gave them out to the children at an orphanage that is about 20 mins away. The children sang and danced for us while we were there. They were very excited to recieve all of these things. They also each got a sweetie (candy). The short lady you see is Heidi, her and her husband are from Australia and they have been here for three years helping at the orphanage! Charles and I are taking meat out to them on Monday because they have not had any meat for a long time. The kids hardly get any protein.

New Church Structure

This is a couple of pictures from this past Saturday when we went with the team from Arkansas and put this steel structure up in one day in the rain! It was raining the whole day but we had fun and got it done. The pastor of the church is standing in the front with the light blue umbrella. The pastor of the church from Arkansas is standing directly behind him in the gray t-shirt. There were several natives that came out and also helped us that day. You can see the existing structure that they had been using for a church in the background. It was raining inside their old church about as much as it was outside!

Finished Church

This is a finished picture of the church. That is George from the team from Arkansas and Rusty Standing in the door.
This is a finished side shot of the church. That is some of the guys that have been helping me and Charles. They are fun to work with!

Church

The picture on the left is the Church that we have been working on for most of the time blocking up and pouring the concrete floor.

The picture on the right is Charles and Remember laying blocks.

Cottage

The top picture was taken on my flight. I thought it looked cool!


This is the cottage that I have been living in.

Driving in South Africa!

(Written Last friday the 5th, had problems posting!)

Well if any of you know me I love to work and I am deffinately getting to do a lot of it while here! The day to day stuff is pretty much the same type of work with the blocks and concrete and such.

This past Sunday I had an opportunity to speak again in Church and I shared with them Hebrews 12:1-3, and I shared with them about my friends in Chicago and how we live by the verse, and I just encouraged them to live by it also because He does have a specific race for each of us to run and He wants us to run it with perseverance!

This past week I was able to go and get my Visa for Mozambique. I did not have enough time to get it before I left the States so I asked Charles if it was ok and he had told me they have a Mozambique consulate near them, so that is what we did and Gods favor was there that day. The lady that helped us was very nice and she said they normally only give 30 day Visa's but after explaining my situation that I needed to have it for 90 days she had to go talk to her boss. To make a long story short,she pulled some strings and I got a 90 day multiple entry Visa within 3 hours!

Yesterday Charles and I took two 5000 liter water tanks to a kids camp that is being developed over in Pretoria, a pastor here in South Africa has purchased some land and it is in the planning stages right now, when Charles gets back from the states in a year and a half he is to help build the facilities for the camp.

After stopping there we went to the Johannasberg airport and met a team from Arkansas. They have come to help build a church that they had sent money for. The team consists of 8 men and 1 woman. The best part was since they all had jet lag I drove their rental van back to the lodge that they are staying at. The trip took about 4.5 hours to drive, so I got lots of left hand driving experience! (they drive here on the other side of the road)

Today we all went out and layed blocks, we got a lot done! They all came to work, and we got several sections of the walls done.

Tomorrow we travel 2 hours north (leaving at 5:30 am) to put up a steel structure for a new church ,we have to get the entire structure erected in the one day since it is so far away, it is into more of the bush area.

Well that is about all for now, I am learning and becoming more African every day! The weather has been doing good, the food is good, and the people are great! tata