Home Soon

Dear Family and Friends,
First, let me thank you all for your continual prayers. Our time at the VOH could not have gone any smoother. God has been so gracious to us and kept us feeling well and allowing us to get much done for his glory.

We finished the structural work on the baptistery today as we finished the steps going up into the baptistery and the steps going down into it. It is so rewarding knowing we got this done. Tomorrow we will watch as the mason puts plaster on the inside and another man puts on the tile for the exterior. It looks great. We decided to go down to the ocean late afternoon and rinse off the sweat. It was so wonderful jumping in the waves and finding shells. The whole team went down to celebrate God's beauty and faithfulness together.

We were reminded again this past Sunday about the need for the baptistery. Two people responded Sunday and we headed to the Atlantic Ocean to God's baptistery. Unfortunately only about thirty children could go do the limited space in vehicles. A boy at the VOH named David was baptized and another individual you know very well. After Bible class before I preached, Zack Pratt, one of our teammates, told me of his desire to be baptized into Christ. Zack was baptized as a young child at the church he grew up in, but as he has been studying he has grown in his understanding of baptism and desired to be baptized again. It was such a thrill as Jeff and myself lowered Zack down as the waves of the Atlantic washed over him as he was buried with Christ. We all praised God. Danny, as we were making our way down the winding path to the ocean, Zack commented on how much he would have liked for you to be there. I reassured him that he was in spirit.

As Danny reported to us, those who preach here have around a one hour sermon. I think I made it to 47 minutes according to Jeff Cutler so Danny your 50 minutes beat me. The team has told me they want me to start preaching for an hour now so everyone at Arlington needs to start preparing themselves for this change. (Just kidding). Although I must admit the lack of concern for time as we worship our Lord is very refreshing.

Yesterday we were able to have a down day as we traveled to the rainforest and the El Mina Castle. We witnessed God's majesty of the rainforest as we walked in the canopy of tress in the only suspension foot bridge over a rain forest in the world. We then witnessed at the castle a place where terrible atrocities were committed as men and women were tortured, killed, or sold as slaves all over the world by first the Portuguese and then the Dutch. By the time the British owned the castle slavery had been abolished. The country of Ghana is now in control of the world's largest and oldest slave trading castle in the world. Thank God that slavery has been abolished and may the castle serve as a memorial to those who died and keep us from ever participating in such an act of injustice against humanity. Thank you Lord for freeing us from a life of slavery to sin. We want you to be our Master.

The team is doing very well. We have so much to share with you. This coming Sunday morning, the Lord willing, the mission team will be sharing in a combined class. I have asked all the team members to share for a few minutes what God has taught them on this journey. I will then preach a sermon on some things the Lord has shown me and Sunday night we will show slides and videos of our journey with more sharing. We will also have a finger food fellowship.

We miss you all but know we will be home soon. Truly we will all be to our heavenly home soon. While we are on our way, let's enjoy the journey and take as many others with us as possible. Please continue to pray that God will be glorified through us. We love you all.

Mark for the Team