Cherish this update, as I believe that it may be our final communication before leaving Congo for home. Hopefully, that means that we will be speaking face to face with many of you soon! We aren’t counting the days (maybe Danielle and Michael are, I guess I can’t speak for them), but the time certainly does feel short.

Michael is just about finished with school for the year. That is great because he will get some free time to relax and focus on other things that he would like to do before leaving. I’m not really sure what else he is thinking about, but just about every night he dreams of huge tables of food sitting in front of him as he gets off the plane. As funny as it sounds, I mean he is literally having dreams about food every night. You don’t exactly need to be an expert to know what’s on his mind (or the mind of any 12-year old boy, for that matter!). You can pray that his dreams don’t quite come true. He doesn’t need that temptation.

I think I can take back what I said about Danielle; she may very well be counting the days until our trip back home. She has a goal in mind that she is trying to reach before we go, and she knows the time is running out. I believe that she has lost over 85 pounds so far, and she would really like to be able to reach the 100 pound mark before time is up here. She has been exercising a few days a week with Joan (pronounced Jo Ann), who is one of the two women that share the other half of our house. Losing the weight has been fairly passive, just a natural by-product of living in Congo, between the heat and the necessity of being active in order to get the basics done. The tricky part will be keeping it off in the US!

My mind is filled with all of the things that I still want to get done before I run out of time to do them. There’s only one of me, and the clock is continually ticking. I may have to lower my expectations a little, as the list is a mile long. There are 2 biggish projects and a handful of little jobs that I am really focused on, but the day-to-day things that pop up have been keeping them just out of reach. I am praying that I can still get to them, but it’s in the Lord’s hands. And just like the others, I am dreaming of good food (not literally, just day-dreaming). I was asked by one of the others here what I miss more; the people or the food. It took all of about half a second to respond with “I have Skype.” Sorry, but you can’t fax a pizza! Maybe it’s one of those things where if you were here you would understand. I hope you don’t think less of me for it.

Anyway, please keep us in prayer as we begin preparations for the return voyage. We have been told that we will experience reverse culture shock, but we can’t see it. I can’t wait to make a midnight run to Wal Mart, just to walk around and look at things. Maybe I’ll even drop by Wegman’s on the same trip (a huge local grocery store) and get a cappuccino at a gas station. Well, if the experts are right we could really use some prayer ahead of our departure, so we would truly appreciate that. Danielle has been filling up our calendar as she has been in contact with many of you.

If you would like to find a place on that growing list, please let us know what you are thinking of. Our summer is already looking pretty busy, so don’t delay! We have lots of pictures and even more stories that we would love to share with you. There just isn’t time or room to do it here, so we look forward to being with you where it’s possible.