Thanks!!

Hi Everyone,

Many blessings and thanks coming your way!

I'm back safely from Tanzania and it was an amazing
trip. From the blue tranquil waters of the Indian
Ocean to the endless open savana filled with all of
God's amazing creatures. God is so good, he opens our
eyes to his endless wonders and watches over our every
step!

I love the outdoors and it was amazing to see his
prestine creation from how it was the beginning of
time. In the Serengetti we watched literally millions
of wildebeast on their yearly migration over thousands
of kms of protected parks. It's one of the largest
natural animal migrations left on earth! It was truly
HIS favour that we saw every possible animal that we
wanted to see - rhinos, lions, leopards, cheetahs,
giraffes etc. all in their natural habitat. We had
lions and baboons with in meters. One baboon took the
lunch box from Kim - I guess he thought it was free
delivery ;)

The bus ride back was again full of surprises. Coming
into Nairobi at dark the bus hit a drunk man that
walked out into the middle of the road. He was
unconscious but breathing. No 911 here, they dragged
him on the bus and looked for the nearest clinic that
turned him away, then to the police station where
police man emptied the little change in his pockets
and sent him off. The bus then took him into Nairobi
for a larger hospital. There was not much I felt I
could do but pray. Really gives you a new
appreciation for the emergency system we have in
Canada!! I truly hope the man is OK!

But overall the trip was really an amazing end to an
amazing experience. I'm back at Canada House now (our
main base) to finish up some work and fly out in a few
days.

Thank-you all for following along and supporting me on
the journey. Your emails and prayers were so precious
to me and I know I wouldn't have survived without
them. There have been ups and downs but I have truly
seen God's Mercy, Grace, Patiences, Faithfulness and
Love through it all.

I hope to keep in touch with you all are hear what
you're up to but this will be the last of my "travel
updates" ... for now ;)

Thanks again for following along and I look forward to
seeing you and hearing about the good plans, for a
hope and a future, that God has for YOU!

Signing off from his African Adventure (for now)!

Mike

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A little Spice to Life

Hello Everyone,

Jambo! (Hello in Swahili). Well we have arrived in
Zanzibar and are having a great time! Work back in
Uganda is mostly finished. I will return for a few
days before my flight to finish things up, but for now
I'm enjoying the Spice Islands.

The trip was a greuling 29 hour bus ride in a bus with
no washroom and a leaky roof ;) I hard lesson learned
- don't drink a lot of water on a bus with no
washroom. I had to run off in the dark behind a gas
station and the buses here don't wait for you. You
have to flag down a taxi driver to catch up to and
stop the bus. Lucky the bus was stil there after much
relief. And the bus leaked in two spots, one right
above my shoulder but I found a plastic bag to wear to
divert the constant dripping.

But we are here now and it's been amazing. Our hotel
is in the street maze of corridors in Stone Town and
has the fitting name - Narrow Street Hotel! The
people here are different then on the coast. It was
settled by Arabs originally and is %90 Muslim. It has
the feel as if you have been transported to the Middle
East.

Tomorrow we head up to the North Coast to do some
snorkelling and hopefully see some Sea Turtles. We
have met many travellers from all over the world and
every some from our own backyard (I met someone from
the Okanagan funny enough). It's been a good wind
down from my work in Uganda, but I still have Uganda
in my blood, still use Ugandian greetings by accident
rather then Swahili (common in Kenya and Tanzania).

We are here for a couples more days then off to the
Serengetti for a Safari. Don't mean to make you all
jealous. I'll be sitting behing a desk at work soon
enough ;) But some of you will be finished exams now
and onto the summer, enjoy the break from school and
God Bless!

I think more people get sick when travelling a lot
(new strange foods,little sleep, etc.). One of our
group has fallen sick. If you could pray for her
health that would be great! Praise God for the
wonderful diverse world that he made!

God Bless,
Mike

ps OK this is cool, some masai warriors just walked
into the internet cafe. They're dressed in their
traditional red robes with all kinds of beads and
carry a stick and knife at all times. One of the guys
has his ears stretched with big earrings - and they're
sitting here checking their email - weird!

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Time Flys as fast as a Cheetah

Agandi (how are you) my Friends!

I may say this every email but I mean it - I hope you
are all doing well!

Well, my time hear is almost finished and I have seen
the Cheetah run (although it was in a cage). This
last week will be spent doing computer work (when the
power is on).

The last several weeks I have been travelling in the
villages looking at new water projects and collecting
information for reports. It was good see visit the
villages and you find that the people living there are
very similar. The survive off the land, growing what
they eat. Most have Banana Plantations full of
Matooki (plantain). Oh yes and they all love roasted
goat.

Last week as we were leaving our main camp in the
village (Rubingo) we had a goat party for all the
workers. We bought two goats (yes you buy them alive)
that they slaughtered them for us - not for the weak
of stomach like myself (but I did kill a chicken).
But Oh Boy when they roast it up it's one of the most
delicious meats I've tasted. After feasting on
roasting meat and drinking lots of Soda's (Yes the
Coca Cola and Pepsi empire expand across Africa, even
in the most remote villages), we finished the night
with speeches, singing and a bit of dancing. It was a
good way to finish our time there.

In one week we will be heading off to Tanzania to
visit Zanzibar and the Serengetti(where I hope to
really see a Cheetah running). Then I fly to London
to stay a few days and return to Vancouver May 20th.

I has truly been an amazing experience and I thank all
of you guys for following along. I truly hope to hear
about your current and future adventures, whether it
be abroad or in the job you go to everyday.

Yes things are finishing up but there's still a lot of
work to do. Please pray for:
- grace to finish all the reports and work in this
last week
- grace for the transition back to Canada
- continued good health

Now I realize that I have been having prayer requests
but I have been neglecting praise reports. Here are
some:
- my health has been much better this month (thanks
for your prayers)
- there has been breakthoughs in relationships and our
team is working even better together
- God has truly kept us safe the whole time we have
been here
- God has truly provided for my every need

With lots of Love in HIM,
Mike

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God is Good

Hey Everyone,

I really hope you're all doing well. Not to much to
report on since last time. I have been continuing my
work in the villages and have been in front of a
computer writing reports.

I've been sick though but am much better now. It was
some kinda stomach thing. I was in bed for a couple
days and thought I was getting better but then the bad
gas hit (sorry for the gorry details). I seriously
felt like a human gas compressor. Anyway I'm getting
treatement for it which means going to the clinic to
get injections for 5 days. Feeling great now though.
There are sure some crazy things that can happen in
your stomach here.

Also - Praise God! I have found a good job upon my
return to Canada. I will be working at a company
called KWL in Burnaby (yeah, for all you
Vancouverites! I'll miss you Vernonites!). I will be
doing water modelling and water sytem design which is
the area I want to go in. I start June 1st which
leads me to a question:

Does anyone know of some places where I can stay in
Vancouver/Burnaby starting June 1st?? (I don't have a
lot of time to look around as I get back May 20th)

Thanks guys!!

Mike

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New Horizons

Hello Everyone,

Hope you're all doing well. Sorry it's been a while
since my last update.

Well the last couple weeks I've had a good chance to
travel a bit and see some new horizons.

About two weeks ago on our break I had a chance to go
to a game park in Uganda. The first night we tented
in a forest full on monkeys. In the night we awoke to
Monkey calls responding like a chorus in the forest
all around us. We found out in the morning it was
Baboons and Colubus Monkeys making calls to mark their
territory. The next day we travel into a Gorge to
search for Chimpanzees- we found them pretty quickly.
Amazing creatures - they are very intelligent I think
the closest to human beings, but not close enough to
evolve by any stretch of the imagination. Next we
travelled to the Savanna and did a Safari. We saw
elephants, hippos, lions, hyenas, warthogs and lots
more. It reminded me of the Lion King. The greatest
was to see Pumba (warthog), it got me singing a little
song a love (Hakuna Mutata). Amazing to see God
creation and how they all work together.

After returning we headed off to Kenya for a week to
checkout a possible new water project. Kenya was
quite different from Uganda- much drier and flatter.
We met with a committee of elders from the area that
have been working for 10 years to get water for the
area. They had just been in a drought, no rain for 6
months. Four days before we arrived the rains started
and boy did it rain (praise God - Bwana Asifiwe). The
drought hit them hard as they are all farmers. The
grass has dried up and they had to go into the forest
to get grass for their cattle. When we were there the
people we were staying with had a milk cow that died,
most likely due to starvation. There were reports
that they had even lost people from lack of water.
Amazing stories that remind you of stories in the
bible that you don't think really happen today. We
hope that we can help them with water. Please pray
that as we write our report we would have wisdom and
present these peoples plee in the best way.

My intership has been extended for another month to
finish some work. I then plan to travel a bit. Plan
to be back in Canada mid-May.

Prayer Requests:
-wisdom in concluding the work I have been working on
-not to worry about what's next to do my part to
search and trust God, that HIS peace that passed
understanding would gaurd my heart and mind in Christ
Jesus
-energy, health and strength
-protection against the evil one

Only a few more months and I'll be back in Canada.
Look forward to seeing you all!!

In HIM,
Mike

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Moving Ahead

Hey Everyone,

I pray the Lord watches over you all as seasons
change. I've been well, thanks for all your thoughts
and prayers!

Projects are really cooking now so there seems to be
lots of work to do, especially as March is coming
closer. New water lines are almost ready to serve
more people with clean water. I have also been
looking at new water projects for the future, which
has had it's challenges.

Going to new villages and seeing the state of how the
people live and the dirty water is very motivating.
However there is such need, but not enough water for
everyone. My biggest challenge I have faced is
deciding how far we can take the water. There has
been a long drought so water springs are less so I've
had to cut back on the amount of people that we can
serve with water. Very hard decision, I prayed to God
lots for wisdom as my experience and knowledge is
limited (a prayer request). But atleast we can help
some and we must. Reminded me of when Jesus was
talking to the women at the well - he said that people
drink the water but become thirsty again. He has
living water that we can drink so that we will never
be thirsty again.

I watched as the construction team built a water tap
for a new village. The adults and children from the
village stood by and watched eagerly. One boy had
some sort of disease and he had large open blisters
all over his face which the flies had found. We
talked with his Mom and told her to bring him to the
clinic at our camp - I pray she has the time and
strength to bring him. I hope that clean water will
help prevent and treat diseases like this!

The more time spent here the more the reality of the
need becomes apparent. But we cannot be overcome we
must continue to move forward and help.

Some might remember a women that we helped take to the
hospital with her very sick daughter, who died that
night. She traveled to the large town to meet as and
brought two huge bunches of matooki(plantain banana's-
a bunch must weigh 25kg). Amazing people, they have
nothing but are so willing to go out of their way to
give. She wanted us to come and visit her village.
We hope to in the future.

The stories go on... There is so much need but we
must help.

Prayer requests:
-wisdom to make decisions of decided who should get
water
-strength to move forward even when the need seems
overwhelming
-wisdom as I make decisions of what to do after March
-protection from the enemies schemes to discourage,
bring discord, intimidation

Oh, a bonus, a bunch of us will be travelling to see a
possible new water project in Kenya at the beginning
of March.

Oh and I did a bible study/worship with my guitar with
the whole group. It was awesome!! To hear the
Ugandians sing "ONE WAY, JESUS" was sooo cool!

Ok that's it for now. Thanks again for all the prayer
and support- I definitely feel it.

Mike

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Breaking Through

Hey everyone,

Hope January is finding you well. I'm doing well- I'm
enjoying the 4 month extended summer. Not any crazy
adventures to report on like last time. After getting
back to work in January I have been working on various
water projects. But through out all I do I have
really sensed Gods presence and how he works in
amazing ways even in little ways, even in the midst of
struggles.

God has really opened up breakthroughs in
relationships with those around me. I'm learning it's
not just about the work that you do, but those you do
it with and how you deal with them and treat them.
It's been a great growing experience - and I'm
thankful that God know exactly what he's doing and he
deals with us with such patience and love.

I think I'm getting very fimiliar with Uganda now. I
feel comfortable here and I find that I'm not taking
as much pictures because things are so fimiliar.
There's still so much for me to learn though.

Had a really good meeting with an engineer from
Toronto the other day. He has his own company but has
a really good balance with ministry and work. It was
very encouraging for me to see someone that is very
technical, yet very relational. God gave us both a
mind and heart and we need to use them both.

I sense God pushing me to take more initiative with
leading a bible study and worship. To be more aware
of the ministry opportunities around me - to see more
of the spiritual side and not get too caught up in the
technical things. So this would be a pray request for
me.

Also been missing home. Please pray for extra
strength and obedience for the months ahead.

You guys are in my mind and prayers. Love to hear
what you're up to and how I can be praying.

With lots of love,
Mike

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