Wonderful sabbath and first church service

We had our first church service in the new church. The church was filled with mainly kids from the vbs and medical. We had a lot of them say they would be back last week!

We also had a baptism after we got back from church. One of our youth, Parker Carbone, was baptized today at the hotel pool. That is a first for our mission trips and was amazing!

Massive storm last night

We were woke up to a massive thunderstorm last night at around 2 am. I don't recall many storms that have been stronger for a long period and dump that much rain.

Electricity is out all over town. We are hopeful the electricity comes on soon so vbs can operate. Since we got done with blockwork yesterday, we won't need electricity. Praise the lord!

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Wednesday pics

Amazing day of ministry

We had a fantastic day on Wednesday. On construction we got completely done with all blockwork on the church! We have never done all blockwork on any church in four days with any group. Truly amazing and totally a God thing.

Our medical team had an addition of a local doctor today and they were able to see 93 patients ! All of our glasses have been given out as well. They have been doing amazing work and really ministering to the town.

Vbs group had a smoother day today and have the kinks worked out. 300 kids is a ton to handle and they are making it work. The kids are really enjoying it.

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Tuesday in Pedasi

End of day three. The team is doing awesome work!!! Completed 13 courses all the way around and 14 on one end. Should finish the sides tomorrow and a lot of the gables.

Our vbs team has continued to adapt and is now running four different vbs sessions a day. They have over 300 kids and it is going well.

Medical is up and running and ministering to the town. Yesterday they saw 45 persons and had more than that show up today!

We have more and more people showing up to the jobsite to ask what is going on. We have been able to share why we are there. Two police officers in full riot gear came by on a motorcycle today and waved me over. They wanted to know what was going on and were genuinely interested. I told them to come to church on Sabbath for the dedication so they could provide protection! They laughed at that.


We also had an expat from the states come by today and took pictures for the local pedasi Facebook page. We are getting noticed!!

Sunshine on Monday

We had a great day on construction and NO RAIN! As a result, we got done with nine courses of block. Amazing work by our team.

One of our you, Amos, decided today that he was the project manager and boss rather than me. So we ran with that and decided that, as a good leader, if we got done with nine courses that I could throw him in the pool. You can see by the video that he is a good sport.


Awesome day and praise the lord for good weather!!

Ministry reports for Sunday

We have had miracles today. The school had been on strike and they lifted the strike today so we can vbs at the school! Amazing that it happened.

They have 300 kids so they are going to have to run TWO vbs sessions during the day from 8:30-1:30. A long day.

For medical, a local doctor showed up out of the blue with a TON of medicine and supplies! We will also get tables and chairs and privacy screens. Amazing!

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The rains came down

We finished with day one on the job site. It rained solid till about two pm. Everyone was soaked through and stayed wet all day.

In spite of that, with new team members, we achieved our goal and a bit more. We got done with four courses, rebar tied and concrete poured. We also extended the rebar and put up scaffold. An awesome day and incredible effort by a new and young team.

Worship in panama

We had an awesome Sabbath morning here in Pedasi. We started with a group run to the beach before breakfast.

We had our lesson study and sermon here at the hotel. We are building the church so no where else to go!


We had a first today: We had two of our young men dedicate their lives to the Lord and declare for baptism. Super excited by that!!!!

At the hotel

After a LONG bus ride, we are safely at the hotel. Everyone is headed to bed after a long day.

Praise the Lord we are all here with our luggage!

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On the bus!

Everyone got their luggage and we are on the bus to pedasi. We will stop to get out supplies and continue on our way.

Landed safely in panama

Our trip to Pedasi has begun and we had a little snag in Houston. One of the passengers on the flight decided she wasn't comfortable flying today and got off the plane. That meant that they had to search through the luggage hold for her two bags and take them off.

That set us back about an hour and we are late to Panama City but all on board!

We will board our bus and have a six hour trip to pedasi.

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Planes, trains and automobiles.

We got to DC an hour late. Which meant that we were going to have tight connections.

However, United cancelled our flight from Dulles airport. So, they rebooked us on a flight from Reagan. South African paid for our taxi, so we are in our way to Reagan for a noon departure. I pray that our flight will be on time and we are only delayed by for hours.

Our Atlanta group was able to run and make their flight.

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Landed in DC

After. Long flight, made an hour longer by headwinds, we have landed in DC.

Now we only have one hour to make it through customs, get our bags, recheck them and make it through security. Praying that United holds our flights.

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Landed safely in ghana

Had an uneventful flight to ghana. Will be on the ground for an hour and then head to DC.

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On the plane to DC

After a layover in Joburg, we are on the plane to DC.

We had an overly elaborate security process at the gate that included a full body pat down and bag search. For the life of me, I will never understand why they insist on not letting water on the plane. Doesn't make any sense.

Regardless, we are here and have a 5 hour flight to Ghana and then an hour layover for refueling. And then the fun begins with the 11 hour flight to DC. Praying we can sleep on the plane.

Making our way home!!!

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RE: Landed safely in Joburg

Wonderful! Thanks! 

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-------- Original message --------

From: "Greghatch@sbcglobal.net"

Date:03/28/2016 7:46 AM (GMT-06:00)

To: Blog ,Rachael Hatch

Subject: Landed safely in Joburg

Made it on time and safely to South Africa!!

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RE: On board the plane to Johannesburg

Good deal!  Be safe. 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------

From: Greg hatch

Date:03/28/2016 5:59 AM (GMT-06:00)

To: Blog

Cc: Rachael Hatch

Subject: On board the plane to Johannesburg

We made it to the airport in plenty of time and got everyone checked in just fine. And no issues with luggage this time! Everyone got their proper allowance of two bags a piece. 

We are now on the plane for a short ride to Joburg and then a three hour wait till we take the LONG flight back to DC and then to home.

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Landed safely in Joburg

Made it on time and safely to South Africa!!

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On board the plane to Johannesburg

We made it to the airport in plenty of time and got everyone checked in just fine. And no issues with luggage this time! Everyone got their proper allowance of two bags a piece. 

We are now on the plane for a short ride to Joburg and then a three hour wait till we take the LONG flight back to DC and then to home.

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Headed home.

We had a great excursion yesterday in Victoria Falls. We went on a lion and cheetah walk andwent shopping in zambia. Today we visiting Victoria Falls and it was amazing!!!   

We are at the airport and waiting to check in.  

It has been an amazing trip and have a lifetime of memories.   This group was amazing as was the Paul family.   Will keep updated as we make our way

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Safely in Victoria Falls

After a seven hour bus ride, we are safely in Vic falls for our excursion. We had a 30 minute delay halfway through our trip.  The lights on the bus wouldn't work. Luckily, Gerald, the maranatha lead for the country, is essentially the South African Macguyver. He was able to bypass the switch and hardwire the fuse so the lights would be on and we could continue on our way.  

Everyone is settled into their hotel and we are excited for a day of excursions tomorrow!

 

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An awesome dedication at the school

We had a great dedication at the school today. We got there and we're greeted by the church members singing. They had a number of speakers from the Union and Conference to thank the group and the headmatron from the orphanage had a presentation as well.  

The members presented us with gifts today. That is always very humbling as they can least afford to do so, but want to show their appreciation.   

Our group had the worship service.   I was originally going to preach, but was impressed to ask the group if anyone else wanted to. The youngest member of our team, Israel Nunez who is 17, wanted to preach. He did a great job today and all were blessed.  

We headed back to the dorms for lunch which was hosted by the Union.   On the way back, one of our volunteers took a picture of one of the police officers at one of the numerous checkpoints along the road. They saw it and halted the bus and took him off the bus. They wanted to arrest him!   Some of the locals traveling with us intervened and he got off with a warning. He was lucky!   It took about 30 minutes.  

Once we got back, we thanked our local team members with their team shirts and headed to Victoria Falls. We had a great time in Bulawayo and will always remember this project.  

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All completed at jobsite!

We spent a half a day at the jobsite to clean up, touch up paint and put the finishing touches on.   It is ready for church tomorrow!

Here is a shot of a completed classroom and the site. 

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Answered prayers

God DOES answer prayer. One of our volunteers needs a visa to get into zimbabwe ‎. We requested a double entry visa, but they only sent a single. We requested a double entry before we left the country but they had not responded.   Without another visa, they wouldn't let her back in from Zambia. We have been checking daily, but no response.  

The group prayed about it last night and I got the visa emailed to me today!   Now she can go on the excursion to Zambia with us!  

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Nearly done with construction

All of the structures are done and walls up and windows/doors installed. All we have left tomorrow is some braces and caps on the interior and panels over the doors. Will finish around noon and go for a mini excursion in the afternoon. 

God is good and gave us sunshine and heat on a day we could handle it as most of the work was inside or under the roof!  

Some of the construction crew will work with the children tomorrow so we took a picture with the entire crew.  

They already have the sign up for the school!

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Great weather for Wednesday at the jobsite

We had perfect weather at the jobsite.   Cloudy all day with a light rain for 10 minutes after lunch. We got all buildings roofed but one and siding on all but two. Great progress by the team!

We were joined today by half of our vbs team after they worked with the children in the morning. Very helpful to have additional hands.  

We had more guests on the jobsite today. The goats were back as were some cows.   The young cows were mixing it up with the goats and looked like they were going to get in a fight. Then a mama cow got involved and got everyone in line. Pretty funny.

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VBS report

Our vbs team has done great over the past two days. They prepared on Friday and Sunday and have taught over 110 kids each day at the orphanage! They had a concern with the CD player, but God provided for a system at the orphanage that worked better than what we had in mind!

In addition, our vbs leader Robin was sick on Monday am, but was better as soon as vbs started. Here are some pictures of the crew and vbs action.

Answered questions

Every day we go across a train track. Someone asked if it was active.   We found out today that it is as we came to it and found it blocked!   Not for lonEvery day we go across a train track. Someone asked if it was active.   We found out today that it is as we came to it and found it blocked!   Not for long as they we letting passengers off (in the middle of nowhere). g as they we letting passengers off (in the middle of nowhere).

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Tuesday at the jobsite

Had a fantastic day at the construction site. We got the roof on all but three buildings and the siding complete on almost six buildings. Only challenge is with the top panels that let light through. We will get some additional tools to help with that tomorrow. 

Here are some shots of the site as of day four.

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Fantastic day at school on Monday

Got a lot done today. Got two more buildings up with trusses and walls and the rest of the walls up. Got roofs on four buildings and siding/windows/doors on parts of three buildings. Very happy with progress today. No rain!

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Guests on jobsite today

We had guests on our jobsite today. Had goats when we showed up and a group of donkeys hung out all day. Definitely in the country.  

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Very productive day on the jobsite

In spite of rain, we got six buildings up with trusses, one just walls and one with the sheeting. Very good day and no injuries. 

Tomorrow we hope to get all trusses up and start roofing. 

 

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Afternoon in Matobo national park

After we got back from church, we headed to Matobo national park. We drove through and saw some of the rock formations it is names for and we saw a few animals on our mini safari! We saw a giraffe, wildebeest, kudu and impala. After the rain we saw the most beautiful double rainbow. 

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