Ruaha National Park

We just spent 3 days on a safari to Ruaha National Park; Tanzania's largest National Park. Kidamali, Shepherd of the Hills partner congregation, is on the road to the park, so we drove through on the way there and back.

The drive was an adventure in itself. If you've ever driven on a dirt road and had the washer board effect where your whole vehicle rattles you'll understand the road condition for the last half of the trip. I think it was 60 kilometers of that. Then throw in some engine trouble on both the way there and back. But even with that, the trip was amazing. 

I've been seeing God's work with the people of Tanzania, now I had the chance to see God's work with the land of Tanzania. We took three drives through the park with our guides. It was simply amazing. We saw so many animals and birds. I'm going to have to buy a guidebook to identify everything.  There are 542 different species of birds in Ruaha. I was close enough to an elephant to realize that they have eyelashes. I saw a giraffe bend over to take a drink. I saw a landscape all the way around from horizon to horizon and the only man-made things in view were the truck we were on, 30 feet of our road and a cell tower on a mountain. God's creation is wonderful. 

We're back to visiting churches tomorrow. We'll take a long bus trip again and spend 3 days south of Iringa. On Sunday, we'll worship with another partner congregation then head back to Iringa. Monday begins our return voyage as we'll be busing to Dar es Salaam. Our flight will leave Tuesday with a Wednesday return for our arrival in Minnesota. 

Please say some prayers for Freddy, grandson of Liz Spohr and nephew of Sarah Spohr both members of our group. He's having some medical issues. Pray that the doctors figure everything out, that they can fix whatever's wrong. Pray for Freddy's healing so that he can go back to doing the things that young boys do. Pray for Liz and Sarah for peace that their worries and concern for Freddy won't detract from the trip.