safari continued

Elephants! It was cute to watch because the baby elephants would hold on to their mom's tail with their trunks as they walked along!

This was the only view the rhinos ever gave us. I think they were trying to tell us something!

The pretty zebras.

This was our treat we got on the last day as we were driving back through the park one last time before we had to check out...we spotted lots of cars & so we knew their was something good to see and this is what we found...

The King of the jungle was 10 feet from our car...there were actually 2 of them. I said out loud "they look so nice" and Ben quickly replied, "their not!". So don't worry we didn't try to pet them!

safari continued

One afternoon we drove to this place called Sun City, its kind of a mix between Las Vegas and an amusement park. This picture was taken at the Palace Hotel, a real hotel & tourist attraction in Sun City mainly because it cost a few grand to stay here for one night (needless to say, we just took a tour of it that cost 7 dollars)!

This is Ben being eaten by a crocodile. We went to crocodile farm where the largest croc in the world is...his name is Arnold--a very non-threatening name for a very threatening animal!

These are the girls I am leading this summer...Sarah, myself, Catherine and Brittni.

South African sunset.

Wildabeast!!

Safari

So, here are some of the pictures from our safari in Pilanesburg, South Africa. We had a wonderful time & were able to see so many animals close up. It's times like these that I wish we had a really nice camera to be able to capture what the moment was really like. But these will have to do! Enjoy!

Here's Ben holding a baby cub...as you can see the cub was not very happy. Just like in The Lion King, these cubs were working on their roar & it was quite funny!

These were the 2 person tents we stayed in while on safari...not too shabby.

This is a South African sunrise. The picture doesn't do it justice at all.

This was the morning of our first safari, where we had a guided tour. It was probably the coldest day we experienced yet in South Africa (it is winter here) and it was 6:00 in the morning in an open-topped vehicle. We were pretty miserable.

And here's our first giraffe we saw. I'm not sure how these animals ever blend in...they were very easy for us to spot because of their long necks! This one looks like it is howling. One interesting fact we learned about giraffes is that they give birth standing up, so those little babies have about a 6 foot fall when they come out! Ouch!

video updates

Hey everyone! Wanted to pass on this link to you guys. We have put together some video updates from our time here in South Africa that we are sending to the Leadership Project each week so they can stay up to speed on the happenings here. We thought y'all would enjoy watching as well. Just go to this link & it will be under CCP Update #1, CCP Update #2 & eventually #3, #4, etc.


http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=ccp+08+update&sitesearch=#

how we're doing...

Hello everyone! A lot of you know, but the past couple of weeks have been a little hectic here. About 5 people on the team got really sick just before we were going on our mercy ministry trip to a township called Magogong. So 15 people on the team went on the trip & 5 of us stayed back nursing the sick. But God really did a lot in each place...He healed the sick here in Pretoria(!) and really worked in the lives of little children in Magogong & in our group of students there. He also brought us closer together as a team through our distance. Absence makes the heart grow fonder & the very same team that was getting on each other's nerves before the trip, found themselves missing each other while apart. So we are thankful for God's perfect plan that didn't seem too perfect to us at first.
Below is a student testimonial from the trip to Magogong as well as a few pictures. Katie will be senior at PC this next year...here's her experience...

"Magogong was an amazing experience. We went to put on Holiday Camps, which are like Vacation Bible Schools in the US. I was with a portion of our team that hosted a Holiday Camp in Taung, a Tswana (African) township. There were about 70 children between first and eighth grade. It was hard because very few of the children understood English, which made communication very hard but it was really cool to learn that there are so many other ways to communicate and love on children apart from affirming words. God was really faithful to our team in providing translators that understood the gospel to translate and share Christ with the kids. It was cool to see the Lord work and bring people to himself in a different culture with a language barrier that I thought made having any fruitful conversations impossible. This week God has expanded my understanding of how big He truly is."

Here's Katie with some kids from her group.

Here are some of our students with some of the student leaders at the camp.

Cute kids!



By the way, we'd love for you to continue to pray for the health of our team. One other guy came down with the flu the other day. We've counted up that almost half of our team has had to go to the doctor since we've been here!

This week we are going on our safari! We hope to return with lots of stories & pictures. Pray that we'll get to see lions!!!