Taking off!

We all made it together to the airport and are taking off in about 30 minutes! We'll post again once we arrive in Pretoria. Thank you for your prayers!

Also, here's a picture from the other night of our complex and high-tech packing techniques to make sure our luggage doesn't go over 50 pounds:

Getting ready!

Hi church family! We're so grateful you're joining in on this journey with us as our sixth team heads to Pretoria, South Africa this Thursday evening (Sept. 29) We'll be updating this blog with information and photos each day of our trip so we can share with you all that God allows us to be part of while in Pretoria serving with Hope Baptist Church. Our team has our final preparation meeting tonight before we meet at the airport on Thursday! 

Our preparation meetings over the last couple months have been a little bit of an adventure as our entire team has yet to all be in the same physical place at one time. We're so excited that in addition to our team of five from FSBCS, two others will be joining us — Fred MacDonald is the Director of Missions at the Pecos Valley Baptist Association in Artesia, NM, and Ken Engledow is the Senior Pastor at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Carlsbad, NM. It's been a pleasure getting to know these men during our meetings, and we're looking forward to meeting them in person!

Here's a photo of our computer screen during one of our recent meetings - you can see we have four different locations represented at the top of the screen.

I think we're all experiencing a combination of excitement and a little nervousness as we each prepare to teach main sessions and/or workshops during the Hope Baptist Church leadership conference that we're assisting with this coming Monday and Tuesday.  We'll also be helping with another eyeglass distribution (as teams have done in the past) on Wednesday and Thursday. 

We need and appreciate your prayers. Pray that our nerves about teaching will be settled and that we will trust the Holy Spirit to speak through us and use our teaching for God's glory and for the good of those who hear it. Pray that we'll be a great encouragement to Pastor Julius and Cintia and to the HBC body of believers. Pray that God's name would be lifted high and that many people would come to be in relationship with Him. 

As we've said many times in our preparation meetings, God doesn't need us to accomplish anything in Pretoria. But He allows us the privilege of being a small part of what He's already doing. We're grateful and excited.

Stay tuned!

Team #6 Prepares to Leave for South Africa!

Our next mission team from First Southern Scottsdale is preparing to leave for Pretoria, South Africa on September 29th.



Check back to this blog from now through the duration of the trip as they return on October 9th. Your prayers and support are greatly needed and appreciated for this team!