Sunday, June 26

This is the first day that I could find my notes from. The days before this were just travel days, so I can easily summarize those. On Thursday, June 23, we flew overnight from Seattle to New York. This flight is about 6 hours long, and I struggled to sleep. After this, we had a 5 hour layover in JFK, and then we left for Johannesburg, South Africa. This flight is about 16 hours, and I managed to sleep a bit. We had a few hours in the Joburg airport before we flew to Windhoek, Namibia. This flight is only about 2 hours long. We were picked up at the airport by Pastor Stephan Nell and Hank and Joyce. It was great to see their faces! For the first night (Saturday, June 25 - Sunday, June 26), we stayed at the Otjari House. This is a house that is used mainly for missionaries who are staying in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
Anyways, on Sunday morning we woke up early, showered, and got ready for church. We had to keep our things packed, since we were only staying in this house for one night. We then prepared to hop into the van to travel a short drive to Pastor Stephan's church in Khomasdal. We had to pile our whole team, along with ALL of our bags - suitcases, purses, and carryon bags. Let's just say I ended up sitting cross legged with two suitcases to my left and one in front of me... I couldn't even see my mom, who was sitting across the aisle from me. After we piled in, uncomfortably, we headed off to Pastor Stephan's church, which was only about 10 minutes away. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Hank in the van, since today is his 70th birthday. When we got to KCC, Khomas Community Church, we met up with Stephan and piled out of the van. We went inside and met his wife, Beverly, and found out seats. We also got to meet Desmond, who was worked with this team in the past. The service started off with a little worship, and some introductions. Pastor Stephan then showed a slideshow of pictures of our team, Hank, Joyce, their daughters, and children in Namibia accepting Jesus. Stephan spoke a bit about Hank and the lives he has changed here in Namibia, and basically, how awesome he is. There was a prayer for Hank – for safety, good health, and strength, and then another round of “Happy Birthday.” The church service was long – about 3 hours. But it was very good! After church, we mingled with the people outside for a bit, then hopped in the van and rode for about 3 ½ hours to Swakopmund, where we found our houses. Sandi, Carol, Julie, mom, and myself were in the Beach House, while the rest of the team was in the Finnish House. We unpacked, made ourselves at home, enjoyed the view, and got settled in for the night.