Well another week has gone by and with a whole lot of prayer, fasting, and seeking the Lord we have made it through. Let's recap the week: Mateo and Leslie both worked hard at their jobs and both had unique things happen. Leslie had Parent teacher conferences and Matthew went to a COCC class on starting a business in Oregon.
Yesterday we went to a dinner and a play with a teacher from Leslie's school. It was a very cute play about the princess and the pea done in a musical with a school orchestra and a great set. It was quite comical and had several very good singers.

News of the Retreat center:
I (Matthew) got to meet with the owners of the house and explain a little more what we were hoping to to as well as take some pictures and movies of the place. Just going back was a great experience and although the clouds were covering the mountains, I took some great shots of the rooms and small courtyard. (check out the new album)

We still feel like God is leading us in this direction and eagerly pray and wait to see how he is going to make it all work out.

It was encouraging to speak to a pastor early this week and share our heart for the place. He was very excited and asked if I had spoken with another member of the church with a very similar vision.

I was introduced to the other man and we had lunch together to compare notes and see how God was leading both of us. God has been working in his heart for the last 5 years to reach out and minister to Pastors. He believes that money spent in the care and restoration of this group of people is the best possible use of money in the ministry as these men and women have such a huge impact on so many others. He has already started a non profit with the goal of building or buying a lodge or large house to turn into this place of ministry. He has many plans and has visited other retreat centers of the same philosophy. He has also done much research and even some surveys on how best to serve this group of people.

It was really exciting to hear what God had been doing in his life and although we don't know exactly know how we will work together in the future, we were both encouraged to hear each others' hearts for this group of people and find that God has been moving in both of our lives to this goal.

I will look up his web site and try to post it so you can see the awesome vision and work that he has put into this idea. Again we don't know if we are to work together but we look forward to seeing how He works out His plan for both of us!

Prayers Requests:

We have also been battling some health problems (Matthew had bronchitis for two weeks and still has a poductive cough and Leslie has not been feeling well) as well as spiritual protection. I am no expert when it comes to this last area but I really believe that as we trust and see God move in big ways, it is met with opposition. Emotionally, physically, and spiritually it has been tough and seems to be getting tougher. Prayer for wisdom, discernment and healing would be wonderful.

Please pray also that God will financially and emotionally provide for this huge opportunity. We have been praying that He would work it out so we could move in before our lease is up in July. Your prayers in the same directions would be great!

We love you all and look forward to hearing back from you soon!



M+L

Right now we are finding ourselves seeking God for guidance and praying for His provision.


Some of you may have gotten our letter and if you haven't, we are still trying to find addresses for you. If you don't receive a letter by e-mail or snail mail, please leave us a comment sharing with us your address so we can update it in our address book.


If you didn't receive it we will tell you a little bit about where we are.


We have been praying about the future and what serving God is going to look like for us. Many ideas have come and gone. Some hang around waiting to be pursued in the future. One dream/vision Matthew has had for many years is a retreat center; a place where people, pastors, pastors’ wives and children can come to find rest and rejuvenation.


Four weeks ago we attended a party at a friend’s parents' house. The house is a beautiful log cabin just a few miles outside of Sisters. While there Leslie had the vision of this house as a retreat center. After learning that the house was for sale, Leslie mentioned this to Matthew. For the next two weeks, she prayed about it and on the third week shared with Matthew that she believed we are to pursue this house. Matthew called the owner and we made a date to visit.
As Matthew shared that our hope was to buy this place to provide a retreat for others, the owner began to share with us her story of looking for a retreat. When her husband found this place they knew it was the retreat his wife had been looking for. They have used it over the years to bless many. Youth groups have used it as a retreat center, friends and family have found it to be a place of peace and rest.


As she walked us around the property she told us,”This place is God's and I have always known it.” We were blown away by the work she has done on the place, sharing with us stories about the pink and blue tile and purple paint she found when they first moved in. The house is much different now and she has done a beautiful job making it a unique space. One of the unique pieces we really enjoy is the stain glass windows in the living room that were salvaged from an old church in Montana. We learned that the afternoon light shines through in such a way as to illuminate the living room with beautiful golden light. The house sits on 11 acres with a pond, a barn, a two car garage with an apartment and a three bedroom house with four baths. From the upstairs there are views of the mountains and as she walked us around the property we found many beautiful spots where one could sit for hours and enjoy Gods creation.


Our vision for the property is not unlike the owners’. We hope to set it up as a non-profit and use it as a place where people can come to find rest and rejuvenation. Specifically those who are in ministry, though we would like to have it open for anyone in need. We are continually praying for guidance and provision as we begin to pursue purchasing this property. As this is God's house we know that to be able to buy it God would have to provide, and the property is priced almost $2 million.

We have also been praying that we would be able to by the house by the time our lease is up in July. We know that these are huge requests but also have seen and believe God can move in great ways. Until He closes the door, we will continue to pursue this dream we believe he is leading us to.

We would love to share more with you so if you are in Central Oregon or have a few minutes give us a call.

Love M+L

So it has almost been a year since we posted last. We have decided to be a little more diligent in this as so much is happening and we don't always remember everything when we get to talk with you all. So here it goes.

Almost a year in review...
This last summer, we moved into an apartment in Sisters. If you stand on one leg and lean to the left you can see one of the Sisters mountains form our living room. The apartment is great; it has three bedrooms and two baths and is 1100 sq feet. We have a guest room, so please come visit.

Leslie has been working at Bend Senior High and loves it. The staff and students are great and the drive sure beats I-5 which she used to commute. On her way in the morning the sun is rising and reflecting off the sisters mountains to the right. On her way home the light makes the sisters mountains look pristine.

Matthew is working at Rescue Response Gear, a search and rescue equipment company. He is learning a lot and is able to use many of his skills to help the company. Including saving it from flooding when a pipe burst up the street and flooded into their lot. He made the front page on that one:)

We are both doing search and rescue now, Leslie is still going through the training and Matthew is brushing up.

We have wonderful fellowship within our home group. There are many young couples we have met who have a passion for God and growing in their walk. It is great to be surrounded by likeminded people.

We have enjoyed many outdoor adventures. Snowmobiling with Ben and Ella was our most recent adventure. We had a great time!! The snowmobiles took a beating, but while we where trying to fix one of them we decided to build a snow cave which turned into a snow slide!! If you got a running start at it you could cruse through the tunnel we built. Unfortunately on our way back one of our snowmobiles ran out of gas... Matthew went and got more gas, while Ben started a fire. Ella and Leslie made a snowman and gathered wood for the fire. Wood was hard to find so Ella and Leslie took to breaking down dead trees!! Thankfully Matthew came to the rescue and we made it off the mountain as the sun was setting, it was beautiful.

So winter is almost over, though it could still snow over here up until June. We had the first BBQ of the year over at Alex Cretzingers house. He had just bought mini-bike and the guys wanted to try it out.

Through out the last year we have been constantly provided for, and taken care of by our Heavenly Father. All of our financial needs have been meet every month and even the surprise bills and misadventures, through prayer and hard work have been satisfied. He has also been guiding us through some of the harder work of the heart. Though it has not been easy, He has been faithful to give us the strength to see it through. In this we have been blessed with a deeper character and understanding of dependence on Him. WE ARE SO BLESSED!

Without much detail that is where we have come, and next we want to tell you where we are going...

The next day we went back with my parents to get the car. We measured the path we had taken the day before and found that after three and a half hours we had hiked 9 miles. When we got back to the car my dad just started it right up. Leslie thought this was funny, much to my relief. (Upon further inspection we discovered that the starter was going out) But now with the car running and a little time to kill we had lunch and then spent another 45 minutes chopping up the tree in to smaller pieces and pulling it out of the way.

We dove about a hundred yards and came to another down tree. It was getting late so we turned around and went back. On the way we found a privy in the middle of the woods and a lake that was frozen over. It looked really thick so my dad tested it out.

Carefully he inched his way out on to the white ground. The top two inches were slush and as he walked his foot prints gave us a great idea. If he didn’t do it himself we would make a hole at the end of his tracks and then have him back out so it looked like someone fell in. We tossed him a shovel and he tried to break the ice. We soon discovered that the ice was too thick to break with the shovel. So again I fired up the chainsaw and cut right through. It was about a foot thick but we didn’t know how deep the water was underneath. So I lowered the shovel into the fridged water to find the bottom. I couldn’t find it and began to draw the shovel back out of the hole. It was then that I caught it on the ice and lost my grip. It dropped into the brown water below the white shelf where I stood.

Very quickly we began to rationalize who would be best suited to jump in and retrieve the lost shovel. First it was me, then mom, then dad. Leslie, seeing where the conversation was going piped up and said aloud the next logical step. And she would not be taking it.

So it was back to my dad. He was a sport and after rigging him with a makeshift waist and chest harness he lowered his skivvie covered body into the water. He grabbed the shovel with his feet and back up we pulled him. It was then a long drive home where my dad warmed up and we were thankful for adventures and daring fathers.

Life is never dull…
We’ll since the last time we wrote you we have had a great adventure and found more clarity in the paths that the Lord is guiding us in.

Our adventure started after a hard day of tough conversations and work. As we were getting to bed, Matthew said, “Lets go for a hike tomorrow, we haven’t done something like that in a while.” Leslie thought that it was a great idea. The next day we got our stuff together and threw it in the back of the car, along with a chainsaw because the last time we wanted to go for a hike we were stopped by a downed tree.
After about an hour of driving, and cutting one tree, we had to chose between another hour of driving but hikeing in the high desert or a closer hike in knee deep snow. We chose the latter.

Now if you are not familiar with Matthew’s idea of fun then what happened next will resonate with you much the same way it resonated with Leslie. After choosing to hike in the snow we started to drive uphill and continue to gain elevation. Soon we were in deep snow and even with the chains on it was slow going. After ten minutes of breaking trail we came to an old growth Doug-Fir across the road.

I jumped out of the car and got the chainsaw fired back up in no time flat barely containing my joy for the challenge before me, the overwhelming sense of purpose and drive to clear the road and rescue my bride from the eminent danger from this tree. Leslie on the other hand could not fathom why we were wasting such valuable “us” time on cutting up a tree when we could be hiking. But being the supporting wife that she is, she let me have my fun and just prayed for me in the warm car as I showed that behemoth of a plant who was boss.

At hour mark Leslie was changing her prayers from encouragement for me to patience while I remained clueless to anything but bliss from this situation. It was also about this time that we used the winch to try and move the cut sections of the tree out of the road. Now I was using a 9,000 lbs winch with a pulley system that had 18,000 lbs of moving strength and I could not get it to budge. So much to my disappointment I decided to give it up and come back another day with more equipment. We started cleaning up and then went to leave.

The car was absolutely dead.

Now I have mentioned that we first drove about an hour away from our house before we made the decision to hike in the snow. And from there another ten minutes in deep snow. What I have failed to mention is that all this driving was into the forest. So we were not only with a two ton paper weight on wheels, we were in the middle of nowhere. It was about ten to three in the afternoon when we started to hike. Needless to say it was a very silent walk for the first bit. But after a good pow wow, we were not only able to have a great hike, but also a great time doing it. So we decisded to hike home

The Hike

We started to walk. At first it was up hill in the snow (both ways, barefoot and only barbed wire for traction) but soon we made it to the crest of the hill we had driven to and started our decent. I figured that it would be at least 8 miles as the crow flies to the nearest phone and 11 miles if we took a road. There was also a cliff and a stream between us and that phone. But that does not deter the likes of us.

We went cross country straight off the cliff. It was about a 65 degree cliff and every two steps would take us almost 6 feet down. It was very slippery but because there was snow we could make plunge steps and keep our footing most of the time. We did this for an hour until we came to the road we were aiming for and then took the road several miles until we made it to pavement. Once on the pavement we hike for 4 miles. We tried to wave down two motorist. They looked, paused, and then drove away. Quickly.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. As I sit here watching the snow come down I can't help but think about the ability of the snow and cold to slow people down. You have to drive slowly, you move slow and when you are cold you just think slower.
Slow has been the operative word for these last 2 months. And even though is has been slow it has also been a bit of a whopper for us. I am afraid that in keeping everyone out of the loop we have alienated many readers. For this I am sorry. For those of you who continue to check our blog I hope the next few entries provide some much needed information and brings you up to date on our little adventures.
It was January 3 ish that we where completely done with our application process and left it in the hands of the Board of Directors to approve us. After a few weeks we were sent a very peculiar email from the founders that left us feeling perplexed and a little discouraged. In it they mentioned one of the staff in SA was leaving and that they had some concerns about our expectations in going. They also said that we would most likely not use our business and counseling skills; a key reason we chose this group. They said that because they were just starting the boarding school we would spend most of our time doing labor, building and cleaning. We then corresponded with the staff member who was leaving to understand what had happened. She said that it was just a change in direction and that she would still recommend us to BHI. So we wrote back to the founders with our continued desire to come. We wrote out our expectations and understanding of the situation, along with some clarifying questions.
For a week we did not hear from them and then they wrote us to say they would consider our application on January 30. Again a week past and we heard nothing. The date came and went and another week passed. I finally called them a few days after our last blog entry to see what had been the hold up. They said that they had considered our application but had not made a decision. I asked them when the next time they might be able to make that decision. The first of March was the reply.
Needless to say this was more then a little discouraging. We then asked why they had not made a decision about us in the last meeting. They said that another staff member was leaving and they wanted us to have the opportunity to talk to him before we decided to go. We wrote him an email and asked what was going on. He didn’t reply for a week. So we started to make a plan.
We went to the beach cabin for four days; from February 11th to the 15th. The day we began our retreat to the cabin we fasted, prayed and sought God and His direction for us. We didn’t speak a lot and spent most of the seeking God individually. At the end of the day we compared notes and found that He had been telling us both, South Africa was not where he wanted us now.
Needless to say this was tough to take. We had worked for so long, tried so many different organizations, and had seen God move in incredible ways to get us there. We had quit both of our jobs, saved our money and rented out our house in preparation to go. We felt like we would be a great fit for this ministry. We had very deep and difficult feelings as God shut the door. I (Matthew) felt almost like I was in a state of morning, like my purpose in missions had ended. But God being God kept steering me back to his faithfulness. It wasn’t long after that I started to feel my heat awake to new ideas that He could be calling us too.
For Leslie it was even more freeing. Throughout the time of fasting God revealed to Leslie that she was holding on to Africa believing that this would be her only chance to serve there. God then asked her to trust him and this wasn’t the right time to go. Since the coast God had been working on her heart and using other women in Sisters to mend places in her heart by breaking down walls of protection and revealing lies she believed about herself. Things which she might not have taken the time to work on if we were preparing to go to SA.
As always, God has a plan for us and it is as adventurous as anything we could have come up with ourselves.
The rest of the vacation went great with Valentines Day and just a break from the stress of waiting. When we got back we told our parents what had happened and then wrote Bridges of Hope to withdraw our application. We also wrote to the staff member who had most recently quit and found that he had also quit on good terms.
It was awesome to see what God did next. He is so Faithful! Within three days of getting back we were already given three different ministries that could use help right now! As we prayerfully consider God’s calling in our lives be it overseas or here at home we would ask for your continued prayer for guidance.

We love you all and look forward to the adventure that awaits!

To God Be the GLORY!

Matthew and Leslie

Hey all we just wanted to keep you in the loop. We have not been officially accepted by BHI yet but that is not uncommon as we are told by other staff. It has taken months for others to be accepted. So we will just sit back relax and try to learn what ever God has for us in this time of transition.

In the mean time Leslie works at a local coffee shop in town and is enjoying being around coffee. She recently rediscovered her love of HOT coffee drinks and is even more alert in the mornings then usual, if that were possible.

I have spent my time remolding my parents bathroom. It has been a bit of a laborious task but in the end it will be worth it. Replacing 30 year old linoleum for heated tile floors. Very Cool.

Tonight we are off to a BUNCO game in Sisters with Campus Crusade, bring on the dice,

Peace,

M&L

PS Please continue to pray for us as we try to continue to seek His face in these life choices.

Wow it has been 2 weeks since I last posted anything on the blog. I am sorry. Lets see if I can recap.

Snow camping was an adventure. We hauled a homemade sled about a mile before we gave up and left it for my brother with a snowmobile that we were borrowing for the trip. There were 18 of us and we went 3.5 miles through beautiful country to a warming shelter in the woods. My brother and I went out looking for it the day before everyone arrived and tried to pack down a trail. Over night a huge storm dumped a foot of new snow on the ground and blew it into drifts 3 feet high. So we broke trail the whole way again. It was stormy almost the whole time and it never got above 20 degrees. The wind broke a tent pole in half during the night. IT WAS AWESOME! We all made it out safe thanks to some friends that showed up late with a couple more snowmobiles. I love being out doors in storms but not everyone was as excited about the 50 mph wind gusts as I. Overall, I think people had a good time.

The last two weeks have been tough for us. We still have not been officially accepted and it is tough to have to wait and wait. It has taught us that we still have a lot to lean about the way we communicate. It is amazing to me (Matt) how much I just don't understand women (I am supposed to be this great woo-er). I have been learning that love in deed is much more effective when needs are met first. ("thank you honey for the rose but you forgot to pay the bills again today").

As we continue to wait we ask for your prayers as we now have to weigh how to find temporary work, hiring the right contractor and continued patience.

We love you all,

M&L

(My Parents house in Camp Sherman)

It is time to go snow camping!! Hope you all have a great day!

God Bless

M&L

The house is coming along...but slowly. We know it is all His and he will do with it as he sees fit in his time. Meanwhile we have been busy with chopping up the tree and removing debris. We also lost our well pump and as a result we have not had any water for the last 2 weeks. Two days ago they brought out a well driller and finally pulled the old pump and out in a new one. It has been a stressfull and long process but again we know that in all things he works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
The holidays have been a tough time. With the tree, no water and on top of all of it, both of us have been sick. It is just not any fun! We spent the first part of the holidays with Leslie's parents and then came over and had a Christmas with Matt's parents on the 29th.
Today we get ready for our annual New Years Eve celebration. We invite the community over and have a great time playing Full-Contact Pictionary until about 11:50 when we all grab sparkling cider and make our way to the back yard where we bring out our 20 foot tall tree, strap fireworks and bags of gasoline to it and then light it up in a huge ball of fire and smoke. It is Great!

Hope your New Year's is a Great one!

Love

Matt and Leslie

So it is a wonderfull time of the year for us! We are spending Christmas with the Sammis side of the family and beside Leslie felling a little under the weather we are having a great time! Last night it was fun to learn some new traditions and have a chance to open all the presents on Christmas Eve!!!!
We hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years with us!

God Bless you everyone!

M&L

Hey I think we just got our pictures on the Web! Try the link on the side to see the South Africa Pictures and hopefully the newest addition to our roof!

M&L

Hey everybody thanks for you prayers! I just wanted to give you all a little update on what is going on in Corvallis. Last night we went up on the roof after the tree was removed and surveyed the damage. There are at least a dozen limbs percing the roof and one whole side of the roof was squished. We still don't have any water but the power was turned back on around 2 pm which is a huge blessing. We have a plumber coming over and will hopefully have the water back on by this afternoon.

We have yet to hear from our insurance guy but we we know that he has a huge case load so he might be a while.

Kelly, one of our renters, works for the football team and invited a bunch of defensive linemen to help us clean up the remains of the tree.

We also got into the paper! Check us out at http://gtconnect.com/articles/2006/12/18/news/top_story/7aaa01_trees.txt

Onward into life,

The Adams

We have power! The tree is almost gone! WE are going over there right now to check out the damages.

M&L

We are sorry for not keeping this blog up to date. We are going to try to do this much better as we have decided to go back to Africa!

It has been three weeks since we have updated last and we thought we would briefly catch you all up on the adventurous events in that time.
We went Christmas tree hunting with my family after Thanksgiving and had a fun time in the snow with friends and family. It is a tradition to go out in a big group in to the mountains around our house to get the tree and we have been doing it for about 10 years on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year was relatively small with only about 20 people in our group (we have had as many as 50 people one year.) We know that we are in the right spot when the first person is stuck in the snow and we all pull them out, start a fire, have some chili and start looking for a tree. It is a great time of snowball fights laughs and big trees. Alex, a friend that has gone with us for the last 5 years, got a 20 ft tree that he cut in half and put in both stories of his house to make it look as though it was growing right through his ceiling!
Our tree was about 24 feet tall and we had to cut about 2 feet off so it would fit but after we got it in, we decided that it was perfect. We spent the rest of the next week decorating and lighting it together as a family.

On the last day of my brother was here (and 6 hours before his plane home) he and I went decided to go on an adventure.


We took the trooper hooky bobbing and to make a long story short, we were stuck...really stuck.



We tried to free the rig but it was frozen to the earth with only two tires touching the ground.

Having all the gear for a night in the snow packed in car (thanks Mom) we chose to try hiking home. When we were ready for the long hike back, we tried one last time to get the trooper unstuck . Much to our surprise, introducing a third tire to the ground by jumping on the bumper and rocking back and forth, actually freed us from the two-foot thick white tar. With all the excitement of getting out, new (and somewhat poor) ideas jumped to our mind. Our trooper's newfound liberty was quickly reclaimed by the snow as we tried to make our way home.

We were now an hour later, darker and colder as we again started to hike, (this time wisely avoiding the temptation to try getting the car unstuck once more. After about two hours of hiking as many miles, the most beautiful and wise women I know; my wife and mother, rescued us. Their Beauty is know to all who meet them and their wisdom was once again demonstrated in my wife's forethought to slip us a GPS and walkie-talkie as we left for our adventure.

They got us home in time to get CJ packed and then off to Portland to try to get CJ to his airplane. His flight left at 11:20 pm, they left our house in Camp Sherman at 8:00 pm in a blizzard. It snowed all the way to PDX. He arrived at the ticket counter at 11:12. They did not let him on the plan. In fact it had left early and as he was late his ticket might have been forfeited. But after giving an account of the hard fought battle to get to his plane, ("the ditch just jumped up and swallowed the trooper whole and I barely got away with my life") they got him a new ticket for the next day.

The following week we took care of five dogs, three horses and one cat. It was tough job but good, as it has helped us pay for Christmas presents. There was a lot of walking, a lot of slobber and a whole lot of poop to shovel. In the end it was even a little fun although I don't think we will be getting a dog any time soon. With some of the money, Leslie and I even got to go out on a date.

Next came the Christmas party in Portland where we got to share the heart of Bridges of Hope with our family. They listened for the better part of an hour (my uncle and dad only fell asleep for thirty minutes). The said they would love to support us anyway they could. It was a huge blessing and we look forward to starting the support process once we get the final go ahead from BHI which we hope will be the end of this month.

After all the excitement of the last two weeks we thought it would be nice to get away for a while and went to coast for three days of R&R. It was great! The weather kept us on our toes and cuddled close with spots of sun followed almost immediately with 70 mph wind and rain. Storms at the Coast are terrific. The waves and the sky indistinguishable save the sound. Salty fog you can taste, eons of erosion in the sand with rocks jutting out into the surf, defying the time and waves. In addition, watching the fire and reading a book next to a woman who defines beauty is not that bad either! It was exactly what we needed to steady our nerves before the next adventure, which occurred within 24 hours of getting back home.

We came back to decorate for a Search and Rescue Party. Leslie spent all day cleaning and making the house look great while I did all the shopping and errands in Bend. The party had just started when I heard a phone ring. I went back to our answering machine to see who was calling. I heard a very excited/ slightly scared voice on the machine so I picked it up. It was our friend Kelly. She said that a huge tree had just fallen on our house in Corvallis!

That was Thursday night. We asked my friend Jorma to check it out see if I needed to come over that night. He said that we didn't so we went over to see the carnage done to our house on Friday. The tree is 3 1/2 feet thick and about 80 feet long. It crushed our eves and put two branches right through the roof over our dining room. Did I mention that it was our neighbor’s tree?

The way it fell was very lucky because it landed almost directly on our cinderblock wall that kept it from going through on to Kelly and the friends she had over to play board games. They said that they were just sitting there playing monopoly by candle light as the power had already gone out. When all of a sudden they heard a huge crash and ran to the front door only to see tree limbs.

This is a huge tree and it almost covers the entire roof. As of right now 8:35 pm on Saturday, it is still there. We still have no power and because we have a well that needs electricity, we are also without water.

My uncle and aunt have graciously put us up in their home and we have spent most of the day today using their house as our command post, making calls and plans. It will take a while to make the house safe again, but we know that we are in His hands and it is really His house and that makes it a little easier.

Please keep us posted on how all of you are doing and what life is teaching you.

God Bless and we will keep you posted on the continuing adventure and saga of


Matt & Leslie

Cooking at the Acadamey

So we thought that we would be a little adventurous and try a local breakfast. We went to the local market and found ProNutra. It is supposed to be a hot cereal like malto meal, but it turned into a kind of paste and tased like card board. We would not reccommend it.

One night Ben (another staff) cooked a meal for us from a recipe his mom sent him and it was spectacular. The dish was tye and had a great peanut ginger sauce.

Another night Dwight ( the psychologist who came to talk about anger and forgiveness) took us out to dinner at a local seafood place. While there we had this wonderful South African desert, I can't remember what it was called, but it was fantastic. It was a small chocolate cake saturated in a toffee syrup. It just melted in your mouth.

We made it home! We took a flight from Cape Town to Jo-berg, Jo-berg to Dakar, then to Washington DC, Denver and finally to PDX!!! We went through five check points, I got patted down twice, passed customs & declarations and watched 8 movies. We had one bottle of lotion blow up and sacrificed a checked bag to the airplane gods. Life is good. We will write again soon but right now we are just trying to fight to keep our eyes open.

Peace

Mateo and Beautiful

Hey everyone-
We just wanted to say that we are having a blast over here but are looking forward to coming home for the holidays! We have great stories to share when we get back. For the last few days we haven't been able to get Internet access and we won't be able to again before we leave so pray for us. Pray that the last two days in South Africa go well and the trip home is a safe and fast one. We will continue to write more of our stories when we get back to keep checking and keep praying.

Peace

Kwezi & Nokwezi

We have had the blessing of Dwight Carlson, a psychiatrist, visiting this week to run anger and forgiveness groups in Philippi for CHE (Community Health Evangelist) workers and the youth from the church. This last week he left the people with some great tools on how to deal with their anger and this coming week he will share about forgiveness. It was very freeing for the people of Philippi to hear that anger is an ok emotion. After processing that anger is ok, Dwight gave the people healthy steps to finding a solution to Anger.

His steps include:
Recognizing your angry, waiting before responding, praying, identifying why you are angry, evaluating if you have the right to be angry, confronting the person, forgiving the person and then hopefully finding resolution.

The hope is that the information he shared was received in such a way that the people who heard it could share it with more people. Already we have had reports that people are talking about anger and how to resolve it with their families.

It has been so encouraging to be with the people of Philippi, they are so intelligent and are so open, there is so much growth here!

(CHE is the health ministry that teaches AIDS awareness and other health issues. The CHE model is to train people who will train others, who will train others, and so on. The goal is multiplication.)

The end of this last week we had the opportunity to lead games at the Orphan Support Group, before Dwight did his talk on anger. The youth were so much fun! Matthew began the time with his announcer voice and got some great reactions from the youth. Some of you are familiar with the "sit" game, where you get everyone in a tight circle all turned the same direction and then have them sit at the same time. We all had a lot of fun playing and falling as we found it difficult to support each others weight. But eventually we got it to work:)

During Dwights talk with the youth the kids asked a lot of great questions, including if it is ok to be angry with God. Many of these youth have parents who had died of aids and some of them respond to that with anger towards God. We think there are many different ways people respond to this question. As we talked about it we found that we wanted to know what others think, please share your thoughts with us by clicking the comments link below.

The camera saga continues as we just got the camera working and then somehow deleted all the pictures we had managed to take!!

Thank you for sharing in our adventure.

Matt and Leslie

Working on the Farm

When we are not helping in Philippi, we are out on the "farm" that will become Bridges Academy and Bridges Retreat Center. The idea is to have a place for the orphans and children of Philippi to gain an education and skills they otherwise could never receive. The purpose of the retreat center is to have a place for orphans and adults from Philippi to escape the outside world, to learn leadership skills, receive discipleship, to experience new things and to try new challenges.

It is so encouraging to see the Philippian leaders rising up and taking over the the work that Bridges of Hope started. As the empowering of the people of Philippi to help themselves comes to a close, the focus of our ministry will shift to the Academy.

Currently on the property there are 6 buildings that have been used as a retreat center and Bed & Breakfast. It is a beautiful property with 360 degree views of mountains and 12 acres of blessing. There is a guest house that will be able to house 6 couples and the kitchen facilities. A bunk house that will have beds for 30 and a "shed" that is being converted to a rec room. These will be the facilities for the retreat center. We are spending most of our time at the farm getting this facility ready for the first retreat in December. There is a lot of work to be done but we know that it will be a one of a kind experience for the children who will visit.

On the other side of the property the three remaining buildings will be the start of the academy. Over the next year there are plans for a main house that will both provide permanent residence and rooms for instruction to the children who attend. It is BHI's hope that in two years the retreat center and academy will be up and running year round.

We have posted the location of the farm on a previous entry. Please enter the coordinates into Google Earth or other satilite program to see where we hope to spend the next few years of our life.

Molo (this means hello in Xhosa/ we don't know how to say goodbye yet:)

Matt and Leslie