Hello All!

This week has once again been a very eventful one. We are also, once again, witnesses to some amazing miracles.

Very early Monday morning, we rounded up all of us who were having stomach issues (Christiane, Camila, myself, Rachel and Lilly) and we all took blood tests. We came back to get the results later that day and were shocked to find out that all five of us tested positive for typhoid, and I also was positive for malaria. This brought much concern to us and made us wonder if the entire team was hosting this parasite. So on Tuesday we took the rest of the team to get the same test, and only one of our students, Carri, was tested positive. We all received the medication to fight against this parasite, and in three days, we were all back up and working with the church.

Friday morning, we went to visit the INAC (National Institute for Children) government building where we were able to take a tour of the building. We were taught about the many different focuses and programs they doing here in Angola. One of the programs helped the civil war veterans. Some of these soldiers were raised in the war and fought in the war since they were small children. Now that the war is over, they have been left without education, and in many cases, some do not even have documents such as birth certificates. They have lived their whole lives as soldiers and now feel like they have no identity or hope. We had an awesome opportunity to pray for these men in need of identity and it is our hope and prayer that they can find it in Jesus.

We are making great process on our project to paint the church’s classrooms. But without the convenience of paint-thinner, we must scrape the 3 layers of paint off of the concrete walls. We are finding new situations every day to help us understand how much easier life is back home. With God’s encouragement, we are finding it much easier to tackle this “Goliath” sized task with a smile. We are so grateful to have all the children who come and help us pick the paint off the walls and sweep the floors. They are helping us not only with our labor, but they are also reminding us exactly why we are doing what we are doing: To bless the children of God.
We are very thankful for all those who are praying for us back at home! We do have some prayer requests:
· Prayer for our health as we finish off our medication for typhoid.

· Prayer for these diseases to not return. We are still vulnerable to these diseases until we leave Africa.

· Prayer for the former soldiers as mentioned above.

· Prayer that the joy of the Lord will be our strength to carry on with the remaining weeks.

· And as always that the hearts of the Angolans will be prepared to receive all that the Lord is giving us to bless His people here.

God Bless,
Jake McKenzie