10 - 9 - 8 - 7 ...

After a good week or so of silence - maybe ten days - I'm back in Lubango!

You may wonder why I only got back on Monday of this week rather than last week. My Dad used to work for a bit of his company which sent computers overseas, and then sent engineers to install them. He will tell you that one of the most difficult things to do is to work out how long it will take things to clear Customs in any country, and so plan when the engineers should travel.

Angola is no different! Plans are just plans, and eventually the cars came out of the port and enough documentation was obtained to make us legal for the drive home.

Uncle Steve and I had a marvellous time, of course, while we were waiting. Steve delighted in showing me Benguela and particularly Lobito because he always went on holiday there with his family for a month each year until he left the country at age 18. He grew up somewhere further north and into the interior of the country.

One highlight was an evening we spent with Dr Chipinda and his wife. I haven't time to give the whole biography, but basically he's been quite a statesman in the history of not just the Angolan Church but the Church in Africa as a whole. He's now retired. The Portuguese for retire is reformar, by the way - I like the idea of stopping work being a 'reformation'. We also had a delicious barbecue Uncle Steve and I enjoyed at some YWAM Brazilian missionaries' house. Mmmmmm. Their daughter delighted in telling me she was 2 years old. Many times. It was on the night of the England Sweden match, and everyone was getting very excited (they were going to cheer for Sweden just to wind me up), but then 2 minutes before kick-off the power went out so I guess the electricity board didn't want us to see that one. The Angola-Mexico celebrations were good though - something for this nation to be proud of.

The Land Cruiser is muito bom, and the scenery on the way back was just breathtaking. I got some photos, but I never take that many of the scenery as photographs never seem able to do it justice. You'll just have to come out here some time ...

Tom was in Kalukembe until Friday with Steve Foster, but I haven't really had time to talk to him about it yet. He's been watching some theatre work I understand. He's off with Steve today at Tchambangala doing some more gruesome bits no doubt.

The SIM Conference for this part of the world is this weekend. Please pray that God will really bless our time together. My mind still hasn't really grasped quite how little time I have until departure - less than 10 days! I reckon I'll do at least one more English lesson this week, probably with cake, because I don't feel I've brought it to any kind of close yet. And shortly I will give my final music lesson to Bart, which is one of my favourite bits of the week. Sadly he and his family will return to Holland two weeks after I leave because their organisation could not afford the funding required for Rijk's project. Please pray for them.

The SIM Conference does mean that it will probably be at least another week before I get back on to the Internet, so perhaps only one more blog from Angola.

Thank you for all the support I have received while I have been here - letters and EMAILs I have enjoyed hugely, and prayers whose benefit I have truly enjoyed too. Please pray for all members of the GAP team, for health in the last days and when they return home. One thing SIM suggests is an MOT from the GP - I have had a bit of a chronic cough for the past few weeks (might just be the dust of dry season, and clear up as soon as I get back to the UK), but I think I might take that suggestion up to be on the safe side.