We so appreciate all of the encouragement, prayer and conversation over the past several months. We have decided to pursue the opportunity to serve in southwest Angola. We will work with the CEML hospital (www.ceml.net) in Lubango that was constructed in 2006 through Samaritan’s Purse. We will work under the direction of Dr. Stephen Foster and work to principally serve the people removed from the city with health care clinics and instruction. We will join their beautiful work in seeking to bring the Kingdom of God in word and in demonstration to the same people as we serve their health care needs. There was an incredible missionary effort in this region around 1960 but most all evidence of the work was destroyed in the recent civil war.

The region in which we will work (within about 700 km of Lubango) has over 500,000 people living without electricity, plumbing, and access to any health care. The Gospel presence is minimal (many of the regions have no gospel presence at all) as various African Tribal Religions dominate the spiritual landscape. Angola is in a restructuring and rebuilding season after 30 years of civil war that ended in 2002. It is a strange mix of a broken, wealthy country (from oil) where most people live in frank poverty and the life expectancy is 37-39 years.

CEML has contracted with MAF for a plane and pilot which will provide transportation to these needy, remote regions.

Betsy and I are in complete agreement in this difficult decision and we feel both excited about the work and apprehensive about yet another large move for our family. It’s not difficult for us to see that this step is one more in a plan laid out for us before time. We are so grateful to be able to continue to participate in our Father’s work to people living difficult lives. The kids are also completely on board, though they know another big transition looms. The official language in Angola is Portuguese and we are all thrilled that our Father is not asking us to learn another language!

We will continue our work with Xingu Mission until mid-2011, bringing health care, water filters and Jesus to the people living remotely in the Amazon Basin. We love this work and this team and are so blessed to have been part of this work for the past five years.

Thank you for praying and for helping us process. We will contact you about how you can partner with us in providing care to the beautiful people in this broken country.

tim