We arrived yesterday in Lubango after a restful two days in Windhoek, Namibia.  Brent Mudde, the pilot who came from Lubango to pick us up graciously answered all of our questions and shared about life in Angola.  We went on a Safari for an afternoon which was incredible, and the highlight was seeing 5 huge white Rhinos come near our truck.  We saw giraffes and pumbas and many other animals whose names I don’t know.

We flew four hours north to Lubango in a Cessna Caravan and flew in and around several beautiful mountain ranges and landed in Lubango to be greeted warmly by several gracious, welcoming and very helpful missionaries.  We had no problems with customs.

We spent the day driving around the city and meeting our new missionary family.   They are lovely people and were so helpful in making our first day here special, providing housing, meals, and answering our many questions.  We sure felt as though they were glad that we were here.  The mission director, Sheila, did so much to make our welcome warm and special.

We drove around the large , crowded city of Lubango (led by Norm and Audrey, who have so helped prepare over the last few months), bought cell phones, and fell into our beds at the end of a very full day.

Lubango is an impressive city in its simple, poor housing, its crowded conditions, and roads within the city that are worse than the worst roads I saw in the Amazon, mainly because they are full of huge rocks.  I’ll write more in coming days and try to capture this in some photos.

Today, we have an Easter service at a large church, a lunch with the rest of our missionary team and an english-speaking fellowship in the evening.

I will begin getting oriented at the hospital on Monday, but our first priority will be getting settled into our apartment and unpacking.

Thank you for your help, your support, and your requests to our Father on our behalf.  We arrive and dive into all of the unfamiliar knowing that we are so loved.

tim and betsy