Getting Ready to depart

Finally the time has come for Glenda and me to make our final preparations for departure to Africa. It's been almost a year since we last set foot on African soil and a lot has happened in that time. But we will not review those details of which you are all too well aware.

Getting ready for departure is always a challenging time and you can be sure that lots of things will go wrong along the way. Here's a sample:

• The photocopier/printer decided that it did not want to talk to my computers which meant that every document I wanted to print had to be saved to a USB drive and loaded to another computer for printing. It has taken weeks to sort that little glitch out.
• Our internet has been spending more time off line than online and we use the internet all the time. The people from Telstra will not be here to fix it until after we are gone.
• The book binder which we use to bind all the books we print for transport to Africa suddenly started making some most unhealthy clunking noises and not working properly just when we needed to be able to print some additional stock for Africa.
• Just 10 days out from departure, our house sitter notified us that due to a severe downturn in her health, she would not be able to come.  

But despite these setbacks, we have watched God at work in so many ways. For almost every challenge there has been a matching blessing.

• Despite the computer/printer communication problems, we have been able to get all the necessary printing done, packed and ready to take to Africa.
• Because of our tickets to South Africa, we have been given extra baggage allowances. All in all we have 104 kilograms of checked luggage plus our hand luggage. What a blessing. So we have 20 kgs of books for each of Uganda and Zambia and another 18kgs of books and materials that will be spread across all three countries we are visiting. That is apart from the 23kgs each in our personal luggage. God is good.
• Each time I thought of phoning the agent to organise the repair of the book binder, God said to me, 'Speak to Mark'. Mark is a great guy from our home church who gets a real thrill out of sorting through difficult challenges and fixing them. And he did. The binder now works almost as good as new and it did not cost a thing. Thanks Mark. You probably saved us around $1000.
• Despite the short notice, Glenda decided to list our need for house sitters on the Christian House Sitters website based in the UK. The next morning we had a contact from a family in Finland who offered to come. So as I write, they are on the last leg of their journey from Helsinki to Sydney where I will meet them on Wednesday morning. Amazing.

By mid last week, I could feel the stress and anxiety beginning to rise up inside me. After the events of last year, I seem to be a bit more vulnerable to such things. Early on Thursday morning I woke sensing the presence of Jesus. I felt as though He was standing beside my bed and speaking peace into my spirit. It was the most wonderful encounter that I can remember in quite a while. Since that time the stress and anxiety has completely gone and I have been peacefully coasting through the final stages of packing and preparation. It has been wonderful.

There are many other blessings I could share with you but that sample should give you an idea of what is happening. We are both looking forward to arriving back in Africa and the ministry God has for us over the next 8 weeks. We have had a gentle run down toward departure over these past few days. It is still two days until we leave home and our bags are all packed and ready to go. We have the next two days to show our Finish friends a little of Australia.

The intercessory notes were sent out last week so if you have not seen them, just drop us a line and we will send you out a copy.

Next update should be from South Africa.

Gavin and Glenda