And now for something completely different...

Well not really, in fact probably not at all, I just seemed to have that phrase stuck in my head and thought it would be a good title for a post. Although now that I think of it most things here are completely different, but that still doesn't have anything to do at all with this particular post...I think I've somewhat digressed a tad...

A few weeks ago we received a container filled with all sorts of runway construction goodies. A D4 Caterpiller, a Bobcat (an actual Bobcat brand Bobcat) and all sorts of attachments. We excitedly opened the container once it was off the truck and eagerly looked things over, but alas we were missing one crucial element, someone that knew how to operate the equipment! Fortunately a fine chap and his family were on their way from the United States of 'Merica. Jason Helmholdt and his family are going to be out here moving dirt and levelling things off so that we can have some runways built to help some of our partners better serve their Angolan brothers and sisters.

Once Jason arrived he was just as eager as we were, I actually think more so, to see the equipment be rolled out of the container.

Jason expertly retrieving his equipment from the container.

We are looking forward to getting the equipment out on site at the beginning of the new year so that construction on the runways can start. It's going to be a challenge moving the equipment, as the last 175km or so of road to Cavango, where the first runway will be built, is along a dirt road that hasn't been maintained for almost 40yrs. The other challenge will be that rainy season will have started at that point, which can complicate things even more!

Rear Window- apologizes to Alfred Hitchcock

As we are want to do at times, we like to look out the windows of our apartment, which give us wonderful views of the bairro and city where we live. We enjoy seeing the changes in the city, watching the traffic, seeing the people go about their daily tasks and seeing the many lights at night. The other day Tammy was looking out one of our rear windows when she spied a young man on one of the roofs that we can see. It's not really that unusual to see people on the rooftops, but something caught Tammy's eye that just seemed a little unusual. "Normal" is seeing repairs being made, satellite dishes being set up, children chasing chickens or each other for that matter, but today something was different.

So what's that thar young feller up to?

What's he holding in his hands?

 But of course! How could I have not thought of this!? 

He's setting up his fish drying business!!

Testing...1,2,3... testing...

One of the things that we are extremely excited about is the Flying Doctor Project. Once a week every month we travel with a doctor to some of the remote areas that they want to reach. It has been exciting and frustrating all at the same time as we work to bring physical and spiritual healing to the neediest of the needy. One of the new aspects of the project is going to be a weekly Patient Transfer Flight. Each week we will coordinate with these rural clinics to bring those who are in need of more sophisticated care or surgery to one of the hospitals that we partner with. One thing that we needed to do before we started the flights was to test our abilities to get a stretcher into and tied down in our Cessna 182's. Some of you who are familiar with this type of aircraft are thinking that it's not possible, there isn't enough room. You would be right if you hadn't modified the aircraft. Instead of a bench seat in the back there are now two seats that fold away to the sides to give lots of space.

The door of the plane can be removed and the stretcher is ready for the test patient.

Marijn deciding how the stretcher will be tied down.

The test patient being loaded into the plane. They figured that if they could lift and put me in the plane and I fit, then they could lift and put anyone in the plane, thanks guys!!

"Is he going to fit!?"

Look at that, with room to spare!

The doctors that we work with say that the Patient Transfer Flights will literally be able to save months of treatment for some of their patients. The delay in receiving timely health care can result in lengthy recuperation times. We are thankful for your prayers and continued support with this project! 

The only difference...

There is a saying whose truth is somewhat debatable, that the only difference between men and boy is the price of the toys. Whilst valid points could be made for either side, we are thankful that the interests of young boys and girls turn into tools that God can use to build His kingdom. In the following case these interests include bringing Jason and Amanda Helmholdt, a couple from Michigan to Angola to construct runways. Just last week a container arrived here in Lubango that contained part of the equipment for that project. We are extremely excited about the possibilities that this equipment brings! As many of you know, health care is extremely lacking in many parts of Angola and this equipment will allow us to bring God's word and His healing to people that are in desperate need.

Who doesn't like to watch a crane unload a big container?

Prying open doors that are salted up from shipping. 

WOW! Look at all the cool stuff!

 Oh yes, men and boys and some of the toys!

You can help make a difference, why don't you consider joining our team and be a part of bringing "Wings of Hope" to the people of Angola. A huge "THANK YOU" to those of you who have already joined our team through prayer and financial support ~ We can't do this without you!! 

Going down the tubes...

To say that the plumbing system where we live is a little archaic doesn't really do justice to the system. It's not that it's really old, built in the 70's, or that it was built in Africa, it's just a different system that was built by the Portuguese using a different construction paradigm than what most of us are used to. The main sewer pipes for the kitchen and bathroom exit the building into little cement boxes just below ground level that run to other small boxes, where we would use an elbow, that then run to a big tank which was connected to the city system...which hasn't worked for decades. So the other day when yucky stuff started oozing out of one of these small boxes, we figured it was time to do some repairs. Most likely one of the tubes running between the small boxes was blocked and needed to be cleared. Fortunately we have a wonderful group of guards who help us with our maintenance, they opened up two of the little boxes and eventually figured out that we would have to open the main tank. No problem, its only under a five foot high cement block wall and buried a further two feet under that. Really!? Who designs this stuff? So down comes part of the wall and they dig out the tank and we have it pumped out...do I really need to describe what that was like? They found the offending pipe, cleared the pipe, which resulted in an unintended shower...ewww! The end result was that we made the main tank a little bigger and ran some new tubes from the boxes just to make things a little more accessible in the future if need be. 

The slew of despondency.

Some of the new plumbing.

 Tammy crossing the slew of despondency.

The guys closing up the slew.

Just another day living in paradise :-)

Does that only count as one?

Part of getting back into the swing of things is going flying again. After not having flown since February I needed to go up in the Caravan and get re acquainted with my trusty steed. Hmmm, I seem to have horses on the brain considering the title of the last post. Regardless of horses and blog titles it was time to shake out the cobwebs, knock off the rust and whatever other metaphor you can think of and go flying. It was a typically hazy day for August and the horizon was completely obscured. The pilots will already know what I am whining about because with no horizon it becomes a bit of a challenge to work through some of the manoeuvres that are much, much, much easier to do when you can see outside. After completing the various tasks such as steep turns, stalls and slow flight we returned to the airport to practice different types of landings, and I don't mean crash landings either! The first landing was spectacular, in fact it was so good I did it three times in a row. Sort of like when you skip a pebble across a pond, which takes a significant amount of skill to master, which made me feel better that I was able to bounce three times on my very first landing! After that I seemed to lose that hard earned skill and didn't manage to bounce again. I asked if I could count that first landing as three, but apparently that's not allowed for some technical reason that I am not yet fully willing to accept. So now I am again qualified to start flying around Angola on my own, once I have my Angolan licence that is, which is another story, which I believe is in the previous post. That was a shameless hint to get you to read said post.

Next post, "Things are going down the tubes!" ...more shamelessness...

Back in the saddle again

I was just reading about a friend who actually spent a day in the saddle, riding over 40 some odd kms. I am definitely not talking about being in that literal saddle, but the saddle of being back in Angola. We arrived back on the 27th of July and it has been a pleasure to see and get together with all our friends and colleagues. Some even took the time to clean out the layers of dust and grime that had accumulated in our apartment over almost six months before we got back, what a blessing to arrive to a clean house! We are working on settling in to some new rhythms and new responsibilities, besides flying more, which is never a bad thing, I will be focusing my time and energy more specifically on developing some runways, importing of materials and taking care of the different properties that MAF has here in Lubango.

Last week I had the pleasure of travelling up to Luanda with Marijn Goud, a new pilot on our team, to start the process of renewing our pilots licenses. It was a great adventure. Luanda is known for terrible traffic and the need to exercise patience  when trying to accomplish anything. We were actually able to get all the documents in and then enjoy some of the sights around the city.

A view from the Fortaleza de São Miguel overlooking the Marginal in Luanda

Some of the amazing Portuguese tile work from the 1700's inside the fort.

Some of the amazing Angolan tile work from today at the entry to the fort.

After visiting the fort we headed over to the airport to check in for our flight back to Lubango, only to discover the flight had been cancelled. The runway landing lights weren't working because there was no fuel for the generators, so we got to enjoy one more day in the capital and flew home the following morning.

Down to the wire.

Well as always it seems that everything is coming down to the last minute. Our tickets are booked back to Angola for the 21st of July and it seems like the list of things to get done before we go is getting longer and not shorter! At present I am working on a renewal for one of the ratings on my pilots license. The IFR rating allows me to fly without having to be able to see the ground. It's a lot of fun and the instructor that is shepherding me through the process at Prairie School of Mission Aviation is great. She knows her stuff inside and out which helps me immensely. 

While in Three Hills we decided that it would be good to buy and little house and of course that means there are a myriad of things that we would like to have taken care of before we leave. It is already setup so that with a few changes we can have a suite in the basement that we will be able to use when we are home on breaks and furlough in the future. The upstairs will be rented to Matt and Rachel, so we are looking forward to having them keep an eye on things when we are overseas.

As we head back, MAF is looking at some changes in responsibilities for those of us in the program. There are some exciting opportunities especially with getting some runways built that will better serve our partners. Pray for us as we all adapt to new roles and responsibilities and work towards glorifying God in all that we do.

As our time in Canada comes to an end it gets a little harder to leave family behind. It has been great to be with our kids and see them growing their own families and loving on each other. We are thankful for so many of you that have stepped in and loved and cared for them when we are so far away. God has blessed us beyond what we could have ever imagined.

Checking back in.

It has come to my own attention that I have been delinquent in keeping up with our web log. That's actually being somewhat gracious, to be honest I have just been lazy, as time has gone by I began to get the feeling that I had been just repeating myself. However, due to the wonderful encouragement of friends, family, associates and even some out and out strangers we are going to be diving back into the world of blogging! I am not sure what direction things will go, but I actually think that might actually be a good thing.

At present we are working our way back to Three Hills after visiting with family, friends, churches and supporters in Northern Alberta and through out BC. We have been humbled and overwhelmed by the amazing people we have in our lives who have encouraged and blessed us!  Unfortunately we are not going to be able to catch up with everyone and for this we apologize, but we will do our best to let you know what we are up to. As always we love to hear from you and what you are all up to.

Further updates to come!

Say What?!

 Communication is a huge part of our lives. How we say things and how we understand what someone is saying can lead to some pretty varied conclusions. I was thinking about this as I was putting pencil to paper to write this latest update. Obviously learning a second language can cause many moments of confusion and laughter and if we are honest, embarrassment. The grocer where we buy vegetables still gives us a hard time about wanting to buy a kilo of ladies instead of a kilo of  carrots, the one word is "cenoura" and the other is "senhora" I offered our guards a piece of "ebola" once, the word for cake is "bolo" and the word for ball is "bola" so that one just went wrong from the beginning. I guess it was my amazing smile and the piece of cake in my hand that seemed to bridge the language gap that dark night. Even when you think you are communicating things clearly it can go off the rails. For example take a look at the following signs and see if you can figure out what they mean.

                                          

I think that this first one is pretty straight forward, in my humble opinion, it means "Stop", don't continue past this point. How about the next one?

 To me this one signifies,"Do Not Enter" I may be going out on a limb with that one, to which I will blame my driver instructor at Young Drivers of Canada way back in the old days. In fact I think those were the days where you had to walk with a red flag in front of your car, but I digress. So any thoughts on the last one?

Turn left maybe? Continue to the left? Don't go to the right...possibly.

So then if we put the three together, as they were on the road in the southern part of the country, what do they mean?

How are you supposed to read this? Left to right? Stop, Do Not Enter, Turn Left? Or is right to left? Turn left, do not enter, Stop!

So what are we to conclude from this little exercise? That none of this makes any sense at all and that if you are driving in Angola watch out for large concrete barriers with yellow and black tape, they are self explanatory!

The log in your eye.

So I was looking through our pictures and found some from a trip we took up to the extreme northern part of Angola, to a place called M'banza Congo. It reminded me of a passage in the Bible that speaks of removing the log in our own eye before worrying about the speck in your brother's eye. M'banza Congo was one of the traditional capital cities, before and for a time after colonization. We were going out there to pick up one of the Doctors that we work with after he had been doing an eye clinic for two weeks. Dr. Collins is one of only two Ophthalmologists that work outside of the capital city of Luanda, he typically spends two weeks at home in Lubango and then two weeks on the road doing a clinic and operations. A regular clinic can see him doing over 50 operations and more than 300 consultations, did I mention that he is 72yrs old?! Anyway, we loaded his equipment, his assistant, and of course himself, into the plane. The good doctor was a little more animated than usual, which is saying something. He said that a young man had come in with a severe injury to his left eye, he had fallen about a month previously and had gotten poked in the eye. It was obvious that the eye was beyond saving and would have to be removed, but when Dr. Collins said this, the patient said "No" and left the clinic. A couple days later the family returned with the young man and said that the pain was too much for him and that he needed the eye taken out. The operation went smoothly and while checking the eye socket to make sure that everything was clean Dr. Collins noticed a small sliver of what he thought was bone fragment. As he began working to remove it, it quickly became evident that it was no bone fragment, but a sliver of wood and not just a sliver of wood, but a fragment of wood. This fragment wasn't just a fragment, but a stick, about 5cm or 2in long that had gone around the side of the eye and embedded itself behind the eyeball! This guy had been living with a stick behind his eye for a month and figured he could live with the discomfort. The reality is, is that without taking this "post" out of his eye it would have eventually gotten infected and killed him. Makes me wonder what kind of things are in my life that I think I can keep or continue doing that won't affect me.

The actual stick with the patient.

On a side note, we are back in Canada to help our youngest Matthew, get set up on his own. We will be kicking around till at least the middle of April. Give us a call or drop us a line, we would love to hear from you.

A teeny piece of no consequence.

I think that one of the things that I continually struggle with, and I do believe I have mentioned this before, is remembering that what we think is normal here, is probably not normal back in Canada, or lots of other places for that matter. This is my excuse for not having updated our blog since whenever we last updated it. Thank you all for your patience and understanding and not rolling your eyes too far into the backs of your heads.

A couple years ago we bought three new gas stoves in Canada to send here to replace the three old ones that were in the houses here on the compound. We thought, lets get quality, lets be patient and wait to get what we want and they will last a really really really long time. I mean when you pay for quality you get quality, right!? Am I right? Who goes out and knowingly pays for junk and expects quality? Soooo we bought good Canadian stoves from a good Canadian store and guess what happened for two whole years? Nothing, they worked fine, well sort of, they worked fine when we had power to run the glow plugs to light the oven, but that's a whole other story, maybe even two stories. That's right! They worked fine...until last Friday...when all three of them packed it in at the same time. Literally, within minutes of each other, makes cooking seven pizzas a little problematic. Oh well, we are in africa, where necessity is the mother of invention. The next day we hauled out one of the old ones, because we sold the other two, because why in heavens name would we ever need them again right!? It's not like we bought junk or anything to replace them. Well it turns out that the one we kept is missing a part, not a big part, it's just a little part, a little teeny part, a part that normally minds its own business and does its work without calling attention to itself or asking for any glory. It was however, missing, and guess which part in a city of over a million people you can't find?? You got it! Our teeny weeny little part, our part of no consequence, except for the fact that our stove absolutely will not function with out it! So maybe I underestimated the importance of this part, what can I say? I'm just a pilot! It's not like I know how to fix stuff, like gas stoves or toasters or vacuums or clocks or computers or solve complex algebraic problems! Cut me some slack I'm just an old-ish pilot...of sorts. At this point our gardener comes over and says, "hey, I think I know where we can get one of those teeny little inconsequential parts." Or something to that affect. We hop in to our truck, the gardener and I, and head off down the hill to drop off the toilet at his house. Don't worry about not understanding that, it's a whole other story, it just puts us further along in the stove story. After dropping off the toilet he starts to give me directions to where we are going to find our part. We head down from his house and cross the road into one of the bairros. A bairro is where people live and where there has been no city planning in regards to house and street location, as well as absolutely no development of any supporting infrastructure. We were passing a relatively nice place and I asked Ze if this was the place? He said no, it was around the corner, so we continued around the corner. Around the corner was a track leading across a "stream", a stream that replaces the lack of infrastructure. I seriously contemplated lifting my feet as we crossed it and thought about how to sterilize the truck later. I actually thought, "My poor truck!" After we crossed to the other side Ze tells me to stop, which I did, because I am trained to follow the instructions of the person who regularly occupies that seat. Ze gets out and heads over through the tall grass back to the "stream". I was thinking, "What, now? You couldn't wait till we got back to the house to use the bathroom?" In the end I figured if you gotta go, you gotta go. At that point he jumped the "stream" thankfully, and picked something up off the ground, in the bushes and weeds beside the "stream" Really? Seriously? are you kidding me? It was a controller from an old broken gas stove that the local kids had been recycling into its various elements and guess what was on the end of it? Our little teeny piece of no consequence. At that point what else can you do, but nod your head and go, "Of course that's where we would find the part to fix our stove, beside a "stream" in a bairro."

*please note that this story has not been edited and therefore any grammar or spelling errors are the sole responsibility of the author and do not reflect in anyway on the intelligence and beauty his wife.

Heading home

Well, it looks like we will be heading back to Canada next week for a bit. Tammy`s dad, who has been deteriorating health wise for the last few years, passed away yesterday (April 22). The emotions are mixed, we are sad to see the ol`curmudgeon leave us, but happy to know that his suffering is over and that he is in the presence of his Lord. I am thankful for the part he has played in my life and all the time we were able to spend together. Whether it was teaching me the finer aspects of NASCAR or patiently explaining to me once again how some sort of mechanical system worked, even when he saw that my eyes were glazing over and I had no idea what he was talking about. Thanks dad, we love you.
Ironically, we had sent Tammy`s passport to Canada to get her next visa for Angola on Monday, so we are waiting to get it back from the courier so that we can head back to Canada. It is hard to be so far away from our kids and family when there is such sadness in our hearts. Always that Angolan visa process is affecting something in someway! Most likely Tammy will stay for a month or so and I will stay for a couple weeks and then return to Angola.
We look forward to visiting with those that we can, but ask that you will forgive us if we can't spend time with all of you.

"But his visa is expired."

Is it that time already? It seems like just yesterday that I lost my passport and suffered a prolonged bout of insanity...wait a sec that was yesterday! No not really, I was just fishing for a more dramatic start to this posting.
Actually when I look back on what has happened in the last few months things have continued on their normal abnormal course. After we got back to Angola we were thrilled to learn that my (Gary's) residency visa was ready in Luanda. This will hopefully make our visa adventures a little less frequent. Whilst in Luanda to get the visa my kidneys decided that they were tired of packing around some extra weight and therefore ejected a couple stones they didn't want anymore! I guess the bright side of the whole experience was getting to observe first hand the level of medical care available in Angola. The doctor was actually pretty good, she got me IV'd up and on pain killers right away, but whilst I lay writhing on the examining table she merrily continued to see other patients in the same room, I re-assured them that I wasn't dying...yet. All in all it went pretty well.
After getting back from Luanda we discovered that Matt had done a number on his knee that would require surgery. The choice was get it done right away in Angola and be laid up for six months recuperating with a cast or wait a month and a half and have it done in Windhoek where he would be walking on it the same day. It also worked out that Tammy and Matt's visas would expire at that time so why not kill two birds with one stone. ( Just so you all know, no birds were harmed in the writing of this blog.) The surgery went well and the visas arrived on time and we headed back to Angola eager to be in our own house again.
The crossing of the border went reasonably well considering that there were seven of us. We were traveling back with some good friends and a new couple has come with MAF to work at one of the mission hospitals. My passport was the only one that caused any real problems. The conversation with the immigration officer went something like this.

Immigration Officer,"I see that your visa has expired"
Gary, "Yes that particular one has expired, but I am in the country on this other visa"
Immigration Officer,"Yes, but I see that your visa has expired"
Gary, "Yes that particular one has expired, but I am in the country on this other visa"
Immigration Officer,"Yes, but what worries me is that your visa has expired"
Gary," Yes that one has expired, but this is the new visa they have given me to use and it hasn't expired."
Immigration Officer, "Hmmmmm, but it is only a piece of paper?"
Gary,"Yes, that is what they give until the actual plastic card arrives, it takes a long time for the card to come."
Other Immigration Officers,"That is true, it takes a very long time."
Immigration Officer,"But his visa is expired."
Other Immigration Officers, "Yes, but that is not his visa, the piece of paper is."
Immigration Officer,"But his visa is expired."
Other Immigration Officers,"Look, it is fine, he can come and go as he pleases with the piece of paper!"

At that point I am not sure who stamped my passport to let me in, I am just glad that they did.

Back in Africa

This may come as a surprise to those of you that heard we were just back in Canada! We want to thank all of you that so willing hosted us, feed us and encourage us while we were home. To the rest of you our sincerest apologies for not being able to catch up with you, we would have loved to see and hear what is going on in your lives. There truly wasn't enough hours in the days we were in Canada to accomplish all that we wanted to. In the future we hope to be a little more faithful in keeping all of you up to date in the comings and goings of the Goertzens in Angola!

Our first story starts even before we got back to Africa. It is a saga of trust misplaced and redemption unwarranted. Of a man, his wallet...and an airport. It all started on a cold rainy Friday afternoon in the English countryside in a tiny Renault Cleo, that's a car, from Europe, more specifically...France. It was loaded to the brim with the luggage of two weary travels heading out from a conference that had been fraught with intrigue. (Sounds better then saying it was just a program managers meeting for MAF, don't ya think? ) The negotiations had been exhausting but had yielded several excellent contacts and opportunities. The trip to the airport was uneventful as they drove through the ever present rain and even managed to negotiate that parking lot known as the M25 highway in relatively good time. My driving partner, we'll call him Steve, cause that's his name, pulled up in front of terminal 5 at Heathrow airport where we proceeded to unloaded my luggage, 3- 25 kilo bags, one carry-on and a computer bag that could have doubled as a steamer trunk. What can I say, I like to pack light. I said good bye to Steve, cause that's his name, and pushed my trolley into the terminal to get out of the rain, amongst other things. As I approached the check in counter I reached for my wallet and passport. It was to be a memorable moment as time slowed, the lights seemed to dim and the voices of my follow airport dwellers became strangely muted. It was like my hand was moving in slow motion from pocket to pocket searching for that black folio containing my travel documents and identification. The search was to prove to be in vain, for the wallet was no where to be found. The terminal began to spin crazily as I came to grips with the situation. No wallet, no passport... I quickly spun the trolley around and headed outside to see if Steve, cause that's his name, was still outside. The Cleo was gone, having beat a hasty path to Terminal 4 to catch a flight to Entebbe, Uganda. I whirled the trolley around as deftly as Barishnikov twirling a prima ballerina from the Bolshoi and headed inside to make a plan. I decided to give Steve a call, cause that's his name, but in the best twists of the cold war we hadn't exchanged contact information to minimize our traceability. It was looking like that had been a mistake. I had no way to contact Steve. I spun around and headed outside the terminal and into the rain again to see if Steve had returned in the Cleo to pronounce, "Good thing you aren't in charge of the Maltese Falcon, or the Royal Jewels or something important. Here's your wallet go catch your flight!" It was only a fleeting fantasy, I was not to see Steve or the little french Cleo again. I spun the trolley around and made for the terminal. The porters were beginning to wonder if I had developed a case of vertigo with all the trolley spinning that was going on. The stench of panic was becoming unmistakable, my mouth was dry, my palms were sweaty and my heart was racing. PULL yourself together man! This is no worse then the time you arrived in Luanda with the trots and there was no paper in the stall. THINK MAN, THINK!! Once again I whirled the trolley around to head outside and assess the situation. The trolley was beginning to protest like a bull at a rodeo desperate to throw its rider to the mud, but I wasn't letting go, there was too much at steak...or stake. Once again outside in the rain I gazed over to where we had loaded my bags onto the trolley. There was something laying on the ground. Flaunting all airport regulations I abandoned my luggage and headed across the road, making sure that I first looked to the right so as not to get clobbered by a London cabby. My heart raced as I approached what could turn out to be somebodies trash. It WAS somebodies trash...MY TRASH, MY WALLET, face down on the soaking pavement having been completely ignored by countless people and driven over by who knows how many cars? Everything was inside, Id, credit cards, passport with the all important Angolan residency visa. As I recounted this tale to my wife she had these words for me, "I worry more about you when you travel then the kids!" I have to admit she has reason to be that way, but I pray a lot and that helps. I prayed a lot that day. I really believe that God protected my wallet that day, cause He cares about even the little things.

Be it ever so humble....there's no place like HOME!!!!

Wow!! After an odyssey lasting almost three months we were finally able to make it back to our home in Lubango early Saturday morning. Apparently at 1:32am to be exact, because that is when Brent, our other MAF pilot, says he looked at his clock when we knocked on his door to wake him up to get the key to get into our house.

The drive from Windhoek to Lubango was one of the most eventful trips we have ever had. Tammy almost got hit when she was making a right turn by someone that decided to pass her on the right in an intersection. That certainly got the heart going, fortunately there was no collision. We were also bringing back a truck that we had bought online last November from Dubai, Matthew was torn between who to ride with...not really, the new truck won! We discovered at a police check point that in the fine print of the temporary Namibian transfer license you are not allowed to carry passengers or goods, $50US dollars later we were on our way. Matthew was thoroughly enjoying the fact that I now had a receipt that was emblazoned across the top with, "ADMISSION OF GUILT"!!

Later that day we arrived in Ondangwa, which is a town in Namibia about 50km from the border with Angola. At the motel where we stayed that night the clerk led us to our rooms and upon opening the door to our room quickly discovered that the man already asleep in the room did not want to share it...ooops. The following day we set off for the border with all of our documents organized and ready to zoom through and head for home. Okay, okay I know some of you are laughing, zoom through the border!? Riiiight! Well the immigration part went smoothly and the police part went smoothly, but the customs ...not so smoothly. About four hours later we were on our way to pass through the gates to Angola. On the Angolan side immigration went smoothly after we discovered that Tammy had had her purse stolen on the Namibian side, fortunately our passports weren't in it or we would have been caught between the borders with no documents. I don't even want to think about how that would have gone. The police part went smoothly, customs...not so smoothly. Three days later we were on our way home at 5:30pm after they gave us our documents minutes before the border closed on Friday. Yahoooo only 360km to go and we would be home!!! In case you are wondering why it took 8 hrs to complete what normally is a 3 1/2 hour drive for some of you, there is a reasonable explanation. First of all, it was dark and you have to slow down for all the people and animals,which I guess you have to do in the day as well, its just harder to see them at night. Secondly, it's rainy season which means you actually have to drive on the road instead of in the ditch, which is normally in much better condition, but is now filled with water. One 95 km section took about 4 hours to navigate of which one 20km part took an hour and a half. We are hoping to drive out on this same road with my (Gary's) mom in April. It's not that I don't like my mom, I love her a lot, we just thought that after she went skydiving with us the last time she visited we needed to come up with another memorable experience.
All said and done, we are thrilled to be home for the short time we have here before heading to Canada. We look forward to seeing you this summer, please let us know if we can drop in for a visit when we are in your area. In the next few weeks we hope to be able to post a bit of a schedule of the places we will be visiting.

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

This is just a quick note to let you all know that our prayers have been answered and our passports with visas are on their way to us in Namibia!!! This doesn't mean we can stop praying because they are still not in our hands. We have had the experience of our passports wandering around the world for a couple weeks as they tried to find their way back to us. If everything goes well we should see them the middle of next week and then be heading back to Lubango, possibly arriving on that Sunday. We truly want to thank you all for your prayers and notes of encouragement, they have meant and do mean a lot. When we left Angola at the beginning of December last year, we had no idea that we would spend almost three months waiting to return. Has it been a waste of time? Absolutely not, God has used this time to teach us many things about Himself and ourselves that we would have missed if He wouldn't have forced us to sit still and listen. Thank you all again!

VISA update

"No, no we aren't going to be giving you our credit card balance, that's another kind of VISA. We just wanted to let you know how things are going with our visa to stay and work in Angola. As some of you know this seems to be a never ending process and therefore prayer request. At this point in time our present work visa expired on the 8th of December. We have been working on getting a residency visa since the beginning of June, and have just received news that the process has been cleared through the Angolan embassy in Ottawa and is en route back to Angola for approval by immigration in Luanda. This is fantastic news..."

That is how the last update that I started at the end of November ended without me having sent it out to all of you. Since that day we indeed had to leave Angola for Namibia where we have been "patiently" waiting for an "Ordinary Visa" to re enter Angola. Due to the complications of the Christmas season and the hosting of the African football (soccer) championships in Angola in January,our visa renewals have been somewhat delayed. Although it is difficult not to feel that our time in Namibia has not been a complete waste, we know that God can use whatever situation we are in for His honour and glory. We have had lots of time to think about the amazing ways that God has blessed us through family, friends, supporters and even complete strangers. We have been reminded in many ways that our time here on this earth isn't about ourselves, but it is about glorifying our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.

It looks like we should be seeing our passports with visas in the next couple weeks. At this point our passports are back in Canada and we are just waiting for one more document for Matt's visa, which we hope to have in the next couple days. Once that one is issued our passports will go into the Angolan Embassy in Ottawa for a few days and then, Lord willing, they will be sent back to us in Namibia, with and Angolan visa. Hopefully we will have them in our hands somewhere around the 15th of February. This by no means is a done deal, please continue to pray for the process and all the people that are involved in it and in the end that God will be glorified no matter what the outcome.

News

You have no idea how many times I have started this update and then deleted it because it wasn't up to the journalistic standards that you have all come to expect. In fact the other day I had finally written a little blogging masterpiece only to have it disappear into the blogasphere never to return. It was truly a triumph of humour, emotion and information all packed into one easily readable paragraph and it was gone, snatched away in it's prime. Can you tell I'm still a little bitter?

Anyways, what we really want to share is not about us or my petty little blogging problems. It is something much more important and miraculous! Something that is beyond the pale, something that will stupefy and amaze you! Something that is making you say, "Get on with it man, spit it out, enough with the monumental amounts of hyperbole!" Fine I say, I will succumb to your pestering and bullying and announce that we have an announcement! We, being Tammy and myself, are entering a new phase of life. We are going to be grandparents. There, I said it! Our daughter Kait and her husband Richard have informed us that we will be entering the world of grandparenthood next year, sometime around the end of April. Is that amazing or what!? Sometimes I think this is even nuttier then when we had our own kids. I mean, I didn't have a clue at all about what I was getting into then and now I'm sure I have absolutely no idea! Although we have been able to spend a significant amount of time amusing ourselves with what the little gaffer is going to call Tammy. I mean there are some really great possibilities, none of which I am allowed to share.

Tammy and Matthew will be heading back to Canada in mid-April to welcome this little bundle into the world. At this point we are not sure when I will return, but we are hoping no later then the beginning of June. We are excited about this new addition and look forward to making sure it gets properly enculturated into all things Goertzen!

On the road again...

We asked Josh what he wanted to do for a last family holiday with us. That could be considered a mistake because we ended up making a trip that covered almost 7000km in our little Toyota pick up. It was amazing, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the memories will be with us forever! Thanks Josh!

The first of five flat tires. This one outside of Okahandja, Namibia.

I hope this one doesn't need an explanation.
We crossed it just south of Windhoek, Namibia.
Yes, it was cold.
You think the roads are straight and flat in Saskatchewan, eh!?
This is somewhere between Keetmanshoop, Namibia and Upington, South Africa.

The Indian Ocean at Plettenberg Bay, South Africa.
Errr...yes it was cold...

Matthew feeling big and powerful.

The whole reason we came to South Africa.
To wear funny belts and have a picture taken with a complete stranger.

Actually, it was to fling ourselves off the world's highest bungy jump.
216m or 710feet
YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO.........

Another 2000km of mind numbingly straight, flat road on the way back home.

This is a section of the main highway in Angola between Xangongo and Cahama. The camera is eye level with the top of the road. The "potholes" are even with the top of the tires and the entire truck fits inside.

It was a great idea Josh and I would do it again in a minute. Anyone want to join us?

The last two days of the drive home were without Josh, we left him in Windhoek with our good friend Brent Mudde, who was also flying back to Canada for his holidays. After drying up my tears and the 18 hugs later, we drove off, heading for home and Josh heading to the airport. A few hours into the drive I was thinking about the year ahead, planning it out in my mind - if you know me, then you know that I thrive on making plans....and changing them...I started thinking about the preparations that we needed to start making for our trip back to Canada next year. Then it hit me, Matt will have his 18th birthday while we are in Canada, that he might not want to return to Angola with us after the six month furlough is over. The tears started rolling down my cheeks again, thinking about life without any kids in the house. I got a terrible paniky feeling in my heart, I have very rarely been alone in my 44 years and I really really don't like it - at all. This coming week will be my first real test, Matt is out at the farm and Gary will be flying around the countryside for the next 10 days. I know that this is part of life, to have and to let go. I praise God that our kids are healthy and happy and have a passionate heart for the Lord. I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life, to see how God is going to fill my time.
oh, and for the record, at this point and time in life, Matt promises that he has no plans to ever leave Angola....