We made it to Johannesburg, South Africa!

We have spent hours and hours on the airplane, but we are well on our way. All of our trips have been great with no delays or trouble. Praise God! Also, Lorna slept more on the plane than ever (of course she rarely sleeps at all on a plane)! Thank you for your prayers. We ate 3 meals, watched movies, read and signed birthday cards for all 57 of our kids so we can leave them for each to have one even after we leave. Anna's birthday is Monday (the day we arrive).

We met a new friend that has been to the Children's home last year and is returning to stay for a month. Her name is Sarah and her picture is to the right. We had dinner together and she told us about her experiences at the Children's home. It was most interesting because she was there last year during the flood and they had to evacuate via a boat. Please continue to pray that the river does not flood.

Our body clock is a little off but it is 10:30pm here (7 hours later than there) so we are going to try to get a little sleep because we know that tomorrow will be a big and exciting day. We will leave here about 8:30am and fly to Zambia. Once there, we have a 3 hour drive to the Children's home and our future new home.

Thanks for your prayers. God continues to go ahead of us and prepare the way so we are very thankful for that!

We love you all and pray that you are having a good and safe week!

Ready, Set, Go!!!

Well, we have been called by God to go to Namibia and make disciples as we go.
We are packed and will be taking off in the morning. We fly to Dulles from Atlanta at 12:47pm. From there we get on South African Airways to Johannesburg. This is an exciting 17 hour flight (well, we really hope that it is NOT exciting). We stay overnight in Johannesburg then make our final flight into Livingstone, Zambia on Monday morning. Once there, we have a 3 hour drive to see our kids!
We are so excited and we know that the kids have been praying for us and we are so thankful for them and the staff and volunteers that have been an outpouring of God's Love.

Please pray for our safe travels and please continue to pray for the rising river situation and for the health and safety of our kids and the staff and volunteers.
We pray will continue to pray for you as you follow our journey with the Lord.

Oh, by the way. This is a 2 week stay and we will be returning on March 13th.

The February newsletter is out and will be posted on our website. Check it out!

Children Of Zion Village Update from Ray

Temps are now in the mid 80s every day which is nice. Much more pleasant for sleeping at night.

The river is rising about 6 inches a day, which is making some people nervous. But our boat is now running so if we run into trouble we at least have the boat to go get supplies.

This afternoon we will meet with the supervisors and volunteers to go over Transition Home plans. We will have some of these planning meetings while you are here so you can get the feel of how the staff works and how issues are worked out.


Our TAG volunteer is coming in a few minutes to work one day a week here at COZV. She is a young Canadian woman who is a physical therapist and she wants to work with our children. We will start her off with walks and reading for the little ones and then we'll see where it goes from there. Her tour is for 8 weeks and she will be working 4 days a week at the local hospital and 1 day a week here at COZV.

Please pray for the children, the staff, the volunteers and that the river would reside so they do not have to evacuate.

Children of Zion Village Message

Feb. 13th Update from the orphanage:
All of us are very excited about your visit and the kids keep talking about Auntie Lorna and Uncle Travis! We put your picture up in the main room of the children's home and they often stop to check you out! On Sunday mornings when we have our church service there is a part where the kids write down prayer requests, and I can assure you they always put you on the list; I think that is really great since it is their list and their idea!

I probably shouldn't tell you this, but right now it is 9 pm and it is a balmy 80 degrees!!! Quite nice, but we had a hot day today! Today was the big track and field meet in Katima with all the area schools. Our awesome kids ended up with 7 wins! One of our boys (Goty) won the 1500 meters AND the 100 meters both!!! They ran their hearts out and it was way up into the 90s today; didn't slow them down at all.



Tomorrow (Sunday) will be busy but fun as usual; church at 930 followed by a marathon guitar and drum playing session followed by rides for lots of kids to a soccer game followed by rides to town for some kids that have money they earned from chores followed by ...... well, we will just have to see what happens after all that!

Prayer Request:

The river is rising fast and has gone up several feet just in the last 2 days. David Lingard and Ray Mastnjak worked on the boat today and got it running, so that is a relief since the boat is used for supplies when the roads are no longer passable. Thank you, Lord! Next step is to work with the Minsitry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare to find an evacuation point in town in the event we have to leave the children's home due to flooding. Definitely could use your prayers on finding a suitable evacuation location that will be safe and secure for the kids.