okay so days like today i could go my whole life without having. at like noon this 12 year old girl was walking home from school and was hit by an suv and killed. it happened at the end of the road which is like less than a quarter mile from our house. the girl was a sister to one of the staff members at the school here. when i heard about it, i just wanted to throw up. i went out to the road and people were just crying... it was awful. i haven't had a panic attack in a long time, but today i got very close to having one. just a whole lot of feeling came up. it was so overwhelming that it was just hard to breath. it's just been an awful day. funerals are very different here than they are in the states. here death and funerals are a loud and dramatic event. people are wailing and throwing themselves on the floor, where as in the states it's a very quiet event. there have been like a million people coming to the school all day. you can hear their cries as they walk up the road. they are having a small funeral tonight and then taking her body the village where her parents live. death is one of the most challenging things on this field... at least for me. i mean we are constantly hearing of someone that goes to the church on the hill dying. within the last 2 months we've been here i think my teammates have been to 4 funerals. i know death is everywhere... but i just feel like it's so much bigger here. it was just a very culture shocked filled day. please pray for my team and the family and friends that knew this girl.

sam.

let me just start this off by saying... i am so blessed. this morning i got to hear the cry of a brand new life coming into this world. a friend of mine who has been living on the compound gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. and despite how little sleep i got, hearing that cry just filled my soul and all i could think of was how blessed i was to be able to hear and be a part of that. later on today i got to help unload a shipping container for the mobile medical clinic and wash some dishes. these things may not sound like blessings but when i sit now and think about it, they are. i am blessed to be a part of this ministry and to help the french's out in whatever way i can. i feel blessed just to have the david and lorie as my coordinators. then this evening i went to the airport to pick up a couple who will be staying with us for a month and on the way back we took a very bad detour. we went through a compound that just made my heart break into a million pieces. it just hit me like a ton of bricks that i was no longer in the states. i was surrounded by people who had very little and lived on practically nothing. and while we drove through there and i held back the tears i just had think that i am blessed. i'm blessed for the parents that raised me. blessed for the big and even small things that they provided me with. i am just blessed. so if you're reading this, stop for a minute and think about the blessings that God has given you. i think you will be blown away!

sam.

we are now in zambia!!! so we left on may 15th for our 2 day journey. saying my goodbyes was weird, i couldn't grasp the concept of not seeing a lot of people for two years or maybe ever again. i surprised myself with how little i cried. but anyway, i left my friends and family at the security line and flew from jacksonville to chicago, where i met one of my teammates, susan. that night we flew to heathrow, london. just before we got on the plane it hit me, this was it, after i get on this plane, there is no turning back. i think i called like every friend in my phone to tell them goodbye one last time. when we landed we met the rest of the team there, it was such a nice reunion in the airport! after about a 7 hour layover we flew together to zambia. i think there were just so many emotions going through us all as we boarded that plane, so much excitement and nervousness! after the 9 hour flight we were finally here!! i think once we landed it may have taken us an hour to get through customs and get all of our bags. it was just so evident that God was watching over and taking care of us and i know it was because we had so many people praying for us! so we've been here for two, almost three days now and it has definitely been an adjustment for me. i know that just within these last couple of days i have been challenged. so please keep us in your prayers as we are hit with culture shock and missing home! your support and prayers mean so much, thanks!

sam.

so most of us got some pretty exciting news yesterday..... WE GOT OUR VISAS!!! we will be leaving for zambia this saturday, that's like 4 days away! i can't believe that we are really about to leave! i'm so excited for this new adventure that God is going to take us on! i'm excited to see how He is going to use us and change us! don't get me wrong, i do have some fears, but i know that God will provide and that as long as we are working for His glory, everything will be okay! so praise God for our visas! next i'll talk to you i'll be in zambia!!!

sam.

hey everyone... i haven't written in a couple of weeks, so i'm writing to update you all on what has been going on with us. we have all been home for the last week and a half. beth is in texas, glenna in colorado, cally in montana, susan in arkansas, whitney in oklahoma, and myself in florida. we will all be home till may 15th, that's when we leave!! during this month we'll be visiting family, updating our churches about what is coming up, and raising support. the next couple of weeks will be bitter sweet. bitter because it's going to be hard to say good bye to our families and friends. but way sweet because it'll be closer and closer to the time we leave. thank you to all of you who have been so supportive in one way or another! we thank God for you. until next time...

sam.

so we have great news.... they found the rest of our visa stuff today! God is so good like that! now they can begin the visa process. please be praying that they accept all of our stuff and we get our visas! well we got back to lubbock yesterday. it was so good to see all of our classmates. i missed them so much and we were only gone for a week! i can't imagine what it's going to be like leaving them for 2 years! we only have a week left together. it's hard to believe that 8 months has already gone by. it feels like just yesterday i was walking into the AIM classroom with my mom for registration. this week is like our goodbye week. today we had a final speech from the director of the whole sibi school, then had a thing called remember when. it was a great time to remember some pretty funny things that have happened over the past 8 months. well thanks for all the prayers about our visa papers!

sam.

so i haven't written on here in a while, my apologies. we have been so busy these last few weeks. right now we are wrapping up our march madness trip. this madness started back in early march with a week long camp adventure. then on the 19th we left for arlington, stayed there for a few days. then traveled to childress. we got to spend a few days there just helping out in the community. after that we drove to tulsa for the soul winning workshop. i have never heard of the workshop until a few weeks ago. we got to listen to some great teachers, it was pretty neat. after the workshop we went to dewey, ok. for a day. then drove to yukon for a day. we left yukon monday and all of the teams were sent out to different cities for our aim challenge week. for challenge week the teams are told the name, address and contact number of a church and told to find their way there. we stay with the church for a week serving, helping out, basically doing what they need us to do. the zambia team was sent to midland, texas. we'll be here until monday then we are going back to lubbock. i never thought i'd say this, but i am ready to go back! so this week we all bought our plane tickets... i have to say it was pretty exciting. it just makes the whole thing more real, although i'm not sure it will actually hit me that i am moving to zambia until i step off the plane. we've had some trouble with our visa stuff. we sent our papers through the wrong company and now they may be lost. so please pray that we will either find them or get new ones that will make it there in a decent amount of time. also pray for us as we wrap things up in lubbock and go back home to our famlies and friends. if you have ever had to say good bye to any one close to you then you know that this will be very hard for us. know that we appreciate all of your support and love.

sam.