Tag: Africa

Record Breaking Heat — August 2nd

I walked alone through the shady streets
Listening to my heart beat
In the record breaking heat
When we were born in time.
(Eric Clapton’s version of Bob Dylan song)

Yes, it has been hot. Too hot to work outside very long at Mom’s house up near Gainesville. Too hot for serious birding although the famous birding team, “Grey-haired Bobbys”, did make one foray onto Paynes Prairie and came away with a list of 29 including a couple of gorgeous Purple Gallinules.
I’m back to work at ECHO after a week’s vacation getting stuff done at Mom’s house. The trip to Tanzania in June went very well and there is now an excellent group of people on the planning committee working towards the ECHO East Africa Symposium in Arusha next February.

Ellen has been busy with the AIM Regional Administrator job. She enjoys the travel and interaction with people but it keeps her on the road too much for my liking! It is a temporary position that ends Sept. 14th when our good friends Sam and Bonnie Thomas take over. Ellen also has an MK education trip to Mozambique in a couple of weeks. Actually she just sent out this short update:

Hey y’all!

Hope that you are having a wonderful summer!

God is sure keeping us busy – We have had a wonderful week in Cincinnati where we celebrated my dad, Bob Wheeler’s, glorious first 90 years and then my awesome 40th high school reunion. Both fantastic indescribable occasions!

We just got back from a great week at the Hargrave farm where Bob and sister June helped with a number of projects around the farm. Otherwise, Bob keeps busy as an agricultural consultant at ECHO –

Myself – I have been keeping more than busy as interim Regional Administrator for AIM – which means that I meet with, e-mail, talk with all those who are interested in serving with AIM from the SE United States… I’ll be involved in this rewarding job through the middle of next month.

Next week I’ll be at AIM Headquarters’ to be on staff for our Candidate Week where there will be four of the young people that I have interviewed since starting this job. I am excited about seeing it from another angle! As usual, I will be meeting with all of the parents there to talk about educating their children in Africa!

Following that, I will be Mozambique for a week to be on staff for a homeschool week – I am in the midst of preparing my workshops – so, I definitely appreciate your prayers for that!

En route to Tanzania

It took me a few days to get this posted!
Wednesday morning (16 June) and I’m having breakfast at the airport waiting to begin my journey and watching the World Cup. After the match, in which Chile defeated Honduras 1-0, there was a piece on the recent history of South Africa. Well the sound was off but the pictures from Robben Island, of Nelson Mandela and fighting in the streets made it clear that the subject was the end of apartheid.
Interestingly, the father of one of my key contacts in Arusha, Tanzania served in the Vermont House of Representatives for 30 years and publicly addressed this issue.
From a letter by Robert Kinsey that was added to the US Congressional record in 1985:

“After Erwin went to Africa, he told me what was going to happen in Uganda with Idi Amin and he was right. He told what was going to happen in Rhodesia and again he was right. Now he tells me that “Apartheid is going to end in South Africa in one of two ways. If the end of Apartheid has to be by bullets, the whites are going to be pushed into the sea.”Erwin would prefer non-violent pressure such as H210 as the only hope left to create equality and harmony amongst all colors. I support H210.”

We thank God that the end of Apartheid was not by bullets and under the leadership of Nelson Mandela and others South Africa has come a long way, a “Rainbow Nation” that now has the attention of the whole world.

In Niger

In a message dated 1/11/2009 2:11:17 P.M. Central Standard Time, behargrave@aimint.net writes:

As I write I am hearing the imam call the faithful to worship from the closest mosque. Our three day program for Homeschooled Missionary Kids here in Niger is finished – Wow – It went so quickly! The children we worked with were from 5 – 11 years. Their parents’ passport countries are Australia, Korea, England, Canada, Singapore and the US. They work in Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin and Ghana and are involved in church planting, agriculture, theological education and support services. Many of the local people in this part of the world are from other religious backgrounds. The climate is hot – conditions harsh – Challenging places to minister… It was so good to be able to bring support to these folks. While Debbie, Joanna, James and I were working with the children, a great team was working with the parents enabling them to do a better job of educating and raising their kids in this part of Africa. Thanks to many of you for enabling me to do this important work!

We have been served well by the local missionary community – transporting, feeding, exchanging money – wow – missionaries have really gone out of their way for us.

Today was spent relaxing…

Actually an unbelievable day thus far! We left at 7 AM to go look at giraffes about an hour from town. I almost didn’t go as we saw giraffe quite frequently when we lived in Northern Kenya – but I love giraffes and also the group here – so decided to go –

The first giraffe we saw had two legs and hooves sticking out – yes, she was in the process of giving birth!!! Our guide, who has done this work for twenty years, said that he had never seen a giraffe give birth! – Mama hid from us for a bit when the actual birthing happened – but then we found her about a half hour later with her new calf! We watched mama licking the calf as he made wobbly attempts at standing – but unfortunately, we needed to leave before he/she got completely on his feet – This was certainly a first for me!

camel_ride Next we went to a campsite where those of our group who had never had the opportunity to ride a camel got their chance – and the rest of us relaxed under some mango trees enjoying a picnic of shish kebabs over a fire… A boat ride followed on the Niger River viewing hippos. Now many of my colleagues are shopping – but I opted for a shower and chance to catch up with you all! In an hour or so we will go to the weekly English worship Service at Sahel Academy –

Tomorrow, we will provide an in-service for Sahel Academy and its students. The team who worked with the parents will be doing some training with the staff of the school. Joanna and I will be part of the team working with the Sahel elementary school students. This time I will be helping with the program, not in charge of it which will take off a bit of the stress.

I appreciate your ongoing prayers as we have two more very full days – Joanna is not in top notch shape physically and is resting right now… A couple of other staff are also not feeling well. Now am hearing an exuberant Christian worship service with drums in the background…

God bless – Love – Ellen