how to tell the stories.

I have to admit, I'm struggling a bit with how to share these stories. And there are so many of them.

I could try to describe what daily life is like in Africa - about the food and the driving and the sounds and smells of the city.

I could tell you about meeting all of the kids at Hope House on Friday, one by one, and how I was just overwhelmed at the amount of loss represented there. Or I could tell you about having a team from the US Embassy come to Hope House at the same time I was there, and how I'm convinced that was a God-ordained appointment.

I could tell you about going to the village church at Okalassi on Sunday (I mentioned the story of the church, just not the name, in a blog I wrote during my trip with Kelli last year). Two years ago, short-term teams helped to dig a foundation for a church building (they previously met under a mango tree), and some of those team members came back to Gabon this year. They shared with the church about that time, and how their church had been partnering with and praying for them for two years. (Soon, Okalassi will be holdings its first baptism).

I could tell you about the teams that are here now, about their time at Hope House and how we're being very intentional about that, and how I'm so excited about what I'm seeing already.

And sometime soon, I will. I'll tell all of these stories and hopefully more. But I'm also finding it difficult to put into words what it is like to be back here, to be surrounded by these people and their dreams and their need and their strength and resilience and their big, big faith.

So, I promise...there will be more posts and stories coming soon. Right now I'm still finding my feet a bit.