White as snow...

We woke up this morning to snow. It reminded us of the Gospel of Christ....how we are washed as white as snow from our sin that is as red as scarlet. The truth of the Bible and the wonder and mystery of His words are breathtaking as we see models of truth, such as snow.

The past 24 hours have been spent wrestling with the knowledge that our travel agent routed us through Germany, which requires a "transit visa". We will not have time to obtain it before our flight departs on Saturday. Evidentally it hasn't been required for the past six months, yet the situation is changing. Therefore, we could be stuck in Addis for a few additional days.

Thank you Mrs. McLaren and Mrs. Reed for making these lovely flannel "minkies" to take to the orphanages. It will be such a joy to hand these to the children. (I could have spent ten plus minutes trying to turn this picture, but I coulnd't figure it out.... so here's to not succumbing to perfectionism!).

We depart on Tuesday, January 12 and will arrive in Addis on Wednesday evening. While there we will visit Children's Hopechest (http://www.cthomasdavis.com/), Drawn from Water (http://www.drawnfromwater.org/ - they rescue children who are to be thrown into the river because of tribal superstition...their website video is engaging) and our denominational sending agency Mission to the World (http://www.mtwact.org/ ) who minister to AIDS victims, in addition to driving to our child's village in Sodo. If we have any time to fill, we hope to see a fresh water well being dug by a ministry such as Living Water or Samaritan's Purse. Several families have expressed interested in combining financial resources to bring fresh water to a 500 person village (a cost of $10-15K). SO, it promises to be a full time of learning and being challenged to do what Christ commands.