Thursday, 4 April: First Day of Retreat

I awoke the next morning to the sound of roosters crowing in a nearby village. Breakfast was another magnificent meal. To drink we had lemon juice which is similar to lemonade, but without as much sugar, but still delicious.

After breakfast, Steve, Chris, and I decided to take a drive to the park entrance to see if we could see any animals (unfortunately the park was closed due to all the recent flooding). It was extremely hot so we doubted if we would see very many animals, but we were still hopeful.

Entrance to Gorongosa National Park.

At the turnoff of the main road to Gorongosa, there stand the remains of a burnt primary school with the date 1963. It was burned down during the Mozambican Civil War. It stood as a grave reminder of the impact the war had on the people of the country.

Remains of the school house.

As we drove down the road a ways, we came to a clearing where we could see a few birds. Chris identified them and we continued on our way. A little bit later, we came across a small troop of baboons. I snapped a few pictures before they left the road and re-entered the bush. Steve got out of the vehicle and tried to call them back. Steve ventured a few feet into the tall grass and Chris cautioned him to look out for old landmines, another grim reminder of the effects of the war.

If you look closely, you'll see a little baby on the middle one's back.

We didn't see anything else except rain (cue Africa by Toto which I sang to myself) and tsetse flies so we returned back to camp. It was soon lunchtime so we headed to the dining room. Another delicious meal awaited us upon our arrival. This meal consisted of banana fritters (I could have eaten the entire dish), boerewors (pron. "bore-vors". Beef sausage), and a cornbread and cheese dish. After lunch, Steve headed out to the main road to make sure everyone found their way to the camp. The rest of us walked back to camp.

On the way, we heard an unusual bird. John and Chris stopped to try to find where it was. I walked ahead to see if I could get a better view. As I looked at the canopy of the trees, the bird flew to the top of the tallest tree. I called the rest of the group to my vantage point and Chris identified it as a Crowned Hornbill.

What does he have in his beak? A very large caterpillar.

A magnificent looking bird and a nice sport for posing for me.

Between 4:00 and 5:00 pm, all the other missionaries showed up (Everyone was able to get their visas at the border, a major answer to prayer!). The first to arrive was the Zambian team consisting of John S., Mary, Julie, and Heather. Next were Jake and Nancy Shenk from Zimbabwe. I would be driving to Zimbabwe with them after the retreat. The last group to arrive was the Malawi team of Doug and Barb, Earl and Lois, and Jonathan, Becky, Micah, and Rachel. As Doug (at least 6'4") greeted John Hawbaker, he put both arms around him, squeezed, and lifed him off the ground. It was quite funny to watch.

John Hawbaker and I helped everyone move their luggage into their tents. When we were helping the Jonathan and Becky, we learned that Micah (about 4 years old) was going through a phase where we chooses a new name for himself on a daily basis. Today he was "Basketball Player".

Later in the week when he was "Koala".

Once everyone was sufficiently settled in, we gathered at the food area for tea—or in my case, bottled water—and cashews and chocolate. During this time I had a good chat with Doug and told him the story of how I started working in the missions office (I'll tell this story later.).

As it neared 7:00 pm, groups of people started gathering to head to supper. Steve led one group, I led another, and Chris led the final group to the house. During the walk I caught up with Heather whom I met briefly before she left for Zambia. She also used to work at the missions office prior to my employment. When we arrived at the house, we found another wonderful dinner (are you starting to sense a theme?) of BBQ chicken, potatoes, and mixed veggies.

After dinner, we returned to camp and had a devotional time. We started by singing a hymn. Then Steve began by asking us the question, "Who would you like to meet in heaven—one Biblical and one non-Biblical person?" The goal of this exercise was to learn a little about each person's personality from their answer. The Biblical person I chose was Bildad the Shuhite from the book of Job. I explained that I would want to meet him because of his wisdom and knowing when to speak the truth when Job's other friends were telling him to curse God. I did not reveal the other reason why I want to meet Bildad: he is the person responsible for the greatest pun in the Bible ("Who is the shortest person mentioned in the Bible?" "Well, some people think it was Zacchaeus for he was a wee little man and a wee little man was he, but they are wrong. Others say it was "Knee-high"-amaih [Nehemiah], but they are also wrong. The shortest man mentioned in the Bible is Bildad the "Shoe-height".). The non-Biblical person was C. S. Lewis whom I've always admired for his writing.

After devotions I did what any good running nerd would do and talked running shoes with Doug who was training for a marathon in the fall. I was supposed to bring a pair of brand new Asics Gel-Kayanos for him, but I had no room for his size 14 shoes (although, I had had worn them through the airport, it would have made taking off my shoes at security checkpoints much easier!).