our bags made it too!

Dear Friends,
We stopped by the airport today to take care of some other business and found all four bags waiting there for us! Praise the Lord!
First impressions...it's hard to say... we've been in the country for approximately 24 hours now so we're just taking things all in...but about the weather and our health...well we're feeling good and it's hot and one of the average house spiders I've seen today - which completely scared me - is larger than a silver dollar - Yikes! It seems we'll be able to adjust well to the time difference but you can ask us that again tomorrow after we've had our second night here. Health wise...we're doing good. We can drink the tap water without worries and eat anything we want. Last night and tonight we're staying in a guest house and tomorrow night will be moving into an in-laws cottage for as much time (it sounds like) as we'll need to until we find our own place. It will be quite a change and things will be slow in coming...but we're not overwhelmed yet. :)

Stephanie

We Made It!

But our luggage hasn't arrived yet. Hopefully it will come tomorrow. Please pray that it will.
It was a good flight - 15 hrs direct from Washington DC to Johannesburg, South Africa. And only one hour north to Gabarone. We were warmly greeted by our friends Bryan and Amy Lindner and our new boss, Mark (and his wife Deb) Spicer. We also met another lady named Teena - I believe she's the gal who's gonna give us some good Botswanan culture training.
Today is Monday and its just about 1/4 to 11 pm. Its been a long day...but we made it and are looking forward to sleeping in until 8. :)

Blessings from Botswana!
David and Stephanie Boogaard

One week from today...

...We'll be on our way to Botswana. It's hard to imagine that we are almost on our way. We've been preparing for this for several months now and I can't believe we're almost there. We were sitting at Sunday lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Turner listening to stories of when they were married and thinking of their adventures. I couldn't help wonder what kind of stories we'll have to tell our children some day. "Kids, when we were first married your father and I packed up our apartment, gave our cars and motorcycle away and moved to Botswana, Africa." I wonder what they'll think of us. :)

Over this past weekend we said goodbye to David's parents who are as I write this, in route to Papua New Guinea for another term. We also said goodbye to his sister, Elaine, as she went back to Chicago for another semester at Moody Bible Institute. The weekend before that we said goodbye to John and Kathryn and our nephews Nathan and Philip. We're not sure when we'll all see each other again, but savored the time we've been able to share with our family while we've been in Fairhope, Alabama for the past two weeks. We've also been able to see extended family here and meet dear folk from churches in this area who are praying for us.

Before that, in December, we were able to spend three weeks staying with my parents, Isaac and Kathy Barreto. And really enjoyed our time with them and with my sisters Laura and her hubby David and with Tina and getting to meet her boyfriend Aaron. I really feel that the Lord has allowed all our family to send us off. And we feel very loved and supported. It was such a blessing to be with all of them and wonderful to build memories. We also enjoyed some snowy weather and visiting friends from Bethel Church and from Moody. The Lord kept us safe as we traveled to and from the city and allowed my mom's car to be available for our use.

A praise from this past week regarding our airline tickets. We had learned (a few weeks ago) that we would need round trip tickets in addition to our one way tickets to Botswana since we would not have a Visa in hand to present upon our international check-in and for our protection the United States would not allow us to leave the country with only one way tickets. The truth is that once we arrive in Botswana we will be given tourist visas at the airport and our work visas should be waiting for us once we arrived to the Flying Mission's office. Expecting this the mission advised that we could purchase round trip tickets through our travel agent and then once we report that we made it safely to Botswana they would refund us. So while in Chicago we applied for a credit card in hopes that an approval would at least take the bite off the cost of these additional tickets. As that has taken some time to finalize I emailed our travel agent to inquire how the arrangments would work. Her reply stated that she'd be able to use the agency's corporate card to purchase the tickets and they would refund those once we're in country. What an incredible blessing from the Lord! We are so amazed at how the Lord has streamlined everything.

Another praise - we had purchased some luggage before leaving Spokane. We got a great deal and were able to use some gift cards from Bed Bath and Beyond we found amidst some papers while packing. We were delighted to take the luggage to Chicago and then onto Alabama. However on the trip to Alabama our luggage must have fallen out of a cart or mishandled or something anyways both David's check-in luggage were damaged and were no longer of help to us. His duffle bag was ripped and the wheels on the rolling suitcase were broken as well as a handle. We figure that in combination with the weight (50lbs each) and just in handling that's how they broke. So while in Alabama we have now purchased three pieces of luggage, with the help of David's parents and good sales at Kohls. Two of these have replaced our duffle bags and the other to replace David's rolling suitcase. We expect these to be much more durable and should take us to Botswana and back. Also the duffle that was still in good condition we were able to gift to Elaine, David's sis, as she was in need of a larger suitcase when she left Alabama over the weekend. The Lord worked it all out.

Thank you for your continue prayers and notes of encouragement. Our next update should be from Botswana...unless I feel the inspiration to write sooner. :) We'll be driving next Sunday morning, the 18th, to New Orleans to catch a 12:45 flight to Washington DC. From DC we'll fly 9 hrs west to Dakar, Senagal. There we'll refuel and continue onto Johannesburg, South Africa for another 9 hours. Think of us then, because we'll not be getting off the plane in Dakar. We'll have a 1.5 hr layover in Jo-burg before our one hour flight to Gabarone, Botswana. We'll get into Gabarone just in time for dinner around 6pm on Monday the 19th. Gabarone's time zone is Greenwhich + 2 (UTC +2).

Talk to you soon!

David and Stephanie