Time here is 11:19 pm. Have had a full day! Only have a few minutes,but I'll try to fit in as much as I can. Right when we got to the airport to check in, we were asked about our badges! Lori told the guy at check in we were going to a Bible convention, and he said "Wonderful! You all are so nice!" Then, while standing in line at the Starbucks to get a white mocha (with soy), a lady beside me asked "to which one are you going?" She had already known about the convention because she is studying. She just retired from the military, and since then has really been "taking off" in her studies, after 10 yrs of studying off and on. We had a quick but encouraging interchange....

AND THEN while we were sitting at the gate, meeting new friends from Oregon, California, Virginia (a sister last night counted 26 states so far), a lady sitting beside me asked where we were going. I explained, and she said "well you sure are a happy group!" She was on her way to Charleston to see her Dad, who is ill. We were able to talk about the comfort people need, she agreed, and said that one of her close friends is a Witness. Cody gave her a tract, and she was reading it as we were boarding the plane.

Let me skip the next 15, NOT 12, hours of airplane time...our hotel is very nice...let's look at some pics from today...k, so I don't know how to arrange pics yet to make sense wih the text, but the pic above is Jo'burg, as the say here...the next pic, who knows where it lands, will be of our beautiful African sisters in traditional dress. They gave us a show after a tour of Bethel and lunch (our tour guide joined us). It was beautiful! They (bros and sis') sang 4 songs from our new songbook, and even a song about a beetle being ruler of the road (a traditional African song). That was a treat! K, let's see where this pic wants to be...

Sigh...o well, you know what I'm trying to do. The whole day was upbuilding, the Bethel branch just what you'd expect, clean, organized, lots and lots of REAL smiles! After visiting the Branch, we went to a park where there was a waterfall and beautiful trees (aloe trees full grown...I didn't know they were actually trees!) I would include more pics, but I'm running out of time. Hopefully tomorrow we will get that MTN card, and I can get some time to upload some pics of downtown Jo'Burg, a guy getting in trouble by the police (don't worry,we were on the bus, with the group), more pics of the Branch, a waterfall and those aloe trees, and yes, Carolina! She took a bus from Maputo (8 hrs) and surprised me at the hotel! We only had an hour...everything is going by so fast!

Each day is proving very busy, so I'll do the best I can with the pictures and everything. We're "drie" days into the trip, and it's all been so, so upbuilding. More to come as soon as possible. Goeienag!