Gettting Ready to Go

It's three days and counting until our departure for Tanzania and I (Beth) locked our beautiful six month old twin grandchildren in Katie's car in our driveway with the engine running. After a moment of hysteria, Katie and I made sure they were still both sleeping and called for help from the Ramsey County Sheriff. A wonderful deputy arrived with his special tool and had the door open in less than a minute. Cal and Lyla were now wide awake and knew nothing except they had a lovely nap while mama and grandma were pacing. Needless to say I'm a bit distracted! We still have a few things to get in order at home but thankfully Christy, Brandon and wonderful Grace will be managing the house until they move to their new home the end of October. We have yet to pack but we have a plan! These next days will be filled with family time so the babies remember us! We also spent last weekend with Chad, Adrienne and delightful Madeleine in Portland, Maine. We had so much fun playing with trains, reading books and watching the progress on the building of their new home. It will be done when we get back so we're excited for them. This journey to Iringa, Tanzania will be very similar to our last trip in the summer of 2007. We will be there from Oct. 6 - Dec. 12. We will be back in our role as Companion Congregation Coordinators for the Bega Kwa Bega partnership through the St. Paul Area Synod of the ELCA. We will be traveling over with a group from Arlington Hills Lutheran Church and then meeting up the following day in Dar es Salaam with a group from Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran in Apple Valley. The excitement is growing but we still have much to do so our next post will be from Iringa when we have internet access!