Christmas lights, New Years fireworks, Groundhogs Day cupcakes, and Easter eggs

... are all things you have probably experienced since we last wrote on our blog.

Over the past few months I have decisively told Jon, "I'm not going to bed tonight until I have written on our blog." but alas, here it is, four months later and not a single post. Why? you may ask. Well, Jon and I have decided there are two reasons for our blogging silence 1) things here aren't as new or interesting as they use to be and 2) we are getting busier and busier and have less and less time to write stories (stories take us a while). So . . . . we have decided anything is better than nothing, even if its just a sentence or two a week we are going to try to keep up better.

So, to catch everyone up. Since we last wrote lots has happened:
* January - we tried to stay out of the heat
* February - passed in a blur
* March - I (Alysa) became the Human Resources Coordinator for Flying Mission
- We had our first visitor come for a visit, our great friend Virginia from Milwaukee
* April - We got a new puppy.

Virginia and I riding a hippo

Big news from the past week:

Jon and I spent last week in Lusaka, Zambia. As the HR Manager, Flying Mission has been trying to get me to Zambia to meet with our team there so that we can work out the recruiting process, talk about personnel issues, and other similarly exciting things. Turns out FMS had a group of pastors who were going up to Zambia in April to lead a seminar for pastors in Zambia which Jon was assigned to fly. So, we really lucked out and got to combine the two trips into one and travel together!

We had a great time seeing bits of Zambia and getting to see what God is doing through our people up there. Zambia itself was paradise, the land was covered in wild flowers and fruit trees dripping with lemons, avocados, and bananas. On Sunday we went to church with Esther, the Zambian woman who makes meals for the guest house. As we walked on the dirt paths that wound through yards and over leaky pipes, it was so much fun to interact with the mission's neighbors. They are so much more outgoing than the Batswana! It felt strange starting over with language and not knowing how to properly greet people anymore. I kept trying to talk to people in Setswana but the blank stares set me straight.

The other VERY exciting thing that happened this week was that our new website was FINALLY launched! I have been working on this since last August and all the pieces were finally put together enough that it is out there in cyberspace for all to enjoy. So, if you have a few minutes, check it out: www.flyingmission.org.
- If you have anything nice to say about it, please let me know (I like praise :o),
- if you have small changes (like misspellings or links that don't work), please let me know
- if you don't like it or think it makes no sense, please keep that to yourself.

Anyway, thats it for this week.