Sorry for the long absence. We have been without internet for the past few days. I’ll post some pictures and updates shortly.

Here are a few shots I’ve taken from Northeastern South Africa. Close to the border of Mozambique.

Here are a few shots from outside my front door this morning. It is winter here and it has been cold, overcast and raining for the last few days. It was nice to wake up and see sunshine this morning.

The last picture is the guest house we are staying at.

Christo is our EQUIP contact here in Cape Town. He has 5 kids. 3 of them went with us to the coast yesterday. The fist picture is them building a sand castle with Mario. The close up is Joshua.

I had a good first day here in Cape Town. Mario and I attend Urban Edge Church in the morning. I made a few observations about church:

1. Australia is teaching the world to worship. They did a bunch of Hillsongs music.

2. The church had a young feel with a lot of young adults. I think this is a trend we are seeing more and more of in the global church.

3. Generally, churches just aren’t very friendly. We had one person say hi to us. Even after they introduced us from the stage, nobody talked to us.

We spent the afternoon down at the coast. The mountain you see in the background is Table Mountain and just beyond that is the Cape of Good Hope, the southernest most point in Cape Town, but not Africa.

Here are a few shots Joanna managed to get at the race on Saturday.

That’s me in the black getting ready to come across the finish.

Here’s a photo from minutes after the race with my shiny 2nd place medal… actually… they gave everybody a medal.

Okay… more pictures of Joanna and I.

Yes… that’s a pink shirt. And I had white pants on too. You gotta problem with it. I’ll come over that table and beat you down like a….

This is the last morning on top of our condo having breakfast.

This is a shot of us at a nice outside restaurant the last night we were there.

I know, enough about Cabo already.

One last picture… maybe…

Here’s the view from one of the condos.

Here we are.

Sarah Montello shot some pictures of us as a family on the beach the last morning we were in Cabo. Caden has kakhis and a white linen shirt on. He wasn’t too happy about the hat though.

All I can say is, “Man, my wife is hot!”

I’m back from Cabo San Lucas and we had a great time.

The second morning we were there, I took a long run up into the mountains and took some pictures.

I pieced these together in a panoramic image.

Click on it to download the full size.

I just uploaded the majority of my retouched photography to my .Mac space. I have 10 different galleries in all. To check them out, go to the sidebar and click on Photo Galleries under the About Me section.

Jo and I just got our pictures done professionally. Here are a few the photographer email us.

One of my favorite shots from the whole trip. This little girl lived outside of Iquitos on the Amazon River. It was super hot and I spent most of the time taking care of a teenager who was puking he guts out, but still trying to finish his part in the drama and ministry. I got to sing a few songs with her and the group of kids she was with. A little girl like this makes me want to adopt a child from Latin America.

This was a great ministry site in the mountains outside of Cusco.

Mario runs Hearts In Action, our missions contact. Their main office is in Guatelmala City. They have an office in Lima, Peru and they are getting ready to open one in Mexico City.

If you are ever thinking about planning or hosting a teen mission trip, you shoud definitely use these guys.

Kirk showin’ off for the Peru kids.

This could easily be one of the 7 wonders of the world. Machu Pichu was never discovered by the Spanish when they invaded Peru. The Spanish destoryed all the Incan ruins that they found to prove that their god was superior. These ruins were discovered in the early 1900’s by a Yale professor named Hiram Bingham. He had heard of a lost Incan city in the mountains. A small Peruvian boy had stumbled across them and told Hiram that he would show it to him for 1 sole (about $.33 today).

They are still excavating and finding more stuff in these mountains every year.

Paul was the journey man. Those are electric and telephone wires in the background.

This shot is from the main square in Cusco, Peru. The city is at about 12,000 ft. (The highest point in the USA is about 14,000 ft. - Pike’s Peak). There is definitely something magical about Cusco. There is no place in the world like it.

It’s a love-hate relationship for me. I love being there and am just constantly overwhelmed by the beauty of everywhere we go, but that lack of oxygen thing because of the altitude gets me.

As soon as you land and walk off the plane, you feel it. And because I’m a bigger guy, I feel it even more. Most people get headaches and feel sick to their stomachs. I would rather have that.

I couldn’t sleep. Not like a tossing and turning in bed can’t sleep. Like a suffocation can’t sleep. Everytime I would start to fall asleep, my natural breathing patterns would take over and I would not get enough oxygen, so I would wake up gasping for air. I did that for 2 whole nights. No exaggeration, I think I only got 2 hours of sleep.

The third night, I took 4 Dramamine (which really had werid effects - I think the fact that it had been expired for 2 years may have had something to do with it too) and knocked myself out. I got about 6 hours of sleep. The last night I only took 2, which wasn’t enough, and I didn’t sleep again.

There is nothing more torturing than not sleeping. The constantly waking up gasping for air wasn’t all the pleasant either.

Leon is a guy we ran into during our first day of ministry in Lima, Peru. I’m not sure what his real name was, but I kept calling him Leon. This was supposed to be the “crack” district of the city. Leon was definitely enjoying some of that home grown snow. He kept trying to talk to me, but he wasn’t speaking Spanish… and he definitely wasn’t speaking English. Nobody could figure out what language he was using. I said, “Leon, you’re just talking that crack talk.” He laughed and pointed and said something else that I couldn’t understand. I think by the end we were friends.