A Milestone in the Morrissey Family Here is the first item we are selling on ebay: Shannon's doll house. Here is Shannon dropping it off at the ebay store. She will keep the money.

Can you find Christopher hidden in this picture?
There he is! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Today, Thanksgiving, Christopher and I (Leslie) went on a prayer walk. He prayed one of the sweetest prayers I have heard. He said, "Lord, thank you for my best friend Owen. May he get more Transformers than me."

Chris + Nancy Drew Book
By Chris
Nancy Drew had a daughter. Her name was Nancy Drew. Nancy Drew ,s mother was killed . So Nancy Drew did some spying. And she found out who murdered her mother. So she put the bad guy s in jail. Once again Nancy saved the day.a

Global Warming Hoax

After the revelations of widespread scientific fraud, I wonder if any of my friends still believe that manmade global warming is a threat.

Chris's School Photo

I told Doug that if I had known they would take whole body shots, I would have put Chris in better shoes for picture day. He said, "Eh, that's all right. He's no patent-leather geek." I guess Shannon partly heard that because I heard her chasing Christopher after that, calling him a "fat leather geek."

Leslie Puts Her Money Where Her Mouth Is

Leslie and Pat Toomey, the next Junior Senator from Pennsylvania.

School Pics 2009-2010
Soccer Pic Fall 2009

One More Africa trip page:

I didn't mention the main reason for the trip: the crusades at night. We had a great time. There was great worship music and dancing for about 2-1/2 hours. Then there was a short and powerful message about Jesus and an inviation to become a Christian. Hundreds responded. Finally, there was a prayer for the sick followed by testimonies of people who were healed.

Here is a sample of the dancing:

One of the healings that stuck out to me was that of my fellow guest, Philip. He has had neck problems such that sleeping wrong causes him to wake up with neck pain that typically accelarates throughout the day to a terrible headache by evening.

He brought his special pillow from Holland to South Africa, but because of weight restrictions he couldn't bring it to Zim. (The guy has such a heart of gold, he left his pillow instead of the three bags of marbles he brought for the kids!)

On the first morning, he was starting to feel his typical neck pain again and was genuinely worried his whole trip would be marred by headaches. So, Pastor Dennis and I prayed for God to heal his neck. I think I asked him every day and he never got neck pain or a headache again. Praise God!

Of course, I took in a little sight-seeing while I was there. They have a beautiful tree all over the place called a jacaranda. It is originally from South America but grows well in Zim. It only blooms about two weeks a year - the two weeks I was there! Crocodile lake at the game reserve had the lily pads of fairy tale fame.

We also saw animals at the reserve: babboons, impala, zebras, hippos and... white rhino.

Matopos (where the reserve is) also has a lot of interesting "balanced rocks" which presumably were created in place by erosion. They call this one mother-and-baby. Zim women carry their babies on their back, wrapped against their body with a large cloth.

This one almost fell on our group until I jumped up and stabilized it.

The folks at Dynamis found out Pastor Dennis had experience with puppets and clowning. So they put us to work for three days. There was a training on Friday, a 6-hour Family Fun Day and Children's Crusade on Saturday and a 2-hour Children's Crusade on Monday. They are so precious.

So, what about me. I had no experience teaching clowning or puppetry. Well, they found something for me to do.

Of course, I wasn't alone in Africa. I was joining a national team assembled by Christopher Alam's Dynamis World Ministries. This team is in-country year-round running crusades and supporting local churches. They are joined by long-term self-supporting missionaries like Janie and Helen.

I was a "guest." Here I am eating breakfast at our usual haunt, Angels, with three other guests: Pastor Dennis, Stefan from Sweden and Lili from Panama and Delaware. The one you can't see is Philip from the Netherlands (he is taking the picture.)Here I am the day of the Family Fun Day eating breakfast at "Philip's Diner." I think our group of guests made a great team. I certainly enjoyed the long hours of communing with them and hearing their stories!

Here is Lili with Helen and Janie is in the back.Nothing like going Rhino hunting to bond a group together. The other two men are Trusty (our driver) and the Game Reserve Guide (holding the AK -47.)

I know, I know. Blogging is supposed to be about today. Well, here are pics from my Africa trip weeks ago.

This shot is for my mom. I think Coca-Cola is the official mascot of Africa. It is on or in every building and served at every restaurant. (That is my pastor, Dennis Loose, standing in Johannesburg airport.) Our trip to Zimbabwe started in DC and took us through a refueling stop at Senegal and an overnight stay in Johannesburg, South Africa, before we landed at Bulawayo International Airport.

Our host, the Alams, cleverly arranged for us to stay at a hotel school, the Bulawayo Polytechnic. It cost only 1/5 the price of regular hotels.

And it came with standard amenities, like...

A PoolPetsAnd candles and matches for the occasional city-wide power outage.

In all sincerity, the rooms were huge and I was very satisfied where we stayed. They had a big bathtub (but no shower.) A great blessing was that the AC blew right over the beds.

I didn't appreciate the significance of this until the night without power. I was awakened frequently by the sound of dive-bombing mosquitos that night.