This is just a preview of things to come. My teammates Byron and Annette and I are headed up north to Ouesso for 6 weeks. I don't know if I'll be able to blog or not but I thought you'd like to see where I will be. Our main purpose will be to study Lingala, a Congolese trade language. It will be my first experience outside of the city so I'm hoping to learn a lot about village life and travel in Congo.

This is the house we will stay in. It is owned by some of our colleagues in Brazzaville who are involved in a translation project for one of the languages in the area. We hope to follow up on the recent distribution of the first portions of Scripture in that language.

We are hoping to take a dugout canoe (with a motor) down to a village and stay for a week. We would like to visit some pygmy tribes and answer some language identification questions remaining in the area.

Sometimes life in Africa is like living in a fish bowl. Or perhaps a dolphin tank, where the spectators come to watch! This is Chantal (age 10) trying to do her school work with a flock of children looking in. I'm sure I will have an interesting time in Ouesso!

This is the church I have been going to. It is pastored by one of the employees in my office. It is an independent charismatic church. There are normally about 25 people in attendance I think. I REALLY enjoy the singing and dancing, and certainly wasn't let down by the service on Pentecost. The only problem is once I get the complicated clapping in sync with my feet moving I am unable to actually sing the song! I don't think the joke about not being able to chew gum and walk at the same time would make any sense to an African :o)