One week from today I am leaving for Sirra Leone, West Africa. Jefferson Baptist Church Missions has started a Bible College/Seminary there to train the existing pastors of the churches we have started and new pastors so we can start new churches. I will be teaching there for 5 days, 8 hours each day. For 3 days before I will travel around the country and visit the churches we have started over the last 14 years. We began our ministry right after the prolonged war of approximately 20 years for control of diamonds ended in 2002. Since then I have traveled over there over 20 times to help start churches, teach pastors, build schools, help with medical clinics, and other projects. At one point shortly after we started there I was so taken with the need there that I was thinking about staying for six months, living in one of the mud huts, and starting at least a dozen new churches. I decided that I probably would die if I did that which wouldn’t be a good thing for my family or JBC. This trip is probably my last one. The 21 hours flying time, the heat, the humidity, really aggravates my Parkinson’s for some reason so I am going to give up this ministry to younger people. This afternoon I was looking at several DVD’s of pictures from previous trips and I got so melancholy thinking about this being my last trip. This ministry has been a huge investment of my life and has been tremendously rewarding and fulfilling for me. I am so thankful to the Lord for opening this door, but life is all about moving into a new chapter and it is time I do that.