Thanks to all of you who have asked about our recovery from international travel and moving into the new house. We're happy to report that we're back with very few problems, despite the difficulty of reentry into American life. The girls did great (thanks to Mary and Tom!), our daughter's ballet performance was wonderful, and birthdays have been celebrated. Last night we hosted a dinner for all the movers who took our stuff from one house to another during our trip. It's hard to express our gratitude for the kindness they showed, kindness that made coming back so much easier.

Our trip to Nigeria was very productive for us personally and for our purity efforts. I don't think you can go into any new culture and not be changed, unless you're really hard-hearted. When you look at the problems of other nations and recognize the fact that God chose to plop you in the USA, you wonder why you were so lucky. The answer is that God is expecting you to responsibly share your liberty and material goods with others. I want to challenge every American reading this letter to pursue that with your whole heart. If this country would return to a definition of liberty as "the freedom to do what's right" instead of "the freedom to do whatever I want," what a different world this would be.

In Nigeria, we saw a government too corrupt with money and power to care for its people, much like in the Ukraine. Modern conveniences exist in the cities, but they aren't managed well and so fall into disrepair, like the boulevard we traveled full of streetlights without bulbs. Dishonest groups of men set up checkpoints along roads between cities to ask for nonexistent papers and to demand money or goods. Registration to vote is difficult and groups actually invite others from outside the country to come in and vote for their candidates! Nigeria is trying to model a democracy after our nation, but it's tough going.

And of course AIDS is rampant. Everywhere we traveled we had individuals come and literally beg us to send purity materials and to return to teach purity. We're looking for money and information right now to provide those opportunities - we'd like to return early next year.

But on a personal basis - besides being constantly aware of the poverty, the overcrowding, the risks and the dangers and the heat - it was very healing for us to return to the African continent. In this culture, people always have time to spend. The mundane tasks of life, here necessary for survival, take on new meaning. Even washing clothes in a bucket becomes an enjoyable task.

Yes, I was away from the responsbilities of home and children, and that can be very freeing for a few weeks. But I was also drawn back to the importance of simple things - to the fact that God, family and people are the only things that make life worthwhile. That the day-to-day tasks of housekeeping and business in America are my offerings to that family and to God. That the things that stress me out aren't as important as I make them.

I'm sitting in my own office now in a beautiful home of our own (thanks to God!) in central Orlando, and they're about to open the community pool right across the street. But on my computer, I'm corresponding with friends in the Ukraine and in Nigeria who are waiting for me to help. What will I do about this? The vacuuming can wait another day. I can put off furniture for books sent overseas. And I can remember that all this comes from God and is mine to steward and not to hoard.

I want so much to transfer aspects of life lived in Africa to my life here in the US, but I know I won't be able to do it as thouroughly as I would like. May God help us all to remember what's really important in the process, and to be productive to him, not becoming well-traveled and numb, but becoming more willing to trust Him with all because of the faithfulness He's shown us.

Here's to Nigeria, Ukraine and the world celebrating liberty in the same way we can, through purity and truth. May it come to be!