back in Rome

Thank you all for prayers regarding our hotel in Rome. Although the travel agent who had booked the hotel was informed that Jolly Midas Hotel was overbooked for the night of the second, when we went and asked for a room for that night, we were given one. Only the Lord could have orchestrated that.

Rome is our final wrap-up stop before we head home tomorrow. We have had a chance to see some things we missed the first time around--taking a day trip to Ostia Antica. That is an ancient site on the mouth of where the Tiber used to be with amazing ruins. What makes ruins amazing? These because so much of them was intact (contrast to Pompeii) and how straight and organized the lay-out was, even way back then. Anyone who thinks Romans were obsessive about right angles and proper construction has good reason. They must have written the books on engineering.

We have enjoyed staying in a very jolly hotel (read very British). Although out of town a bit, the hotel has a shuttle into the city, so we were able to take advantage of that and still look around a bit. The highlight, of course, was seeing the DelBoccio's coming in from their cruise last night.

We are staying at the same hotel (in fact, we are honorary cruise members for this hotel) and have had a great time catching up with Jarm, Dan and the kids, Olivia and Mario. Their Steps of Paul Greek-Turkish cruise sounded wonderful. Today we were able to meet them outside St Peter's Basilica for lunch. What a treat.

We will be heading back to Africa tomorrow afternoon, so more details and ruminations of our trip will have to wait for our arrival in South Africa. We land on Sunday morning around 10 a.m., and then we rent a car and drive north to Tchipise. See if you can find that on google maps!

We have had a trip that has taught us many things, about ourselves and this wonderful world in which we live. Thanks for following along with us. We have needed your prayers and still do. Next week we will be in conference with our South African and Zimbabwean colleagues. Hopefully I can post you an update then.

Keep the prayers going,
ciao for now.