Home safe and sound. I'll try to post reports here from the team as they come in. Those of you from San Clemente Pres will find their stories in the weekly Connections and there will be a report to the congregation in the near future.

Thank you so much for supporting the team, their families who stayed behind, and through them our partners in Malawi.

The team having lunch at Dulles. Seven hours till they arrive at LAX. 

Left to right: Jon, Sharon, Kim, Allie L., Lori, Dana, Joy and Ali B.

They are in the US!! Landed at Dulles at 8, took 2 hours to get through customs, etc. At 10 (their time) they were checking in to United for their flight home. They don't leave Dulles until after 2 pm, so they have 4 more hours to wait. They land in LAX at 4:30 pm. Thanks for praying them all the way home. 

Just received this text from Dana, "Just arrived in Addis Ababa -- 30 more hours and we'll be at LAX."

I'm up early (4:30 am) so texted Dana and got this message, "On the plane now, taxiing down the runway!" Praise the Lord. Please pray for them as they have 36 hours of travel before they arrive in LAX.

This just in...
@SCPCMalawi2013: Looking at a leopard in a tree 10 yards away, with a kill (impala), with a second leopard on the ground , a hyena and a very loud baboon!!!

Another update from Dana's perspective,

We have wifi here at the Kafunta Lodge where we are doing our safari. At least I am told that we will when the electricity is turned back on at 3pm.

This place is beautiful, really really nice, but hot! When we arrived we had lunch on the outdoor patio overlooking the plain where we could see baboons and impala. Then we checked into our rooms.  They all have wide verandas overlooking the same plain. We will have tea at 3:30, then head out for our first safari drive. The flight here was a little scary as the plane was so small (seated 10 passengers), but other than take off and landing, which were pretty bumpy, it was a smooth and short flight (35 minutes). Zambia looks a lot like Malawi, but the huts are different. The thatched roofs go much lower to the ground, and they look more like something you would see in Hawaii. Big difference in the temperature - turns out Nkhoma is a good 10 degrees cooler than Lilongwe, so it was much cooler than we thought it would be.

I have so many stories! The team has gotten along really well. Jon has been such a big help, whenever we have needed someone strong, we call on him. For example, today when we were picked up at the airport in Zambia, we loaded our luggage in the back of a van and started down the road. The back door of the van flew open! We were afraid our luggage would fall out! It didn't, but we pulled over and the driver got out to check out the situation. Turns out the latch on the door was broken. He tried to tie it down with a palm frond, since he didn't have a rope. Jon ended up using his belt! Just one of many funny stories...