TCTC - Gatlinburg, TN

What do over 5500 people, more than 7 States, and loads of Churches all have in common?

They all braved the truly Arctic winter conditions of -10f, snow, wind and closed roads to gather in Christ's name at the Tennessee Christian Teen Convention in Gatlinburg, TN

Son Safaris was invited to host four workshops.

Gary Welch was responsible for creating the workshop program. "Thank You" Gary for all the planning you did and allowing Son Safaris to be represented at this ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE gathering of students and adults.

What a great way to begin 2010.

One thing that happened while driving up, and I actually cracked out laughing was:

When driving on the Interstate doing 70mph in below freezing temperatures don't try to wash your dirty windows. I quickly found out that the water may very well freeze on your windshield - DUH!!!! Hey I'm from the SOUTH.

The conference was truly amazing.

I had great opportunities to speak to around 800 people within the workshops.

Alongside this I had great one-on-one interaction with students, parents, and ministers which allowed me to share the vision of being invited to speak at their next event.

This Convention was incredibly well put together, and I hope to be invited again to share the uniqueness of Son Safaris.

The Body is a Unit. 1Cor. 12:12

I had not really comprehended the Christian Body of Believers until now.

This week THE BODY manifested itself in Christ-like service.

Here is the ordeal.

My wife and I are expecting our second boy in February, 2010. She had minor complication with our first pregnancy, and these problems reared again for this one too. While we were away for Thanksgiving week she was hospitalized Friday Nov. 27 for the likings of a kidney stone. It was not. They had to give Julie a minor epidural and so forth to relieve her pain. It worked.

No worries right?

Wrong!!!

Three days later we are back in our home town and back in the ER. Extensive vomiting and excruciating headaches for my poor wife.

Turns out the epidural from the Friday op had left a leak in her spinal column and her spinal fluid was emptying leaving her brain to rest on who knows what part of her spine.

How does THE BODY fit into all the this you may ask?

1. One call to a friend to take care of our first 22 month old boy, 10 minutes later the help arrived and cared for Brody for the afternoon.
2. Then another call and a friend had made plans to spend the night at our house to care for our son overnight.
3. Not only this overnight stay, but she organized a few others to go over to our house and clean, tidy, make beds, do the dishes. Everything to be done from being a way for the week prior.

Oh but it doesn't end there...

1. Guys from our community group step up the next morning and carry me off to breakfast and some company. Just to get me away from the hospital for a while while Julie gets prepped for surgery.
2. Plans for Brody are made at this meal and another member from our group picks up Brody from the baby sitter to be cared for during the afternoon.

That evening we are discharged after a relatively successful operation and on our way home.

We arrive to a clean and tidy house.

1. Then we receive a phone call, another family in our small group is bringing us dinner.
2. I receive a text not long after from another family from our small group to organize a meal for us on Thursday.
3. Needless to say our freezer has been stocked with casseroles prepared by groups of college students who went out of their way to show Christ's love.

Our life was in turmoil. We had no control.

We were hurting, and we were cared for....

THE BODY of believers stepped up and did what true Christians should do for each other.

Thank you all who prayed for us and helped me grow closer to understanding what it means to be THE BODY OF CHRIST!!!

Youth Retreat Theme Feedback

I had a great weekend speaking to the middle school and high school students from churches in Georgia and South Carolina.

Their theme was great and filtered around GRACE.

I never know if I really impact anyone's life. Apparently I did this weekend and this young lady, Rebecca, seemed to really grasp the message, in fact she wrote this note on Facebook and shared an incredible different angle from my theme from 'The Ancient War'.

Rebecca's note:

"This past weekend I went on a retreat at camp. We had an amazing speaker, named Fledge Fiamingo. You can look him up on SonSafaris.com He is the founder. Fledge has worked at a few different safari locations as the man who drives the truck and takes people on tours, so he knows all about animals.

This weekend he talked about the lions and hyenas. They are enemies. Fledge made the comparison that the male lion is God, the lioness is us, and the hyenas are Satan. But he didn’t talk about this: The hyena is kind of cute. Or at least it is to me. But that the thing.. Sin is cute, sin is attractive. But that didn’t exactly tie in to what he talked about. It makes sense though. You want sin because it’s attractive.

The lion [you] wants the hyena [sin]. They don’t want it because it’s attractive though, the lion wants to eat it, but anyways. A lioness can easily take on a hyena. Or more than one. But soon the hyenas become more and more, and the lioness tries to fight it but when there comes a certain number of hyenas, the lioness can’t do it anymore. They need help. Luckily for the lioness, a hyena won’t take on a male lion, no matter how many hyenas there are.

That’s just like us though. We get involved in sin and we can fight it for a little while, but eventually all of the sin just builds up on us and we can’t do it alone anymore. We need help. We need GOD, the male lion! You can’t do it alone. That’s just something that I got out of the weekend that I really wanted to share. Hope you enjoyed."

Hey Hamilton Mill, what's Happening?

Weldon Davis, the Youth Minister from Hamilton Mill Christian Church has invited me to come and speak at their Wednesday Night Youth gathering for three weeks in a row.

What a great time we have had. I have developed a new series working with the eternal fight between the super predators of Africa:Lions and Hyenas.

This is a 4 part series and a great program especially for a weekend retreat.
The kids have absolutely love getting in depth information about lions and how they have created to be this awesome predator, and how the hyena is equipped to cause so much chaos in the lions life.
Week one is called 'Veiled in Darkness'
Week two: "Fatal Flaw" is coming up and I look forward to helping these kids apply this great concept of the African feud to their eternal battle in their spiritual life...

Excellent Ellijay,Georgia

What a fantastic time I had in Ellijay, Ga. I was invited by Doug and Naomi Moore who have started a church up there to come speak to their youth group On Tuesday night Sept. 29.
This opportunity turned into being invited to speak at North Georgia Christian Academy chapel service as well on Wednesday Morning.Sharla Reynolds from the Academy divided the kids up into two age groups and I spoke to each, and provided a different Son Safaris perspective for each group.

After chapel I was invited from class to class for 'question & answer' time with the kids and they just soaked it up. I absolutely love doing stuff like this.
Being at the Academy on this day provided me the opportunity to share in the monthly Pastors lunch hosted by the Academy for all the local ministers which gave me incredible face time with them, and make future contacts.

My travel up there was also to include the invitation to speak at the youth group of First Baptist of Ellijay. The too was an exciting experience .

I truly look forward to being invited up to Ellijay again and again...

Why Donate?

As a faith-based mission organization Son Safaris™ is not funded with grants or government monies. We are self-funded as the Lord brings the resources in. Fledge Fiamingo has been doing Son Safaris™ programs since 2005 but in August of 2009 Son Safaris™, Inc became a non-profit mission. We are truly excited about what the Lord is doing in this ministry and praise God for the opportunity to further his kingdom by leading the way in "Tracking the Lion of Judah". Fledge is devoting himself full-time to this ministry. We are in need of your help!

We need your prayers for this ministry. We need churches to become partners with Son Safaris™ both by scheduling programs and putting Son Safaris™ in their mission budgets. We need your help to financially support Son Safaris™. Fledge's desire is to provide ministry wherever needed without regard to ability to pay. That worthy goal cannot be accomplished without your gifts.

Please consider investing in this outreach. Your monthly gift of love is greatly needed and appreciated. Your contributions or gifts made to Son Safaris™ Inc. are deductible as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes (application pending). You are very important to us. Thank you for praying about being part of this exciting ministry.

Son Safaris™ Inc.

Board Members

Welcome to Son Safaris

Welcome to Son Safaris.

Son Safaris was a concept which originated in 2004. Adam Parsons designed the Son Safaris logo and Gary Rachel developed www.sonsafaris.com.

In Sept. 2009 Son Safaris was Incorporated and I was voted on by my 7 member board as Executive Director of Son Safaris,Inc.

Son Safaris is a non-profit organization.

As a guest speaker I will endeavor to spread God's Word using my experience as a game ranger in Africa and combining these experiences with scripture.