Preparing for the Conference

As we get closer and closer to the time for our annual conference with our church planters, the calendar seems to move more quickly. We met with our country coordinator this week to finalilze more of the agenda and a subsequent trip to Mocuba with a visiting team from the US. But, we've had several days of intense rain, which is always intersting with mud and sand roads. These pictures are just for fun - we were traveling a road we know well and I was pretty certain I knew the depth of all the water in the dips in the road - but in this series of pictures, I was tricked (and this happened a couple of other times due to washing away of sand).

I carefully entered the water but with enough speed to carry through - and the next thing water is pouring over the top of the hood, splashing on the windshield - now that is deep! I missed the air intake by inches I'm sure. Now I know why people use snorkles on their vehicles! We made it to our destination fine but came back a different way - longer, but not so much water! The sad thing is that within three days, there will be quite a bit of mosquito activity because of all this water! There is very little good drainage here.

The rain also washed out a bridge on the single road running north/south in Mozambique, stranding many for a number of days. I understand the bridge is now open and traffic has resumed north and south - a part of the challenge for us driving north to the conference in a week or so from now. Pray for safety in our travel.

When we got up to go out yesterday, the car wouldn't start - dead battery. I was able to jump it off and take it to a nearby battery shop and get it replaced. I always thought the battery was marginal because the amp rating was lower than what the manual recommended - so we wore it out in about 15 months. Everything else checked out fine (alternator) and we replaced the battery with the proper amperage (my language was a lot better today than when I bought the last one 15 months ago so I could ask the right questions!) . However, the small shop didn't have any of the correct connector pieces and so there was much improvising with small pieces of sheet metal, drills, and the like. In the end - it is solidly in place with an interesting assortment of connections that work well but would cause a mechanic in the States to scratch his head and say "what in the world is this?" Next trip to South Africa, I'll pick up the right connector pieces.

Today, we headed to our weekly prayer meeting with our team, and the air conditioner is out of gas - not good for a trip that we have to make in less than a week to a very hot place! This will be the fourth trip to a shop for gas - it is lasting about six weeks but no one is able to find the leak. That will be a priority for Monday - traveling three days without air conditioning when it is over 100 degrees is a bit crazy, not to mention the safety issue of traveling with open windows in crowded places. Just part of the challenge!

We have a challenging agenda prepared for our conference; guest speakers are arranged; lodging is arranged; a few details remain. Our theme is two-fold - the urgency of the task where across this world one person dies every second without Christ; the second theme is emphasizing who we are in Christ. We to approach the Great Commission with urgency, but yet we must also make sure that we aren't getting ahead of God and doing things on our own strength. There is a wonderful verse that speaks to this and I'll quote it below.

We are wishing you a wonderful new year - the last one has certainly been "different" for lack of a better word but we can rest assured that God is in control - but we must make good choices. In this morning's reading, I noticed that God told Adam and Eve that they had the 'freedom to eat anything in the garden". That was the first statement (and this concept of "freedom" stands out much more in the Portuguese translation) - but the second one was "but don't eat from the tree of good and evil". That is how God works - we have freedom to make many choices and he will guide us on the good verses the bad choices, but in the end, it is us who must make the choices. We pray that this next year for you will be one full of good choices that please our God who loves us so.

Blessings for 2009

Dave & Ann

"Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, "Come, let us go over.....; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few." 1 Sam 14:6

"And the Lord God commanded the man, sayng, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Gen 2:16

"Make good choices to live a life worthy of being reproduced through those that you teach and disciple!" Adaptation of a quote from Village Church Planting Manual training materials