Things aren't always what they seem

I've written much about the adjustments we have had to make living here, from adjusting to 'hotter than hot', having gecko's running through the house and seeing it as a good thing (they eat bugs and mosquitoes), learning to drive in utter chaos, and then all the language and culture things. Today, we went to a two-year old's birthday party and while it was a great time - a big cultural event here. While at the party, we took a double-take at this as we walked to the house and had to snap the picture. I thought this was a super illustration of life here. Look carefully at this picture; it's the yard in a poor housing area outside of Maputo. The house is simple block - and yes, that is a computer on a table under the shade of the tree. Now granted, it is an old computer, but it is indeed a working computer as life continues to change evolve here. The fellow using it burns CDs for music that he sells (I know, I know...) and he writes on it. No internet yet - too expensive but he wants it.

Things are not always as they appear.

Dave & Ann

Reflections on the Week

Another week has rapidly passed and I've been reflecting on what has all happened this week. So, maybe just a quick summary to help catch you up to date.

We did make a quick trip to South Africa to get the car fixed. I told the Toyota folks about the bad seals, and they did some more inspections and found several other seal problems with the suspension and parts had to be ordered. In addition, they are fixing the damage where I had a close encounter with a tree stump for what seemed like a very reasonable price to me. So, we had to leave our car and can't pick it up until the 10th of March. That's a bit touchy for us as we need the car then for a trip north on the 11th. In addition, we run into visa problems and car export / import problems if the date is extended, which means fines and problems for us. The car folks understand all this and assure us they will be ready on the 10th. I have quite a bit of faith in that garage from our past experiences and am glad we had the work done there vice here in Maputo as it expanded quite a bit and it is much more difficult to get parts here than in South Africa.

We were surprised to be shaken down by the South African police right outside of the town where we were taking the car. They pulled us over (we had two cars - Ann in one and me in the other) and they didn't like our drivers licenses and were determined to find something wrong; they checked every bulb and everything about both vehicles and then finally let us go. We were well under the speed limit so it had nothing to do with that. It was probably my Mozambican plates - they've probably seen their share of Mozambican cars without lights, without windshields, without a door, etc.

In Nelspruit, we stocked up with things we have trouble finding in Mozambique, attended to some minor medical issues, and then headed back across the border. We also got our mail, which is always a blessing and something we look forward to; receiving several notes and letters and even a package!

Then it was back to Mozambique to work on the administration of the field as it was end of the month. There are reports to do, ECC payroll to complete, and just the normal administration that we need to stay on top of.

We were blessed to meet with our Christian Micro-Enterprise Development coordinators for a special performance review and they were really excited about it. We had them work on some forms and then we sat down individually and talked about last year, the coming year (we work by budget year - April to March), objectives, and how they thought they were doing. It was a great time of sharing and insightful for both of us with regard to things we can work on together to improve for next year. Ann took the lead on this and did an absolute masterful job and we all felt really good about it afterwards and look forward to the new year. One challenge for us is keeping the program going after the end of the next fiscal year - we will need to figure out how to raise funds to keep this wonderful program moving forward. If we do it right, eventually we can make it self-sufficient right here in Mozambique. One of our guys is moving to the north for a few months to expand the CMED work in our northern churches and we applaud his dedication and passion for this work that truly does help people.

The water well at Picoco - what a story. Still no well top - next week. (This is the third 'next week'). I'm still sitting on 30% of the price, so I think they will eventually finish it to collect payment. We are looking forward to attending church ther

Yesterday, we sat with the church leadership at our Khongolote church to discuss and strategize with the leadership over some moral failures of a couple of our training personnel. It was a difficult meeting, but a good one, as we explored the issues and strategized for the future. There was great openess and we were able to share our hearts in both directions and came away bonded together in a new and stronger way. It also was good to know that we really did 'understand the story' and weren't lost in language and cultural nuances. It also identified a need that Ann and I need to periodically share the vision and direction of the Church Multiplication Program with the local church leaders. We have done this with our denominational leaders but the local church folks don't really understand at the level they need to as we seek out young men and women to step out to spread the gospel in Mozambique. So, we will continue to share the story. The picture is of us using the chalkboard at the meeting. It was a hot day and the coolest place to meet was outside in the shade (on the veranda of the church).

The pre-school was in session and it was encouraging to see the kids, hear them, and know that this one pre-school is continuing to operate and bless the community. The other one at T-3 is getting closer; the meeting earlier in the week I wrote about previously was delayed (surprise!) but the church continues to move forward and has started a small temporary kitchen that they believe will be accepted and allow them to re-open the school. We inspected the temporary kitchen and what they are doing seems reasonable and verbally the government regulators have said it would be ok, so we will see! One day at a time!

The one picture is of the kids doing physical exercises to a drum beat. It was something to watch - they can move in ways I can only dream of moving! So very cute. In the other picture, their teacher is leading them towards a bathroom break!


After the meeting, we did motorcycle maintenance - changing oil, tightening the chain, inspecting the air filter, etc. Our evangelism coordinator is using the motorcycle to visit our church planting teams and I am trying to train him on how to care for it. So, the photo is of what became a group activity to do maintenance on the motorcycle. It is an inexpensive Chinese bike that is quite simple and I hope holds up for us ok. It's a great mode of transportation here outside of the city. Part of the maintenance was bending some parts back into position from the minor accident on the way to the church where a car cut him off; forced him off the road. Thank you for your prayers for Pastor Abel for he was not hurt!

Yesterday was also an interesting day because there was another threat of riots in the city over the price of diesel fuel by the people who drive the transportation vans (Chappas). It was heating up Thursday and a general strike was planned for Friday, that fortunately didn't materialize but will continue to hang over us next week. The same thing happened last year and we remember well racing through the city on back streets trying to stay ahead of the mobs that were burning tires, breaking windows, flipping cars, and throwing rocks. Things seem calm but as is always the case, it is calm on the surface. That is one of the unseen stressors in our lives that is always perculating right under the surface. Things are never what they seem....

Enough for today; we need to run to a 'coming out party' for the two-year old child of one of our pastors. Monday will mark our two-year anniversary for arrival in Mozambique. Shortly after we arrived, we attended the 'birth party' for the same child and somehow it seems appropriate to be attending a party at the same place two years later - I will have to reflect on that some! For one thing, we aren't hurrying to be there on time as we know it won't start for an hour or two after the stated starting time!

Blessings to you from Mozambique. Thank you for standing with us.

Dave & Ann

"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God." I Cor. 5

Update on Pre-school

We attended a meeting yesterday with the leadership of our church at T-3. They had great news to share with us about the pre-school situation. They reported that all of the people who had been stalling and holding back our license and generally blocking us in the government have been replaced and they have new people interested in working with us. So, one of the men in the church, who knows some of the new people, is going with the leadership to the government tomorrow to try and work through the final things for re-opening the preschool. I can't help but wonder if they were all replaced because most the pre-school in the province were probably shut-down and not operating.

In one of my earlier blogs on this long-standing challenge, I mentioned that I challenged one of the inspectors to take me to the very best pre-school in all of Maputo so I could understand what they were looking for - you know, a model school. They took us to one, and it wasn't so great and he was a little embarrassed at some of the significant problems we saw. We drove by that pre-school the other day and it was also shut-down - yes the very best one in all of Maputo was shut-down, and we've noticed many others not operating, so it makes you wonder.

So, pray with us that the meetings go well tomorrow and we can get this pre-school finally opened and operating again! We received an offering that covered our debt on the building through a former missionary here - thank you thank you thank you! I think all of this is how God is answering our long-standing prayers about this pre-school.

Other updates - Juka moved to Mocuba with his family to oversee our church planting in the north, but when he arrived, the house that we'd contracted for on our trip, was rented again and so the owner put Juka in a house with the owner for the two months we'd paid for. Not a good situation and he is trying to find something suitable for his family. Sweet deal for the landlord but not at all a good situation for him. Pray with us that God would provide suitable housing that we can afford. The rents are high in Mocuba because there is a lot of road construction going on nearby (and it is badly needed!) and with that construction are lots of foreigners, that are driving up rents terribly. This photo is of Juka, Elina, Milka-Mabel, and Ana (Elina's sister who lives with them) when we picked them up to take them to the bus for the trip north. Please pray for this lovely family - that they would find secure and safe housing quickly so they can focus on the work they have moved there to accomplish.

We just finished hosting a wonderful team of folks from Australia who wanted to visit the work in Mozambique. We had a great time learning about the "down under" and sharing about what God is doing in Mozambique. They had been in South Africa for about a week and drove over to spend three days with us. It is always a priviledge to show people the wonderful things happening here. The team leader is also the OMS head for Australia who is originally from South Africa and speaks Portuguese quite well (he says it is 'army portuguese' from his time in the South African army). The older couple in the photo are newlyweds (2 weeks at the time of the visit) and we and our churches had great fun with that. We introduced them at church and one older lady in the church sighed and said "no one has proposed to me yet, but now I have hope!". There was great laughter as when we did the translation, Ricardo thought I had it wrong, so we went from "2 years', to months, to weeks - good thing I knew enough to know what the numbers were!

I'll write one more item tonight although I feel like I could write for hours as there is so much happening all around us, mostly good, some heart-breaking, some a bit discouraging, but in the final analysis, it is all good. Our youngest daughter, Allison, just finished up three wonderful weeks with us here. We are thankful to know she is back in the States again and it was a such a wonderful blessing to have her with us - there is no way to explain well how up-lifting and encouraging it was to have her here helping us in our day-to-day life in Mozambique. The people here know her from her prior visits and she is taken in more as family now than a visitor, which is special for her and for us. Today as we were eating dinner, Ann looked over at the room she had stayed in and sighed with a tear in her eye, "I miss Allison so much; she is such a sweet girl". Amen to that. She took really good care of her parents while she was here and what wonderful things she brought to help us with ministry here.

We have to drive to South African in the morning (zero dark thirty) to take our poor car to the Toyota dealer to fix the damage from our last trip north. We're taking two cars and a tow strap just in case although we have to be moving on our own power when we cross the border. I'm always a bit edging when we travel there - friends of ours were robbed there just last weekend. I generally feel safer in Mozambique.

Blessings to you!

Dave & Ann

"Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up." Psalm 5:1-3

The well is working!

There are actually many things I could write about this last week. First, it has been a real blessing to have our fourth daughter, Allison, with us. She has spent time here before and just settled right in - no culture shock for her - and she has been a great help to us. Once again, she is helping move! Everytime we have seen her, it seems we are working on a move, in this case, moving Juka, our village church planting coordinator, north to the Mocuba area. There are alot of details to attend to before he leaves and Allison has been a great help. She also has been my right hand in roof repairs, car repairs, home repairs, computer repairs, you name it!

Getting around has been a bit of a challenge of late; heavy rains washed out several of the dirt track roads we normally use, and we've given Allison a real taste of using 4-wheel drive, just to get out of our house to the road! During the peak of the storm, while the electricity was out (normal here - add wind, lose electricity), lightening hit our house on one end, putting a big crack in the house from the eve to the ground, and blasting a small hole in the asbestos panel roof. So, water poured into the house and we scrambled around getting everything moved, being very thankful we were home at the time. We were sitting at the dinner table when it hit, and we thought a bomb had gone off. Fortunately, our computers were not plugged in because of the power fluctuations, and we received no other damage. When the rain stopped, Allison and I spent an afternoon on the roof repairing the panels and fixing other small problems. The fix is easy - there is a special paint you put down, then lay this fiberglass like material (probably asbestos!) over the painted area and the hole, and then paint over the patch material, and instant patch - works great. However, they only had red in stock, and so my 'gray' roof has all these red patches on it! Fine with me - the roof doesn't leak!

We went to our Intaka church Sunday as the well was finally finished and we were pleased to operate it and drink the water. The church is so pleased and many people in the community are using the water. A lady who lives next to the church watches over the pump, and it is locked to prevent vandalism when she is not around. We need to work a bit on a drain field and fixing a better area to stand while you pump, but we now have good clean water for the community and the church - that's a great thing. Many people made these wells possible and we thank you so very much for making a difference here in Mozambique. The one photo shows many of the kids in the church wearing Vacation Bible School t-shirts graciously provided by a church in the States who had a heart for this well project. The kids were especially excited to receive the t-shirts as they are new, not used, and of a quality not often seen here.

On the same day, we delivered a special filter to a family that uses an open well and is plagued by periodic episodes of diarrhea. Ann thinks it is the well water. So, we are experimenting to see how it impacts their health - drinking the specially filtered water. We are so thankful to all our friends in the States who have made this well and the filters possible as we work to improve lives here. Water is such a key, and with the rain and floods of late, the latrines are overflowing and the water in the communities is such a mess.

We are excited to see the growth of this small village church under Ricardo and Olga's leadership. It is making a difference in the community and Ricardo has a vision for the future that is most exciting. Our prayer is that we can begin to work towards replacing the simple reed structure, which is becoming quite worn, with a simple block structure over the next year. We see progress in every avenue at this church, with our micro-enterprise program, a small sewing center, a small farming area, and now the well. In addition, Ann has quite a community health outreach to this area and she always enjoys working with the ladies at this church. They are always glad to see her.

Our well at Picoco - the contractor is back on the job to finish the work this week, for which we are very thankful. Sometimes I have to catch myself because the seemingly simpliest tasks take so very long. This well at Picoco has been a work of love for a very long time - the need there is huge but God has His timing. We are very close and I look forward to sharing the photos with you in a future report!

We have several new churches in a place called Malange in northern Mozambique. Malange is located in a very poor area and the churchesy recently put out a desperate call for assistance with some clothing. Our local Mozambican churches did a drive, and today we picked up about 10 bags of used clothes to send north with Juka - give by people who have little, to be used by people who have even less. I say 'send north with Juka' because he will be moving this week; I feel like my best friend is moving away and to add insult to injury, his daughter is like a grand daughter to me! But, he is answering God's call to oversee our church planting movement in northern Mozambique and we support him 110 percent. We hope to drive north again (after we get the car repaired from the last trip!) in March to visit. Juka will bring a great level of maturity and leadership to our work in northern Mozambique and I don't think this timing is a coincidence. He has been a joy to work with the last two years and I am excited to see what God is going to do through him and his lovely family.

Please continue to pray for our precious team mate - 2-year old Gabriel Thiessen who begins his chemo-therapy this week. Pray for his dear parents as they walk this path with him. Pray them back to Mozambique.

The well in Intaka has the following verses inscribed in the base. I thought they were appropriate for today's blog entry. I pray that this well will be a gathering place where people will hear the gospel; where lives will truly be transformed from the inside-out:

"Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:13-14

Thiessens are off

Just a short note to let you know that Mike, Sarah, Gab, and Simon made it on the plane and are headed back to Canada.  We have shed so many tears and cried out from the depth of our souls.  Gabriel was in much pain today, no energy and feeling very bad.  God was gracious and the luggage was taken without question and all went well at the airport.  They are on their way - fly on the wings of angels.  We are in shock here and feel like a piece of our heart has been removed.  I had the privilege to hold Gabriel at the airport for a while and I have never prayed so hard.  He is a precious little fellow.

There was a tremendous crowd at the airport to support, handle the luggage, and love the the Thiessen's up.    

Hold them close dear Lord and bring them back to us.

Dave & Ann  

Four of Four has arrived

Daughter four of four (I mean four of five - sorry Haley!) arrived today and it is like a shot in the arm to us. Allison landed with three large suitcases and we are absolutely thrilled to have her here with us for the next three weeks (or more if I can steal and hide her passport!). And she brought so many wonderful things for us to help with our community health ministry. Cold medicines, vitamins, anti-fungal cremes, children medicines, ibuprofen, all kinds of wonderful things so needed here. And then there were movies, books, gifts from our kids - it was a major Christmas event and we feel so blessed by those who have given so much to help us. These medicines are sorely needed in the village areas we work in and will make such a difference in the lives of so many. Thank you!

We went to the city church today that meets in our seminary and listened to Mike say his good-byes with tears in our eyes. We prayed with him and then went to the airport where we bought the tickets from Maputo to Johannesburg for their flight home tomorrow. The people in Canada could not arrange that part of the journey. And, as things happen here, the visa machine wasn't working, but we had the cash on hand 'just in case' as we've learned that things work here about 1/2 of the time and you need to be prepared. We could make the reservation on line, but had to pay in person. After Allison's arrival, we returned to the Thiessen's home where we finalized the packing and have things pretty-well packed up for their return flight tomorrow. We have weighed and labeled the luggage and will start the process around noon tomorrow to get them prayed up, loved up, and into the airplane. They are bearing up so well under all this and are truly a testimony to God's working in their lives. There as been a steady stream of people to their door as they are a dearly beloved family and have had a tremendous impact here in a very short time, simply because they know how to love. They are truly 'leaving well' and we are trusting that they will be back with us 'sooner than later'. Continue to pray for them in an unceasing fashion as there is much journey ahead in every sense of the word. We must stand firmly with them.

On a lighter note,

Tonight the superbowl begins at 1 in the morning our time. We are debating staying up to watch it although I can't imagine Ann and I making through the entire thing. Our neighbors have satellite TV and knowing we are from Pittsburgh, have opened their TV room to us tonight (but they are going to sleep). They've only asked that we don't dance when we wave our towels and sing "here we go........." (If you aren't from Pittsburgh, you won't have a clue about "here we go..." so don't worry - it just means you're normal!)

Go Stilers! (I mean Steelers!)

Dave & Ann

"Pray without ceasing." 1 Th 5:17