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