Updates

We continue to spend much of our time in formal language study. We have completed the first level and have been advised our final exam will be Monday. So, you know what we will be doing this weekend. I will loose one class Thursday as I'm having oil-pressure problems with our Toyota and plan to run it to South Africa Toyota for repair. I ordered a sensor and am praying that is the problem - I've tried all the tricks I know but something is not working quite right. It all started after Toyota Maputo fixed my broken starter - so I'm thinking they hit the sensor and damaged it removing the starter - if so it will be no big deal. I didn't take it to Toyota Maputo because if they have to order a part, it could be months as compared to days in South Africa. The sensor is waiting for me in South Arica. I spent Saturday under the hood fixing some electrical problems, replacing wiring and taking care of a few things but it didn't do anything for the oil pressure problem. The car is old, the temperatures here hot, and electrical wiring breaks and the insulation falls off, causing all sorts of problems.

The water well at Intaka - the fellows who installed it were there on Sunday and promised a quote, proposal, and 'fix date' to me by Friday. Now, they didn't say 'which Friday'...... This has been a long-time coming.

We took two sewing machines from our sewing center at Intaka to the repair shop. The two needing repair are the more exotic machines whereas the simple Singer is jugging away. The person at the shop just shook her head and said "these machines get alot of use don't they?" Yes, indeed they do. So, we are awaiting the call.

We have a wedding dress that we share amongst our churches as they are quite expensive. We just got it back from a wedding in the north and our white dress looks like someone drug it through red dirt. The dry-cleaners (yes we have them here) was doubtful they could do the magic this time but we are hopeful. They said the same thing last time and it came back beautiful. It's been used something like 10 or 15 times, so we really can't complain too much. Our next wedding is December 19 and we promised this dress. There is also one in the north this coming Saturday but they will have to rent something. We need to get a couple more dresses - hopefully at some second-hand shops while we are in the States although we need something more conservative than what you typically see in the States. They can add a little jacket or something to them. Anyone sitting on some old wedding dresses you aren't ever going to use? We can promise they will get used and used and used here. Send us a line.

We had a field retreat in South Africa recently with speakers from OMS - US. It was a weekend of rest and challenge. Great messages although I (Dave) came down with a horrible cold / sore throat thing and spent the better part of one day in bed (doing Portuguese homework). We stayed at a small garden hotel thing outside of Nelspruit and enjoyed the fellowship and time away. Two of the three men who came were good friends of ours, which was a special blessing and the other a very interesting man from South Africa working with Men for Missions International (MFMI) and who had just completed a 5000 km bike ride raising money for Bibles. He also holds several world records in bicycle events and is a little older than me but in incredible shape. I have no excuse..... I greatly enjoyed hearing his stories about competion and about his business endeavors in South Africa and Malyasia. Very interesting and a great testimony - he was saved through a "mighty men" conference in South Africa lead by Angus Buchan; I wrote about the movie "Faith Like Potatoes" which is about Angus Buchan's life. I have heard recently that this movie is now being shown in the States in some venues. The last 'might men' event attracted something like 200,000 men. Pretty incredible.

The message of the retreat centered on Fellowship with God - that is the first thing and we started from the story of Mary and Martha (see below). A message all of us who get 'busy' need to keep hold of...

We bought another load of bibles this week for distribution in our churches and communities. It's always a good thing when we get Bibles out into the hands of people seeking God's direction in their lives.

We have a big baptism event at Picoco on December 4. We will unfortunately miss that special day. We took our MFMI visitors out to Picoco while they were here and happened to catch a training session for those new believers and the Pastor asked me to speak, which gave me great opportunity to launch from the story of Philip and the Eunuch in Acts. Bottom line was to encourage them to follow the Lord in baptism and not worry about a party, a god father or god mother for the event, but rather to simply follow in obedience to the Lord's command. It felt good to do it in Portuguese and have Nelio be able to then translate to Shanghanna. It was a great time and that church is continuing to grow and it thrills my heart to see the steady stream of people getting water at the well. I had some balloons with me that day and blew up balloons and talked with all the kids gathered around the well, inviting them to the church, and challenging them about life in general. Balloons are a great conversation starter here and many kids don't have an idea of how to blow one up. I see all these kids here and just grieve about their tomorrows. The church is slow to reach the youth here and the youth are tomorrow's church and tomorrow's leaders. We adults are but a 'flash-in-the-pan'.

I want to write about the government excess car but it deserves a separate entry. It is another great example of how 'you get what you pay for....'

Blessings.

"And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. "But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."" Luke 10:41