probably in the condenser under the dashboard. I left early to get to the garage in Maputo but the rain had flooded the roads to the point that traffic into Maputo was completely at a standstill. I spent two hours trying to get to town but was unable to or return because of the traffic snarls. A friend of mine tried to go in the other way and his wife had only gotten through early in the morning because she has a snorkel on her car. So, that wouldn’t have worked for me either. Finally, I was able to get turned around and head home - when I called the garage, the owner said, “no worries, the workers won’t come in today because of the rain anyway,” so today’s project was to get the car back into town and get the air conditioning going again. We need to resolve this before we go north, which we are feeling a little pressure to do promptly so we can get our training center construction project back on line. I really enjoyed talking to the garage owner today – he is a Greek man who has spent 40 years in Africa – 10 here and the rest in the DRC, or Congo. He has lived through rebellions, wars, overthrows, and the like and had a unique and interesting perspective as we talked about Africa and the work that we do. He gave me a lot to ponder and think about and I hope I was able to do the same. I look forward to further talks as I think this air conditioner thing is going to be an ongoing challenge – or at least it certainly has been for quite some time.
Our church multiplication supervisor is back in Mocuba safely and our Christian Micro-Enterprise Development (CMED) coordinator is wanting to return to Maputo for a bit as he has reached a bit of a slow-down in his work there because the people participating in the village savings and loans programs are very busy right now at their farms and do not have time for other things for a while. I was quite discouraged about the funding of this program but we have recently had a man in Canada agree to match us dollar for dollar up to $7000, which would get us a good year more in this wonderful program. In addition, there may be some folks interested in coming to work this program, so God’s timing seems to be unfolding. So, maybe I won’t have to cancel the program at the end of March as I thought! Won’t that be encouraging! He continues to teach me about His timing versus my timing desires! (Project 432560-Mozambique CMED) - (photo is of Mario (left) with CMED group in Zambezia province where the black dresses indicates widows in mourning)
Our seminary is to start February 15 with 30 students on the register. However, while we think the building is paid for (depending upon who you talk to!), we are just about out of operating expense money. What a crazy way to live! We have asked our headquarters for assistance and we’ve been scrambling to get student scholarship information together – it will take nearly 200 dollars a month for each of these students to operate the building without going into the red. As 
our student enrollment increases, this will drop, but for right now, we are scrambling. But, this seems to be such a common story across the seminaries – it takes money to pay non-missionary teachers, guards, lights, water, sewer, taxes, upkeep, and the like in addition to books, paper, pencils, and the like. In addition many of our students will need some assistance with transportation costs so they even have a chance at attending. It’s an interesting tension – this could make or break the investment into our lovely facility. I’m just not used to this hand-to-mouth living – it seems so irresponsible as we try to discern the line between faith and foolishness!!
We must trust God! (Project 302000 – Maputo Seminary)
“As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” Ps 18:30
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