Intaca

Today we met with the Government official over the part of Intaca where our church is located. They have recently ran a power line near the road the church is on and we are told they are re-routing the road to follow the power line. Today we learned for sure that the road runs on "the other side" of the power line, so it won't run a few feet from our well. In addition, the government is surveying and preparing a map of all the land in this rapidly growing area to help with the land ownership questions. We provided the two letters we have (and that is all!) regarding our land ownership for the church land. They were pleased with the letters and asked that we put in small corner walls to mark the edges of the property. The Secretary of the area said he would walk with church leadership to agree on where the boundaries are and that would be the final place. So, we coughed up some money for concrete and blocks to identify the land. These sit-down sessions with local government people are very important and we were very encouraged by today's session. They did ask that we consider putting a pre-school on the property as soon as possible as there is great need in the community.

While we were there, we agreed to help the church pastor get a used sewing machine he had bought in a nearby area. We went back sand roads and came in right behind the huge new stadium they are building near the National Highway. I have to look at Google-maps to figure out what we did today - I believe that God has placed this church property in what will soon be a very strategic place. They are going to open this road all the way to the main north-south highway and we will be on quite a major road eventually. I'm so glad God takes care of those kinds of details!

Well, the sewing machine ended up being a sewing machine, a table, two couches, and a large chair - we stacked up as much as we could on top of the car and somehow managed to get back. We learned a lot of new roads today and met a lot of interesting people. To me the old and rusty peddle-type singer sewing machine looked like it was un-repairable and he paid an awfully high price for such a machine. However, I've learned that the Mozambicans are very clever and he will dismantle that machine, clean it, oil it, and probably fabricate a few parts for it, and have it working in no time. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. It is also encouraging, because Francisco's wife learned to sew at our sewing center at Intaka and now is off to start her business with her own machine!

Some sad news for me is that on one of the sand roads, I had to back up so someone could pass and in the process, running two big thorns through one of my new tires. I try to be so careful of those things! I've lost count on how many flats I've had from these thorns! So, tomorrow I will try to find an open shop to get them plugged. For my mechanic friends, the holes are on the side walls and they will plug them anyway. Our old set of tires had all sorts of plugs from these thorns in our sidewalls.

We are heading north in a couple of weeks - sure wish I'd hit those thorns after that trip!

Our visa's are in and should be ready in about 10 days. The process took two of us, but we understand the chaos now so the entire thing isn't near as daunting as it once was!

Blessings!

Dave & Ann