Mocuba Center Update

Attached are some pictures of the Mocuba Training Center project as of last Friday. We are still waiting on Afrodrill to advise us on the next step. They have put us off week after week, which is easy I suppose since they have 1/2 the cost of the well in their account. Quite fustrating and at this point and they would not get a good recommendation from me as someone to do business with.

The photos show making/getting stone for foundation work, fencing work around the property and the current status of the first structure. We are quite pleased with the project and continue to pray that the work will be completed within our three to four month period we planned. Keep praying about the water situation. The workers are very dedicated and have 'a mind to work' and we continue to pray for their protection, safety, and wisedom for Belarmino as he heads the work.

Today we attended church in our Maputo City church and a guest pastor from the Ivory Coast spoke. He preached in English and his wife translated into Portuguese. I especially enjoyed the sermon today, first because it was easy to understand but also because he used the exact same verses I had used for a sermon I had done in the North and he challenged me from another angle. I just love how God's word is so alive that way! It was a great time but the most exhillarating thing was how at the end of the service, seven new people stepped forward to profess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord.

This evening, a couple we are working with who are preparing for a June wedding dropped by for dinner and to just talk. We asked alot of questions and got to know this couple a little better. We did a short Bible study, had a great dinner, visited, and I ran them home. I had to go through four police roadblocks in the process and there was an awful lot of action tonight out on the streets. I wouldn't have dreamed of driving through those areas a couple of years ago at night but now it seems like normal. Funny how your sense of normal shifts over time. Is this like the lobster in the pot???? Anyway, we had a great evening with them and we gave them some homework to do before we meet with them again.

I'm beside myself on what to do with our car. We have a couple headed here from Ireland and I have this car that sometimes starts, sometime doesn't, and there is no rhyme or reason. It has let us down in some not very nice places and that is getting a bit old. I priced a new starter and we're talking $1000 US just for the starter. I'm negotiating with a Toyota dealership in South Africa on a rebuild kit for the starter switch (like a solenoid) on the motor itself as a next step although technically, we've had this done a number of times now without success although I think the rebuild was really just taking it apart and cleaning it and putting it back together.

We've been chasing this problem for over a year now - tried to get it fixed numerous times but it is one of those intermittent problems that drive mechanics insane. I have had success pounding the starter with a metal rod and a hammer to reset the switch when it won't start, but even that doesn't work any more. If I stay on the bumpy roads, I do better because we jar the thing to death, but when we are driving in the city, the roads are so good now, that we aren't constantly jarring it, so it doesn't start when we turn it off.

In my old life, I'd be at the time where you trade it in on something more reliable. But, it doesn't quite work that way in the missionary enterprise. I think we will have to raise additional funding for another vehicle for when we return on furlough. At the rate we're going, we'll be pouring the same amount of money into what we have!

I'm sure I haven't been praying for patience......!!!!

Thanks for reading. Hope you had a great Sunday. Thank's for standing with us so faithfully. It is the gifts and prayers of our dear support base that make it possible. We are so humbled by everyone's faithfulness to us.

Dave & Ann

"So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work." Ne 4:6