Update on Pre-school

We attended a meeting yesterday with the leadership of our church at T-3. They had great news to share with us about the pre-school situation. They reported that all of the people who had been stalling and holding back our license and generally blocking us in the government have been replaced and they have new people interested in working with us. So, one of the men in the church, who knows some of the new people, is going with the leadership to the government tomorrow to try and work through the final things for re-opening the preschool. I can't help but wonder if they were all replaced because most the pre-school in the province were probably shut-down and not operating.

In one of my earlier blogs on this long-standing challenge, I mentioned that I challenged one of the inspectors to take me to the very best pre-school in all of Maputo so I could understand what they were looking for - you know, a model school. They took us to one, and it wasn't so great and he was a little embarrassed at some of the significant problems we saw. We drove by that pre-school the other day and it was also shut-down - yes the very best one in all of Maputo was shut-down, and we've noticed many others not operating, so it makes you wonder.

So, pray with us that the meetings go well tomorrow and we can get this pre-school finally opened and operating again! We received an offering that covered our debt on the building through a former missionary here - thank you thank you thank you! I think all of this is how God is answering our long-standing prayers about this pre-school.

Other updates - Juka moved to Mocuba with his family to oversee our church planting in the north, but when he arrived, the house that we'd contracted for on our trip, was rented again and so the owner put Juka in a house with the owner for the two months we'd paid for. Not a good situation and he is trying to find something suitable for his family. Sweet deal for the landlord but not at all a good situation for him. Pray with us that God would provide suitable housing that we can afford. The rents are high in Mocuba because there is a lot of road construction going on nearby (and it is badly needed!) and with that construction are lots of foreigners, that are driving up rents terribly. This photo is of Juka, Elina, Milka-Mabel, and Ana (Elina's sister who lives with them) when we picked them up to take them to the bus for the trip north. Please pray for this lovely family - that they would find secure and safe housing quickly so they can focus on the work they have moved there to accomplish.

We just finished hosting a wonderful team of folks from Australia who wanted to visit the work in Mozambique. We had a great time learning about the "down under" and sharing about what God is doing in Mozambique. They had been in South Africa for about a week and drove over to spend three days with us. It is always a priviledge to show people the wonderful things happening here. The team leader is also the OMS head for Australia who is originally from South Africa and speaks Portuguese quite well (he says it is 'army portuguese' from his time in the South African army). The older couple in the photo are newlyweds (2 weeks at the time of the visit) and we and our churches had great fun with that. We introduced them at church and one older lady in the church sighed and said "no one has proposed to me yet, but now I have hope!". There was great laughter as when we did the translation, Ricardo thought I had it wrong, so we went from "2 years', to months, to weeks - good thing I knew enough to know what the numbers were!

I'll write one more item tonight although I feel like I could write for hours as there is so much happening all around us, mostly good, some heart-breaking, some a bit discouraging, but in the final analysis, it is all good. Our youngest daughter, Allison, just finished up three wonderful weeks with us here. We are thankful to know she is back in the States again and it was a such a wonderful blessing to have her with us - there is no way to explain well how up-lifting and encouraging it was to have her here helping us in our day-to-day life in Mozambique. The people here know her from her prior visits and she is taken in more as family now than a visitor, which is special for her and for us. Today as we were eating dinner, Ann looked over at the room she had stayed in and sighed with a tear in her eye, "I miss Allison so much; she is such a sweet girl". Amen to that. She took really good care of her parents while she was here and what wonderful things she brought to help us with ministry here.

We have to drive to South African in the morning (zero dark thirty) to take our poor car to the Toyota dealer to fix the damage from our last trip north. We're taking two cars and a tow strap just in case although we have to be moving on our own power when we cross the border. I'm always a bit edging when we travel there - friends of ours were robbed there just last weekend. I generally feel safer in Mozambique.

Blessings to you!

Dave & Ann

"Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up." Psalm 5:1-3