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

Projects

There are two projects we are working on that we’ve been consuming our minds with lately. One is the Mocuba Ministry Center and the other the property we are currently living on. I’ll post the words first but then switch computers to try and upload some photographs.

Mocuba Ministry Center

We have bought a nice piece of property outside of Mocuba for a ministry center that will provide classrooms for training Mozambican pastors and church leaders, a well for community water, a small house for our country coordinator as we need a presence on the property, a bath house, and student dormitories as when people come in for training, we need to be able to house them. We have received our construction permits from the local government and they are excited to have us there. It is such a difference from trying to do things in the city here relative to bureaucracy and road-blocks. To date, we have minimized missionary involvement in the project and I think that has been a part of the success as well. Juka gave me copies of the construction permits and we are ready to go. We have about $30,000 for the first phase which should get us the well, the first classroom building, and a small house and I hope a fence of sorts around the property. The classroom building is basically the same as what we built at T-3 for the pre-school (at around $14,000). Belarmino is planning to be our construction supervisor and thinks he can complete the first phase in three to four months. We need additional funding (another $30,000) to finish the overall plan, but we can at least secure the land by building on it and start using the training building. Eventually this will morph into a seminary extension site! This is exciting stuff! Project Number: 407680 - Mocuba Ministry Center

Boa Nova Property

Another idea we have is buying this piece of property we are living on. Rents in Mozambique for missionaries are escalating at an unbelievable rate and the mission has paid so very much out in rent here in Mozambique over the years with nothing to show for it asset-wise. This beautiful piece of property we are living on may be for sale early next year. It has its own electrical sub-station, a good well, six modest houses, a church building, two dormitories with a bath house, a ministry center, a pre-school building, and an out-building. One of the houses has two mirror-image apartment units that we use for guest housing at the current time. We can rent the housing to missionaries (including ourselves) to pay for the property and building assets in-country in the process. We can house teachers, do medical work out-of it, host teams, and use teams to help us re-furbish the buildings and facilities. We can experiment with micro-enterprise projects (animals, chicken farms, agriculture, and the like). We get extremely exited about the possibilities but as in all things, it takes money. We haven’t opened a project for this yet although we are feeling that this is the direction we should go. It’s around $250,000 in price, which is truly a bargain and by charging rent on the six houses, we can easily pay this off on an ongoing basis. In addition, there are basically two roads into the city; one is very good and the other is being re-worked, so this area will continue to grow as access to the city is quite good and for us, access to our rural churches is quite good. It would provide great stability to the OMS work here. Pray with us about this potential opportunity.

As an aside, Bruce and Mabel left on the bus for South Africa early this morning to begin their journey home. We stopped along the side of the road in Matola, waiting for the large buses that are headed to South Africa. First the City Bus stopped, but that was not for us. Then came the Greyhound bus, but that wasn’t it either. Then came the Intercape bus – the right one, but it flew right past us and then disappeared down a side street in front of us. The four of us, suitcases in hand, ran after the bus, following it down a side street to another street, into a parking lot – where we barely made it before they loaded it and headed off. We said a hasty good buy as they headed to the upper level for good seats from which to enjoy the ride to Nelspruit, South Africa. We’ll know for next time where this bus stops.

We will put our car in the body shop on Wednesday to have it repaired. Our neighbor has agreed to ferry us to the shop and back at which time we will sit tight until it is ready. This is finally to get the damage repaired from our accident on June 1, when a man hit us on his first day with a driver’s license. It has taken this long for the insurance carrier to clear everything. The damage is rusting quite a bit so it will be nice to have this all fixed although we really don’t know how long it will take. I’d guess a couple of days, but that might be optimistic….We believe it to be a reputable repair shop and know others who have had repairs done there.

Last night, Raul and Felda came over to visit with Bruce and Mabel and ended up staying for dinner. It was nice to spend some time with them and to hear about all their cultural struggles as they try to finalize their wedding. They have had to put their wedding off once again until May of next year. They are both trying so hard to do the right thing but the cultural barriers are huge. They are a lovely couple with bright futures. Felda is finishing her university thesis. Raul is looking for work because the Non-Government Organization (NGO) he works for replaced their top man and his first action was to fire everybody (how to make friends and influence enemies!). I had to laugh because the Labor Laws here are very much in favor of the employee and this new man has just painted a big bulls-eye on himself and the Ministry of Labor will come quite quickly as soon as the first employee complains. In the mean-time, Raul is trying to get work with other NGOs and we are confident he will land something quickly - he has several interviews lined up already. He has lots of experience, a good education, and God's hand is on his life. As it turns out, Raul was the only one who did not complain to the Ministry of Labor and the new manager was impressed by this and called to ask him to please come re-apply. Raul isn't so sure....

Tomorrow is a baby dedication at the Picoco church.

Dave & Ann

“The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and a good report makes the bones healthy.” Proverbs 15:30

Another Grandchild

One of our Village Church Planting program Trainers, Nelio, just had a beautiful baby girl. They have named her Dolce (means 'sweet') Nelio. She was a bit overdue but everything has worked out well. It is their first child. We have been involved in this dear family's life for quite some time, participating in their move to a new house, their official wedding, and standing with them in their new church plant. It was a wonderous priviledge sit with them and share in this joyful time of celebration.

But with this comes an interesting question. They asked us to be the Padrinho and Madrinha of this precious child (Godfather / Godmother). In this culture this is a tremendous honor that brings with it great responsibility. It is a life-time commitment where you agree to help with the child, make sure the child is receiving good care, throw parties for the child at the 30-day point when she is introduced to the community, at the 2-year point when continued life is more certain, and other specific times in the child's life. You are to ensure to the detail of when to start feeding the child food vice milk-only, when it is potty-trained, help with school costs, etc. You are expected to be a significant player in the child's life essentially for your life.

We have dodged this before because we think it causes various problems. For one, we probably won't be here in Mozambique for the life of the child, for example. Also, we do not have the cultural knowledge or sensitivity needed for such an important role. We would make the child "different" from the very beginning. We talked with our cultural counselor (Juka) and he agreed that it would be best that we not take that role. So, we need today to go have that discussion with Nelio and Zenia, backing out graciously even though in our hearts we would like to do this. It's hard to explain fully to our dear Western perspective friends - this role is extremely important here and is not one of a title only. We also discussed this with another close friend who said the same thing. Both of these men serve in this role for a number of children and know our hearts well - both advising "no". For example, during times of furlough, important things could happen in the life of the child and our not being present would be a great affront, even though there is a good reason.

We didn't talk about this (or at least not enough that I remember!) in our cross-cultural training although I suspect there is a connection across many non-western cultures. Most missionaries we know (but not all) do not serve in this role for many of the same reasons. We've read several books about things like this since being here and there is as wide a various of opinions as there are opinions. As a general rule, if the person/author has not lived for extended periods (decades) in another culture and fully engaged in the work in some fashion, I don't put too much credence in what they are trying to sell as the longer we live here, the more I understand what I really don't understand. It would take a life-time, truly, and our western "solve the most complex world problem in one-hour" mentality really hinders what we can do in relationships. I only say this because I am probably one of the worst of the worst for wanting quick resolution based on expert opinion, and charging ahead full speed.

We must learn to wait quietly on the Lord as we continue ahead gently, step by step.

Thank you Lord for this precious new life. May Dolce grow to know you and walk in Your paths and fulfill Your plan for her life.

"The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

Picoco Well is Complete

Today we finally made it out to Picoco and verified the well is operating. That is great news and while we were there, we watched family after family come and receive the water. Yes, we tasted it and it is good clean water. We will make the final payment on the well tomorrow and we pray it will bless the church and the community and draw people to this quiet and peaceful place. Thank you to all who contributed to this wonderful cause.

On the other side is sad news about our well at Intaka and generally about Intaka in general. We received a call that the well had been stolen at night. We found that hard to believe as it is no small task to unbolt a well, dismantle it, pull the rods, and put it in a truck all within easy earshot of numerous homes of church members. To top it off, there is some sort of strife within the church and the pastor has resigned. This pastor we count as a personal friend and we had talked on the phone about the well and now he isn't taking our calls. We received his resignation letter and we had a special meeting with the denomination leaders about it. The culture would have the denomination issue a letter back inviting him to a meeting with the leadership to discuss his letter. So, more to come, but we believe our long friendship provides the right to drive out and visit with them over this. It has rocked our world a bit as we have spent much time with this church and the Pastor and his family, so we are wanting to very much understand what is happening.

Today, I drove out to Intaka with a visitor from OMS, and confirmed the well was indeed gone, along with some damage to the inner casing that I think is more of a sabotage thing. It's all fixable but experience has taught us that the culture has a way of bringing these kinds of things around. The church and denomination has posted a reward for information leading to..... so we shall see. I talked to some people we know nearby and learned that indeed a car stopped there late one night and that was about all I could get - no one was talking. There is lots of gossip and finger pointing and the police are involved, but we just don't know anything. I drove by very similar wells that are around (although not close) and this seems to be the only one that was affected. We are praying that something good will come of this and I hate to admit it, but I'm praying for God to have His way with the culprits.

So, heartbreak and jubiliation; life here challenges the emotions on a regular basis.

Tomorrow, our long-time and dear friend Karlene returns to the States after three wonderful weeks (at least for us!) with us. This photo is of her today at Picoco. We covered alot of ground with Karlene during her time here and we hope that this trip will help her with the prayer ministry she leads that is so vital to the OMS work in Mozambique. Her leaving will leave a big hole here, for she is really much more family to us than a friend.

People do come and go, for yesterday Lon arrived from OMS headquarters to do some filming and documentary work and so he is also with us and we are enjoying introducing him to the work here.

"Arise, O LORD! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble." Ps 10:12

Well Photo

One of the fun things we get to do here is visit all of our different churches - it's like being a member of a bunch of churches and we truly love each one of them. Today, we went back out to Picoco to check on the well and visit with this newer church. We had made the arrangements before we knew it was going to be raining hard today, but we managed to make it out just fine. Our normal car is in the shop being repaired after the grueling trip to the north (parts had to be ordered from Japan) and we are renting a mission car from our Christian School in the interim. We ran it through the paces today as we slipped our way through the mud, water, and torrents of water.

The photograph is of the well at Picoco - it's like pulling teeth to finish this thing (no offence, Dr. Fran!) We are still waiting for the top pump assembly and this next week is the third "it'll be done next week" we've heard since getting back from our work in Northern Mozambique. It's a nice base and it has a drain field on the far end for mosquito control.

In the middle of church, the pastor leaned over to me and said "you are going to preach today, right? It's the first time you've visited here in 2009 and so the church wants you to preach." So, I did as God really had put something on my heart - in Portuguese (no English-speakers in this particular church) with the pastor translating to Shanganna because most don't know Portuguese, a condition that is typical in rural Mozambique. I'd speak a little to Ann in the congregation from time to time so she could be finding upcoming words I needed - it takes both of us to equal one whole person here! I use the analogy of she is 1/2 a brain and I'm the other 1/2 - it takes two. Today was no exception. But, I think the Pastor was doing a bit more 'interpreting' vice ' translating' but I don't know enough Shanganna to have a clue! Every time I do this, it just drives me to the dictionary when I get home as I need more words - I keep rearranging the same words and need a bunch of new ones!

I love this church (don't I say it about all of them?) - it is full of people who are joyful in the Lord and when you leave, there is no doubt that you have been in the presence of God. The singing and dancing is especially wonderful although they still laugh with me at my apparent disability - my feet don't seem to move well when I'm singing! (That's two things at the same time - singing and dancing!)

Happy Sunday dear friends.

Dave & Ann
"This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Chorus from Ps 118; 24)