Amando

Friday morning, we had an interesting new visitor! Where we live there is a pre-school that takes students from all over the area. Early Friday morning, the director of the preschool was at our door to see the nurse. One of the students had fallen playing soccer with others and gashed his head above his eye. He was a cute fellow but was scared to death of us, even though I remember him waving bravely at us when we would pass by the school on our way in and out. Maybe he has heard the saying said here by mothers to their kids, "if you aren't good, the crazy white people will come and take you away." It's kind of like the saying we had in the states - "good night, don't let the bed bugs bite." Crazy things we say to our children!

Here I am getting off track again. So, we're trying to assure him that we mean no harm and we won't be taking him anywhere! So, Ann cleans the wound, applies anti-biotic ointment and the band-aid and all is well. This young fellow was so brave - it had to hurt to get all the dirt cleaned out of the gash. Ann sent them back with medicine, ointment, and bandages for the next few days. He waved at us quite a bit more bravely when we headed out for our meetings!

Blessings!

Dave & Ann

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:40

Class of 2013

This photo is of our Class of 2013! Great picture of our first baccalaureate-level class! Pray for these future and current church leaders!

We met with the Department of Religious Affairs today to give them a letter explaining the OMS name change to OMS (One Mission Society). It was an interesting meeting. In this culture, when you sign your name on a letter, for it to be official, you have to stamp over your name with the official stamp of the organization. This is very important here. So, they asked us to update our stamp and then I have to go back and personally stamp something in their presence so they have our new stamp on-file. I didn't expect that but we can certainly do that. It was a great meeting and the Minister of Religious Affairs practiced English while I practiced Portuguese, so we had some fun communicating.

We are busy preparing for our trip north - I bought a spare rim so we can carry two ready spares this time. I have always carried extra tires (and used them!) but had only one extra rim. We've always had blow-outs on these trips and want to be ready. We will be carrying a lot of weight in books/bibles this trip and need to be sure we are able to handle everything. I will need to get a more heavier duty jack also to replace the one that was stolen - the one I have is fine for an empty vehicle, but fully loaded, we need something beefier. It doesn't match any of the others, but it fits, which is what is important! We are also debating a trip to Milange, over a road with a mighty reputation for being extremely bad - so we need to be ready.

We are starting to get the calls now where everyone wants to ride north with us; take cargo, send family members, and the like. We laughed with Aimee (who is going with us) and told her to start practicing the word "no" because with the three of us and all the books, car parts, and supplies for the north, we will be more weight limited than space and here, if there is a cubic inch of space, you cram something in it even if the axles are sagging. We must be reasonable in what we can do and not damage our vehicle.

The local photocopy shop make us 200 copies of a training manual we use with our church planting work - it figures out to about six dollars a copy. I was a bit short of the cash, but we've done so much business there, the lady (Sarah) said "I know you - no problem to me if you bring the rest of the money tomorrow!" That is very unusual here and we have found that people often trust us because we are American and we are missionaries - that is something that is taken for granted in the States - that people are expected to be honest. It is not the norm in many cultures (like here) where you expect dishonesty. At the tire store today, the manager of the store who we have gotten to know well (I was consulting with him about my punctured tires and the long trip ahead of us) - he told me how last night a friend of his had his car broken into last night - they broke a window to enter, took the windshield, entire dashboard, including the radio and the like, and the seats. Now that would be a shock in the morning!

Belarmino and his family head north in the morning on the bus to start preparing for the construction of the training center. He will be there three to four months and we will see him in a few weeks. His plan is to get some basic things laid out before we arrive there.

Blessings this day.

Dave & Ann

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

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

Well

Last Sunday we attended the church at Intaka. This was the first opportunity for us to check out the well that had been repaired and we were surprised that the church had also poured a new concrete floor in the church. There is also some contraversy about the land the church is on. Someone had swatted on one side of the land and a power line was put in over where they had squatted and so they have to move. Well, the municipality's position is that we need to give them the same amount of land on the other side of the property as we can farm under the power line but they can't live there. Heck of a deal. So, the church wants to put up a fence around the property. This is how it works here - you buy land but if someone decides to live on it and you didn't fence it in - it is your tough luck. You see lots of concrete walls (block skimmed with concrete) for this reason. One of the crazy things that you deal with here. So, the church has come to us to see if we'd provide the wire if they provide the posts. The first step is checking out the price - the property is nice - 54 paces by 160 paces - whatever that comes to....let's see, when I marched with the band on the football field, it was eight paces to 5 yards, which is 15 feet, which is......oh my - I need meters.....

Anyway, the property is a lovely peace and the road has been re-done and no their is a powerline along the road that goes to a rather remote clinic. So, in theory, we're positioned well for the future. I would love to build a more substantial structure in this rapidly growing community and it remains a little project I keep mulling about. The reed structure is getting pretty worn and fragile and the termites are doing their thing on the wooden posts. (That's why concrete works so well here! There aren't any concrete termites.....yet!).

We enjoyed the sermon given by one of young men the leader of this church is mentoring. It's a part of the process of training others to train others. He used the story of the owner of a vineyard who gathered workers throughout the day to work in his fields (Matthew 20). In this parable, Jesus starts it by saying 'the kingdom of God is like....' and it immediately follows the parable of the Rich Young ruler - it is a passage very rich to discuss. This young man took it in a very literal sense relative to wages - very interesting in light of the culture context we work in where work is difficult to find and wages are not very good. Afterwards, the leader of the church pulled us aside and indicated that they would need to revisit that passage in the future, which in itself was interesting, but also encouraging - our Saturday classes at the seminary are having a good impact (the leader attends there and is a very devoted man).

I thought you might like to see the updated pictures. It was so incredibly hot - and our air conditioner decided to stop working AGAIN! With the sun beating down on our metal box, and it is already 110 degrees in the shade, I don't want to even guess what it is inside the car! The air conditioning lasted two whole weeks since the last time we fixed it. I went over the system with a fine tooth comb myself Sunday afternoon and found where I think the leak is (two places) and we had it 'fixed' while we were at Language School today. We will see. The fellow who works on it is someone we've become quite fond of - and we're certainly there often enough! He agreed with my diagnosis and did not charge us today, which was a blessing. I'd really like to put some dye in it like they do in the States - but that is one of those 'no-no's' to take on an airplane (pressured freon dye). It's not available here.

It's time to submit our visa paperwork again - we have done the first step and were approved by the Department of Religious Affairs today and tomorrow we will turn in our passports (always a gulp!) and applications to the Immigration people. So that will be an item for prayer. We hope to get them back in about two weeks before we head north again. Don't like to be on longer trips without the passport in case we need to hop the border quickly for some reason. Things change here pretty quickly sometimes.

Blessings.

Dave & Ann

"So the last will be first, and the first last, for many are called, but few chosen." Mat 20:16

The Door is Open

Today was the first day of our new seminary class. It was certainly a day of firsts and there was great excitement in the air. It brought us great joy to see the front door open as if to say 'open for business!' We especially enjoyed hearing each student's testimony about what they hoped to gain from the seminary classes. The theme was common, to learn more about God's word so they can teach others, evangelize, and share their faith. Don Hulsey emphasized to them that all the head knowledge in the world is worthless absent a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He challenged each student strongly to be open to what God would do in their lives through this program but first and foremost, to develop their relationship with God.

Pastor Daniel handled alot of the administrative details and we so enjoyed watching him assume command of the class. He is a gifted teacher and I sense great things in his life as he follows God's call and teaches this new class. Xavier introduced himself as well and gave his own challenge to the students admonishing them to be family starting today. New Bibles were handed out, as that is the ultimate text-book, and after a short break, they dove into 'A Panoramic View of the Old Testament'.

Doug Miller, a dear friend who is with OC mission helped out today also. His mission is now renting out the top floor of the seminary building - providing a little income for us. We all work together and understand the importance of leadership training to the furthering of the work.

Tuesday and Thursday will be chapel and each student will have a roll to play. Other classes this term include Spiritual Formations and Hermeneutics.

So, each time something happened today, it was the first time! The front gate was opened and used instead of the normal rear gate, the first time the class prayed together, the first time everyone was introduced, the first time the study bibles were used as they were unpackaged, the first time many of us had met.....an exciting day with undeniable energy in the air; thank you Lord for what you are doing here in Mozambique. Bless this dear class, draw them together as family, guard them, be with each student and staff as we strive to train new leaders to spread the reality of what comes through relationship with you; of your power and majesty; of the peace that surpasses all understanding. Thank you for the call you place on each person's life. Thank you in advance for each of those you will call to help these dear students.

Amen.

Dave & Ann

"The heart of the righteous studies how to answer....." Proverbs 15:28

PS - we just got word of a Sunday School class sponsoring one student! Thank you Lord!!

Project: 302000 Maputo Seminary