Life Glimpses

Sorry this is an email I sent out several days ago and I am just getting around to posting it here with pictures. I will try and post some up to date things in a little while.

Greetings from Lichinga,

I cannot believe it, Lord willing I will be home in Ontario in one week from today. I am so thankful for the three weeks and a bit that I have had here so far. God has blessed me so much and helped me to completed many different projects, most of which I had never done before. This just reminds me that he doesn’t call the equipped but he equips the called. He has all the skills and abilities you and I need, if we will only trust Him to supply them when we ask for them.

Last Tuesday afternoon I started building a garbage incinerator. I got it half finished and then didn’t have the steel rebar to continue so it has been on hold till now, hopefully I will be getting the steel this afternoon. Wednesday I finished putting the roof on the Laundry area that I made about two weeks ago. Thursday I finished bricking in around the windows on the Bible School house. I also put several window stays on the Wilcox’s windows so that they wouldn’t be blowing in the wind and break and more windows.

The Beginning of the Incinerator

Friday morning I was working about 150 ft from the Wilcox’s house and I heard this loud bang. Moses (A Malawian that works here) and I went to the house to see what happened. A car battery that they had hooked up to some solar panels had exploded when Annelisa had gone over near it to get something. The battery acid went all over here arm and in her face and eyes. Immediately Debbie ran and took here and started rinsing her arms and face with water and calling out to the Lord for healing. We all started singing songs of praise to the Lord and asking for Annelisa’s healing. It is a miracle, there in no sign of and skin damage whatsoever and she has no problem with here eyes. Debbie and Moses both had clothes that got burned from the acid while cleaning up but Praise be to the Lord Annelisa wasn’t hurt at all. She had lost some hearing in here one ear because of how loud the explosion was but that returned in about a day or two. God takes care of His children. The battery had been over charged and that was why it exploded.

Thanks so much for your prayers for when we went to Che Utumulie (This is the village name, it actually means Mr. Utumulie which is the name of the chief and that is how the villages get there names, from the chief.) Friday afternoon. We went and sang song as the people gathered. Then Peter shared the gospel and they performed a drama to show how Satan has put us all in bondage but Jesus has come to set us free. After the drama Peter shared a bit more and then two men gave their lives to the Lord. We were so encouraged. Emmanuel was one of the men that accepted the Lord and he said he wanted to come to the church service they have here at the base on Sunday.

Friday evening the Wilcox invited me for supper which they do quite often. Normally I am responsible to make my own suppers. Which usually consist of pasta, whatever vegetables I have a can of tuna and a little bit of seasoning of some kind or sometimes a peanut butter and jam sandwich. So I was at the Wilcox Friday night we had a great supper and then we played the chocolate game. They asked me if I had ever played, I said I hadn’t but I sure would like to try it. We all sat in a circle with a table in the center and on it was a chocolate bar. We had a dye and we would each roll it and when someone got a six they would sit down at the table put on a hat and scarf take a knife and fork and start eating chocolate until someone else gets a six. You can be sure we all enjoy that game and I would really like to play it again sometime.

Playing the Chocolate Game

Sunday mornings we usually start singing songs of praise to the Lord around 9am for about half an hour or so in the small building where the church comes together until most people have arrived. Emmanuel (The man that accepted the Lord on Friday) came before 7am I guess he wanted to make sure he didn’t miss anything. Every Sunday there are several people who have testimonies of what God has done or what God is doing in their lives. I am always encouraged by them. Of course Annelisa shared here testimony of how God protected her from the battery acid. After the service Emmanuel said that he wanted to be baptized. They sat down with him and made sure he understood what it was about and then a group of us took a twenty minute walk to a near by fish pond and he was baptized with the fish. Emmanuel has a real heart to share Christ with others and wants them to enjoy the relationship that he has come into.

My House Mates

Jesse and Tanya

Tyren, Tiffany, Amerel and Isaiah

Monday I started making bunk beds for the girl’s dorm. I have finished one and I have started on the second but I don’t have enough wood to finish it. It has been fun making these beds. I have never really made anything with mortise and tannin joints before. The mortise is a hole you chisel in one piece of would and the tannin is the piece of wood you put in the hole. I am using this technique to join all the wood . Then I have to drill holes through the joints and dowel them to keep the pieces from coming apart. The thing is they don’t have dowel here so I have to make my own which has been interesting. I have been blessed to have a few power tools like a circular saw, drill and an electric plain but much of it still has to be done with the chisel and hammer. It has been good for me to learn some new carpentry skills.

Making some of the tannins with the saw

One set of bunk bed ends finished

Some people have been asking about orphans, because I had told you that the Wilcox were working with orphans. They did have quite a few living with them for a while but some of there uncles and aunts have come from Malawi and are now taking care of them. At the moment there aren’t any orphans here but Lord willing they will have 24 orphan girls move into the dorm at the end of June. Their desire is to raise these girls up to have a heart to go and share Jesus Christ in all the villages in Niassa which is their state here in Northern Mozambique. The Yao people that they are working with are one of the still unreached people group in the world that have to heart the gospel before Christ will return Matt 24:14. The Yao people do not have a Bible in their own language yet and most of them have heard nothing about the Lord Jesus. The Yao people are in northern Mozambique and in northern Malawi as well. The Wilcox want to eventually have an orphanage for boys as well and they would also like to have a school. There are so many kids that don’t go to school but the schools are already packed with about one hundred children per teacher, I don’t envy their job.

Monday, Peter took me to immigration and I was able to get a five day extension on my visa. My visa is good for 30 days and I am here for 32 days and if I didn’t get the extension then I would have to pay $50.00 for every day I spend in Moz over the 30. I am supposed to get my passport back on Monday and I fly on Tuesday to Maputo. I would appreciate your prayers that I would actually get my passport on Monday, because I cannot fly without it.

Second Round for the Cinnamon Rolls

I made Cinnamon rolls again because Peter wasn't here last time I made them and I figured I would make them be for the twins left. The left Tuesday the day after this for Beira to go to a ladies conference. They were going a week early to help with preparation for the conference.