Life Glimpses

It has already been over a week since I wrote the last email. Last Tuesday Annelisa & Antoninette flew to Beira which is the largest or second largest city in the country. They were going to help prepare for a ladies conference which starts tomorrow and goes till Saturday.

I had an excellent last week in Lichinga. I was able to finish up all the projects I had started and do a few other small ones. I finally got the roof on the Laundry area where I had built the wash tub. I finished the incinerator and got several of the pieces for a second bunk bed made. I poured a concrete lintel over a bathroom doorway in the girl’s dorm. I replaced all the hand controls on Peter’s motor bike and the speedometer cable. Those were things that needed to be done since he had his accident when he rear ended a car and dislocated his shoulder. Please continue to pray for his shoulder as it is still giving him pain and he doesn’t have all that much strength in that arm.

The Finished Roof

I wasn't sure if I had put a finished picture of the tub on here or not.

The Incinerator

The garbage will all sit on the bars and they lite a fire under it then the ash falls through as it burns.

The form for the concrete lintel

The finished product

God has provided bikes for three of the guys here, in awesome ways. For the first week I was here there was a lady by the name of Esther here I cannot remember if I had mentioned her or not. Anyways before she left she prophesied to Moses that he would receive a red motor bike. He didn’t tell anyone nor did she. Not more then a week later Jesse and Tanya one of the missionary couples here gave their red almost new motor bike to Moses. The Lord had shown them about two weeks earlier that he wanted them to do this and they knew nothing about what Esther had told Moses. God has blessed Jesse and Tanya with money to buy a car but they are waiting to get to Maputo to buy one. For the last few weeks they have been riding their bikes everywhere to go to town and get groceries and going to the villages to evangelise.

God also put it on Tyren’s heart that he wanted Gazany and Foster two other young men here to have bicycles. Tyren mentioned it on his blog that if anyone wanted to help purchase bikes for these two guys to let him know. One lady called them here in Mozambique that night and said that she would like to buy one and then not to long after someone else said they would like to buy the other one. These guys were so surprised that they now have their own bikes, but they also understand why God gave them to them. There are for young men Moses, Victor, Foster and Gazany. They are all in their twenties and the Lord is calling all of them to reach out to the villages all around them. Now they all have bikes to be able to go because many of the villages are very far away, but they have such a passion to share Christ and they live Christ as well it is so evident in their lives. Gazany and Foster worked with me on some of the project that I was working on. These men know how to work and they work very hard, one week straight they worked mixing concrete by hand and then digging trenches for foundations for the administrative building. They know who they are serving and they know He is Worthy.

My brother Mark sent 14 solar panels with me when I came and we finally on my second last day there got around to making a frame to hold all the panels. As it is right now they are using a small generator to run their laptops and things because they don’t have enough solar power. (They home school and use laptops for a lot of their school work.) Yes I know the battery exploded because of being over charged but that is partly because they didn’t have an inverter so they couldn’t use the 24V power for their 220V computers and things. They do have the inverter now and it seems to be working well but not quite as much power as they need. They don’t run any lights or other appliances of any kind on that power yet. Everything is by candle light after sunset. Mark is working to try and find a new control box to regulate the power going to the batteries so that they won’t explode anymore batteries.

The framed solar panels. Peter is still going to get glass to put over top of them before he installs them.

Monday was my last full day so we had some ice cream that afternoon which they don’t hardly ever have because it costs almost $10.00 for 2 L. It was very nice though and we all enjoyed it very much. That evening Tiffany made spaghetti for all of us in our house. They don’t have it very often and it is a real treat when they do. There was meat in the sauce which was very exciting for all of us because we don’t eat meat very much because it costs so much.

Tuesday was the final day for Tiffany and me in Lichinga. Tiffany flew with me until we got to Beira where she was going to the ladies conference for the week. We got all packed up and walked to the airport to check in. We had to walk because the brakes aren’t working on the Land Rover. It is only about an eight minute walk. We checked in at 9am and then walked back to the house because the flight wasn’t going to leave till 11:40am. We went back at 11 and waited for 45 minutes and then they told us the flight was delayed and it wouldn’t be arriving till 3pm. Back to the house we went and by this time we were glad we weren’t any farther from the airport. At 3 we went back and then at 3: 40pm the plane finally came and we took off around 4:15, over four hours later then was scheduled. I arrived in Maputo at about 9pm that evening.

This is what the dorm looked like when I left.

Inside the dorm

This is the administrative building that will have offices and a clinic and maybe room for a few people to live there as well. They are putting a large addition on the right side where they have done all the digging.
The Wilcox's House with their water tower in the distance.Annelisa made up a recipe for fried pastries and I really like them so I got the recipe and made them for our house and they were a big hit. I became know as the pastry man.

They are very easy to make and very tasty too.

3 Cups Flour (All measurements approximate because it is a home made recipe.)

½ Cup Oil

½ Cup Sugar

1 Tsp Salt

1 Cup Water

Mix all ingredients till just a little softer then normal pastry dough. Roll out to about ¼ inch thick. Fry in about ¼ inch of oil till they are light brown and you can poke them with a fork and tell that they are not doughy in the middle. Once they are taken out of the oil sprinkle a little white sugar on top. This makes about 30 pieces 2 ½ X 2 ½ inches.

It is now Wednesday morning and I am back at the Oasis where I stayed before and I am to fly to J’burg in about 4 hours. Then I am there for a day before I fly back to the states and I hope to be home by Thursday evening Lord willing