Sunday, July 26, 2009

A Catch Up Post


I am sorry I haven't posted much on here lately. This post is a bit of everything that I have been doing lately.

Wednesday of the week before last Mark and Rebekah took Dad, Mom, Rob, Ada and Me to see The Sound of Music at the Princess of Whales Theater in Toronto. It was amazing this was the first professional live performance I have every seen. It was very well done and we all enjoyed it and had a great evening together.

As we were leaving the theater Rebekah took this picture of Dad, Mom and Me.


There is an older gentleman in Norwich I do random jobs for. Anything from painting to planting flowers. About two weeks ago I cut down a tree for him and I decided to do a time lapse film of it.



Saturday morning Albert Meyer drove me to the airport in Detroit where I caught a flight to Washington DC. It was very nice I got an email from Delta Thursday evening and they told me that they were upgrading my economy class ticket to first class. What a nice surprise. I had a good flight to DC. My brother in law Philip picked me up at the airport. It is much warmer here then in Ontario.

We took the subway down town DC. Keenan is getting to be an old pro at riding the subway, since he had made to round trips before this one on "The Train."

Keenan and Me waiting for the subway.

After getting of the subway we had a good little walk across part of DC to get to The Capitol for our tour. On the way we walked pass the Canadian Embassy.

The Canadian Embassy.


Me with the Capitol Building in the back ground.


The Washington Monument

The whole dome of the capitol is said to weigh 9.5 million pounds.


The Library of Congress. This is the largest library in the World.

A rather ornate lamp post.


Moriah with her strategically placed tour sticker.


The inside of the dome.

Around the dome is a 3D painting that covers 400 years of history from Christopher Columbus to the Wright Brothers.


The Star Spangled Banner

The White House.

Union Station

Moriah and Me at BD's Mongolian BBQ
We encountered some ran on our way back from the restaurant. Yes we took the picture after we got inside. We were all quite wet but it is hard to see in the picture.

Cute little Girl

On Sunday we went out and played some Disc Golf.


Monday morning after we drop Philip of at work Joia, Keenan, Moriah and I will start the long drive up to Ontario. Joia and the kids are coming up for about ten days to visit friends and family.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Home Almost Three Weeks

Hi Friends and Family,

I can hardly believe I have been home for three weeks.  It has been a busy three weeks.  I have returned to working the same job I had before I left as well as helping my brother  and sister in law with some work on their house for a few evenings.  There is an older gentleman here in Norwich as well that has been getting me to do several things for him while I am around.

I am sorry to say that my pictures from my trip are still not ready to show.  I would appreciate your prayers for this. I don't really know what is going on, there seems to be something wrong with the program I am using and I haven't been able to figure it.  I know the Lord has something for me to learn through all of this but it is still little frustrating at times.  I will let you know when the pictures are ready to see for those of you who are interested.

Lord willing I will fly down to Washington DC on Saturday. My sister Joia and her husband Philip are there right now.  Philip is a doctor and is doing a tropical medicine course there for three weeks.  I am just going for a couple of days and then I will be driving back on Monday with Joia and their two kids.  They will stay with us for just over a week and then I will drive back down to DC with them on Aug 5 and I will fly back on the 7th.

I am still not sure when I will be returning to Mozambique.  I am looking at mid Oct or the beginning of Nov.  I have just gotten the first part of my motorcycle licence and I have to wait two months before I can take the road test to get my complete licence.  There are a few things that will determine exactly when I will return but I am looking forward to going back.

Andrew

Monday, July 6, 2009

I am Home.

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know I am home safely.  I arrived home Saturday evening just before 10pm.  Thanks so much four all your prayers, they are great appreciated.  It has been nice to see some of my family and friends.  I am hoping to be able to have my pictures ready to show soon.  I will try to let you know some dates of when I will be showing them if you are interested or if you would like to have a private showing of your own or with a few others that is fine as well I will do my best to accommodate you, even if you live quite a ways away.

I am getting back into the swing of things here, I was back to work today.  I am trying to not get myself too busy but I am trying to fit in a few jobs that some friends have asked me to do.  I am also studying to hopefully get my motorcycle licence before returning to Mozambique, because motorcycles are one of our main means of transportation.  You don't have to have a licence for bikes up to 50cc but anything bigger you have to have a licence to ride them. 

Hope you are all having a good summer or winter depending on where you live.

In Christ,

Andrew

Friday, July 3, 2009

Last Day on the Continent

Dear Friends & Family,


Well five months ago tomorrow I arrived here in Africa and my last day here has come. I have had a very good time here in South Africa over the last 9 days and it feels like I should stay longer, but I must go for now.

Sunday I enjoyed meeting with Jean and Jackie’s church. There are about 600 people that are a part of it. We heard a great message on “The Favour of the Lord.” What it means to have the favour of the Lord on our lives. This message was mainly taken from the story of Joseph’s life in Egypt. It says several times that Joseph found the favour of the Lord. In this message there was a contrast made between grace and favour. They are quite similar but grace is given freely to everyone but favour is earned. As we enjoy the Lord more and draw into a closer relationship with Him we experience His favour on our lives. We will see situations worked out that would have turned out totally different had we not had the favour of the Lord.


Tuesday morning I went with Jean to the community center in here neighbourhood that the church rents and uses every week to reach people in that area. Most of the people that are a part of the church has been reach through this outreach. They have seen how important it is to go and meet people on their own turf. We enjoyed a time of prayer and worship and then one of the pastors spoke. After the meeting we spent quite sometime praying and seeing people released from demon possession. You would not believe the amount of people that are possessed here. They start dabbling in occult stuff, going to witch doctors and also going to people that will call up the spirits of their dead relatives so that they can talk with them, as Saul did with Samuel. This stuff is very real and when people get into it they open themselves up to so much more then they realize. We praise the Lord that greater is he that is in use then he that is in the World. People are being set free and their lives are being transformed. Friday evening there was another family of new believers that had several of the Christians come to their place and help as they removed all the lamps and gods and altars from their homes inside and outside. People are bringing their gods with them when they come to meet with the church and giving them up to be burned because they have been set free and know that Jesus is Lord and there is none other.



Wednesday I spent most of the day with Pastor Chris his wife JR and their two sons David 21and Jona 18. I was helping David put cupboards in the kitchen in his flat (apartment). He has been working on them for quite sometime and his uncle was there as well so we were able to get them mostly put together for him. Then they took me out for supper at the biggest mall in South Africa. It was very nice. We rode go carts as well and then went and watched Ice Age 3. I had such a great time with them; they are a very nice family.


Jona, Pastor Chris, Me, JR and David

Gateway Mall South Africa's Biggest


On Wednesday Jackie took me to the mall as well and we bought a triple decker pizza. He only ate 3 pieces and this is me trying to manage the other 5 but really it was 15 because they were three high. Going to have to go on a diet.

Jona and Pastor Chris
That's me.

I am driving the first go cart.


Thursday afternoon I went back over to their house and David took me to Crocodile Creek. They have thousands of crocodiles they also have snakes and a few other animals.




This was probably the largest one there.




The crocs just laying around. They are Hibernating this time of the year.



Who needs personal space.


I hope you two are married.

So what do they do with all of these crocs cause there were at least eight pens like this?

We think they butcher a lot of the crocs for meat and then sell the leather and the heads. They sell croc steaks and burgers there but I didn't get to try any.

Cotton Top Tamarin

We called it a rasta monkey.




I think this was a boa, but I might be wrong.

This cobra was spitting venom at us but thankfully there was glass between us.

Pythons aren't venomous, but they still have a pretty good bite.


A souvenir from Crocodile Creek.

Having a small bonfire Thursday night before I left.
Me, Jona holding the croc skull, Kari and David

I flew out of Durban this morning just before 8am and now I am sitting in Johannesburg for 10 hours while I wait for my flight to London. I have 16 hours of flying and 15 hours of transit time ahead of me before I am back. Can’t wait now looking forward to seeing many of you.


I hope you Canadians had a very good Independence day on the 1st. I actually forgot about it till my sister sent me an e card. I kind of loose track of what is going on, on that side of the world. Also an early Happy Independence day to all of you south of our boarder.


The dogs and their houses.

Jean and Jackie's dogs, Michka and Junior


These are the dog houses Jackie and I made. Junior loves being in his but Michka wasn't so sure about it. She wanted to go in with Junior.