It seems now like rainy season is really starting to come to an end. We have gone four days in a row with out rain. I think that is about a first since I have been here. This time of the year it is especially beautiful around here. Everything is nice and green, the people are bringing in there harvests and the elephant grass is growing very tall some of it is almost ten feet tall and it will still be growing for a while longer. As we have spent quite a bit of time on the roof of the admin building Rudy has been pointing out on more then one occasion just how beautiful God has made it around here. We get such a nice view from up on the roof but all too quickly it seems I can start to not appreciate it.
Speaking of the roof of the admin building, yes we are that far. Thankfully all the blocks are laying all the wood timbers are up and the roof is all sheeted except for eight pieces that we are short. It very nice now we can really see some progress no for a while when we were laying the blocks it seemed like we weren’t getting very far but once the roof is on the building really starts to take shape. The windows and doors still needed to be installed, then the walls inside and out need to be plastered and the floors poured. That is still maybe about two months of work to go after I get back unless some of it gets done while I am gone.
Last time I was here I suggest they make an arch over this doorway so I got to do it.
This is the guy I get to work with.
The finished roof
It seems we still have rat problems this was #6. Yes I am in my pyjamas because we had to get out of bed to catch it.
We were also able to put stacks making the lay out for where the school is going to go. That will be the next project after the admin. Lord willing there is a man coming in the next few weeks that will be using a back hoe here so we hope that he will be able to dig the trenches for the foundation of the school. It is exciting to see how God is expanding the ministry here. This school will be for the orphan girls that they will be taking in and maybe in the future for kids from the surrounding villages. For now there will be two class rooms, an office and storage room. We have plenty of room to expand for more students in the future if and when the need arises.
On Saturday Feb 27th a group of 7 of us from the base here went to Lake Niassa to spend some time on the beach. Rudy hasn’t done much other then work since he arrived so we thought it would be good if we could take him to the beach. Peter let us borrow his truck for the 60km trip, one way, that is on some pretty rough roads. We made it there with no problems had a very fun and relaxing time.
A nice bunch of Bananas
An interesting bug I found on the tree.
This dog didn't want to go in the water so we helped him a bit.
On the way home though it was a little bit different story. We had gone about 10 km and we got a flat tire. Thankfully it was only flat on one side but still it was flat. We changed the tire with the spare and prayed that the Lord would protects it and that we could make it home without anymore flats.
It seemed God had a different plan for us and when we were about 20 km from home we got another flat a stone punctured the side of the tire. I was driving and didn’t have a clue what we were going to do. On the way driving to the lake we only passed about three vehicles and now it was much later in the day we weren’t likely going to see any other cars and we were in the middle of no where. So the only thing that made sense to do was pray. We pray and thanked the Lord for our second flat tire and asked him to provide for us because we didn’t know what to do. I tried to call Peter but his cell phone battery was dead so I could get through. We all got out and looked at our hissing flat tire and started trying to think of what we could do. It hadn’t even been five minutes since we stopped and this guy pulls up in a little white pick up. In the back of his truck he had a very balled spare tire that had the same bolt pattern as our wheels. He was more then willing to let us borrow his spare wheel to get us home. We then prayed that he wouldn’t get a flat tire otherwise we would really be in trouble. Thankfully we made it home without anymore flats and we took of the spare wheel gave it back to the man. He was so nice about it and would let us pay him anything for the use of it, he said “If I was stuck you would do the same for me right?” I guess we had better keep our eyes out now for people in need of a spare wheel. It shows us once again that God is watching us and He knows our needs long before we tell Him but He wants us to have out total dependence on Him.
This past Friday a group of 15 of use went back to Lake Niassa. Thankfully this time we didn’t have any flat tires. Once we got to the lake we all got into two boats for a 30km trip up the coast to Chiluwaya, a village that is pretty much only accessible by boat. There are some South African missionaries that live on the lake and are working in a few villages in that area. The village is right on the lake so fishing is one of the main occupations and it is tucked away in beautiful mountains.
All of us in the truck ready to go to Chiluwayu.
On the boat
A little village on the edge of the lake.
Our first site of Chiluwaya
Everyone watching the film.
This bug climbed under my leg in the dark while I was watching the film it is about two inches long.
Our nice tent site.
All these fishermen wanted their pictures taken before they went off to work.
One of the huts where they smoke the fish.
Now thats a fish he didn't catch it he bought it.
We arrived just in time to get the sound system and projector set up to show the Jesus film before it got dark. There was a good turn out with probably about 200 people there to see the film. It is a quite strong muslim village but five people accepted the Lord. There is missionary working in the village and he has one or two cell group that he is discipling in the village as well.
Around 9:30pm the film was all over and we got everything packed back into the boat and then we had to go up the coast a little ways to were we would set up out tents on the beach to try to get a little sleep that night. Don’t be fooled sand seems quite soft when you are waking in it but when you try to sleep on it, it is quite hard. I don’t think any of us had our best nights sleep ever but we got some rest anyways. We left Chiluwaya shortly after seven and made it back to Lichinga by 1pm. If you want to see a great video of the outreach check out Jesse's blog www.kingsquestministries.blogspot.com. It was really nice to get to go on another out reach in a village it had been quite a while since I had gone and it was the first for Rudy. There are still many of these unreached villages all over the province. It is maybe difficult to imagine that there are still places where they have never heard about Jesus and the Good News of the gospel. Unfortunately there are still many villages right here in the province of Niassa and many other places around the world where this is true. Please pray for these places that there would be people willing to go and carry the Good News to them. The goal here is to see that every village in Niassa has the chance to at least hear the gospel once by the end of the year. It is a big goal but we serve a great God and with Him nothing is impossible.
Over the last week or so the last few final touches in the round house have been done. Melissa made curtains and painted the kitchen and it is ready to be lived in. This after making Cinnamon rolls for everyone here on the base we moved all our things into the round house and we will sleep one night in there before we leave. It has already been just over seven weeks since Rudy arrived it sure doesn’t feel that long. This is our last day here tomorrow morning Peter will drive us down to Cuamba. We are both really looking forward to going to Kenya. Please keep this trip in your prayers as travel on this continent always seems to have surprises. Also I hear Nairobi is not the safest city in the world right now so you could pray about that as well as there have a lot of political issues they are dealing with. Thankfully we are not staying in Nairobi but we will be passing through there a few times. At some point I need to go to the Mozambican Embassy to try to get my residency visa, would really appreciate your prayers for this as well.
1 comment:
Great pictures Andrew, wondering how you are progressing on your trip to Pemba... ?
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