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.

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

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

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.

The four ladies went first.We get to wear these cool hat things before we put the helmets on.

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 1^st. 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.

Enjoying SA

Dear Friends and Family,

 

My time here in Durban has been very good.  I have been able to relax a little.  I have also had sometime to get some pictures put together into a bit of a presentation for when I return home.  I am hoping to set a couple dates for those of you who would like to see pictures and hear a little about my trip, for you to come to our house, or if you would like me to come to your place let me know when and we can make arrangements.

 

I am staying in Tongaat with Jean and Jackie which is kind of a suburb of Durban.  This whole area around here is where most of the Indians settled when they came in the 1800's.  I have been enjoying the Indian hospitality and the awesome Indian food.  Nothing quite like chicken curry, their food tends to be on the spicy side but that is ok with me.

 

On Wednesday evening I went with Jackie to some new believer's home in his neighbourhood.  There were several people from their church that were coming for a time of worship and to encourage these new believers. I said that this is an Indian neighbourhood and when the Indians came they brought Hinduism with them and so there are many temples around here with altars to many different gods.  This family was devote Hindus and they had an altar on their own property and sacrificed cats to this god.  The parents would be in their 60's and they have two sons probably in their 30's.  Their sons were really messed up in drugs and they were going to different gods and paying lots of money that they didn't have to try to get their sons lives straightened out. Nothing was working till finally some people came to their house and started sharing about Jesus. They accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and have been fellowshipping with the same Christians as Jean and Jackie for the last few weeks.  While we were at their house each of them gave testimony to the difference that Jesus has been making in their lives.  The sons were saying they have been totally set free from their drug addictions and they know that it is only because of Jesus. It was such an encouragement to here these new believers testifying about what Jesus has done.

 

 On Friday evening I had the opportunity to speak to the youth at Jean and Jackie's church.  We had a great time together and then afterwards they had a supper for us.  In several of the countries I have been to I have seen chicken feet for sale in the markets and I have heard people say that they are good, but I had never had a chance to try them.  Last night for the supper there were some chicken feet cooked with the chicken curry and I decided I was going to try one.  It was funny one of the ladies started whispering to some of the other ladies and saying "Andrew eats chicken feet."  I had to tell her that it was my first time.  I wasn't quite sure how much of it I was supposed to eat but you bite of the toes and eat the skin of them and then spit out the bones and then eat the skin off of the rest of the leg.  Not too much to eat on them.  The Indians eat most of their meals with their hands so I have been getting practiced up on this as well.

 

For those of you who know you are going to find what I am about to tell you very hard to believe. No I am not getting married it is ok Joia. (Joia is my sister if you are wondering)  I drank three cups of coffee last night.  I think that I have probably only tried coffee about three times in my life and I have never liked it.  Last night it was just handed to me and I was going to be polite and just drink it and I did and I really liked it.  This coffee was made with milk instead of water and it had lots of sugar tasted more like cappuccino, but I still don't like regular coffee.

 

This morning Jeans youngest brother Richard came by and he took me out for a few hours this morning to show me around the area.  In many ways it is much like Canada.  South Africa is much different then the rest of the countries on this continent. It is much more westernized then the other countries.   This afternoon I went out with Jackie and we ordered some wood he wants me to make some dog houses for his two dogs.  When he heard that I do some work with wood he right away wondered if I could make some dog houses.  Hopefully next week I can get these made for him.

 

Lord willing one week from today I will be back in Ontario.                              

 

In Christ,

 

Andrew

In Durban

Hi Everyone,

 

This is going to be short.  I will write more later just letting you all know that I arrived safely in Durban last night.  Jean and Jackie are spoiling me and treating me like their own son.  It was a fresh 10 C or 50 F a little cooler then I was expecting but it was just after 10 pm when I landed.  It is pretty warm during the day which is nice. 

 

JUst letting you know I made it.  Have a great day.  God Bless.

 

Andrew

Last Update from Lichinga

Hi Friends and Family,

It is with joy and sadness that I write my last update from Lichinga for now. It really feels like home here and the people feel like family, I will miss this place and the people. I am looking forward to returning to Canada. It will certainly be warmer there then here. I am wearing pants and a sweat shirt most days now, with the temperatures in the low 70's F during the day and dipping to the low 60's at night. It has been very nice temperatures for working in and I am sure I will wish for it to be a little cooler sometimes when I am working back in Canada.

I am so happy that the plastering of the walls was finally finished on Wednesday. That was a job that for a while I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it or if it was going to finish me. I was hoping to get the floor done before I left but I didn't have any help as my helpers left for the week to go do an outreach in another province, so Peter said they would do it after I left.

Mixing a little mountain of plaster.

Here are some of the finished rooms. This is looking at the future site of the kitchen.

Looking into two of the bedrooms on the other side of the building.

The bathroom in the corner.

The last few days of this week I spent finishing up odds and ends in the girls house. Unfortunately all the tiles I put up a little over a month ago came off because I tried to stick them to a painted wall. We had to rough up the wall and stick them all back on. At least they hadn't been grouted yet at that time, but now they are all grouted as well. I put together the last three bunk beds, in total there are 10 bunk beds, 9 for the orphans and one for the two ladies that will take care of them. They had hoped to have 24 girls but the rooms are to small to fit four bunk beds in each, so they are just having three bunk beds in each room.

This week the ladies have been organizing and cleaning the girls house getting it ready for all the different departments that have to come out and inspect it before they can have the girls come. It is exciting to see it start to really look ready to have the girls come live there. They have been looking forward to having these girls come for several years now. Lord willing they will be here by the time I return. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide another lady to help take care of the girls with Annelisa. We know the Lord is preparing someone but just that they would know who she is.

Friday evening I went to one of the other missionaries houses in Lichinga with Elias and Miriam. They have a youth get together at their house once a month for all the missionaries kids and they are all home schooled, so I have a little in common with them The ages of kids that were there were 6 to 14, so I was a little older then they were. I had a good time and I look forward to getting together with them more in the future to hopefully be able to mentor them. There is a bit of a camping trip planned in October with the young boys and I have been asked to go along kind of like a counselor and maybe teach them a few thinks like survival skills, rock climbing and basic first aid.

I hadn't met the missionary couple that were having all the youth over to their house. Their names are Johno SP? and Heather Crain and I was sharing with them a bit of what God is calling me here to do. Johno was saying that so often people that are into construction or business jobs don't see their skills being valuable in missions. He was saying that there is so much need for all of these skills as so much of the missionaries time is taken up in building and maintaining things and if they had people that had training in all of these areas they would be such a huge blessing. Making Jesus known and seeing the Kingdom of God advanced is the goal but it takes many members of the Body in Christ with there specific abilities to see this great commission accomplished. I just encourage you to be willing to whatever the Lord would be asking you to do. I am not saying He is calling everyone to overseas missions but I think His is calling many and they are not willing. Please be people who's lives are surrendered to the Lord. If you are called to a different place don't think of it as God wanting to torture you. He wants us to serve Him out love and joy and He knows where we will fit the best with the abilities He has given us and will give us. It isn't always easy but it brings satisfaction and peace to know that you are in the center of His will. I am sure that many of you are in the center of His will for you and maybe all of you are, I don't want you to feel like you should be some where else if that is where God has called you to serve. but make sure it is.

I have two days left here and Lord willing I fly down to Maputo on Monday at 3pm and I spend a day there and Tuesday afternoon I fly to Johannesburg and then to Durban. I am so thankful for all of your prayers and encouraging emails during my time here. If any of you have spent time overseas you know how much of a blessing this really is. Thank You Thank You Thank You.

Following Jesus,

Andrew

Here are a few random pictures from this past week.

A picture of the Church last Sunday.

Last Sunday Afternoon some of use took a little drive down to a river that is not to far away. It is a nice spot and I never knew it was there.

Some bees hard at work building their nest at the river.

We Praise the Lord for providing the finances for the first drilled well on the property. This one is Tyren and Tiffany's property.

Mom reminded me the other day that I had never put a picture of the finished wash tub that I made for Tyren and Tiffany so here it is.

Just in case some of you are wondering how much work there really is to do here, here is a picture of the property here from google. The red square and the large blue boundary around the buildings are areas that need fences and brick walls about 2km worth. The filled in circles and squares are the buildings that are already built or almost built. The small open squares and circles are buildings still needed to be built. The three larger blue squares are a soccer field, basket ball quart and tennis quart. The green square is agricultural area and they are looking for any farmers who would be willing to come and work that land and provide food for the orphans. The brown line will be a new road. Well there you have it there is lots to be done so if anyone would like to come back with me you are more then welcome to come for how ever long you would like.

News from Lichinga

Greetings,

 

It has been another great week.  I am so thankful for the wonderful news I wrote about it my last email but I am also so thankful for the strength the Lord has given me this past week. It has been a hard week as I have been plastering the walls in the admin building.  Most of the days I have had someone working with me and helping to mix the plaster, we have used over 100 wheelbarrow loads of plaster.  We are getting close to having the inside done maybe two or three days left to finish.  By then I will be ready to do a different kind of work.  God has really blessed whatever I have put my hand to.  I was not looking forward to the plastering and was hoping that someone else would do it but God wanted me to and so I was willing. 

 

I was just sharing with a few of the Mozambiquian brothers the other night about what it means to be in Christ and for Him to live in us. Once we are in Christ then He wants to live His life out through us, but He can only do it as we allow Him. It has been a joy to see what God can do when I surrender to Him.  God is a really good plasterer but He just wanted a pair of willing hands to work through.  

 

I know He has no problem speaking Portuguese either so I am going to offer my lips to Him and allow Him to speak through me.  Lord willing I will return here and continue to work on many construction projects but I want to be involved in other types of ministry, like working in the prison and hospital so I need to learn to speak Portuguese. Please pray for me that I will be able to take sufficient time to study Portuguese and that I would be speaking fluently as soon as possibly.  I feel so bad when I go to the market and can't communicate properly, I meet people and can't speak there language and work with some of the Mozambiquian brothers and can't really explain myself I need to learn this language.  It seems like a very daunting task for some who only speaks one language, but Lord I am willing.

 

I have one week and two days left here in Mozambique.  It is hard to believe that my time here is almost up for now. It will be hard to leave in one way but a great joy to get to come back to Canada and see friends and family again.

Blessings  Andrew

God Answers Prayer

Dear Friends and Family,

I write this email with great joy in my heart.  I have just received my flight itinerary that I have been waiting for for almost a month with my changed flight information.  May 18 I was told my flight were all confirmed then a week later I found out my first two flights had been cancel because of a mistake of Virgin Atlantic Airline, because of this mistake they wanted me to pay $600.00 US "What a good deal, not."  I spent many hours on the phone and I know many people around the world were praying.  I knew God was teaching me through this and I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss His will in all of what seemed to be confusion. 

Just this pass Monday Peter found out that I can not renew my three month visa that expires on June 23 so I have to leave the country then.  I could go to Malawi but by the time I go and come back and pay a lot of Money I would only have about five days left in Moz.  While in Beira in April I met an Indian couple from South Africa Jean and Jackie.  About half an hour after meeting Jackie he invited me to come and spend sometime with them on my way home. I thought it would be nice if I could but I didn't know how it would work out.  On Tuesday Virgin Atlantic called me in Moz on my cell phone this is a big deal folks they told me several times they would do this and they never did.  This time it was a supervisor.  He said "Mr. Woodford I have all your flight confirmed and I just need to confirm them with you before I book them.  They were alright except that I now needed to leave Moz on June 23 so I asked if he could change my Maptuo, Moz to Johannesburg South Africa flight to June 23 and I would then spend about nine days in South Africa.  He said "Yes I think I can do that for you let me check and call you back." He called back and made the change for me and he also told me that I didn't have to pay the $600.00 they first talked about.  PRAISE THE LORD.  Thanks so much for your prayers.  Now I am just getting my flights from Johannesburg, to Derbin South Africa worked out.

Thanks so much for your prayers and your many email I am going to try to reply to each of you thanks so much.  Andrew

We're missing Albert

Dear Friends and Family,

On Monday we all had breakfast together at the Wilcox and said good bye to Albert. We miss you Albert come back soon. He made it home safely Wednesday evening. It has been a little bit strange this week I have worked all by myself, without Albert or the Mozambiquians that were working with use. I don’t seem to get nearly as much done when it is just me.

Last good byes at the airport.

Albert waves as he enters the front door of the plane.

I had thought that they were maybe going to find someone else to plaster the walls in the admin building but they haven’t so that is what I have been working on mostly this week. I have the walls in one bedroom done and the first coat of plaster on in the other two bedrooms and bathroom. This is another job I have never done before but I have received a few pointers from a Mozambiquian who went to school to learn how to plaster and it has been very helpful.

This is what the Admin Building looked like when Albert arrived.

Praise be to God this is what it looks like now.

This week I have also put together 6 bunk beds for the orphanage. They were made in Malawi and mostly assembled I just had to do some minor assembly of them. I also finished the drain plumbing in the bathrooms and kitchen in the admin.

I have continued to work on trying to get my return flights sorted out. I have been to the internet several times this week and calling via internet. God has been using this whole situation to teach me patience and trust in Him. I have spent over 12 hours calling airlines and trying to make the changes. I have four flights from Mozambique to get to Buffalo, NY. My last two flights from London, England are all good but my first two were cancelled for some reason and they have been the ones that have been giving me the most trouble. Finally last night they got me my first two flights and they will be calling me on Monday to let me know how much they will be. I am just praying that it will be a nominal amount. Had I known ahead of time it would be this much trouble to change my flights I probably wouldn’t have but God definitely has me here right now for a reason. In the future I think I will just by a one way ticket so that I don’t have to go through all of this.

It is four months ago yesterday I arrived here in Lichinga. It really only feels like it was about two months ago. I have been having such a good time here I am truly blessed to be able to be here. Thanks so much for each of you that are praying for me. Some of you have given me things I can pray for you and if anyone else has let me know I would like to lift them up in pray for you.

Till next week. Andrew

We are missing Albert

Dear Friends and Family,

On Monday we all had breakfast together at the Wilcox and said good bye to Albert. We miss you Albert come back soon. He made it home safely Wednesday evening.  It has been a little bit strange this week I have worked all by myself, without Albert or the Mozambiquians that were working with use. I don't seem to get nearly as much done when it is just me.

 

I had thought that they were maybe going to find someone else to plaster the walls in the admin building but they haven't so that is what I have been working on mostly this week.  I have the walls in one bedroom done and the first coat of plaster on in the other two bedrooms and bathroom.  This is another job I have never done before but I have received a few pointers from a Mozambiquian who went to school to learn how to plaster and it has been very helpful. 

 

This week I have also put together 6 bunk beds for the orphanage.  They were made in Malawi and mostly assembled I just had to do some minor assembly of them.  I also finished the drain plumbing in the bathrooms and kitchen in the admin.

 

I have continued to work on trying to get my return flights sorted out.  I have been to the internet several times this week and calling via internet.  God has been using this whole situation to teach me patience and trust in Him. I have spent over 12 hours calling airlines and trying to make the changes.  I have four flights from Mozambique to get to Buffalo, NY.  My last two flights from London, England are all good but my first two were cancelled for some reason and they have been the ones that have been giving me the most trouble.  Finally last night they got me my first two flights and they will be calling me on Monday to let me know how much they will be.  I am just praying that it will be a nominal amount.  Had I known ahead of time it would be this much trouble to change my flights I probably wouldn't have but God definitely has me here right now for a reason.  In the future I think I will just by a one way ticket so that I don't have to go through all of this.

It is four months ago yesterday I arrived here in Lichinga.  It really only feels like it was about two months ago.  I have been having such a good time here I am truly blessed to be able to be here.  Thanks so much for each of you that are praying for me.  Some of you have given me things I can pray for you and if anyone else has let me know I would like to lift them up in pray for you.

Till next week.  Andrew