Hello Friends

It is time once again to let you know what’s happening here in Lichinga. We have been blessed this week. We have been able to get a lot of work done and also take sometime off from working to go to two villages and the hospital. Monday late afternoon Albetrt, Tyren, Gazani, Victor, Rachel Annelisa and I went to the hospital for the two visitation hours and spent time with the patients there and praying for them. There are about four different wards and we divided up into groups and went to all of them. Victor and I went to the children’s ward. In the first room we went to there was a mother with her five month old daughter who had a very curved spine which made her tip her head way back and she also did not have use of her right arm. We talked with the mother for quite a while then asked if we could pray for her daughter and she said we could. Victor noticed that there were beads around the baby’s neck and waist from the witch doctor. He asked the mother if she would take them off which she did immediately. Victor asked if he could have the beads to take them and burn them but the mother would not give them to him. We spent some time praying over the baby and Tyren joined us as well. Then the father of the boy in the next bed came in with his son and we were able to minister to him as well. We all enjoyed our time in the hospital. This coming Monday is children’s day so Tyren wants to do something special in the children’s ward then. Tyren and Victor have been going to the hospital every week since February. It is such a great place to minister.

During Hospital Visitation

So cute.

Tuesday was a busy days as well. We worked for three hours in the morning and got all the rebar tided for the ring beam around the rest of the building. Then we Rachel, Annelisa, Elias, Albert and I went to Mitava, which is the village just out side of Lichinga where Elias Becca is working. You might remember I mentioned him in one of my updates about two weeks ago. He is a Mozambiquian that is working with YWAM(Youth With A Mission). God has called him to work with the seniors there. The seniors are often forgotten and not taken care of by there families, but God has placed a burden on Elias’s heart to reach out to them. He is working with 12 of them right now. Almost all of them have accepted the Lord as Saviour. It is a very strong Muslim village and they are often cut off from their families when they chose to follow Christ. Elias showed us around part of the village and it was nice to get to meet the seniors he is working with. We just had a really good time there. Albert had a great time playing soccer and taking lots of photos. This was the first village he had been to and village life is much different than the way we normally live.

In Mitava

Enjoying some soccer.

Albert trying his hand out on the pump.

Meeting some of the Seniors Elias works with.

Tuesday afternoon we went to another village called Luica. We went to show the Jesus film there. About eight people camped in the village that night and the next day went through the village visiting the people and seeing what they thought of the film. Seven people gave their lives to the Lord as they went through the village visiting the people in their huts.

Setting up for the Jesus Film

Wednesday we formed up the remaining 28 meters of ring beam around the rest of the admin building and poured it as well. We are so thankful for the help of some of our Mozambiquian brothers who have been helping us. We have either one or two working with us every day. We appreciate their love for the lord and their desire to serve Him in whatever needs to be done. They have mixed so much concrete and mortar for us and there is no way the admin building would we this far if it weren’t for them.

We have been held up a lot on the block laying because our block supplier has not been able to supply blocks as fast as we can lay them. We have all the exterior walls almost finished and we are working on the interior walls of the addition to the admin building. It was the original part of the building they wanted us to focus on but it has come along faster than expected so we have had time to work on the other part. We have had to find other things to do when we do not have blocks. We had to put about one foot of fill in all over the building to bring it up to floor level. This has taken many hours and hundreds of wheelbarrow loads of dirt from all over the property, but thankfully we just finished this morning after having been working at it for over a week off and on. We have all the doors in windows installed in the original part we were working on and we have put ion the plumbing for the toilets in the bathrooms and dug have of the septic tank. We thank the Lord for all he has helped us get done while Albert has been here. I didn’t think we would have gotten as much as we have done.

Topping off the exterior walls before the ring beam.

Forming upp the ring beam

Laying the interior walls

Gazani mixing the mountain of concrete.

On Thursday we had another lady come that is here for long term. Her name is Tanya; yes this is the third Tanya we have had here in the last couple of months. She is from Australia. It is amazing how many missionaries from Australia are here in Mozambique. It seems like wherever I go I am meeting people from Australia.

Albert only has three more days till he leaves. I am going to miss having him here to work with, he has been a blessing. Please keep him in your prayers as he travels home, he should be home Lord willing on Wednesday evening.

I would appreciate your prayers, I was able to change my flights and I am supposed to be confirmed on those flights. It has been almost two weeks since I had them make the changes but they have not sent me my new itinerary and I need it before I can book my internal flight here.

I am staying a little longer.

We thank the Lord we have had an excellent week. It has gone by so fast but we have been kept safe as we worked and we have had good health. It has been a productive week. We got all the block laying finished on the first part of the building finally after having to wait several days for the last few hundred blocks to come. We also have all the timbers up to support the roof and we finished putting on all the roof sheeting that we have this morning. We need more sheets to cover the veranda but the building itself is covered. All the windows are in and a couple of the doors. It has been exciting for us to see the building coming along. Neither Albert nor I have done this kind of construction before but the Lord has blessed us with a lot of wisdom to make it look like we know what we are doing.


You can thank Albert for the pictures in this post. His camera wasn't working when he got here so he has been using mine.

Playing the drum Sunday morning

We have been very busy this week with the work on the Admin building, but we hope to take some time off next week so that we can go and see some villages, so Albert with get to see a little more of Mozambique then just the construction site. Because we have been rather busy I have not had time to type up my update before coming to the internet cafe, so sorry they are a little shorter then normally. I am going to have to get Albert to stop working me so hard. It is such a blessing to have him here to work a long side with. I wish he could stay longer, but anyways I will enjoy him while he is here and miss him when he is gone.

Laying up the gable end.

Gazani and Albert in their cool shades.

Timbers all in place.

Roof on.

Back veranda waiting roof sheeting still to be ordered.

Installing a window.

Me at the local laundry mat.

The market in Lichinga.

Can't forget the eggs.

Thanks so much for your prayers for my flight changes. Finally after trying about five times to change my flights, last Monday I was able to use the internet at some other missionaries’ house here in Lichinga and I was finally able to make the changes. Lord willing I will leave Lichinga on July 2 and arrive in Canada on July 4th. I have about five weeks left here in Moz. I am really enjoying my time here and I feel God still has Mozambique in his plans for me. I am not sure when but Lord willing I will be returning here to Mozambique maybe around September or October. I would appreciate your prayers for this as well. I do not know how long I will be returning for. I just know I am to come back and stay until the Lord shows me I am to be somewhere else. The Lord has been using the time here to gain a lot of things in my life and my will. He is leading me and I have no other desire but to follow Him wherever that may take me. I have not always felt that I could do and I know that he is the one doing it through me but I thank the Lord for the changes He is making in me.
I am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible while I am “home” (They say home is where the heart is and God is pulling my heart to Mozambique), but I will still enjoy being back, because I am not sure when I will be able to get together with you next. You know you are always welcome to come and visit here in Moz whenever you feel you would like to though.

Warm Greetings,

I am so sorry I haven't done well at keeping in touch with you the last while. The internet has not been working for about a week. We are so thankful that it is working again. It has been a very busy two weeks since I last wrote.

Last week I was working on finishing up a few odds and ends in the girls house so that when Albert arrived we could get to work on the Administration building. We are all so excited to have Albert here and I am especially thankful to have another person to work with it has been such a blessing. It has been a good week since he arrived last Saturday. Albert hasn't really had a chance to get us to being here hardly because we have been working very long days. The building is coming along very well. We have lain almost 500 blocks and tied and bent 200 meters of rebar for the concrete ring beam around the top of the walls. The last three days have been tiring because we have been mixing all the concrete by hand. We are starting to look like tomatoes because of all the sun we are getting.

This is how we cut blocks here.

Victor and I tying rebar

Gazani and I bending rebar

Rebar on top of the wall before we poured the concrete.

Albert and Gazani

This is what we are working on.

We are trying to get the left side of the building done and the other side will be done at a later time.

We poured three of these columns

We have another 250 blocks to lay before we can put the roof on. There are seven windows and six doors to be installed, 12" of fill to be brought in before we can pour the floor. We really have our work cut out for us but Lord willing be can have a good amount of it done by the time Albert leaves.

We are entering winter here, we haven't seen any snow yet, nor will we, but it is getting quite cool at night I had to add an extra blanket on my bed. Many people think that Africa is hot all the time but many parts are not. In about a month they will be getting frost on the ground. Those of you in Canada say "Oh what's a little frost." You're right it is not much when you have insulated houses and furnaces, but for people here this is not the case. I like to sleep when it is cold and that part is nice. It is still getting nice and warm during the day but you can really feel a temperature drop when the sun goes down.

We got up early and started work at 6 this morning so that we could be done early so that we could have some time to come into town. This is just about Albert's first time out other than a quick trip into town last Sunday to try to use the internet and found out it wasn't working. We will hopefully be able to show him around a little before he leaves.

I am sorry this is short but I hope to write more next time. I would appreciate your prayers as I am still trying to change my flight. Thanks so much for your prayers and your emails they are very encouraging.

Your Brother in Christ,

Andrew

Back in Lichinga

Hello from Cuamba,

 

We thank the Lord for the safety He has given us so far, in traveling here to Cuamba.  We left Beira Thursday morning.  We drove 7 or 8 hours.  The Wilcox's minus Annelisa stayed at Africa Wa Jesus again.  Rachel, Annelisa and myself rode with Pastor Mario and one other man in his car.  Mario is the pastor of the church in Beira where we were.  The five of us were supposed to have a place to stay in the small town of Caia.  That fell through and it was a good thing we had brought tents just in case because we needed them. 

 

Before we found out that our accommodations fell through we were filling up at the gas station and I saw really nice grass there at the station which we don't see very often.  I said I hope if we stay in tents we can set our tents up on nice grass like that.  Once we found we had no place to stay we drove back to the gas station because that was the only place around and asked if we could pitch our tents behind the station.  There was a place that was all dirt and quite flat that we were going to use.  Then the Portuguese manager of the station came out and called us over to the little house were some of them stay and there was a chain link fence around it and there was a very nice grass yard all around for us to pitch our tents on.  I was so excited I was thanking the Lord for this blessing, because it made it so much more comfortable sleeping.  They also found us some plastic tables and chairs.  We sat down in our nice little camp site and had supper and then had a good time of share about the things of the Lord for an hour and a half before we went to bed. Just before I went to bed I found I had a little worm in the heel of my foot.  I have taken them out of other people's feet before but this was the first time that I have had one.  They aren't too bad if you get them out before they grow too much.

 

Friday morning we left shortly after 7 and we drove just a short distance and had to wait for the ferry to start running that would take us across a rather large river.  There we about fifty trucks waiting and eight cars.  They normally put two transport trucks and two or three cars.  This time though only one truck with out a trailer went on then they let all the cars go.  We were once again thanking the Lord otherwise we would have been waiting for another hour there and as it was we ended up having a 15 hour journey.  We only covered about 700km in that time.  The last 150km took us almost 5 hours because the roads we so rough.  At one place not too far outside of Cuamba the Wilcox's drove by a group of kids at the side of the road in the dark and one of them throw a rock at their car.  It broke the passenger side window of the car and the glass went all over Debbie.  Praise God no one was hurt.

 

We arrived here in Cuamba at 10:30 in the evening.  They had a wonderful supper waiting for us that had been ready for hours because they had expected us to be there much sooner.  All the SIM missionaries here in Cuamba opened there homes up to us to give us places to sleep for the three nights we will be here.

 

Saturday morning they had a meeting with all the pastors and leaders of the church in Cuamba.  Then Saturday night we had a good meeting with about 50 or 60 people out.  It was a good night. It wasn't really a gospel outreach but getting the Christians from different churches together and teaching them.

 

While in Cuamba I stayed with the Pipers a missionary family with SIM.  The also had another young man staying with them.  His name is Lee he is from England and he has come to help SIM out with construction projects much the same as I do.  We hit t off very well.  We are both excited to see if God would maybe have us serve together somewhere sometime.

 

Sunday morning we were all sitting around the breakfast table at the Piper's and Mrs. Piper asks Lee and I so which one of you wants to preach at church this morning.  It was one hour before the service was supposed to start.  Lee nominated that I would do it.  We went with the Piper's to their Assemblies of God Church.  I spoke for a short time from John 15 on abiding in the mango tree.  Most people here don't know what a grape vine is so I had to use the mango tree so that it was something they could relate to.

 

Sunday evening we had another meeting with all the churches and Pastor Mario spoke on three major issues that the church needs to deal with in this country, polygamy, adultery and divorce. These are big problems and he was talking about how the sins are past down to the third and fourth generation.  These things are common in many peoples families and Pastor Mario was encouraging them to cut these things of in the spirit and not let them continue to be passed on to their children.

 

Most of this email was written in Cuamba but I have just arrived in Lichinga here this morning at about 11:30.  We had enough places for us all coming from Beira to Cuamba because we had Pastor Mario's car but he was heading back to Beira and not coming to Lichinga so I had to catch a mini bus this morning at 5. 

 

Please keep my friend Albert in your prayers as he will be leaving Canada Tuesday evening and Lord willing will arrive in Lichinga on Saturday for about one month.  Others are always welcome if they would like to come and help with the work here. Hint hint.

 

Well the internet has been down in Lichinga for the last few days so that is why I am just getting around to sending this.  I have been in Africa for three since yesterday.  Time has gone by so fast.

 

Your Brother in Christ,

 

Andrew