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.