Weekend in Chimoio.

Nice fountain in the Plaza in Beira

A few brothers I live with, Haug, Cass and Santos.

It has been a blessing for me to receive your words of encouragement and news of what you are doing and what God is doing in and around you, via emails, Facebook or text messages. Thanks so much for the part that each of you play in God’s big picture.

I unfortunately never did locate my phone that went missing so I bought a new one this past Monday. I have a new number for now but my old number which is +258825354145 should be working by Monday hopefully.

From Wednesday of last week till Monday of this week I didn’t have a phone and people were not able to get a hold of me. Felix was one of them he was sending texts and calling, but couldn’t get a hold of me. He thought that I had left the country or gone up to Lichinga because I just seemed to have disappeared. Tuesday morning I sent him a text and we got together Wednesday evening. It was good to see him again it had been a week and half since we were last together. He was at the same gathering of Christians on Sunday as I was but we didn’t see each other. I was looking around for him but didn’t see him. I figured it would be easier for him to spot me because I think I was the only white person there but I guess not. There were about 600 people so that is probably why. Anyways we were only together of about one and a half hours but we had a good chat. He has some questions about end times and the one world government and the mark of the beast. I tried not to get into this very much but just clarified one thing for him he was thinking the one world government was going to be one Christian church that was going to be ruling the world. Please continue to pray for him. He has been away from his family now for one year and would love to be able to go and spend Christmas with them in Malawi but he is not sure if he can.

It has been a short week for me with my Portuguese lessons. My teacher had to go to another city to sort somethings out and it is 700km away so he left Thursday morning and will be back Sunday evening. I have kind of got my mind around the simple present and simple past verb tenses and only about 14 more verb tenses to learn to know the language fluently but those will not be covered in this course that I am doing now. There are two more more advanced course that I could do in the future if I want. I have a about a week and a half of studies left to go.

Some shots of one of the markets in Beira.

A belt anyone?

Thursday since I didn’t have classes I took time to do some organizing around the house getting ready for the Wilcox’s arrival. They are a family that is serving in Lichinga. They are coming here to Beira for the conference and will be staying in the same house i am in. In the afternoon I met up with a friend from Lichinga who is on his way down to South Africa. I had brought a laptop for him so he was happy to be able to connect with it.

Friday morning I was out bright and early to catch a chapa at 4:30am into Beira to then catch a bus to Chimoio. I have the privilege once again to spend the weekend with Marc, Andrea, Micah and Nate Pavkov and I enjoy their company and they kind off got me into the Christmas spirit as they were setting up their Christmas tree when I arrived. It is quite toasty around here these days in the low 30sC or 90sF.

I meet a missionary lady here in Chimoio who is from the states and has an orphanage about ten minutes from where I am living in Manga. She has been working there for about 7 years I hope to go and visit sometime during the next couple of weeks. God is bring me in contact with so many missionaries all over this country it is such a joy to know we are not alone and that we are all working for the common goal of building the Kingdom of God.

Saturday I went out to the Iris base in Chimoio. I was in one of the unfinished buildings that the children play in. I happened to look down and spot this little mud doll the children had made. I just had to take a picture of it.

Sunday morning Marc and I went to a mens breakfast with a group of men from the international church here in Chimoio. We had a wonderful time together and great food. One of the missionaries that has been working here in Mozambique for 20 years shared his testimony. I enjoyed hearing him share of his experiences and someone asked him if he could go back would he do anything different. He said that he would have done language studies first. That was encouraging to here as I am studying right now.

This has been a very restful and refreshing weekend in Chimoio. I am very thankful the Pavkov’s have let me come spend time with them again. I think I am ready to face another week of Portuguese classes.

This is one of the two turtles that came with the house when the Pavkovs moved in. They just wonder around the yard.

Third Week in Beira

I trust you have all had a good week or will in the future be able to look back on this week and see the good that the Lord has brought out of the struggles you have maybe been going through. Struggles and difficulties are never easy when we are in the midst of them but it’s very comforting to know that everyone that the Lord allows His children to go through is custom fit for us. He always intends for you and I to come out more like Him on the other side. Romans 8:18 says “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”ESV

I was very encouraged last Sunday to be able to spend the whole day with Felix. We met at 9am and he came with me to the church gathering. That was the first one he had been to in the year that he has been here in Mozambique. He us to gather with believers in Malawi but he doesn’t know many believers here in Mozambique and he can’t speak Portuguese so he was limited as to who he can gather with. The service was interpreted into English. He was very glad to have been there.

One of the church services.

We spent the rest of the afternoon together till about 6pm. We shared together over lunch. We have found that we both have a hard time understanding the others English but we are getting better at this and so we are getting a clearer picture of each other now. As I speak with Felix more it seems he maybe does understand what salvation is but because of the way he speaks he uses words I know but he has a different meaning for them. As he explains himself more it seems he maybe has accepted the Lord but from the way he has been taught it is up to him to keep his salvation. Please continue to keep him in your prayers, that he would continue to have hunger for the Lord and that He would get connected with a group of English speaking believers for fellowship and encouragement.

Sunday afternoon we took a walk down to the port.

My Portuguese studies continue to go quite well, although I am starting to feel a little over loaded. I am going to have a good understanding of how the language works after this month but I am going to need to continue to do a lot of study and memorization as I return to Lichinga. I am so thankful to have this time to study Portuguese right at the start of my time here.

We are very thankful to have running water here at the house but often in the evening the water is shut off till early morning. Sometimes after I eat supper I got to wash the dishes and there is no water. Monday night was one of those times. Tuesday morning I woke up and I heard water running. I went into the kitchen and I had left the tap turned on the night before when I went to see if there was water. Thankfully the sink didn’t over flow. Again Thursday night there was no water. Shortly before 6am Friday morning Dominic one of the brothers came into the house. I heard him come in and I heard the water running. He turned the water off and went in the shower. I got up about 15 minutes later and saw just outside my bedroom door that there was a river flowing down the hallway. I went to the kitchen and the sink had over flowed I guess the drain had gotten clogged. It had completely flooded the kitchen and pantry. The kitchen is in the back of the house and the water ran through a couple room down the hallway and out the front door. This wasn’t really what I had wanted to wake up to. I soaked up about 10 gallons of water from the kitchen and pantry and when Dominic came out of the shower we got another five gallons from the other rooms and the hallway. Thankfully they are not carpet floors. The house needed a good mopping anyways. I didn’t think of taking any pictures at the time.

Thursday I left my cell phone in the classroom after my lesson and it disappeared. Unfortunately this means that I have lost all of the 300 and some phone numbers I had in it. If you think I had your phone number before I would appreciate it if you would send it to me. I am told that there is a good possibility that I can get the same phone number again, but I have to go phone shopping now and see what is available. Especially for those of you here in Mozambique who get this letter and might be trying to text or call me I am not getting those texts at this time, someone else just might be though. It was a mistake on my part to leave it in the room but I am thankful that nothing else has gone missing here as there are many pick pockets.

The taxis I ride here are like mini vans and they call them chapas (pronounced shăpă.) Chapa is actually the word for metal roofing sheets, but it has become so popular that they use the word for taxis. No one really seems to know why but I have a theory. Many of the chapas are in quite good shape but many of them are in very poor condition. The drivers are often quite careless/reckless in their driving. One day I was riding one into town and we got pulled over for speeding. When was you last on public transit and that happened? One time the clutch was so burned out on the chapa I got one I almost didn’t think it was going to get me home. Yesterday morning I am sure the chapa I took had no brake pads or shoes left and it made grinding noises the whole way and we had to stop and buy brake fluid. To me the lack of brake fluid was the least of his problems. One day I was standing out in front of the house waiting for a chapa and one stopped down the road to pick someone up. They opened the sliding door and it feel off. I think they maybe call them chapas because many of them are in such poor shape they are ready to be recycled and made into chapas, just my theory. Anyways riding on the chapas make you keep very short accounts with God because you just never know when your time to go maybe. I am not sure if there are many more sincere prayers then those of a chapa rider.☺

A chapa

I have not been eating quite as much PB&J lately. I have been cooking a few other things like burgers, fried eggs, crepes and pancakes. Also a few other things that I don’t have names for just my own concoctions. I am getting hooked on freshly roasted peanuts. I can get raw peanuts at the market and I roast them in a frying pan. I love the smell of roasting peanuts and they just taste so good and they are cheap too. I am thankful that a couple of the brothers here help me getting the charcoal lit when I am going to cook. I don’t know what it is but I don’t have the knack yet. I have made a few attempts and gone through a few boxes of matches. I am sure I will get it some time.

One of the concoctions. Made with corn flakes, peanut butter, sugar and syrup.

Wednesday evening after I had finished my home work I went out in the back and Santos one of the brothers here loves the young kids in this neighborhood and he share Bible stories and sings with them. He had about 15- 20 out there so I went out to meet them and try some of my newly learned Portuguese. They are great to practice with and they get some good laughs out of things when I say them wrong. I played many different games with them most of which they had to teach me because I had never played them before. We played together for a couple hours till they had to go at 9pm. They all wanted to know if I was going to be be able to come out and play on Thursday. I said that if I got my home work done then I would. Thursday I stayed in town and got my home work done and I arrived at the house at 6pm. When I got off the chapa there were ten of the children sitting by the road waiting for me to arrive. When they saw me they all came running and greeting me. I was carrying my back pack and another bag they took them and carried them for me as we walk around the back. There were several more in the back and I found out that they had been waiting for three hours for me to come. Most of them are 6-13 years old. I just wish I could speak more Portuguese so that I could share more about Jesus with them. They are a great bunch a kids but they need Jesus.

Under Construction

I am having a hard time making up my mind on a blog template and colors here please bear with me. Your comments are always welcome.

Finally A Few More Picture

Here are a few pictures of the Iris base in Chimoio that is in the middle of building their orphanage. They have a few orphans already and have a large property to work with there.

This is one of the buildings that was on the property when they bought it. There is a family living in here taking carry of a few orphans.

This is the orphanage that will house forty boys when it is complete. I was quite impressed with the quality of the work the brick layers were doing here.


Last Sunday while I was still visiting with the Pavkov’s in Chimoio, I went to church with their neighbors Jacob and Jayne. They are missionaries from the US as well. Jacob had been invited to speak at a church they had never been to before. They were told the service would start at 9am. Most services here don’t start on time so were we there by 10am and there were very few people there. We sat under a grass shelter with some of the elders for about an hour. Then because things wouldn’t be starting for a while yet we went to someones house and they served us a meal. We had sima, goat meat and cold cokes which are a real treat out there. As we were driving in the car I was telling Jacob and Jayne that I had never had the chance to eat goat before. It was my first and hopefully not my last time to eat it.

Around 12 noon we walked back to the church and waited around for a little while longer then by 12:30 people started sing and things got underway. It was a good reminder that much of the African culture is not under time constraints like I am us to. It was a very different service then Jacob, Jayne or I had ever seen. They sang and danced in the little church that only had very tiny windows for about 45 minutes. After the first 15 minutes or so they took us outside because it was so dust, having a dirt floor and so many people dancing in there it was a little hard to breath. Once they were finished sing we went back in and their was a couple standing there with their baby. They went through quite a ordeal as they sprinkled the baby and both the parents. They throw water all over them and then they lit these piece of paper on fire and moved them all around the heads of the three. They weren’t speaking in Portuguese so we didn’t really understand much of what they were saying so we are not sure what the significance of all they did was. I try not to come to too many conclusions on my own. Jacob never did end up preaching, we are not sure why maybe they forgot they had asked him or what but you just go with the flow.

Many people waiting outside.


A group of the women waiting at someones hut.


This is where we were invited to come have the sima and goat meal.


This is after the service they were taking up a collection for the baby that was baptized

The little drummer girl.


On our way back to Chimoio Jacob and Jayne took me by the house they are building. They are making a cob house. Which means they have built walls out of brick and then they coat the inside and outside with a mixture or clay, cow manure and straw about five inches thick on both sides. The house has no square corners, yes they meant to make it like that. It is stronger with rounded corners and with the walls made out of these materials it is insulated well to keep it cool in summer and warm in the winter. They are at the stage right now where they are making trusses with a 59’ span. If you don’t know that is really big. They are trying to figure out if they can get them up by hand or if they will have to rent a crane. I found it very interesting to see the way they are building. They would have loved it if I could have stayed around for a few days to help them with the trusses but I really felt I should get back to my language studies.

Jacob and Jayne.


This is there cob house. You would never guess there is cow manure in the walls would you?


Here we have one of the very large trusses.



That evening when we got back Andrea Pavkov invited Jacob and Jayne over for supper and we all had excellent Chicken tacos together and Ice Cream for dessert. I enjoyed Andreas cooking so much. It sure beat my Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches. I mean I can make a pretty wicked PB&J sandwich but they get old after a while. It was very nice to be there in Chimoio with the Pavkovs and maybe I just might get to go and visit them again before I leave Beira.

Marc, Jayne, Jacob, Nate, Micah and Andrea


Monday morning Marc took me to catch the bus at 5am and I was back into Beira by 8:30am in plenty of time to make my 10am Portuguese lesson. This week I have started to feel a little overwhelmed as my brain started to tell me it could not process all that it was taking in. On Thursday my teacher told me that we were about one week ahead in the text book from what is normal, so maybe that is why I felt a little overwhelmed, because we have plenty of time we spent Thursday and Friday just talking and trying to use what I have learned so far. It is helping a lot. On Thursday my teacher had me go around to the different teachers and interview them and find out as much information as I could about them, their family’s and where they live. I am still using very broken Portuguese but I am starting to be able to communicate a little. I don’t have to point so much in the market anymore so that people know what I want.

Monday evening Felix called me up and asked if we could get together sometime. I met him Tuesday evening. He wanted to know more about mac computers. We talked about computers for maybe half and hour then the conversation moved to the Bible for the next two hours. Felix has many questions but also seems to know quite a bit about the Bible and he had brought his Bible with him. He has had a lot of teaching in Malawi. I am concerned about some of the things he has been taught but I see in him a genuine hunger to know the truth. Please continue to pray for both of us as we continue to meet.

My buddy Felix.

I thought I would just include a few pictures of the house here where I live and the area around.

This is the back yard behind the house. Along the left you see chicken coops.

Chissico (he is my teacher) he owns this place and there are several young guys living here as well. They take care of raising the 1,000 chickens for about 3 months then they get a new batch.


This is a view of the front of the house.


The back.


The variety store across the road.


Yes and where ever you go on this planet you can almost always find coke. This is the centre of a round about in Beira.

I am sorry this picture is not centred. This is my Portuguese teacher Chissico.

This is a palm tree near our house.

My First Week in Mozambique

It doesn't feel like I arrived in Beira a week ago, but it's true. The majority of my time is spent either in my Portuguese classes or studying and doing home work. I actually have one teacher not three like I think I had mentioned in my last letter. My teacher Chissico is excellent. It is very evident that he has taught many people before. He is very good at explaining things but most importantly he doesn't crowd my brain with a lot of other things, like how to say the same phrase in six different verb tenses. He sticks to the specific things we are studying right then. This helps me very much. I am so thankful for your prayers. I am understanding what I am being taught and I am having fun learning and I know this is an answer to so many peoples prayers. I am so excited about the prospects of being able to someday in the not too distant future be able to communicate in Portuguese.

Already as I ride in taxis and read signs I am picking out phrases and I am starting to understand things as I recall different verb tenses I have learned and the language starts to make sense. After months of looking at signs with just letters on them and hearing people say words that meant nothing it all start to take shape.
Internet has been a little bit more of an issue then i had first thought it might, The internet cafe I went to when I was here in April no longer allows you to connect your own computer. I really wanted to be able to do this so that i can down load my emails and be able to read them when I am off line. My teacher has been very generous to let me use the internet at the school the last few days but I didn't want to keep tying up their line.

I found a shopping centre that has wireless internet. I went to log on and I found out I needed to set up and account. I found a phone number and called someone down in Maputo about setting up an account and they told me I needed to talk to someone in an store here in Beira. I went there and they said that they could set up an account because the obis wasn't there and he wouldn't be back till Thursday. That was Monday when I first went. On Thursday I went back and the boss was not in so I sat and waited. Finally the boss called and told one of the guys from the store to go with me to the mall and help me get set up for the internet there. As he and I walked over to the mall we got talking. He started asking me why I was here in Mozambique and what I do. I shared with him that I am a missionary and I have come to share with people about the Lord Jesus. To tell them about the new life He has given me and the new life that is available to everyone. He found it interesting.

I was blessed with a new computer before I left and I now have a Mac. As I opened it up Felix this guy that came with me had many questions about it and wanted to know if I could teach him how to work the Mac operating system. Mac computers are not very well know here in Mozambique. Felix helped me get connected to the internet and we talked for about and hour a little bit about macs but then mostly about Felix. He is from Malawi he doesn't speak Portuguese and he is here working trying to make some money working at this computer store so that he can send money back to Malawi to help support his siblings and his nieces and nephews of his three siblings who have passed away. It was about 3pm and he needed to get back to work, but he wanted to come back and learn more about how to use mac. We agree that I would wait around in town and he would come back at 5pm after he was done work. Just so you know I don't really know much about Macs but God is just using this little bit I do know for me to build a friendship with Felix. I spent the next couple hours doing my portuguese homework. Finally at 6pm I called Felix to see where he was and he said he was coming and arrived a few minutes later. It showed him a few programs and a little bit of what they do for about half and hour and then for the next hour and a half he was asking more questions about me. He would say"Andrew so what exactly do you mean when you say you are a missionary, what will you do here?" I then shared my testimony with him and explained what it meant to be a Christian. He has had a christian back ground and understands somethings and seems to be a very well living young man. I just feels he needs to live and do his best here and whatever happens happens.

Please keep Felix in your prayers as we exchanged phone numbers and I am sure we will get together more over the next few weeks. I never would have guess and I still do know what all God wants to bring out of this situation of me trying to get connected to the internet. God is working in peoples lives all around us and He just uses common everyday things to bring us into contact with people. Felix is really searching and he has a love for the Lord and knows He is in control, but he is just not sure how he fits into God's plan.

I guess I havenʼt have enough time on buses lately so Friday morning at 6:30 I rode a bus three and a half hours to Chimoio. This is the fourth largest city in Mozambique just a little smaller then Beira.I am here in Chimoio to visit Marc & Andrea Pavkov and their their two sons Micah and Nate. I got to know them when I us to work with Teen Missions. They are now serving with a different ministry as well and I just wanted to come visit them and see what they are doing

here.

Friday afternoon there was a meeting with a lot of the other missionaries that are working here in Chimoio as well. There are missionaries from Brazil, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, and the US. I enjoy meeting other missionaries who are working in the same country as God has
called me to.

Last night for the first time I was dreaming some in Portuguese. I had people speaking Portuguese and I saw some written as well and I could understand it.Thank you to each of you for the part you play in the work here. Thanks so much for your prayers for my language studies they are being answered.

I have been surviving on PB&J sandwiches for most of my time in Beira. It is just that I don't have a fridge so I can't keep things for long and if I want to cook something I have to heat it with charcoal. It seems kind of pointless to go to all the work of getting charcoal burning (which isn't the easiest thing to do) to cook a meal for one person, but I think I am going.

P.S. Sorry I don't have many pictures I will try to do better in this area in the future.