Rudy is Here.

I had hoped to update this before now but things have gotten a little bit more busy in the past couple weeks. We have lost two people from our team here in Lichinga. Antoinette has returned to Pemba to continue here work there. At this time she is very busy getting profiles for the orphans put together for a sponsorship program. We have as well had to say good bye to Gazani one of the Mozambican brothers that has been working here for about three years. We will miss him a lot but we are glad that he is following the Lord’s leading for his life. I worked together with him quite bit and he is a dear brother in the Lord.

We lost two but we have gained one as my friend Rudy arrived on the 16th here in Lichinga from Ontario. I am so thankful that he has come and that he is Lord willing staying for two and a half months. It is very nice to have another person to live with and fellowship with as well as a work partner. We are hitting it off very well and it seems like the time that he is here for is going to go by too fast. Maybe he will come back :)

Our first project is working on a round house that will be for us to live in. We have the doors and windows in and we have a good part of the roof framed up. It is a little more difficult to put on a round roof then we thought. It will be interesting putting a tin roof on a round building something that neither of us have ever done before.

Lord willing on the 25th Rudy and I will take a four day trip to Blantyre, Malawi to get our visas. I am hoping to get my residency visa so that I can get permanent residency here so I don’t have to leave the country every three months. I would appreciate your prayers for this.

We are very excited that it has finally been possible to start a worship center in Lichinga. We use a conference hall at a hotel and we want this to be a place that any Christian or non Christian a like from any church can come and be blessed and encouraged. The goal is to see unity among the Christians in the city they have been divided for too long. We have only meet like this a few times but we are seeing that many people are very hungry. We meet at 4pm Sunday afternoon to try not to interfere with other church services.

I would also appreciate your continued prayer for my Portuguese I am not getting as much study in as I would like. I am thankful to be able to understand much more then I could but I really need to study more to be able to speak all that much.

We have had some interesting times with rats in our house. I killed two before Rudy came and the other night we heard one and went hunting for it and found two and killed them both. They just seem to love living with us. Thank you for your prayers and emails.

It has been a great help in many ways to have Rudy here but he is especially go at fixing motorbikes and we have had four to fix in his first week here.

Here are a few other projects I worked on before Rudy arrived.

Deciding the best way to tie the rings.

Lowering the rings into the hand dug well with the truck.

I made these lockers for a couple of brothers staying at the Bible School.

What they look like inside.

I made a bed for myself with a drawer under neath for my clothes and things.

Enjoying the mud of the rainy season.



Have you ever had this much fun??

Happy New Year

Wow we made it to 2010, it is hard to believe. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I am sure we all have many things to look back on in the past year and be thankful for and other things that we are thankful that they are now behind us. I hope you are all looking expectantly ahead into 2010 for great things that God is going to be doing in your lives. I wonder sometimes if God wishes that we would get as excited about what He is doing and wants to do in and around us as He does.

Christmas and New Years around here was a little different then most I have had in the past but this is a new season in my life so things should be different I guess. All 27 of us were together at the Wilcox's on Christmas Eve for a gift exchange and some great food. Unfortunately Jesse and Tanya were not able to be with us because Tanya had a baby at 9:30 the night before, little Zoe Joy.

Back Row: Me, Gezani, Tiffany with Chayah, Tyren, Melissa, Chanito, Debbie, Victor, Peter, Jonas, Christie, Tania Middle Row:Annelisa, Antoinette, Karmelie, Elias, Carlos, Christian, Peter

Front Row: Rachel, Miriam, Justine,Isaiah, Jordan, Mikaila, Amerel
(Christian, Christie, Jonas, Jordan and Justine are a new family that came as well as Melissa)

Jesse, Tanya and Zoe Joy Gellatly

The Wonderful Food


Cutting down their Christmas tree.


Good Fun, Good Food

Christmas Day morning I was doing my laundry and I thought wow I think this is a first time I have ever done my laundry on Christmas day. It is just that there are about 12 of us that use the wash tub for our laundry and you just have to take advantage of it when ever it is free. Later in the morning there was an open house at the Wilcox and many other missionaries and Christians from in town came out and we again had some wonderful fellowship and food together and then a very nice time of prayer and worship together. That night Tania, Rachel and Melissa had me over for supper. We at mexican food and we tried to make it feel like Christmas so we ate mints and sipped some Hot Chocolate or Tea and listened to Christmas Carols.

I haven't been working too hard. There have been several small projects that needed to be done around here so I have been making some shelves in the orphanage and putting up a few shelves in the Admin building. I am trying to get all these little projects done before Rudy comes in two weeks so that we can get started on finishing the Admin building. New Years Day I was helping the ladies put window stays and latches on there windows so that they won't blow in the wind and break anymore.

On Tuesday I went to the Prison with Tyren and Victor. They have been going to the Prison once a week for almost a year now. There are about 300 men in there. Annelisa and Rachel go once a week and work with the 12 or so women in the prison. I really enjoyed going as we met with about 40 of the men. Some who are Christians and others who are searching. Many other men just sit further away and watch and listen and we know the Lord is working in their lives as well. There are many Muslims in there and we try to respect them and leave by 11:30am because this is when they start to speared out their mats for prayer. In the past though several of the muslims have asked for prayer. As the Lord leads I would like to continue to be involved in the work there in the prison. While the men are in there it is such a good time for them to really think about their lives and what they are going to make of them. There are some men in there who were following the Lord and they had gotten away and they know God has allowed them to be in there so that they would turn back to Him. Father will do whatever is necessary to make us see our continual need of Him. Thank You Lord.

I am thankful that several of you have sent me prayer request that I can lift up to Father for you. It is a privilege to pray for one another. I thank you as well for your prayers for me. I am really seeking the Lord at this time as to just what He wants me to be apart of here. There are so many areas and things that I can be apart of such as ministry in the hospital, in the prison, working with children where there is a great need in several villages. The children come sometimes by the hundreds and they are searching for someone to tech them. As I was reading through Matthew yesterday I was noticing several times as Jesus was talking about the little children. He says "Except we come as a little child we cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven, Whoever receives a little child in my name receives Me, Suffer the little children to come and forbid them not" and the chief priests were displeased because the little children were saying "Hosanna to the Son of David" and Jesus saids to them "Yea; have you never read out of the mouth of babies and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." Jesus has a big heart for the children. There are also many who have accepted the Lord and need teaching and discipling and of course there is always lots of construction work to do but, I don't want to be just busy, I want to know what God has specifically gifted me for. Then allow the other members of the body to minister as they are gifted. I realize that God has sometimes gifted us in areas and we don't realize it, till we are in a situation where we need to meet a need. Satan as well wants us to be involved in some many things though so that we are not effective in any of them, so we need discernment.

We are very excited for 2010 we believe that God is going to be bringing in a harvest much bigger then we have ever seen or can imagine. What a privilege it is to be alive at this time. We see how many things seem to be pointing toward the end times in the world around us and this just makes us realize that our time is limited and the importance of redeeming the time. There are many people who still need to hear about Jesus and be discipled and taught the commands that Jesus gave us. What a privilege is ours to be apart of this.