Residence Visa Finally

I am sorry I wrote this a week and a half ago just getting it posted now.

As I write this I am sitting in Blantyre, Malawi having just returned from the Mozambican Embassy and finally after trying for about six months I have my residence visa. This now allows me to return to Mozambique and start the process to get a one year visa that at the end of the year I can renew with out having to leave the country. It will be nice not to have to be leaving the country every two or three months to get a new visa. Thanks so much for your prayers for this. Please continue to pray for the process of getting my one year visa. The one problem I may have is that they want an up to date police check on my criminal record. I got one of these just before I left Canada but that was back in October of last year. I haven’t been back to Canada since and thus there won’t be anything on my record for that time but please pray that they might accept the one I have, otherwise I will have to wait until I go back to Canada and then start this whole procedure over again when I return. This is all in the Lord’s Hands and I am trusting Him with it.

Peter, Annelisa and Antoinette arrived back here safely in Lichinga two weeks ago after spending about ten weeks in Europe and ministering in churches in four different countries but mainly in Spain. They were so happy to get home and be reunited with their family again. Antoinette spent just over a week here before she returned to Pemba this past Tuesday. It was a joy for us to hear their testimonies of what God was doing while they were there in Europe.

Praise the Lord my back has fully recovered from the injury I had about six weeks ago. Thanks to all of you that were praying for my back. It has been such a blessing to not have to do a lot of really strenuous work during this recovery time. We have hired a dear Christian brother, his name is Mateos and he is doing all the plastering of the walls on the admin building as well as pouring the floors. He is doing such a good job and has a real heart to serve the Lord. He is such a blessing to us. With Mateos doing these things I have been able to be involved in some other ministry as well as work on some other projects.

I meant to mention about the Greater Harvest School in my last email but forgot to. This school is for training and discipling the Yao people (The Chi Yao tribe is the people group that we are mainly working with here.) to be equipped to be able to go out and bring their own people to the Lord.

In their small groups for devotions in the morning.

The whole student body plus teachers.

There are about 25 students in this first class. Many of them live quite close and walk about 20 minutes to get to the school but some of them ride their bicycles two or three hours to get to class which starts at 7:30am. This shows that they have a real hunger and desire to learn. It is so encouraging to see their eagerness to learn and be discipled. This week they are finishing up their first six weeks of the school year. There will be three six week periods in all I believe. Two weeks ago I helped with teaching one class each day that week.

Kevin is speaking and Jesse translates into Portuguese and then Victo translates into Yao

A time of worship and prayer

The three main men.

Christian, Jesse and Kevin

Kevin, Jesse and Christian are the three that have really spear headed this school and saw that it got off the ground and running. Their goal is to see these students sent out in groups of two or three to the rural villages in the Northern part of the Niassa province where there has been no Christian witness yet. Already the Lord has put different villages on the students hearts that they feel called to. We just received the testimony of a couple named Condela and Anita. You may remember that they were a couple of the people that I sent the testimonies about, a few weeks ago. They had gone to a village and I believe that there was an Anglican church there and they wanted to find out who the pastor was. They asked around and found him. They told the pastor that they just wanted to see the kingdom of God be advanced in that place. Condela and Anita joined them for their church service and part way through the pastor said “We have some visitors here that I want to come and share with us.” They got up and shared about the transformation the Lord has made in their lives. They shared the gospel and then welcomed anyone who wanted to give their lives to the Lord. The pastor was the first one to want to accept the Lord then there we many others. They also prayed for the sick and many were healed one person completely healed of malaria. They really wanted to go to a second village but as they were trying to leave the first village people were bringing all their sick people out to the road and asking them to pray for them, so they never did get to the other village.

We are seeing that many of these villages are very ripe and ready for harvest. Jesse and Christian went out before the rainy season started and gave out some audio Bibles in the Yao language that are solar powered to some of the chiefs in these villages. After rainy season, once the roads were passable again they have been back to visit these chiefs and several of them have said “We have been listening to the Bible and we believe what it says. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God and we want you to come and teach us more about Him. “These are very Muslim villages and it is a big step for them to say that they believe that Jesus is the Son of God because they are taught that He is just a prophet and he is only the son of Man and not the Son of God. There are whole villages ready to give their lives to the Lord and they need people to disciple them and this first class of students are more than willing to take on the responsibility. Please pray for them for their protection and provision that they would have all that is needed to be able to fulfill the call of the Lord on their lives.

I had the privilege of going to the Hospital with Victo and a few of the other young brothers. We go to try to show them some love, befriend them and share the gospel and give them a chance to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Many people in there are hurting physically but even more importantly they are hurting and are spiritually sick and need a healing touch of the great Physician. It is a joy to be able to introduce them to the Great Physician and allow them to make their choice.

I went with Victo to the prison this past Tuesday and had an amazing chance to speak to the guys. They want to see the kingdom of God come and bring revival to that prison and see it radically changed for Jesus. There is a core group of about 15 or so Christians that we meet with and then there are about a hundred other guys who sit around and listen to us. Each time I have gone there are guys who are asking for Bibles, they have a hunger to know more. We have to be careful and find out why they want the Bibles because some of them will use the pages of the Bible to roll up there tobacco and make cigarettes, but many of them do have an honest desire to study God’s Word.

Since Mateos has been doing the plastering I have been able to get a kitchen built in the admin building. I haven’t been able to get the cupboard doors made yet because I am waiting and waiting and waiting on the wood to make them. I was able to get their solar system hooked up for Rachel and Melissa so they can charge a few things and have also been able to get them running water in their kitchen and bathroom. They have jokingly said that they are not sure if they can call themselves missionaries anymore now that they have a few more conveniences. We know that our living conditions have nothing to do with whether we are missionaries or not, it was just a joke. That was kitchen number four that I have built here and now I am working on number five. The Wilcox’s house was the first building to be built here on the base and now the last one to finally get a bit of a kitchen. I just started on it two days before we came here to Malawi.

The Kitchen in the Admin Building

These are a few pictures to show the progress on the Wilcox's Kitchen.

Victo was kind enough to give me a hand with the pouring.

The almost finished product, need to take of the forms and sand and wax it then it will be ready for use.

Lord willing I am planning to return to Canada on July 22nd for maybe about two months I am not sure exactly how long. I will be leaving Mozambique on the 13th and spending a week with some friends in South Carolina, so that means I only have about one month left here in Mozambique. These nine months have really flown by very quickly. I will look forward to connecting with as many of you as I can. If you don’t live very close to me and would like to get together sometime while I am home it would be best to make some plans for that in the near future, because last time I was home it seemed like some people forgot that I was leaving till about a week or two before I was to leave and then I was very busy trying to make time to see people. Just a little FYI.

I think this will have to suffice for this letter. Thank you, thank you for your continued prayers and partnership in what God is doing here in Mozambique.

These are just a couple random pictures.

These are the puppies the Wilcox's got a couple weeks ago. They will eventually be guard dogs.

It is getting very dry now and this is the time of year when people go out into the bush and cut grass for roofs and fences and carry it back into the city to sell or use themselves. This is a group of ladies doing just that.

Update Long Over Due

I am sure most of you have a some time played, “Hide and Seek.” You always want to have the best hiding place so that your are the last person to be found right? If you are really good the person doing the seeking never does find you and they give up, then you know you hid very well. I have been reminded that those of us who know Jesus as Savior have this kind of hiding place. Col 3:3,4 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. What an awesome hiding place, with Christ in God, talk about a safe place to be. Just like when playing Hide and Seek you don’t want yourself to be seen, this is just the scenario here as well. We are hidden and now the new life that Jesus lives in us is what is seen. I am so thankful that we don’t have to try to find this hiding place but God has made it and he has placed us there until that day when Jesus returns and we will appear with him totally transformed with new bodies to go with this new life He already lives in these old bodies. We have the privilege of being hidden and letting Jesus be seen in and through us.

I am so thankful to report that my back has almost completely healed. Thank You Lord. It was doing quite well up until about two weeks ago when I throw out a pail of water and put it out again. (What do they say “You know your getting old when your back goes out more then you do.” Thankfully I am not there yet.) I didn’t done any construction work for almost two weeks, but I am feel almost back to normal now, I still have to be careful but I have been able to get all the doors and windows installed in the admin building. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Two week ago Saturday we had some visitors (Dominic & Debbie) come they are friends of Jesse and Tanya. It was such a blessing to have them here. Debbie is a very good ventriloquist and puppeteer. She spent a lot of her time training the Mozambicans how to us the puppets as affective instruments to communicate God’s love to people. God has given Debbie such a gift to be able to reach children at their level. Last week Monday a bunch of us went to Assumane a village right close to us here. They feed us an amazing meal of Sima(Made from corn flour in a consistence of thick mashed potatoes) and beans, this was the best sima and beans I have had. After the great supper Debbie spoke to a group of about 300 children and adults and I think they were kind of confused trying to figure out how that puppet she was holding could actually talk. They would have never seen a ventriloquist before.

This is sima and a little chicken in the side dish.

Watching the puppets

That night we also should a video that is the testimony of a young man from an African country can’t remember which, that was a muslim. He had studied Islam for many years, but one night he a dream and for about six nights in a row he had similar dreams. In these dreams this man dressed in white kept coming to him and he would be saving him from people who were trying to come and kill him. After the second dream his told his father and his father took him to the witch doctor to try to get these dreams to stop, but he kept having them. Then he finally realized that Jesus was revealing himself to him. I turned from Islam to Jesus. His whole family was Muslim they rejected him tried to kill him a couple of times but he would not stop believing I Jesus. There have been many other stories of these same kind of things happening to muslims all over the world where Jesus reveals himself to them through dreams. This was a very powerful testimony because this whole area where we are is very muslim and they do have to count the cost if they choose to follow Jesus.

Watching the film

The following day Tyren, Dominic, Jesse, Victor, Shanitu, Elias and I went to the prison. Dominic shared his testimony that his father and four older brothers were all into many things they should have been and all of them spent time in prison. Growing up in a family like that he as well be came a convict and spent about 13 years in prison. He was able to share with about 60 men in the prison that day that Jesus is the only reason that he is not still in prison. Many of the men were very convicted by what he shared and seven men gave their lives to the Lord. We are so excited to see more and more of an openness in the men there each time. More of the muslims who us to just sit off to the side and talk or make fun of the others are becoming more interested in Jesus and asking for prayer. Please keep these man in your prayers as well as the Christians that are in there. There is a large group of men who have given there lives to the Lord and they are being a great testimony in that place. Before we even get there on Tuesdays they are often already gathered and worshiping the Lord in song and prayer.

The seven of us that went to the prison minus Tyren who was taking the picture.

Chanito, Victo, Me Dominic, Elias and Jesse

Tyren has had it on his heart for a while now to have a Fun Day in Assumane for the children. To have a day where we can invite all the children to come for a few hours and just play games, have fun and be kids. Cause in this culture children are forced to grow up so fast that they don’t often get to just have fun and be children. On April 24th all of us missionaries went to Assumane from 9am till noon. We had different stations with games like, red light green light, making finger puppets, skipping. limbo, high jump, a ball toss and then a group activity of sack races. Most of these games they had never played before. Then there was a puppet presentation and we gave out some small cake balls to every one. There we around 500 to 600 children. It was a lot of fun just being able to play with them and let Jesus love them through us. It was quite chaotic at times especially when we were giving out food but in all it went better then we expected so that is good and we thank the Lord for it.

Getting rid of a little energy.

Praying before we started.

A little limbo action

Melissa was doing finger puppets and she was getting mobbed.

Sack races.

All the mother sitting on the side lines watching.

Giving out bolos(Small cake balls)

We have been with out internet for two weeks here so I am writing this in faith that it is going to come back soon. There are to rumors going around as to why the internet and phone service is not working. Some say that someone stole some of the fiber optic cable between us and Maputo the capitol. This is very probable because it is just buried along the side of the road a foot or two deep. Others say there is a problem with some of our communications cables that are on the ocean floor some where, we have heard that a ships anchor caught the cable and broke it. We aren’t really sure what is going on but a good part of the country if not all does not have normal communication via internet and cell phones. Like we say TIA(This Is Africa) so you have to expect these things sometimes. Thankfully we can still send text messages and that is how most Africans communicate so that is a blessing.

We have thought the rainy season was finished several times now, but just as I am typing this letter I am here in my house and the rain is coming down so hard I would think it is February and not April. I have a tin roof and so when it rains this hard I can hardly hear myself if I yell. It is kind of nice to listen to a light rain on the tin roof.

I think I have mentioned Kevin and Katherine Bubna they are the newest missionary couple in our team. Right now they are living in Lichinga but they want to build here outside the city where the rest of us are so this week I helped Kevin do some of the lay out and get set up for digging trenches for his foundations. One more construction project I wish I had time to go and help with.

I became mechanic for the first time this week. I have been asked to kind of maintain a Land Cruiser which belongs to Annelisa and Antoinette but they don’t have their licenses so they let several of us drive. Tyren had it one morning in town and the brakes quit working. Praise the Lord it is all fixed and back working as normal.

While Dominic and Debbie were here we made it over to the Lake.

Back row: Jonas, Christian, Dominic, Me, Victo, Jesse.

Middle row: Christi, Debbie, Elias, Tanya holding Zoe, Melissa, Rachel

Front: Jordan, Justine

I have a wonderful praise. I had taken my passport in to immigration to get a one month extension on my visa. I was told I could pick it up on April 29th. I went that day and they said no it isn’t ready. I went in again on Monday again it wasn’t ready they said come back tomorrow. I was starting to wonder if they had lost my passport. I went in again on Wednesday and they brought me my passport and they said they decided to give me a two month extension instead of the one month that i had asked for. That was just the favor of God I have spoken with several people since then and everyone says they have never heard of this happening before. Thank you Lord.

After being in Mozambique for five years the Wilcox now have running water in their house. We have worked at trying to get running water but we always found that the pump wasn’t strong enough to get water up to the holding tank. This past week we got a second pump and now with two pumps we are finally able to get them running water. We no longer have to pull water up out of the well in a bucket. The admin and the orphanage still do not have running water but they will eventually. Thursday I drove to Maponda which is a village on the edge of Lake Malawi. Rachel, Anita, Amelia(Anita’s older sister) Victor, Carlos and myself all went. We had to take Anita to Maponda to try to find out how old she is. She needs to get some documents here in Lichinga but they need to know how old she is but she didn’t know. On our way there as i was driving I was going to pass a guy riding a bike. He didn’t ;look to see where I was and he moved into my lane and then he looked over his shoulder to see where I was then he tried to swerve back but he slid in the loose gravel and fell. Thankfully i was able to move off the road and not hit him or his big. We stopped and found that he had cut his hand and scraped his arm knee and toes pretty good. We gave him a ride into Maponda and took his to the clinic there and they got him bandaged up. Praise the Lord it wasn’t any worse.

Thats me up there cleaning out the tank.

After going to the clinic we went to see Anita’s grandmother who was sick and one of her other sisters. We prayed for her grandmother and shared the gospel with her as well and Anita’s sister. They are Muslims, but Anita is a Christian. Her grandmother and sister didn’t know how old she was, so we went to see here uncle and cousins. We sat in their court yard on grass mats and tried to figure out when she was born. They were asking her uncle if he remembered which party was in government that year and then trying to find out the time of year they were asking if it was in the rainy season or in the dry season. Finally they decided she was born in 1983 and figured it was around July and they of course didn’t know the day so we were all giving suggestions for what the day could be her birthday and we finally decided on the 8th. While we were there one of Anita’s other relatives came and she was asking for prayer as well because she has shingles. We were more then happy to pray for her and ask the Lord to heal her.

Charlos, Victo and I

We went to an office there in Maponda told them her birth day was July 8, 1983 and they typed out a document on a typewriter, that is the equivalent of a birth certificate. We were able to pick it up a couple hours later while we waited we took a bath in the lake.(They don’t say you are going swimming when you got to the beach they say you going to take a bath.) That was the fastest I have seen any document made in this country yet. I find it interesting how so many people here do not know how old they are and it really doesn’t matter to many of them. I guess it seems like you aren’t getting older when you don’t know your birthday.

When we were getting ready to leave a man came and asked us if we could take two ladies back with us to the hospital in Lichinga. We stopped to pick them up on our way out of town and there were two ladies one of them had a three week old baby and two men and they all piled in. We weren’t expecting this many and so we had to tell one of the men that he couldn’t come. People always want a free ride if they can get it. One of the ladies was very weak and she needed a blood transfusion and I am not sure what was wrong with the other lady. We kind of started feeling like an ambulance by the end of the day after taking people to the clinic and hospital. We were just thankful we could help them.

Well the internet in Lichinga is still not back and might not be for a few weeks but there is a hotel that has satellite internet so we are using it some.

Thank you for all your continued prayers.

Here are a few misc pictures.

Assumane Church

Jordan Jung caring her cat

One evening we found several of these caterpillar trains.

This is my new Africa wall in my little house. I made the log shelves and added a few things to make it look authentic

I figured I should at least let you know that I have arrived back into Lichinga safely, Praise the Lord. I took a bus from Pemba to Nampula. That morning someone was supposed to pick me up at 4am to get me to the bus. They slept in and didn’t pick me up till 5 we drove around Pemba trying to find the bus then found out it had already left town, so we decide to chase it down. About 30km later we caught up with it and everything went smoothly to Nampula from there. I spent the night with an Iris missionary in Nampula and then I decided to fly to Lichinga from Nampula rather then go by bus and chapa it just wasn't going to be very safe by myself and trying to get out and meet transportation early in the morning with out anyone to take me. Rather then it taking me a day and a half it took one hour which was very nice and I arrived in Lichinga on Thursday the 1st of April.

Melissa’s parents and her sister had been here for a couple of weeks and I got in on the last three days of their time in Lichinga. I enjoyed working with Frank (Melissa’s Father). He did a lot of work here and we are so thankful for him. Most of the time I spent with him was on Saturday when we roasted a pig. The whole team here got together for a wonderful pig roast dinner. It was enjoyed very much by all.

Peter, Annelisa and Antoinette are all gone for two months to Spain and will be spending time in Portugal, England and Holland. They are ministering in churches and to individuals as the Lord give them open doors. They will be gone till almost the end of May. They are missed around here but we are excited for what God is doing through them.

All of last week I spent helping Tyren on Tiffany’s kitchen. I had promised them several months ago that I would help do it and so when I got back from Kenya I wanted to get it done for them. It was a lot of fun to build and now they are having a lot getting to use it.

The two carpenters.

I just started working again on the admin building yesterday getting ready to install the doors and windows. I carried all the doors and windows from a smaller building where they had been stored for several months to the admin and while doing that I some how hurt my back. It has been quite sore so I took the day off to give it a little rest. I would appreciate your prayers for my back. Please also be praying that God would also provide more people to help with the construction here. Maybe some work teams or individuals short or long term, whatever we aren't picky. The work can seem a little overwhelming when I think of all that needs to be done, but I try to not let it. Thankfully it will get done in God’s perfect timing.

Working with some of the windows I pulled my back on.

Thanks again for your emails and prayers they are always appreciated. I am praying for you too and for prayer requests you have sent me.

Till next time be encouraged and live everyday in the joy and strength of the Lord Jesus who lives in you.

Your Brother in Christ, Andrew

This is a little of whats been cooking in my kitchen.

This little dude was sitting in my sink.

Happy Easter

I am back here in Lichinga now I arrived back Thursday late morning. It is nice to be home. Melissa's parents were here for a little over two weeks and I got in on the last three days of their stay. I really enjoyed working with Frank, Melissa's Dad. As you can see from the pictures below we had some fun together.

Frank has roasted many pigs so Saturday we roasted one and I tried to help him some. It was so good. All of us here at the base got together for supper that night and had a feast.

I was holding the pig's tongue trying to make it look like it was sticking out of my mouth but it was very hot and so I had to throw it and this is what it looked like when the picture was snapped.

A few people have asked to see what my house looks like so i have included this video.

Here are a few pictures incase the video doesn't work.

My roommates.

This is the oven I made