A Good African Rain

This is a video I took a few weeks ago and wanted to post but never had the time. It will give you a little taste of just how much rain can come down at once around here.

We Are in Pemba

Tuesday morning we had hoped to leave Lichinga by 5am, but we still had to get one of the flat tires fixed that was punctured when we went to the lake. After getting the tire repaired we left at 9:30. We had a good 6 hour 300km trip down to Cuamba. It was so nice that Peter was going that way anyways and that we didn't have to go by chap it was so much more comfortable with him. Some SIM missionaries there in Cuamba had us over for supper which was very nice of them.

We spent the night in Cuamba and were up early the next morning to catch the train to Nampula. We got tickets for second class cause we heard that things are often stolen in third class and you don't even always have a place to sit. Second class only cost about $11.00 and it was an eleven hour train ride and we had beds that folded down of the walls if we wanted to sleep. It was a very nice way to travel. That was the first time I had ever traveled on a train. I have been on subways in cities before but never traveled any great distances. We probably went about 500km on the train but the train wasn't very fast and it made many stops. This gave us a chance to take in the sites of the wonderful scenery. The mountains were very stunning.

Some children at one of the places that the train stopped.

Trying to get some sleep on one of the beds.

I wish I had my rock climbing gear when I saw some of these.

We picked up many people along the way most of them got into these to box cars. They would bring a lot of there produce and things with them to take and sell in Nampula.

Most of the time when we would stop people would be coming to the windows and selling different kinds of food and drinks.

They don't often look old enough to be taking care of younger children but they do anyways.

We arrived into Nampula at about 4:30pm. We had been given directions of how to get to the bus station but when we go to where it was supposed to be it wasn't the right place. Thankfully we met up with a nice english speaking muslim man and he walked us across town to the bus station and part of the way there we met a taxi driver friend of his and he drove us the rtes. of the way. The bus station was supposed to have a place inside where we could sleep the night because we had to be there early in the morning to get the bus to Pemba. Unfortunately there wasn't any place inside to stay and there were many other people spending the night there as well with many things they had bought in Nampula to take back to where they live to resell. the space was quite limited so we ended up renting some grass mats and sleeping in the bus parking lot under the stars. Thankfully it didn't rain but the bugs bugged us a little and didn't make for the best nights sleep.

This is where we camped out for the night.

On Thursday which was our third day of travel we had a 7 hour bus ride to Pemba. We were met my a missionary couple from the Iris base here and they brought us to the base and made us feel very at home. We are enjoying having electricity, running water and internet. It is quite warm here and Rudy is finding it especially hard to handle.

I have heard many things about the base here in pemba and the missionaries here from the missionaries in Lichinga so it is nice to be able to see what goes on here and put some names to faces. They have about 150 children that live with them here who have lost one or both of there parents. They also run an elementary school here and they have 1,000 students in the school must of them are from the surrounding villages. They provided lunch everyday for all 1,000 students. Thats a lot of rice and beans. They have many other ministries as well that I don't know much about yet.

This afternoon I went with several others to the jail. Every Friday afternoon they minister in the jail. The jail is a real floating crowd as some are just there very short term or awaiting trial. So each week you are often dealing with new people. They also go to the prison on a different day of the week and that is where the prisoners are who are in longer. We had a great time in the jail with about 20 men and 10 ladies. A few of us share the gospel and we prayed for many people who were sick.

A picture Rudy took of a fishing boat on the beach.

For supper we went to the Pemba Beach Hotel for some long awaited burgers. They were great and the view was stunning. This is supposed to be the third nicest beach in the world. That's what someone said, anyways it is very nice. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a chance to go in and check it out for ourselves.

We Are Headed For Kenya

It has been another very eventful two weeks. We have been able to get a good amount of work done, have some fun and go to a village on outreach during this time. It seems there aren’t too many dull moments around here and we like it that way.

It seems now like rainy season is really starting to come to an end. We have gone four days in a row with out rain. I think that is about a first since I have been here. This time of the year it is especially beautiful around here. Everything is nice and green, the people are bringing in there harvests and the elephant grass is growing very tall some of it is almost ten feet tall and it will still be growing for a while longer. As we have spent quite a bit of time on the roof of the admin building Rudy has been pointing out on more then one occasion just how beautiful God has made it around here. We get such a nice view from up on the roof but all too quickly it seems I can start to not appreciate it.

Speaking of the roof of the admin building, yes we are that far. Thankfully all the blocks are laying all the wood timbers are up and the roof is all sheeted except for eight pieces that we are short. It very nice now we can really see some progress no for a while when we were laying the blocks it seemed like we weren’t getting very far but once the roof is on the building really starts to take shape. The windows and doors still needed to be installed, then the walls inside and out need to be plastered and the floors poured. That is still maybe about two months of work to go after I get back unless some of it gets done while I am gone.

Last time I was here I suggest they make an arch over this doorway so I got to do it.

This is the guy I get to work with.

The finished roof

It seems we still have rat problems this was #6. Yes I am in my pyjamas because we had to get out of bed to catch it.

We were also able to put stacks making the lay out for where the school is going to go. That will be the next project after the admin. Lord willing there is a man coming in the next few weeks that will be using a back hoe here so we hope that he will be able to dig the trenches for the foundation of the school. It is exciting to see how God is expanding the ministry here. This school will be for the orphan girls that they will be taking in and maybe in the future for kids from the surrounding villages. For now there will be two class rooms, an office and storage room. We have plenty of room to expand for more students in the future if and when the need arises.

On Saturday Feb 27th a group of 7 of us from the base here went to Lake Niassa to spend some time on the beach. Rudy hasn’t done much other then work since he arrived so we thought it would be good if we could take him to the beach. Peter let us borrow his truck for the 60km trip, one way, that is on some pretty rough roads. We made it there with no problems had a very fun and relaxing time.

The Beautiful Beach in Maponda

A nice bunch of Bananas

An interesting bug I found on the tree.

This dog didn't want to go in the water so we helped him a bit.

On the way home though it was a little bit different story. We had gone about 10 km and we got a flat tire. Thankfully it was only flat on one side but still it was flat. We changed the tire with the spare and prayed that the Lord would protects it and that we could make it home without anymore flats.

It seemed God had a different plan for us and when we were about 20 km from home we got another flat a stone punctured the side of the tire. I was driving and didn’t have a clue what we were going to do. On the way driving to the lake we only passed about three vehicles and now it was much later in the day we weren’t likely going to see any other cars and we were in the middle of no where. So the only thing that made sense to do was pray. We pray and thanked the Lord for our second flat tire and asked him to provide for us because we didn’t know what to do. I tried to call Peter but his cell phone battery was dead so I could get through. We all got out and looked at our hissing flat tire and started trying to think of what we could do. It hadn’t even been five minutes since we stopped and this guy pulls up in a little white pick up. In the back of his truck he had a very balled spare tire that had the same bolt pattern as our wheels. He was more then willing to let us borrow his spare wheel to get us home. We then prayed that he wouldn’t get a flat tire otherwise we would really be in trouble. Thankfully we made it home without anymore flats and we took of the spare wheel gave it back to the man. He was so nice about it and would let us pay him anything for the use of it, he said “If I was stuck you would do the same for me right?” I guess we had better keep our eyes out now for people in need of a spare wheel. It shows us once again that God is watching us and He knows our needs long before we tell Him but He wants us to have out total dependence on Him.

This past Friday a group of 15 of use went back to Lake Niassa. Thankfully this time we didn’t have any flat tires. Once we got to the lake we all got into two boats for a 30km trip up the coast to Chiluwaya, a village that is pretty much only accessible by boat. There are some South African missionaries that live on the lake and are working in a few villages in that area. The village is right on the lake so fishing is one of the main occupations and it is tucked away in beautiful mountains.

All of us in the truck ready to go to Chiluwayu.

On the boat

A little village on the edge of the lake.

Our first site of Chiluwaya

Everyone watching the film.

This bug climbed under my leg in the dark while I was watching the film it is about two inches long.

Early morning sunrise

Our nice tent site.

All these fishermen wanted their pictures taken before they went off to work.

Off to work he goes.

One of the huts where they smoke the fish.

Now thats a fish he didn't catch it he bought it.

Setting out for home.

We arrived just in time to get the sound system and projector set up to show the Jesus film before it got dark. There was a good turn out with probably about 200 people there to see the film. It is a quite strong muslim village but five people accepted the Lord. There is missionary working in the village and he has one or two cell group that he is discipling in the village as well.

Around 9:30pm the film was all over and we got everything packed back into the boat and then we had to go up the coast a little ways to were we would set up out tents on the beach to try to get a little sleep that night. Don’t be fooled sand seems quite soft when you are waking in it but when you try to sleep on it, it is quite hard. I don’t think any of us had our best nights sleep ever but we got some rest anyways. We left Chiluwaya shortly after seven and made it back to Lichinga by 1pm. If you want to see a great video of the outreach check out Jesse's blog www.kingsquestministries.blogspot.com. It was really nice to get to go on another out reach in a village it had been quite a while since I had gone and it was the first for Rudy. There are still many of these unreached villages all over the province. It is maybe difficult to imagine that there are still places where they have never heard about Jesus and the Good News of the gospel. Unfortunately there are still many villages right here in the province of Niassa and many other places around the world where this is true. Please pray for these places that there would be people willing to go and carry the Good News to them. The goal here is to see that every village in Niassa has the chance to at least hear the gospel once by the end of the year. It is a big goal but we serve a great God and with Him nothing is impossible.

Over the last week or so the last few final touches in the round house have been done. Melissa made curtains and painted the kitchen and it is ready to be lived in. This after making Cinnamon rolls for everyone here on the base we moved all our things into the round house and we will sleep one night in there before we leave. It has already been just over seven weeks since Rudy arrived it sure doesn’t feel that long. This is our last day here tomorrow morning Peter will drive us down to Cuamba. We are both really looking forward to going to Kenya. Please keep this trip in your prayers as travel on this continent always seems to have surprises. Also I hear Nairobi is not the safest city in the world right now so you could pray about that as well as there have a lot of political issues they are dealing with. Thankfully we are not staying in Nairobi but we will be passing through there a few times. At some point I need to go to the Mozambican Embassy to try to get my residency visa, would really appreciate your prayers for this as well.

Rudy and I were just talking and trying to figure out where the last two weeks have gone. It has almost been a month already since our attempt at getting into Malawi which means we have to renew our one month visas this week. Thankfully we can do this right here in Lichinga and we don’t have to leave the country. This renewal will be good enough to do use till we go to Kenya.

Yes an opportunity has opened up for us to do a little bit of traveling at the end of Rudy’s time here. Lord willing on March 9th Peter will drive us six hours down south to the Cumba. We will over night there and catch a train at 3am the following morning. It will be around a 12 hour train ride to Nampula, where we over night once more and then catch a bus from there to Pemba. Iris has a base there in Pemba so we will stay there for a few days. We might have a chance to get to the beach there some as well as getting to know the ministry of Iris a bit better and then on the 16th we will fly from there to Nairobi, Kenya. My sister Joia and her husband Philip and their two children will be in Kenya for three weeks and so we will spend about two weeks with them. Philip is a doctor and will be helping in a hospital there during that time. We are excited about this it will kind of be a mini family reunion on the other side of the world. Lord willing I will fly back to Mozambique on the 30th and Rudy will fly home to Canada from Nairobi.

This means we only have ten days of work left till we start our 1,000km journey across Mozambique to the coast and then on to Kenya. We are very happy to finally have all the little details finished up on the round house. We finished the kitchen and poured small concrete patios outside the doors. Some of the ladies are going to make curtains for it this week. We probably won’t end up living in it before Rudy leaves. There is a man from South Africa coming to Lichinga this week and needs a place to stay for a few weeks so he is probably going to be living in the round house. I am looking forward to calling it home when I return from Kenya, I think it is going to be a nice little place for me for a while and maybe another guy if the Lord were to send someone.

Just a little note if anyone has a love for the Lord and would like to come and work along side us here for any length of time please feel free to send me an email and let me know. There are always plenty of things to do for people with any skill levels. I am not pressuring you but if God has already been speaking to you then maybe consider it.

The work on the admin building has come along quite well. We have had a few good days of block laying and the walls are up quite high. We have all the lintels poured over the doors and mainly we just have to build the walls up the rest of the way to the ceiling. It has been continuing to rain a lot almost every day so we often have to quit outside work for a few hours in the middle of the day while the storms pass.

What it was like when we started.

Where we have gotten so far.

This past Saturday morning we lowered the last five rings down into the well. We are very happy to see that there is over three meters of water in there now. That should be plenty of water as the Wilcox’s will be building a house down there next year, Christian and Christie have have just started building a house on that property as well and Lord willing in a few weeks there is a couple coming from the states who will be build there too. It is so exciting to see the new people that God is calling to come here, some for short term some for longer. We are happy to have them for any length of time.

Last Tuesday Rudy and I went to the prison with Tyren and Victor. I really like the time we can spend with the men in the prison. I am so encouraged when we can spend time with the men who have given their lives to the Lord. To see them worship the Lord as truly free men even though they are still locked behind high walls. God is bring transformation in there as His church in the prison is reaching out as his hands and feet to their fellow prisoners. Two Muslim men accepted the Lord while we were there and it is evident that there is a softening of the hearts of many more of Muslims. Please keep these men in your prayers there are about 20 or 30 out of the 300 or so who have accepted the Lord. Also prayer for the guards that their would be opportunity to speak into their lives and that they would have hearts ready to hear from Jesus.

Peter and Debbie went to Malawi for a few days the week before last because Debbie needed to go to the dentist. They were praying a lot that they wouldn’t have any problem getting across the border into Malawi after the trouble they gave Rudy and I. They went into the immigration office and the officer asked them “Are you Christians?” they reply enthusiastically “Yes we are?” This lead to a lengthy conversation with Him about the Lord and why they believe in God and why they have entrusted their lives into His care. After sometime the officer said “I think today is my time to give my life to the Lord.” It is so encouraging to meet people who’s hearts are open and ready to receive the Lord. Unfortunately it wasn’t the officer that gave Rudy and I a such a hard time but we will keep praying for him.

Here is Howard's roof completed.

A nice grass hopper pic Rudy took.