Home Again

Well I was up at 4:30 am and tossed until 6am in which I couldn't stay in bed, maybe because it's  9 hours later in London. Staying in bed until 3pm isn't too bad even if I technically wasn't asleep until 4am London time.  Anyway, time to get back at it. 

You can see more pics here:

Africa

Istanbul

Transıtıon

Hey everyone sorry ıt has been a lıttle whıle. We just haven´t had the same opportunıtes for the net as İ dıd the fırst trıp. Anyway last sunday was great. We celebrated wıth everyone at the ADPP compound, handed out cırtıfıcates for ordınatıon, lıscencıng and class partıcıpatıon. We fınıshed up by celebratıng communıon ın the courtyard. Monday we were able to clımb the ¨Old man¨ wıth a pastor from Malowı and spend more tıme wıth the kıds at the orphanage. To say the least ıt was a remarkable day. Agaın sorry I dont have any pıctures off hand I wıll try to down load some soon. And sorry about the Spellıng ım on lımıted tıme and the spellcheck ıs ın a dıfferent language.

More of the same

We've been going a little later into the evening this week, and getting into some great conversations with the leaders.

To clariffy yesterdays comments, if we could only harnes the raw energy of Mozambiquens into somthing productive it would be increadable. For examble the guy who delivers Maze to the orphanage pushes a wagon well a cart like thing with full sized car tires about 5km with over 200kg of Maze down a road that swallows cars whole. (Seriously we couldn't travel over 10km in the land cruser) and he does it for $5. Sure thats good money here, but its a lot of work a whole lot. You can't speak of laziness around here, cuz its just not true. Typing "cuz" instead of because is lazy. Anyway, my head still spins.

conflicting

africa is full of paradox, somtimes i think they should be rulling the world because of their hard work and resourcefullness and somtimes I think well... they shouldn't at all.

Sad News

So i just learned the other day that as one of the district overeseares was on his way too the conference here in chimoi, he fell ill and they admitted him in a hospital. well, they made an announcment that he past away. One of the 58 who were going to be arriving! People were concerned, but not shocked. Death is so much a part of life here.

Sunday

What a fun day today, we (pastors and leaders from the conference) visited one of the local churches. We fit 189 people in a 15’x35’ mud/stucco church. (church is the building at the back.) Don’t let the picture fool you, we had to duck down to go through the door. But wow! You get that many people jammed into that small of room, as soon as you start singing you get a glimpse of what heaven will be like. All the nations praising God. Oh and by the way, its already decided that it wont be either contemporary or traditional songs sung their, only African. Harmonizing, clapping and dancing…absolutely amazing. Anyway, I figure when we start discussing church plans we might want to consider this church especially the washroom facilities. Not quite as much privacy as you would like but quite cost effective.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow things are still slow going, but if it is taking this long to move through it you know it is new material for most here.

Hope all went well yesterday,

Blessings.

This Past Week

So we had a chance to visit Mark and Andrea’s orphanage this past week.

It is only a “day” orphanage something like world vision or compassion would do. The children come for a breakfast and lunch, they get help with school and have Bible studies, and actually get to be kids a little bit. Many of the kids are actually children who are now being raised by an ante or uncle because their parents have passed away, or they are from single parent homes. Most will be second place to the original children. Not only was I immediately smitten by their infectious smiles and warm greeting. I was impressed that as we arrived unannounced the group of younger children were in a circle singing and the older (pre teens) were in the chapel studying. I was expecting a bit more chaos, but Mark said he is quite fortunate to have a staff (local run) that is very trustworthy even with finances. I’m picking up that it is a little difficult to find people who don’t need to be heavily monitored.

Anyway, they seem to be doing some great work. You can pray for them though it looks like Mark and Andrea will be loosing their vehicle some time next week, and they are a little concerned about that as they also have 2 children. It’s not that easy to move around and run a orphanage without one. So pray that God would provide a vehicle, Mark would even go with a motorcycle although Andrea’s thinking that would still be difficult to do an emergency run too a hospital if needed.

Life in Chimoi

As I mentioned yesterday, we made it without any real problems. It’s been quite warm during the day around 23, but it does cool down during the night. We arrived in Beara stayed the night and headed to the game park to meet the locals… of the animal kind, which was a nice start to the trip and it gave us a bit of time to get our feet under us rather than jumping straight away into teaching.

We met the pastor and leaders yesterday all 58 of them. Most of them men and 4-5 women who are leaders for the Women of the Church of God. We jumped into teaching which is taking a bit longer than I was planning. One of the Translators is speaking in one of the local tribal tongues, but isn’t that proficient in it, so there is lots of pausing as he clarifies in Portuguese especially when dealing with Biblical concepts. Lots of fun though. Again the singing is a huge treat. It’s great! One leads out with a line and is answered by deep harmonies, clapping and dancing, the leader then responds and is answered again by the rich sound of the people. Quite amazing. They wanted myself and the other Pastor (Dave Van Roon) too sing for them and I had to explain there is a lot wrong with that request (as most of you know.)

Tammie Tregellas the missionary from Malawi who is taking us around is great. She knows what she is doing and works really hard. She has organized this whole event which is quite an accomplishment since the church in Mozambique has never all met together at one venue before. It is the first time many of the pastor have actually met one another. And they have never had a General Assembly. It is quite an honor to be a small part of that.

We’re staying with a wonderful couple Mark and Andrea Pavkov. They are doing work for some of the local orphanages in the area. They’re great hosts and have treated us really well, and are wonderful laid back people (which clashes with my personality…me with my attention to detail and organization). So all is quite well.

Over the next 2 week not much will be changing in our schedules we will get up, teach come home, eat, sleep. So not a lot of excitement going on, Chimoi probably isn’t the best place to vacation, not a lot of sites to see or necessarily the safest, so we wont be venturing too far from home. But we are truly enjoying the all the people around us, the Pastors and leaders at the school as well as the missionaries.

Till next time.

Im still alive

hey, eveyone they didn't frisk me at the boarder so i am offically in... well i have been for a couple days now. Met with the Pastors and leaders today, it was great...jsut as much enthusiasm and excitment for learning as last time. Im sorry I havn't been able to connect online and I really don't have too much time right now, however i think tomorrow I will be able to connect a write some more.

Blessing on you all hope all is well.
Dave