The Rains Have Arrived!!

Trying to drive thru the RAIN!!!

Praise the Lord- The rains have come! And they have come in abundance! We thank God for sending the rains, and are enjoying slightly cooler weather (only plus 30-35 now!), but we know that the hungry months are far from over, and even with the rain, many will still struggle to feed their families as they have lost all their seed in the month of no rain. Please join with us in Praising our Lord for the rain, and also bringing the needs of the people here before Him as well.

It was one week ago when the rains started- and its absolutly amazing how green everything has gotten in that one week! Maybe I only notice it now because this last week has been SOOO busy for us- in fact this is going to be one long blog to get it all in!

Rick and I on the Mozambiquan Coast

Last week tuesday we joined Dwight and Lynn as they headed to Beira on the coast to say goodbye to Kim Lagore, who has been with us on the mission for five months as a short term volunteer. After dropping her off at the airport we madly drove around the city trying to get some errands done, and trying to avoid getting absolutly soaked. (when the rains finally come around here they definetly come with "gusto"!)

One of our sponsored kids, Gina, enjoying a wonderful chicken and rice dinner.

We then returned home to the mission for one day to have our Christmas party with the orphans in our sponsorship program. It was a wonderful time! The kids were thrilled with everything- including the chicken and rice dinner they enjoyed at a restaurant about 40 minutes from here. After a wonderful lunch Rick and Joao told the Christmas story, and we played some games. Then we came back to the mission, watched the movie Cars (in english... although cartoons seem to be understood in any language!) and then handed out presents for each child. It was so special to see the smiles and the laughter as each child opened their gift. Their caregivers were so thankful for the gifts they started to dance and sing- it was a really neat moment for me.

drinking out of a glass bottle is something little Noemia had not quite mastered

All our oprhans, most of the caregivers and some of our staff, Jorge, our Orphan Sponsorship "guy" is on the left.

It was interesting to see how the kids responded.. some were so excited by it all, and others seemed a bit shocked to be holding a doll, a ball, pencil, crayons, notebook, hair clips and sweets! I was so proud of one of our little guys- Tito. Dwight saw him opening up his bag of sweets and asked if he could have one. Without even missing a beat, Tito reached into his bag, and handed Dwight the biggest sweet in there! (Dwight of course said thank you and gave it right back!) Filipe and I working on his 'thumbs up" gesture. Rick & his very strong volunteer doing an illustration at Pastor Antonio's church in Guru.

After the excitement of the Christmas party, it was time for Rick and I to pack our bags to head north for the weekend. We found out once we got up there that Rick was not going to be speaking at a youth conference (like we had prepped for) but rather at a conference for youth leaders and pastors. So after hastily re-organising and writing out some sessions on Friday night, we spent saturday with a wonderful group of leaders who truly are desiring to see the youth in their churches and communities reached for Christ. Rick also spoke at the church of one of our training school moniters on Sunday morning. It was a good trip- and gave us a chance to experience travelling on Mozambiquan "highways" in the rainy season. It was definetly a good way to realise how absolutely neccesary a reliable vehicle is!

This was part of the "being fixed" part of the road- not the worst section by any stretch of the imagination!!!

Anyhew... now that I have covered everything briefly- Ill attach some links here to my facebook albums from the orphan party and our trip up north. There are so many good pictures.. its hard to just post a few here!

trip up north- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195179&l=67181&id=680190439 orphan party- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=193717&l=f390b&id=680190439

We would also like to say Merry Christmas to all, and we hope your christmas season is filled with family and friends. We are blessed to have been invited to a Christmas get together with some brazilian friends living here in Mozambique- which promises to be a fun evening!

Thank you so much for all your prayers! Feliz Natal! Rick & Heather

I just thought this was an awesome shirt. Made me smile.