Finding Beauty

T- shirts decorated by DSBC's Kids Church Kids.

Heres a pic of a pic of the kids and their shirts, and the pretty fall shots my aunt sent.

Strange the things that make us miss home. I have been pretty good so far here in Africa- but today I received a parcel intended for some of our Orphan kids from on of our sponsoring churches, Dawson Settlement Baptist Church ( New Brunswick). My mom's family is from just down the road "a spell" and several relatives attend there. My aunt included some photos of the pretty fall leaves and trees from last fall. So many beautiful colors! I love fall- its my favorite season, and the sight of that beautiful display brought tears to my eyes. (Thank You Aunt Judy, I really liked them!) If it werent for the fact that I see so much beauty here in Africa as well, I would be tempted to get really homesick! Every day I see another beautiful landscape, person or place that I comment on- Im determined to say something about each one.. so I remember daily how lucky I am to be living my dream, serving God in Africa, and enjoying some amazing sights that many will never see (unless they check out our blogs regularly!!!) Here is just a few shots from last week.. beautiful faces!

Tito.... such a charmer.

Linette

Jorge, Gina, Me, Farai and Granny Vaida- excited about new school supplies.

Beautiful Baby Girl... awwww. Filipe! We are in South Africa at the moment, doing some scouting for the new truck we will soon be in the middle of raising funds for, picking up some supplies for ourselves and the mission and enjoying civilization once again. Being in SA means we have decent internet- so this blog post gets lots of photos!!!

The isuzu... practicing it's offroading.. on the highway.

One of the supplies we picked up was a new mop. Now that we have tile in our main room Lovemore needs a good mop to clean with. Last week when I got a really cheap mop from town (which im sure will last about 1/2 of one more cleaning) I asked him to first sweep and then mop. He looked at me.. then at the broom.. then at the mop.. confusion. "Senhora" he said- "what is that soft broom for? Am I to sweep twice?" (in portuguese of course) Sometimes I forget where we are... and yes.. even us missionaries forget to think things thru. How would Lovemore, a young man who lives in a stick hut, with a dirt floor have even two clues what to do with a mop???!!!!! He'd never even seen one! I explained how to get it wet, wring it out... wash.. rinse. Rick and I had a good laugh this week when I bought the new improved version with a squisher lever wringer thingy, twistable extendable handle and foam head- Rick figures I'll have to give a few lessons for sure!

the new mop (i figured i had to have some sort of picture to go with that long rather pointless story)

This is where the "good" highway ends.. and the "hideous" one starts!

A not so good section of the EN1- mozambique's version of the trans- canada!

It was a crazy trip down... but we made it- PTL! I took some pics of the road this time... for those of you who are wondering what we are talking about when we get all excited about each and every safe journey! And along the way we saw some of that amazing beauty I was talking about up near the beginning of this post.

Vilankulo "harbor"- dusk on a stormy day.

Typical Mozambiquean vehcile.. only got shocks on one side, way overloaded, with people on top yet. Its a miracle more people are not killed than already are.

Uhhh... can anyone see the highway???

Yeah right.. this is the sign telling us to slow down to sixty km/h- we hadnt gone over thirty in 45 minutes!

Again, thanks for your prayers- and special thanks to Dawson Settlement Baptist Church Jr. Church kids- those shirts made my day!!!( and Im sure they will make the day of several orphans as well!!) stay tuned for pics in the next few weeks! God Bless, Rick & Heather

Sunrise over the Indian Ocean- Vilankulo