Vehicle Project

Here is a cool little movie that we made as we try and raise funds to purchase a vehicle for our work here in Mozambique.  Hope you enjoy it. 

Blessings.

Pastor Paulo's daughter brings her offering during the Sunday Service.

This week we had the opportunity to not only be a blessing to an Amor Orphan Program in Honde, but also be blessed in return. The past two weeks we have been purchasing items and packing up orphan care packs, to bring to Pastor Paulo's church. These Orphan Care Packs were funded by donors from Canada and the United States, as part of our Unique Christmas Gifts program.

Salena and I organising the care packages.

All packed up and ready to go!

Each Orphan child recieved some clothing, soap, school supplies, sweets, a toy or hair things, colored bandaids, balloons, toothbrush and stickers. They also recieved 2 Kilos of Beans, 1 Kilo of Rice, 1 Kilo of Salt, and a bar of laundry soap. Each orphan family group also received a water jug (20 litre), and a warm blanket for the cold winter nights.

Waiting patiently!

Davide ( he wants to be the president one day) comes up to recieve his care package.

The orphan kids.. just itching to get into the bags!!

Pastor Paulo washes Rick hands - they provided a meal of rice and beans for us, as well as a love offering of fruits and veggies.

Ill let the pictures tell most of the story, but the one thing that really struck me was that the people insisted on giving US a love offering of fruits and vegetables- it is incredibly humbling to accept a gift of food, from those who have so little. Thank you to all those who gave towards our unique christmas gifts campaign. Those donations do make a huge difference in lives of so many!

Some of the kids just couldnt help but DIVE right in!

Rick trys to get big smiles.. and ends up with lots of laughter!

Salena beautifies some fingernails!

the girls (and all the adult ladies) LOVED the nailpolish they got in their packs!

Rick was trying his best to get them to smile big.. i'm not sure the littlest one was quite sure what to do with him.

This little guy was so cute- and was ENTIRELY thrilled with his new bright yellow car toy!

WARNING- this post contains some quite YUCKY pics. Parents and those with weak stomachs- BE ADVISED. (seriously)

In my last blog post I mentioned that we had a particularly draining day that I would blog about later. Well here is that blog. In case you did not read the title, I am now giving everyone fair warning that there is several pictures of an injury on this page that may not be appreciated by all my raving fans. There. I have now warned you twice- now you cant blame me!

We had planned to pretty much relax on Sunday, spend some time with Nat and Salena, and rest after a very busy week. Apparently, that wasnt to be! Just after ten a.m. Matthew rang our bell (actually Dwight and Lynn's but since they are not here we stole it). He had brought one of the students that the mission sponsors in Grade Six at the school in Chitundo (about a 20 minute drive by car away). Paulo had been biking since seven a.m. to bring word that one of the other students was VERY sick, he could barely sit up or stand, and needed to go back to the hospital for a blood transfusion. Paulo had already taken him to the hospital once already- such big responsibilities for a teenage boy!

Dr. Sebastien cleans the students arm with an alchohol swab.

Rick and I decided that we should probably drive the boy into Vanduzi hospital and see if the blood transfusion was even possible. So off we went. Once we picked up the sick boy and arrived at the hospital we were told that yes they did have the right kind of blood needed, but they didnt have the right bag or tubing to give him the transfusion! (this is completly typical of African hospitals!) Instead they decided to give him an IV of sugar water fluids and see if that would help him any. Im not a nurse, nor do I understand portuguese super well, so I got on my cell phone to call Lynn and see if this made any sense to her- she seemed to think it was ok so we decided to go ahead. It nearly broke my heart as I had to hold this terrified child, who speaks very little portuguese, and certainly wasnt understanding my weak attempts at consoling him, as the doctor inserted the IV line.

Lynn had suggested we ask the hospital to do a HIV test on this child, as he has been ill with one infection or another almost constantly. I asked the doctor, and because we had been entrusted with the boy by his grandfather, the doctor agreed. My heart sank as the doctor informed me that yes, this boy, only in grade six, was HIV positive. Because we didnt feel it was our place to tell the boy, we drove him home and arranged to meet with his Grandfather later in the day. When we showed up for that meeting the grandfather was not there, so we made new arrangements to meet with them the following morning, and turned the truck towards home, grateful for a chance to go home, relax and rest after a rather emotionally draining day.

Waiting for nearly forty minutes as the sugar water solution drips.

As we approached the farm, we saw our worker Lovemore, waving his arm frantically and screaming for us to stop. We pulled over to see what the comotion was. Lovemore approached Rick's side of the truck and showed him his hand. He had been stabbed by a man in the community, over some sort of family fued. As the man had attempted to stab Lovemores neck, he had blocked the knife with his hand, resulting in a deep wound to the base of his palm/wrist.

SOOOO we turned the truck BACK around, loaded Lovemore, his brother, and Mathew (to interpret) all into the vehicle and headed back to Vanduzi hospital yet again. As we walked in the Doctor looked at me rather oddly and said " Again Senhora??!!".

Praise the Lord that Lovemore's wound was mostly a flesh wound. Had the knife gone in at a slightly different angle it would have hit tendons, and blood veins! He recieved stitches, bandages and a prescription for antibiotics to fight infection.

Now, to put this all in perspective- trips to the hospital are not in any way the norm for us. I have been the hospital ONCE since arriving, and that trip was so Lynn could drop off a letter for the hospital director! Two trips in one day, with one resulting in very heartbreaking news, and the other making my stomach turn at the sight of so much blood was a bit stressful to say the least, as well as draining, both physically and emotionally!

Waiting for Lovemore as the Dr. stitches him up!

I came home, nearly in tears, grateful for my hot shower and soft bed to sleep on! Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it could have been much worse, and we are thankful that it wasnt! God is good, and He gives us the strength we need to make it thru days like this one, and ones that will be much harder as well! I had asked Lynn before she left what I was supposed to do if someone showed up with their hand all cut up or something- she had replied.. oh that probably wont happen! HA! Two days after she leaves Im faced with it! I think this was God's way of saying- "See- you can handle stuff around here without Lynn, you will survive, I AM HERE!"

Again, Thanks to everyone who prays for us on a regular basis. Every time you see our prayer magnet or bookmark- send up a prayer for us. We need those prayers every day, in every situation we encounter. They encourage us, they lift us up, and they make our ministry here an effective one.

This coming Sunday we are looking forward to delivering the Orphan Care Packs, which Salena and I have been busy putting together, purchased with funds donated thru our Unique Christmas Gift campaign. Please pray for safe travel and a time of fellowship as we travel up to Honde to meet with Pastor Paulo's orphan group and present them with much needed gifts of Love. God Bless, Rick & Heather

Taking Off!

Our Pilot- Dwight

That nice zinc roof down there is marosa's new home! the little dot in front of it is her old one!

This past week, only days before leaving for furlough and in the midst of mad flurry of paperwork and packing, Dwight took a few hours of his time to take Rick and I on a flyover of the farm. Matthew (our mission administrator) was with us in the truck, so lucky him ended up getting the ride of a lifetime as well! It was incredible to fly over this beautiful country- what looks amazing from the highway is downright spectacular from the air. We were able to get some good pictures and video of the farm, although I must admit, by the time we got there, and had finished our zig zagging, swooping, mock landings on unfinished air strips and such, my stomach had reached its limit! Matthew said his stomach was fine, but his head was "dizzy-ing"! Heres some pictures of the flight, if you'd like to see more click on this link to see my facebook album with all sorts of flyover pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=227414&id=680190439&l=2e9c2

Matthew and Rick with an assortment of cameras in the back seat. Matthew was sooo excited.

At one point we flew up into the clouds. (not my favorite part of the flight) but Matthew was shocked that such a thing was even possible! He thought clouds were solid objects! When we got back on the ground he was telling everyone how he had been IN a cloud!

I got to sit up front with Dwight- he told me not to touch ANYTHING. So i spent the majority of the flight holding on to my seatbelt with a death grip!

The hub of our farm, the mission office is about half way up and on the left of the litchee trees. (its hidden behind a tree sorta). The roof towards the top and in the middle of the picture is Dwight and Lynn's house . The water tower, generator house, pumps etc are all located at the top of the litchee trees. Our little cottage is located just to the right of where this picture is, up near the top. You can kinda see the line across the top of where the river flows, as well as the area where our waterfall is- just below that section of rock in the upper right. I understand thats a lot of information, but apparently people want to know what everything is in these pictures!!!

Anyhew, thanks again for all the prayers. This past few days have been very tiring for Rick and I, both physically and emotionally. We will blog about all that has happened later this week, but just know that we value your prayers for the people we work with, as well as for us- some of the things we see here can just break your heart! God Bless, Rick & Heather.