Ok... so I have tried in vain to figure out how to move my pictures into the correct order , but apparently Blogger is having some issues and so.... all my pics are in the wrong order. So i guess I will just have to tell you the story thru pictures backwards! Our Children's Ministry Training Seminar went amazingly well- despite some big obstacles. It was obvious to us that Satan was not at ALL interested in having us train 25 leaders how to reach children with the saving Gospel of Christ. We battled thru sickness, incredibly bad roads, and a vehicle on the verge of falling apart (see later picture!), but God was faithful and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and teaching with the leaders who came.
The entire group of leaders- they were a very energetic group! (good thing cus they all want to be childrens ministry leaders!) They are standing in front of the church where we held our seminar.
Just before leaving on our trip home (again.. sorry about the wrong order of pics), Rick got out some trusty Duct Tape and re-attached the bull bar to the vehicle.. that lasted about an hour... then it was falling off again.
The ever present group of kids sitting at the entry way to our little area watching Rick "fix" the truck.
This little guy just melted my heart. There was definetly not a shortage of children in this community (nor in most communities here in Moz) !
Rick had some of the younger leaders do his "bad ingredients make good cookies = all things work together for good" illustration. These guys were probably only 12 years old, but were really excited about helping in church with the younger kids! AWESOME!
Hands on training.
Rick trying to learn a new game.. it consisted of slamming (gently) a bottle cap with seeds in it on the ground... the object (we think) was to get ONLY one seed to jump out. It seemed very complicated.
Talking about faith and teaching illustrations... they did really well!
The seed bouncing game.
There were about 15-20 kids who sat in on the sessions- this guy fell asleep and stayed this way for nearly an hour. Didnt look too comfy to me.
One of the leaders playing soccer with the kids, during a session break.
this church aparently goes thru a lot of drums!
This was with the flash... he was drumming SOOOO fast!
When we arrived at the town of Baue (Boway) we found the church had worked really hard and prepared an amazing enclosure area for us. We had a large area with reed fence, a casa de banho and our very own latrine. Let me say we were really appreciated it! The only somewhat awkward part was showering in a grass walled casa de banho with a tin can to pour water, only thirty or so feet away from a banca (store/bar type thing) BLASTING music with young people drinking and dancing late into the night. It certainly made showers a lot shorter!
Our tent, all set up and ready to go!
The kids... they were ALLWAYS there to watch our every move.. it was like living in a big grass covered fish bowl!!
This is part of the main road.. in fact the ONLY road that allows vehicles to get to Mutarara and Baue. yeah. big trucks drive down this. there were several times, where driving at 25-30 km and hour (or less) the bumps were sooo bad i hit the ceiling!!
TRAFFIC!!
the wheels are in a pothole.. so deep the bumper is almost on the ground!
another good size bump- it took us nearly 8 hours to travel less than 300 kilometres. NO JOKE! I think our poor truck was just as sore, if not more, than we were at the end!
Driving thru a dry riverbed... i wonder how anyone gets to this town in the rainy season?
All in all it was a great weekend, and we had a great time. Not only the participants came away blessed, we as well learned a lot of things and are excited to organise another seminar in the coming months! Even though both Rick and I were sick during the weekend, we know it was God who gave us strength to continue!
When we returned home it was exciting to hear that we now have had over 28,000 dollars donated towards our vehicle fund!!!! PRAISE THE LORD! Thank you so much to all who have given, we are nearly half way to our goal (vehicles here are very expensive, and importing them to Mozambique costs nearly 30% of the purchase price!!). We are praying that the rest of the funds will come in, so we can put the order in for the new truck as soon as possible. This last trip up north was as hard on the bakkie as it was on us! One fallen off bush bar, a few oil leaks, and some spontaneous locking later and our truck was just as happy to be home as we were! Thank you again to all who have prayed, donated, supported, sent us notes of encouragement- each and every one of them is appreciated! Blessings- Heather & Rick
p.s. the team of nurses arrived safe and sound and is doing well- ill attempt to get another blog up soon with pictures of their visit!
