Tendai- (Thank You)

This week we welcomed baby Tendai Flora-Beth Rosa to our family! Currently we are only fostering her until we can get our adoption application underway, and eventually, Lord willing, approved. Her given name is Rosa, but as we see her as God's gift to us, we felt it appropriate to name her Tendai (Tendye) a shona word meaning, "Thank You". She is seven months old, and a very petite 5 kilos.

Getting her arrival medical checkup by nurse Lynn- handy having a nurse next door! First walk- LOVED IT! Magnum has become very protective of her... he comes running when she cries.

What a beautiful smile!!!

giggling at daddy's silly faces.

We are so grateful to all of you who have been praying for this whole proccess. We have already seen God working. Please continue to pray for us and for Tendai- we are still waiting for results from her HIV test. We are praying that she will be negative, and could use all the prayers we can get! Also we need prayers that the paperwork we need will come quickly, the officials and judges will be in favor of our request to adopt and that usually slow process's will go QUICKLY!!! We are also asking for prayer for our vehicle fund, not only so we can effectively continue our ministry, but also because Tendai's carseat barely fits in the Isuzu!

 This week is a busy week with our intensive seminars going on here at the farm, rick is teaching every day, and I will be assisting as well as watching Tendai Rosa! Ahh the busy life of a parent!

Blessings, Rick and Heather!

A few shots of Beauty!

Again, Im sorry for the long space between posts!! Its been two weeks of being busy with stuff that doenst really warrant a slew of pictures, nor a blog post on the joys of paperwork and finance sheets! However, I did want to let you know we have made it home from South Africa- determined to never again have to make the trip in our Isuzu! This time down we were driving Dwight and Lynn's truck as it needed to be serviced,  and the difference was amazing! The roads are still horrible, but I never fully appreciated shock absorbers, leg room, functioning windshield wipers and lockable rear windows until this trip!!! Our last few days in South Africa I took a few pictures, all from the stairway leading to our flat at Mercy Air, one of the most peaceful places ever (once you get used to the small engine planes taking off and landing!).

There had been lots of fires burning in the Eucalyptus plantations (not bad fires, good ones to help remove old stumps so they can replant, i think) around Mercy Air, so the air was full of a smokey haze, which led to this beautiful sunset!

This beauty is just one of many flowers that graced our stairway, on this HUGE vine that went all the way up ! Only problem was there wasnt much room left to walk seeing as the jungle was kinda overtaking the whole thing, so they trimmed it back to make it easier to get up to our place without getting soaked by the rain/dew on the vine every time! Glad i got this picture before they trimmed it though.

I just like this picture... i think its pretty. :)

We want to thank everyone for their prayers, we have been recieving encouraging news regarding our desire to adopt, and hope to be able to give an update soon. We also have had many days of safe travel, and have been blessed to see our truck fund keep growing. We are praying that the rest of the funds will come in so we can continue with our childrens ministry training seminars up north- at this point taking our truck on another long trip up north seems rather sketchy- it barely survived the last trip!

Please continue to pray for us, our health, safety, work and ministry here in Mozambique! Also, this coming week we have our intensive training seminars for the monitors in our Bible School. This is a very busy time, Rick will be teaching two complete courses( Sunday School Ministry and Ministry to Youth), and I will be assisting with teaching each day on the topic of Scripture Memorization techniques. Please pray for a time of learning and fellowship with our Mozambiquan co-workers.  Blessings! Rick & Heather

I know.. Im a bad bad blogger. sorry.

ok... so its been awhile. I apologise! Its been a very busy few weeks, but we are now in South Africa getting some much needed rest, and catching up on a few errands etc. Ill upload a few pictures from the last few weeks so you can see what went on- it was great to have the nursing team here, and we were sad to see them go! I know the love and care they showed so many in our community will be a testimony for a long time to come!

this is seriously the cutest most squishiest kid i have seen in a long time.. what a sweetheart!

on of the Mozambiquan nursing students we worked with listens to a fetal heartbeat using something called a fetalscope or something like that. (essentially a funny shaped piece of wood with a hole in it)

the whole prairie nursing team and Sr. Da Cruz- director of Vanduzi Hospital

carleen gives one of our school kids a piggy back ride!

suzanne, cuddles with baby Kinead. Baby Kinead is the tiny baby I posted a picture of before. Sadly, Kinead had full blown AIDS, and passed away this past week. Although we are saddened by her passing, we rejoice that she is now pain free and dancing in heaven. The love and compassion the nurses showed to her and her family will be a testimony of God's neverending Love for many years to come. 

The nursing team brought Mae Marosa a new flip flop (she has only one leg), Kristine shows off the one they relplaced- held together by shoelace and string!

pouring water to give the school kids- this was to help wash down some medicines given, but the team also spent many hours serving lunch in the school kitchen!

Thank you for all the prayers in the last little while- we needed them! We are grateful to have Dwight and Lynn back here in Africa with us, and are looking forward to another couple of busy months ahead of us. Our intensive training seminars for the Bible School start in just a few weeks and we (mostly Rick) will be busy teaching there, as well as hopefully prepping for another Childrens Ministry Training Seminar in the near future. 

In other news we are pretty much half way to our fundraising goal for our new truck- It has been awesome to see God's people respond to our need- THANK YOU!

Also, we are continuing to pursue adoption here in Moz, and could definetly use some prayers in that regard. I think ill make a list of prayer requests - i always like it when folks tell me specific needs, so here goes:

1. That funds will continue to come in for our vehicle fund.

2. That until those funds come in, our current vehicle will "keep on truckin".

3. That government offices and officials will be open to our adoption request, and that the needed papers will come thru so we can "start" the process. (it can take MONTHS upon MONTHS for stuff to happen around here... and even then could fall thru)

4. That our intensive seminars will go well, and will be a great time of learning for all involved.

5. For health and safety for us as we travel and work here.

I think thats a good list for now! Blessings- Rick & Heather