Running from Elephants!

This past week the short term volunteers led our Orphan meeting. They acted out the story of Daniel in the lions den. Here is Daniel praying to God- aparently that big white lion was also praying. :) Tendai had lots of fun joining in the lion play.. shes gonna be a great actress, im sure of it.

As you know we have been planning a trip to South Africa, for much needed rest, vehicle service and also to pick up Ricks parents. Unfortunatly, Rick and Tendai could not join us on the trip down, Rick will be coming in on Sunday, driving the truck of some friends who needed it brought down to SA, but Tendai will remain in Chimoio for six days with good friends. Her paperwork was not completed on time, but we also praise God that it wasnt DENIED, it was only DELAYED!

The short termers and I made it down in one peice, despite the roads. Mozambiques roadways are such a strange mix of soooo nice and soooooo horrible. Sometimes its like driving on a nice Canadian highway (cept instead of pine trees we have huge coconut ones), and then others its like driving thru on a muddy/dusty back road that hasnt seen a grader in a decade, or worse! It makes even the most comfortable of trucks resemble a pinball machine with people and objects bouncing all over the place.

This is a section of the EN1 currently undergoing "repairs" (they tear everything apart, start rebuilding just in time for rainy season to come, make a huge mess of everything, and then start all over again). I just love how instead of pilons or workers to instruct you when to stop or go one whole side of the road has large chunks of trees as barriers (not like those could have been used for useful shade or anything). They paved ONE lane, and covered the other one in trees, but have no one there to help with traffic flow. And you have to fight off goats, people on bikes, small children running onto the highway to sell fruit, carts pulled by cows, oncoming traffic, traffic going the same way and trying to pass on a single lane with oncoming traffic... oh the list goes on and on. I will be so glad when construction is finished. Ha Ha.. i doubt that day will come! There are several sections of the highway that have no pavement and only dirt or mud, some sections pavement have more holes than surface (which is even less fun then the dirt sections) and then some have pavement with holes, that someone graciously filled.. with cement- so now the pothole has erroded around it and you are left with a little mountain of cement sticking up in the middle of the highway. OH well, its all worth it for the amount of stuff we get accomplished in our short trips down here, the rejuvanation we get from being at Mercy Air, and the enjoyment of eating at a restaurant that serves more than "chicken and chips"!

Murray (Lynn's cousin) braved the trip down with us on his motorcycle- I think he is crazy, but he survived!

hmmm. four pedestrians, two rollers (one on each side to make sure you have NOWHERE to go if you need to ditch it), a paver, a dump truck, a white bakkie, a semi truck... oh yes, and US. (oh wait.. theres a grader in the back there) Typical traffic on the "highway" where they are doing repairs.

After arriving in South Africa in once peice, we were blessed to spend a day in Kruger National Park, its amazing to see the animals in their natural habitat, and to Praise God for His amazing creativity.

We didnt see any of the big cats, but we did see plenty of baboons. They are a strange mix of creepy and cute.. and are really fascinating to watch. They have a very interesting social structure and their grooming habits are incredible!

Sunset near Lower Sabie Rest Camp.

Here is the guy responsible for the title of this post.... He came out of the bush, and literally chased (by chase i mean, walked directly for our vehicle - if we hadnt moved im sure he would have moved us) us down the road( in reverse) about 50 Metres before walking around behind the vehicle and crossing this bridge. Im really glad he walked around cus the thought of reversing over that tiny bridge was not comforting.

Another large male that didnt seem to care about us being there, man was he HUGE!

This little guy wasnt nearly as threatening, even though he tried to be! He mock charged us several times!

I love these pics of Tendai, she is starting to do the cheesy smile for the camera now...

mid smile.. not quite cheesy yet.

CHEESE!!! (she now has five teeth, three on the bottom and two on top!)

Looking very hip in her bandana.

Thank you all for praying for her paperwork, we are blessed to have friends who can watch her for this week while we pick up Ricks parents, and Lord willing our lawyer will have time to sort out the paperwork before our next trip down to south africa in two and a half weeks to drop them off. (yes two trips in a month... its a good thing south africa is so nice bc otherwise it would soooo not be worth it to drive down!)- our next trip will be a little family vacation for us as we will be spending several days in Kruger with ricks parents- who have never been on safari before, so that should be lots of FUN!!

Current prayer requests include continued health for all of us, travel safety over the next week as Rick comes down and then we all go back up. and for Ricks parents as they fly. Also for those in our area who have lost their crops, and now need to replant everything in order to try and grow enough food for this year.

Blessings,

Rick, Heather & Tendai