Thursday, March 25, 2010

Feeling a Little Lonely This Week.

Hey All, Im feeling a little lonely this week. Well, maybe not Lonely exactly, because I DO have Tendai here with me, but I am missing my man as he is down south dropping off Chris and Corissa at the airport, and getting our truck serviced (and about a billion other errands). This will be the last trip down south before we go home on furlough (Lord Willing), so he has quite a bit of stuff that needs to be picked up!
The last few weeks have been very busy for us, with orphan meetings, food delivery trips, hosting Chris and Corissa, planning for other short term teams, school visits.... and more! Here are a few pics from the last little while.
This is Mattias, Mercy Air's Helicopter Pilot. He was the one who told Ron and Barb about the orphanage where Tendai was- and they in turn told us. He wont accept much thanks as he says he didnt do anything really- but for me his simple suggestion of an orphanage in Northern Mozambique led us to our daughter.. and for that we are eternally grateful!
Rick, Dwight and Pastor Ricardo went up north with Mattias and another Mercy Air pilot/board member in the helicopter to survey both the flood/ drought issues and to deliver much needed food aid to associations of pastors who were getting very near to starving. Here in mozambique we had a very severe drought during what should have been the rainy season, and then those living along the zambezi were flooded when the countries to the west recieved tons of rain and the river overflowed onto the flood plains.
The helicopter always draws a crowd.
Landing with a full load of maize.
Our staff here at the mission (we are trying to take a group photo more often!) This includes all our short term volunteers as well.
We went to the preschool one day to visit with the kids there. We brought some coloring sheets, and magnetic letters. Played a few fun games, and then colored- made me miss daycare!
After the helicopter trip, Rick planned yet another trip up north, this time with Chris and Corissa. They drove thru rivers (literally) to reach the Zambezi where they rented a motorboat from a local business and took a two hour trip across the Zambezi to deliver maize to a community on the other side.
Here one of the pastors shows the seeds they have been eating since their maize ran out.
Unloading the maize from the boat before it returned for a second trip across with yet more Maize. Each trip with the motorboat is 2 hours (against current, its shorter with current) but if they hadnt brought the motorboat these pastors would have had to take a 3-4 hour trip (with current) and then paddle back in a dugout canoe fully loaded with maize, against the current.. for a minimum of 7 hours.. most likely much more!
We Praise God that he protected them on their journey, especially when the truck (Izzy) broke down (they had to take Izzy since her canopy comes off much easier and they needed to bring back large fuel barrels with them). They had to drive THRU the night, getting stuck, repairing the truck as they went, and at one point having a local "helper" try to steal items out of the truck bed! Praise the Lord they got home safe, and were able to be a part of bringing Hope and encouragement to the pastors!
Even after driving thru the night and having NO sleep- Chris and Corissa were all smiles and ready to help serve lunch at the school. Here they sample some of the yummy suzda and beans!
They even had enough energy to play a game of frisbee with the orphans that afternoon. These kids LOVED frisbee. Had we known frisbee would be such a hit before we would have brought them out LONG ago!
Then on their last day here at the farm they finished the second coat of paint on the orphan home in Chitundo. Hopefully another group of volunteers will be able to paint the bottom half a shade of brown to help hide some of the dirt!
Mibia helped to watch Tendai while I took pics.
We didnt make them work the ENTIRE time they were here- after they finished painting we headed down to Selva a restaurant about 45 minutes from here that has a pool and caters mainly to folks traveling to and from Zimbabwe, and expats living here. We love their pool, and normally Tendai does as well- although this day she was rather grumpy so she didnt last very long. Here she is sporting her new swimsuit- a gift from Corissa's grandma, Lois, from our "other" home church in Killarney. Thanks Lois!
Corissa and Chris had "splash competitions" which were rather fun to watch. I have to say they had some nice technique going!
I got my rear in gear and finally decided I had to try and "do" tendai's hair at some point. Here is my second attempt at puffball ponytails! I quite like the result!
Corissa also helped us out by baking a whack of cookies to put in our freezer- (i keep sharing em with others so im almost out already... anybody else want to come bake me some cookies?)
Rick plans to be back on Monday- and then we have several weeks of "normal" while we prepare for our next visitors and finish making up the orphan care packs. So far we have bought blankets, maize sacs, and mozzie nets. Thanks to donations from our church and others we have enough toys and stuffed animals, toothbrushes, pencils, hair things, and toy cars and various other items so we wont need to buy all the "fun" stuff, and can instead we can include more food aid for children suffering from the current food shortage! Praise The Lord.
The other major focus of the next few weeks will probably involve repeated trips to town and a lot of waiting, as we attempt to get Tendai's adoption paperwork dealt with. Please pray for the judge, and us. It is incredibly frustrating to feel like you are getting nowhere after days, weeks, months of waiting. We need strength and a good dose of encouragement!
Please pray for safe travel for Rick, for Chris and Corissa as they fly home, and for health for all of us as well. Thank you again for your support and prayers. We appreciate each and every letter, package, comment on the blog, email and every prayer.
Blessings,
Rick, Heather and Tendai

1 comment:

Mary said...

We are coming to Mozambique in June for mission school. We will be in Pemba. Where are you? Your daughter is beautiful! We have three grown children and three adopted from China. I hope we can adopt from Mozambique as well. I enjoy your blog :)
Mary Strickland
Texas