Leaving... but not on a jet plane yet!

Well, we are leaving Mozambique this weekend heading to South Africa. Tendai has been told to come down for further medical tests before they will approve her Visa application. Please pray for us as this is not only discouraging but its getting to be expensive to make these trips up and down all the time. Because we are trusting that God can work this out, we are choosing to go down and stay down rather than make yet another trip up and down again.  We will most likely be there for at least 3 weeks, unless God opens some doors BIG TIME! We were not sure how we were going to make this work since either way it was going to be expensive! However, God once again has blessed us, as a friend contacted us and said she had found a place that would let us stay for the whole month for just over 300 dollars!!! (Do i need to tell you what an incredible deal that is???!!!) 

We of course will stay busy in south africa- with numerous mission repair errands to run, office work, , and a ton of promotional work we have been trying to get done and struggling to accomplish! Please pray we will be able to make ends meet with our ministry funds, since things are a bit tight with construction on the go, air tickets needing to be purchased and our everyday min costs as well!

Our garage is moving along nicely, too bad we wont be here to see it finished- but I guess it will be a nice suprise when we come home next year!

Putting the trusses up!

One of the sights i will miss very much... the sun setting over the mountains in the distance, with the litchi trees all around.

Im also gonna miss the litchis. they are only around for a few weeks a year.. but they are SOOOOO good. wierd looking. but good. (these are the flowers... the fruit only is ready usually late november)

Thanks again for your prayers and patience! We will be sending out email update soon to those of you on our list to let you know what is happening. At this point its hard to know since our travel and schedule is pretty much dependent on the High Commissions instructions for us. Please pray for us as we continue to arrange Tendai's Visa... we are not sure why this is all happening, and it is frustrating, but we also Know God must have a reason for it all! 

Prayer Request for this week include- travel safety, Visa issues to be resolved soon, ministry finances.

Praise Request- That we have been offered a very reasonable rate on a place to stay in Pretoria, that our garage is nearing completion, that we have all been healthy recently! 

God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai

Feet

Since last week's post was all about hands, i decided to dedicate this one to  Feet! I dont really have a ton of stuff to say about feet, except that we are more than happy to be the feet of those bringing good news to those around us, and even happier to be training local pastors to be the feet bringing good news in their own language to their own communities. So I didnt run out and take a ton of pics of feet, instead, I waded thru thousands of pics from the last year and found some shots of feet taken at different ministry events - hope you enjoy!

women dancing in church

orphan children sit patiently waiting for the pastor in their community to provide some bread and juice for their meal- most likely their only meal that day

a nursing student replaces Mae Marosa's very worn sandal.

the worn sandal.. held together by string

the worn sandals of our orphan kids.. they do a LOT of walking

one of our staff members here at the farm.. made some sandals from tire treads!

more orphan children wait for their meal

sitting patiently waiting for class to start at the mission school

oh the joy a balloon can bring to tired dusty feet

weve had a TON of shortterm visitors recently.. can you tell?

pretty good looking feet if I do say so myself

my most favorite feet in the whole wide world

Thats all I got for Feet folks!! :)

Rick is currently up north trying to get the documents we need, please pray for safety as he travels and that he will be able to find the officials we need quickly!

Blessings!

Rick, Heather & Tendai

Hands

This week we had a few extra hands show up around the mission. A team from Britain came with Mercy Air to help out for three days.. a short trip, but they sure packed a lot into it- including painting a widow's home, helping deliver orphan food, a medical home visit, and helping us run our orphan program meeting. Sometimes we as missionaries are seen as the "hands" that reach across the world and do the "church body's" work in various places. It is neat to see how so many hands, from different countries, walks of life,  ages and cultures get involved in the work we do here!

This set of hands belongs to Mae Minolia (sp?). She is the granny who moved from her own community where she has lived for many years, left her home and machamba, as well as her friends to come and stay with our orphan kids studying in Chitundo- the kids love her and she has been a real encouragement to them. Here she is making clay pots to sell for a small income. She is a lovely Christian lady, who has been attending the Simukai ladies program run by the mission in many different communities... we hope her "hands" will help to shape the lives of the orphans she watches over!

Working on her verandah!

Another set of Hands, these ones from Britain, give a warm hug to a teeny tiny baby. These same hands helped to paint a house, hand out clothes & food to orphans and made some crafts as well!! 

Little Nailene really enjoyed making a craft for his sponsor- this was his first time coming to the orphan meetings since he is so little, but he had such a fun time I doubt it will be his last!

Many hands make the load light.. errr. sorta.

Here two sets of hands work to make sure every kernel of maize is picked up from the ground... every single kernel is precious here.

Ok... so there are no hands in this picture.. but a wondeful set of nursing hands from Canada gave this shirt to Mae Vaida, and every time I will see this shirt i will remember the warm hugs the arms attached to those hands gave me... and the care those hands offered to many in our area.

Keren's hands cuddle tiny Cristopher, who doesnt even weigh 2 kilos! Kerens hands have been doing tons of stuff ever since they got here in October...

including becoming Tendai's favorite field trip friend! Tendai sure will miss Aunty Keren when she leaves next week! (as will Tendai's mommy!!!)(sniff)

My hands got involved with helping dig out dirt for the backfill for our garage... its a job for "man's hands" here in Moz, but I wanted to at least help a little bit! (not that i really wanted to shovel dirt in the heat for that long anyways!)

Tendai (the worker Tendai) uses his hands and knowledge to pour part of the concrete floor for our garage. (yey!)

these hands are helping to mix the concrete

These hands are eating yummy popcorn!

This guy has no hands and I certianly dont need his help for anything and wish he & all his relatives from all the different snake families would go away forever. (he showed up by the litchee orchard the other day and was subsequently killed) This is a green mamba, a very dangerous snake, and they seem to enjoy hanging out in our orchards!

We are still waiting for numerous hands to get some documents ready so we can go to Canada on furlough! Currently we are waiting for the death certificates, once we have those in our hands we "think" we have all the documents they are asking for! Please pray it will arrive quickly and we can get our furlough sorted out. Prayers would be appreciated for us as we wait, for the Visa Officers as they process our file and request, that we will be able to book VERY short notice tickets to get to Canada, and that we can get everything possible sorted out here on this end with our cottage, garage, and house!

Thanks so much for your prayers! God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai!