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!