What a crazy week it has been! We flew out of Jo-burg last Wednesday night and havent stopped moving since! Tendai was a trooper and did great travelling! She had FIVE different flights in less than five days, but had no problems whatsoever with the UP and DOWN or the sitting for long periods- sure she got a bit antsy, but nothing a walk in the aisles or a fort built by daddy (see below) couldnt fix!
Once we arrived in New Brunswick we had some important visiting to do (including suprising both my parents and my granmother) None of them had ANY idea we were coming so it was great to be ale to see the looks of absolute SHOCK on their faces when we arrived. And to make it even better it was my Grandmothers birthday! She said meeting her great grandaughter all the way from africa for the first time was the best birthday present she has ever gotten!
Tendai also enjoyed some spoiling by her grandma!
Rick was able to preach and share about our ministry at Hampton Baptist Church - where I myself attended as a toddler! Watching the video on the big screen reminded me of how much I miss the orphan kids I work with ... it will be a long six-seven months until I see them again! We are looking forward so much to sharing about the work we do with Orphans and Widows, the training seminars with Pastors and our heart to see the communities we are involved with grow and change in so many positive ways. If you see us out and about, dont be scared to ask about our work in Mozambique, it is our passion and we love to share about the many areas of community development and ministry we are involved in! It has been so exciting these past two years to see how we can really be agents for positive change if we let God work thru us and in us!
One last pic with Grammie and Grampie Clarke, before we head west to Manitoba!
Welcome to Manitoba! this is our Home Church's welcome sign.. dont we feel special!?
Once we arrived in MB its been a whirlwind of errands (gotta renew the all important driving licenses), visits with friends and family, and moving into our "retirement fund"house. Thanks to some REALLY generous folks, who allowed us to purchase a newly built house at pretty much "cost", we have been able to build a house that will be rented out while we spend the forseeable future in Mozambique- then, way way down the road we will have a house we can live in once we retire and wont have to worry about a mortgage or rent! Its a huge blessing and one we NEVER expected to recieve.. but God is good that way- he throws little and big things our way just to remind us He cares!
Its nice to know our Canadian Retirement plans are looking up- although I sincerely hope not to making use of them for at least 20-some years! Back home in Mozambique our garage is nearing completion, and now we will need to start thinking about starting on our permanent house. Up until now we have been renting a short termer cottage... but the short term visitors are kinda needing it more and more, and we are definetly needing more space since we hope to expand our family even more when we return and we are desperatly needing office and storage space for the ministry!
Thanks for all the prayers for Tendai's visa, we do appreciate them so much! God worked everything out in the most amazing ways! Please continue to pray for us as we being travelling this coming week (we are coming out to Alberta, so if you would like to visit with us, let us know.. our sundays are booked but we have lots of time during the weeks to visit, or speak at youth groups, awana clubs, small groups, etc.) On this trip we will be in Alberta till October 31st. Please pray for safety while traveling, that we will be able to share about our ministry and work effectively and clearly and that we will have a good time of renewal and fellowship with our supporting churches, friends and family.
God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai
