Beans, Tractors, & More!

This past week Rick, Tendai and I drove a few hours north with Pastor Mariano and the mission trailer to collect 25 Bags of Beans. Pastor Mariano is not only in charge of our Orphan Ministries, but he also is in charge of finding the maize and beans we buy in for our feeding programs, as we are not yet able to grow enough on our farm to meet our needs.

It was quite the drive to get to the place where the beans were, and it took nearly three hours for them to sort, re-measure, and repackage all the beans (Rick and I went for a drive during that time since they wont let us help with that part anyways).

Once they were sorted, the sacks needed to be tied shut  and counted.

We are able to carry 25 bags of beans on the trailer (it can only handle so much weight). And everything had to be loaded right so that the trailer wouldnt bounce around to much on the not so good roads.

Rick loaded up the trailer with heavy heavy bags of Beans.

this is part of the road we had to drive to the beans (this is the really nice part) Isnt it beautiful?

This is the gentleman we bought the beans from. I wish i could have taken dozens more pictures of him- there is something about his face! He was such a friendly man, and was very proud to translate words into english when he could! 

 In other news, the container of donated machinery from Mercy Air donors in the states FINALLY arrived at the farm after months at sea and weeks waiting in Beira Port. It was a BIG MOMENT when the first tractor drove out! (of course we immediatly gathered the guys in the area for a picture!)

The "little" tractor came with a mowing and tilling attachment- woohooo!!!! (think mowing the airstrip instead of using machetes to get the grass the right height)

After several boxes of supplies, Audio Bibles, inverters and random tractor stuff we brought out the BIG tractor... the backhoe! They needed some weight in the front to get the container off the truck bed, so we loaded the bucket up with staff. (who thought it was great fun). Thankfully we didnt have to actually go anywhere, just balance out the weight. This backhoe is going to be a huge blessing for the farm, there is a lineup of projects waiting to make use of this monster machine! Please pray for safety as Ron trains Rick and Andy to use the two new tractors.

To fit in the container the backhoe had to have the top part taken off, so the guys had to fit it back on.

Last week, to celebrate the one year anniversiary of us becoming Tendai's Official Parents, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Motel Garuso. On the way there, there is a strange little tower on the top of a hill that we have allways been curious about, so since we were early for the lunch hour, we decided to hike up and see what was up there.  There was a small hut. 

And the tower itself... after nosing around and trying to see if anyone was home, we came to the conclusion that it was probably a lookout tower, either for the tree plantations you can see from there, or else something left over from the war time, though it seems that it is in use currently so not sure its a leftover.

The view from the tower...

we are so blessed to live in such an amazingly beautiful country!

We posed for a quick family photo too- hard to believe its been a year since she was OFFICIALLY OURS!

One of my favorite places in the world to take pictures.... its practically impossible to take bad pictures here! 

Its been a big week here at the farm with the arrival of the tractors and visitors from Mercy Air South Africa here to help paint Ron and Barb's home, and help with building window frames etc. Our house has been moving along as well-

We finally were able to pour the floor for our garage, and now all that remains is to finish the roof. We also will have the foundations for our house going in soon! PTL! Please pray with us that the Cement Factory does not close (as has been rumored), not only will it delay NUMEROUS construction projects around the farm, but it will drive up the price of materials too!

Doesn't the floor look great?!!! So excited!

Thanks so much for praying, prayer requests for the next little while include 

-health and safety for us here, as there have been numerous cases of malaria recently!

-for Rick as he tries to organize seminars for the next month...

-that the funds for our house will come in so we can keep building!

-there are lots of people coming and going at the farm in the next while, please pray for their safety as they travel, and that the visitors here will be impacted positively by their visits.

Finally, here is a shot of Miss Tendai, I was taking new profile pictures for each of our orphans, one by one, and after the last one, she came and stood in front of the tree where we were taking them and posed just like they had... 

TOO CUTE!

Blessings, Rick, Heather & Tendai!