An encouraging week!

This week has been a great week for Rick and I- we have been encouraged in many different ways, and have felt a real sense of God confirming His call in our lives. We have had several responses to our newsletters. And were also able to network with quite a few people as we spent most of tuesday meeting with business's and people from our community, just sharing our hearts and our passion for this mission. So far we have about 1/6th of our monthly support raised- so we still have quite a ways to go, but we know God is able! We have been able to pay off some of our debt as well, so we see God working there too. Next week we are going to the FCA convention in Regina, and hope to be able to meet with many pastors there, and hopefully book some sundays to do deputation. Anyhow- just a brief update today, Im gonna try and get some pictures on here again soon. Thats all for now!

..and they are off!!!!!

Well, the newsletters have been sent to nearly everyone, although a few remain here waiting to be sent! After what seemed like a forever long delay waiting for our prayer cards to arrive, we finally received them and quickly sent out as many letters as we could! It feels good to at least have this first mailing behind us! Hopefully soon we will begin hearing back from folks, either signing up to support us or receive our newsletter updates or to be on our prayer team! We have had a busy summer, but we finally seem to be into a routine- being in our own "place" sure helps. Lately we have been busy researching shipping options, so if anyone has "connections" let us know! We have had some interest with people wanting to donate clothing, toys, medical supplies etc, and it looks like buying the generator we are going to need out there (just a small 6.5 KW gas powered) is going to be WAY cheaper here than there! So we are trying to see if getting some stuff shipped to Mozambique will be worth the cost! There is so much to think about though- duties, import issues, customs, freight charges and so much more! Sometimes i spend hours on the computer just researching different questions we have about this whole adventure. Please pray with us as we continue to prepare!

Preparing for Mozambique

ok- so im sure there are a variety of theories out there as to how one should go about preparing for a big move to a foreign country and culture but here is the "neufeld africa move preparation method"!

First: we moved into a garage- we are assuming that the lack of running water, and many modern conveniences will be a good step towards the tent we will most liley be occupying for a good chunk of time upon our arrival in Africa. We have even allowed there to be centimetre wide gaps in the one wall ( where we will soon have properly installed garage doors), to allow the many flies and spiders to find their way into our home. I hear there are lots of bugs in Africa. :) heres the garage- a mess i know but you try fitting a whole house in one room. its an organised mess- really!

Second: we started language lessons- we are "studying"portuguese with a wonderful lady from our church. Her first language is Portuguese, and she is from Brazil- she is very good at speaking the language, and allthough she is not so good at speaking English, we are definetly beginning to understand portuguese a lot more. We arent really speaking it well yet, but I can understand more and more each week. The best was when her spanish speaking friend came over and we had dessert together- i spoke no spanish or portuguese, the friend spoke only spanish, Elsa spoke spanish and portuguese- but very little english! It made translating very interesting!! It is good to spend time with her though, as it really helps us understand what it feels like to be in a situation where we dont understand the language- much like in Africa!!!

Third ( and most importantly :) ): I have decided I need to get over my fear of snakes! Oh yes- i heather am terrified of the little (and big) slithering yucky ugly hissing snakes. Ick. I hate them. And Im terrified out my mind when i see one. I even swerve the car to avoid them on the road so my car doesnt touch them. So yesterday rick and I stopped at the Narcisse garter snake pits to see some snakes- we are starting slow with non poisenous totally none threatening snakes. But unfortunatly no snakes were around when we went-rick was a little dissapointed. (me too) But today we found a nice little garter snake when we were out four-wheeling. AND I TOUCHED IT! yep. i was pretty proud of myself, and to my suprise it wasnt slimy at all.

So there you have it- the neufeld preparation method- im sure more steps will come... keep watching for updates!!! :)

Newsletter still "almost" on the way!

Hey all- sorry no newsletter in the mail yet! But soon- i promise! This past month has just flown by and we have both been so busy! Rick got called away to speak at the Bible Camp we used to direct as their speaker for the week cancelled, I have been getting more hours at work and we have finally moved into our little garage apartment. We are still transferring our belongings over, but it is nice to just be in here! It has been a long time coming! And currently we are house sitting two different houses for friends who are on vacation- there is a bunch of miscellaneous farm animals at the one place so that makes life even more interesting. :)

I will begin printing and folding newsletters this week, and once our prayer cards are back from the printers they will go in the envelopes too and then off to the mail.

We still really feeling God telling us that next feburary /march will be our departure time, but even so- our debt is still so high and the amount we need to raise for support seems so unreachable, please pray with us that we can reach these goals! We know God is faithful to those He has called for a purpose, please pray that we will continue to lean on Him, and to trust that He can make a way. Anyway- id better be getting ready for work- God Bless- heres a pic of us reacting to the statement " Your moving out of the house into the garage" spoken by Rick's mom! Not sure how many people would have reacted this way to that statement, but oh well!

Newsletter is on the way! (almost!)

Well, I have written our first newsletter and hope to have it on the way by the end of the month, im working on our address database, and we still need to get a prayer card picture done and printed! Yikes. Anyways, it was quite an accomplishment for me to figure out enough of this new VISTA stuff just to get the newsletter done, so I am pretty proud of myself. If you are not sure if we have your mailing address, please feel free to email us and give us your address, we will make sure to add it to our list! And the other big news from last week is that some work happened on the garage!! WOOHOO- the roof went on and the connecting walls were finished. Now the electrician and drywallers can do their thing- just as soon as the boys shingle the roof. Well, This is a short blog, Im trying out a new way of getting these posts online, so im just testing with this one! God Bless,

Rick and Heather