Orphan and Widow Food Delivery

Last week Lynn and I got to do orphan food delivery together again for the first time since Feburary!!! I was pretty excited as it meant I didnt have to either: a) drive our truck myself or b) con some willing short termer into driving it for me! ( I hate driving standard with a PASSION- although i am getting better) Of course I was also excited just cus its always more fun when Lynn comes with!

This is Mae Farece, she is in our Mercy Ministries program along with her blind daughter- they are such lovely ladies and we are really excited to be building them a brand new brick house with a zinc roof! Here Lynn is changing the dressing on a wound that developed on her ankle- thankfully it is slowly but surely getting better.

Mae Vaida, Gina, Farai and me. They had just recieved a packet of gifts left for them by the Nursing team that visited their home for three days to better understand " bush life."I have to tell you how excited I was to see the kids in our orphan program again after being gone for a month. When we got to Gina and Farai's to drop off the food and gifts Gina wasnt there, and I was rather dissapointed as I allways look forward to her huge smile and big hugs (in which she lovingly pats my fat rolls and calls me the shona equivalent of "fat mama"- which is a whole other blog post in itself.. one day...)

 As I said, I was rather dissapointed, but we got Farai to carefully check the supply list, and sign the reciept saying he had recieved them and prepared to go. Just then I looked up the highway and saw Gina, running full out... arms open wide. She ran right into my arms and gave me the biggest hug and asked where I had been. You know.. its moments like that, which remind me of why we are here, and what we do actually makes a difference in the peoples lives. I love knowing that I have developed a freindship with these children and hopefully they are seeing Jesus in me every time we drop of food and supplies to help them.

Vira and Angelina very happy to get their food supplies.. with an extra bonus this month, more awesome green beans from Vanduzi company!

Our maize storeroom is almost overflowing with sacs of Maize- PRAISE THE LORD!!!! We pray this will be enough to last until the harvest next year. Pray for a good growing season here in Mozambique.

Jorge shows me some of the clothes he purchased with money donated by a young boy in Canada (im sure lynn will blog the whole story yet so I wont steal the story- but its really cute!)  Jorge thought I was funny when I wanted a picture of these pants specifically- they have ASTRO BOY on them.. remember him??? I used to watch that show all the time!

Trying some of the clothes out on Francisco.

He is sooo cute. I havent seen him for quite a while so it was nice to get a chance to say Hi and see how he is doing! (they live deep in the bush).

This isnt one of our orphan kids, but he is a friend of Tito's- who as you will see in the next picture is also sporting a "all I want for Christmas...." smile at the moment!

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with these children and their grannies, to train mozambiquan leaders in childrens ministry skills, and to work with so many amazing pastors from around the country. It is such an amazing feeling to absolutely love what you do and know that God has called you to do it!

Please continue to pray for us- we are slowly making some progress with the paperwork needed to apply to adopt Tendai- right now we are waiting for aproval from some key people, including the judge, in Sofala province, for her to be transfered officially to our province (Manica Province). Please pray that the judges heart will be softened and they will be receptive to our request. 

We also need prayer for our vehicle fund, the doors on our truck have started to refuse to lock again, so we had to disable some of the doors so its lockable again- I dont understand how it all works, I just know we need a new truck! LOL.  

Thank you so much for your prayers and support- Blessings!

Rick & Heather

Wow... what a week!

This past week we had twenty some pastors from around central and northern Mozambique, here on the farm for the July Intensive Training Seminar for our Bible School. We all had a hand in teaching different classes, and it was great to continue to build relationships with so many Christian leaders.  (see photos below) 

We were also blessed this week to be invited by local political leaders to join the greeting line for the President's visit to Vanduzi, a local community and our district centre. Having the president visit is NOT a common ocurrance, so it was amazing to be asked to be a part of it. It was also a testimony to the impact ASAM is having here in our local area! 

President Guebuza arrived with an entourage of SIX helicopters to a crowd of several thousand singing and dancing people- (not us- those of us in the line had to stand shoulder to shoulder and keep the "line closed"). It was quite an experience, and I must say I was bit awestruck by the grandness of such an entrance in a country with so much poverty and suffering.  The president seemed like a nice enough man, and even reached out and held Tendai for a little bit, allowing for some photos, before shaking our hands and moving on. The local officials were quite amazed- apparently he doesnt normally cuddle small children, so they were impressed! (So were we- we have a picture of her with the president.... this could come in handy for the adoption application proccess!) Anyways, here are some pictures from the day and last week.

President Guebuza cuddles baby Tendai Rosa- I was pretty excited about that. (you can ask lynn- i was pretty giddy)

Me teaching some actions for a bible verse, encouraging the pastors to use different methods of memorizing scripture.

Rick teaching a youth leadership course to several students.

The  pastors, and some of us missionaries. (missing: Alta and Lynn)

Rick, Tendai and I waiting to meet the president. (all of us squinting in the bright sun)

All dressed up and ready to go!

Once local leaders saw the president hold her, they all wanted to hold her! Here is our district police chief, Commondante Stephen.

Bye Bye Helicopter!!

I just liked this guy- he was one of the drummers who provided the music for the presidents arrival.

Aunty Lynn gets some cuddle time in.

We want to say thank you to all of you who have been keeping us in your prayers! Our truck fund is continuing to grow, we still have a way to go until we can purchase a new vehicle, but it is encouraging to see the goal getting closer.  We are also continuing to work on getting all our paperwork in order so we can apply to adopt Tendai officially. We appreciate your prayers and ask you to continue praying for us as we live and work here, for good health and safety for all three of us, and that our ministry will continue to be effective. 

Blessings, Rick & Heather

Tendai- (Thank You)

This week we welcomed baby Tendai Flora-Beth Rosa to our family! Currently we are only fostering her until we can get our adoption application underway, and eventually, Lord willing, approved. Her given name is Rosa, but as we see her as God's gift to us, we felt it appropriate to name her Tendai (Tendye) a shona word meaning, "Thank You". She is seven months old, and a very petite 5 kilos.

Getting her arrival medical checkup by nurse Lynn- handy having a nurse next door! First walk- LOVED IT! Magnum has become very protective of her... he comes running when she cries.

What a beautiful smile!!!

giggling at daddy's silly faces.

We are so grateful to all of you who have been praying for this whole proccess. We have already seen God working. Please continue to pray for us and for Tendai- we are still waiting for results from her HIV test. We are praying that she will be negative, and could use all the prayers we can get! Also we need prayers that the paperwork we need will come quickly, the officials and judges will be in favor of our request to adopt and that usually slow process's will go QUICKLY!!! We are also asking for prayer for our vehicle fund, not only so we can effectively continue our ministry, but also because Tendai's carseat barely fits in the Isuzu!

 This week is a busy week with our intensive seminars going on here at the farm, rick is teaching every day, and I will be assisting as well as watching Tendai Rosa! Ahh the busy life of a parent!

Blessings, Rick and Heather!

A few shots of Beauty!

Again, Im sorry for the long space between posts!! Its been two weeks of being busy with stuff that doenst really warrant a slew of pictures, nor a blog post on the joys of paperwork and finance sheets! However, I did want to let you know we have made it home from South Africa- determined to never again have to make the trip in our Isuzu! This time down we were driving Dwight and Lynn's truck as it needed to be serviced,  and the difference was amazing! The roads are still horrible, but I never fully appreciated shock absorbers, leg room, functioning windshield wipers and lockable rear windows until this trip!!! Our last few days in South Africa I took a few pictures, all from the stairway leading to our flat at Mercy Air, one of the most peaceful places ever (once you get used to the small engine planes taking off and landing!).

There had been lots of fires burning in the Eucalyptus plantations (not bad fires, good ones to help remove old stumps so they can replant, i think) around Mercy Air, so the air was full of a smokey haze, which led to this beautiful sunset!

This beauty is just one of many flowers that graced our stairway, on this HUGE vine that went all the way up ! Only problem was there wasnt much room left to walk seeing as the jungle was kinda overtaking the whole thing, so they trimmed it back to make it easier to get up to our place without getting soaked by the rain/dew on the vine every time! Glad i got this picture before they trimmed it though.

I just like this picture... i think its pretty. :)

We want to thank everyone for their prayers, we have been recieving encouraging news regarding our desire to adopt, and hope to be able to give an update soon. We also have had many days of safe travel, and have been blessed to see our truck fund keep growing. We are praying that the rest of the funds will come in so we can continue with our childrens ministry training seminars up north- at this point taking our truck on another long trip up north seems rather sketchy- it barely survived the last trip!

Please continue to pray for us, our health, safety, work and ministry here in Mozambique! Also, this coming week we have our intensive training seminars for the monitors in our Bible School. This is a very busy time, Rick will be teaching two complete courses( Sunday School Ministry and Ministry to Youth), and I will be assisting with teaching each day on the topic of Scripture Memorization techniques. Please pray for a time of learning and fellowship with our Mozambiquan co-workers.  Blessings! Rick & Heather

I know.. Im a bad bad blogger. sorry.

ok... so its been awhile. I apologise! Its been a very busy few weeks, but we are now in South Africa getting some much needed rest, and catching up on a few errands etc. Ill upload a few pictures from the last few weeks so you can see what went on- it was great to have the nursing team here, and we were sad to see them go! I know the love and care they showed so many in our community will be a testimony for a long time to come!

this is seriously the cutest most squishiest kid i have seen in a long time.. what a sweetheart!

on of the Mozambiquan nursing students we worked with listens to a fetal heartbeat using something called a fetalscope or something like that. (essentially a funny shaped piece of wood with a hole in it)

the whole prairie nursing team and Sr. Da Cruz- director of Vanduzi Hospital

carleen gives one of our school kids a piggy back ride!

suzanne, cuddles with baby Kinead. Baby Kinead is the tiny baby I posted a picture of before. Sadly, Kinead had full blown AIDS, and passed away this past week. Although we are saddened by her passing, we rejoice that she is now pain free and dancing in heaven. The love and compassion the nurses showed to her and her family will be a testimony of God's neverending Love for many years to come. 

The nursing team brought Mae Marosa a new flip flop (she has only one leg), Kristine shows off the one they relplaced- held together by shoelace and string!

pouring water to give the school kids- this was to help wash down some medicines given, but the team also spent many hours serving lunch in the school kitchen!

Thank you for all the prayers in the last little while- we needed them! We are grateful to have Dwight and Lynn back here in Africa with us, and are looking forward to another couple of busy months ahead of us. Our intensive training seminars for the Bible School start in just a few weeks and we (mostly Rick) will be busy teaching there, as well as hopefully prepping for another Childrens Ministry Training Seminar in the near future. 

In other news we are pretty much half way to our fundraising goal for our new truck- It has been awesome to see God's people respond to our need- THANK YOU!

Also, we are continuing to pursue adoption here in Moz, and could definetly use some prayers in that regard. I think ill make a list of prayer requests - i always like it when folks tell me specific needs, so here goes:

1. That funds will continue to come in for our vehicle fund.

2. That until those funds come in, our current vehicle will "keep on truckin".

3. That government offices and officials will be open to our adoption request, and that the needed papers will come thru so we can "start" the process. (it can take MONTHS upon MONTHS for stuff to happen around here... and even then could fall thru)

4. That our intensive seminars will go well, and will be a great time of learning for all involved.

5. For health and safety for us as we travel and work here.

I think thats a good list for now! Blessings- Rick & Heather