Home Alone.. well.. sorta

This past week and a bit, I have been home "alone" with Tendai and Magnum, while Rick is up  north leading Children's Ministry Training Seminars. Its been hard being here without him, and I know its been tough for him up there too. We just didnt feel we could take Tendai camping for 12 days in the hot season... its well over plus forty every day up there! 

ITs been warm here as well, but not quite THAT warm. It turned out that we ended up having several opportunities to fellowship with other missionaries this past week, and I was able to make some really neat connections which have been really encouraging! Including the discovery of a  mom's and tot's group that meets in Chimoio! I AM SO EXCITED!!! I also delivered the orphan food for October, this time with Mathew and Tomei with me as Jorge was busy in town with Dwight. Glenn, our short term volunteer was supposed to come but he was really sick (PTL he is all better now!). This little guy (in the blue shirt) is one of our orphan kids I dont get to see to often.. he is usually scared of us. But this time he just giggled and smiled and was a cute as could be! This is Eunice, our ladies ministry co-ordinator, sewing some items and working on the projects the ladies make to sell to support their families. On orphan food delivery day I was also able to deliver a Shona Bible to a community leader in Chitundo, he has been asking for months, and has recently done a lot to help out the mission, so we found one and gave it to Him- he was soooo excited. And thanks us each time he sees us now. Some countries have the ice cream man and his truck.. here we have the maize truck.. just come with a sack! LOL.. just kidding... mathew and tomei couldnt get the back gate open and had to pour the maize out the window! We were also able to deliver new shirts to all the orphan kids, donated by Glenn's mom. They were all BRAND NEW shirts which the kids just LOVED. (Thank's Glenn's Mom!) The kids all piled in to see Tendai in her car seat- not sure what was more fascinating.. the baby or the seat! Tendai just hanging with her Tio Tomei (everyone is a a tio or a tia here- uncle or aunt) Mibia holding Tendai- who wasnt really interested in being Held. Mibia loves to hold her, but Tendai isnt much of a cuddler. This little guy (Chebo) and his brother (in the background), are new to our orphan program. He is such a sweetie and allways greets us so nicely- but his brother on the other hand is absolutly terrified of us.  So here are a few pics just of Tendai for friends and family (and everyone else too!) Its been pretty hot lately, so Tendai has been enjoying just hanging out in a tub of water on the verandah... that is her " I love this"  look. Thank you so much for all your prayers for us, Rick will be driving home tomorrow and we are going to be so glad to have him back! We are dong well here, and our next big project will be the VBS at the mission's school for up to 200 kids in early November- its a lot of work, and a ton of fun, but please pray for us as it takes a lot of prep work, and we dont have to much time to get stuff ready. Also, we are heading to Beira next  weekend to pick up another short term volunteer, and stop by Accao Social to see if we can hurry things along in any way.

Please pray for: 

-upcoming VBS, energy for us and our helpers, good weather and that the kids will be encouraged and will learn about God who loves them.

-for us as we travel, and that Tendai's paperwork will be sorted out quickly

- for mozambique as a whole- in just over two weeks we will be having a national election here, and as in many countries, passionate people often but heads and cause conflict at times like this.

Thank you again for all your prayers, please dont hesitate to email us or leave a comment on the blog!

Blessings, Heather and Tendai (and Rick of course but hes not here at the moment!)

WOOHOOOO. A spectacular Izzy UPDATE!!!

I know you are all wondering how many Izzy updates I can possibly make- but there will be some more coming up im sure! This weekend we were BLESSED and SHOCKED by several significant and, im sure, sacrificial giving donations towards our vehicle fund. We praise God that there are people who are so supportive of what we do here, and are willing to give of what they have to see our ministry here continue! We have now raised just over 50,000$, which is just a tiny bit away from having enough to place the initial order (it can take several months for the truck to be ready depending on orders etc).  We still need at least another 15,000$ to cover the rest of the truck costs and all the fees associated with it.

God is sooo Good, He is keeping Izzy running until her replacement can be ordered and gets here, and we are praying He continues to do so! Thanks to all who have donated, (you know who you are), we know for many of you the donations were given sacrificially and we thank you so much !

In other news the last few weeks have just flown by for us... here are some pics from the last two weeks!

We had a HUGE fire deliberatly set on the farm... we lost over half of our bush and livestock grazing area! Here are the workers coming out of the smoke with their fire fighting equipment (green branches).

Lynn watching some of the fire as it creeps closer to the dry creekbed.

The bottom line of fire is the firebreak fire our guys lit in an attempt to stop the fire on one side of the creek... at this point it worked, further up the creek it crossed and continued all the way thru the farm. Praise the Lord no farm buildings, livestock or  crops were burnt.

Some of our workers lost the hut they stay in during the work week. However, Rick and the workers ran into the buildings as they were burning and saved most of the items inside. (I was not impressed that they ran into burning buildings!)

One of the workers huts after the fire. He has already rebuilt with the help of friends!

We had to switch out our five thousand litre tank for a ten thousand litre tank this past week- with two new homes being built currently, more short termers coming and the possibility of us building a home in a year or so- we are definetly going to need the bigger tank!!

The rope the guys used to pull the tanks up and down. A little scarey looking.

The big tank moving into position.

The rather scarey looking contraption called mozambiquan scaffolding they used to hoist the tanks way up high onto the water tower!

It was Lynn's b-day so I made her some yummy cupcakes... and put them under the mountains of icing we enjoyed!

Tendai learned to stand in the last little while.. wont be long till she is walking!

We went for a swim down at a restaurant about a half hour down the highway from here.. its owned by a nice zimbabwean couple and they have a nice pool you can pay to swim in.

Tendai Loved it!

SUCH A CUTIE!!!

Thanks to all who are continuing to pray for us and our ministry here. Rick is heading up north for almost two weeks at the end of this week. Please pray for safety as he travels and health for him, and the truck! Also pray that the participants in the seminars will learn a lot and be blessed. Tendai and I will be home alone while he is away and could use your prayers as well!!

Blessings and Thanks for all the support and prayers!

Rick, Heather and Tendai!

Another Izzy Update!

Random photo of Izzy's underside! (taken May 09)

Rick fixing Izzy with duct tape (taken May 09)

I posted last week that the brakes had been redone on the front of the truck, and we were going to go in this week to have the front end (axle joint, hub, bearings etc) replaced. Well, before we could get in to the mechanics for those repairs Izzy had a meltdown... quite literally! On our way to pick up paperwork in Manica, Rick noticed the temperature gauge was showing WAY WAY overheating! We pulled over and let it cool a bit, before taking the chance and continueing several kilometres to a local restaurant. There we poured at least 5 litres of fluid into the radiator... waited a while... and decided to keep going.

 

Our next stop was "The Far Side" a little rest stop that happens to sell the best fresh strawberries around! By this point the truck was so hot we decided to put more water in, turn around and head for Chimoio, and the mechanics!

Half way there we had to stop again, as following slow moving trucks up a hill made the truck overheat AGAIN. And this time it wouldn't start again! After more investigation and inspection, we discovered that the bracket that holds the alternator in place had SHEARED off- meaning the alternator was now not in the right place, and thus was not turning the fan belts properly...or charging the battery! My resourceful husband pushed the truck until we started to roll down the hill, and started the truck while rolling in reverse! We eventually made it to the mechanics, and our poor Izzy is now there for at least a week until the appropriate parts can be made or found.  We are trusting God to keep this vehicle running until the money has come in for the new one, but on days like this its hard to wait! We now have 3/4 of what we need to purchase the vehicle itself, but are waiting for the other 1/4 and the additional funds needed for import duties, fees, etc. (which can add up to a lot in this part of the world!). 

Rick is going up north in just over two weeks for a 14 day trip to run Children's Ministry Training Seminars in two different communities. He will be driving over much of the same bad road we travelled in May( 250 Kms= 8 hours of driving), and we are praying that Izzy will be able to make the journey in one piece! 

Tendai and I are home alone for part of this week as well, as Rick and Dwight have gone up north to do seminars at some of the extension schools for many of the pastors who are in our training program. 

Please continue to pray for safety for Rick and Dwight as they travel, as well as for Lynn and I as we stay here at the farm. We also appreciate your prayers for Tendai's paperwork. We are waiting for the Social Services and judge in Beira to give official approval for us to START the adoption process- its normal for things to take a while here in Moz, but that doesnt make it any easier on us. We have less than a year before we leave for furlough, and we need to have the adoption process finished, and preferably her Canadian passport before then.

Blessings! Rick & Heather & Tendai

Tendai fell asleep mid bottle- and there was no amount of trying that could get her to open her eyes and finish it!

Grammie and Grampie Clarke and Great Great Aunt Patsy put some money in our account so we could buy a nice present for Tendai- we chose a nice activity centre. Good thing it came with instructions!

She loves it- here she is completly absorbed and concentrating on the flashing lights and buttons that play music... very stimulating!

( sorry I didnt have any pictures of the truck adventure this time around- gotta remember to keep a camera with me at all times!)

Izzy Update

I know we have already posted this video once, but we wanted to let you know that- Praise The Lord- we are now over half way to our goal to purchase a new truck!!! And not a moment to soon!

We had to have the brakes "redone" on Izzy this past week (as they were FALLING OFF- literally!), and the mechanic says it will take another 350-400$ to fix the front end problems. I dont exactly 

understand what is wrong, but I heard the words "axle boot", "bearings", "joint", "front hub"- and apparently there is something wrong with all of them. The mechanic is going to make some parts 

work, as ordering them from South Africa will be way more expensive! 

We are thankful to have found a mechanic who knows what he is doing! Please continue to pray that funds will come in so that we can purchase a new safe truck so we can continue with our

ministry and safely travel around Mozambique with our family.

We have been alone on the farm since Wednesday, and will be until late next week, as Dwight & Lynn have gone to South Africa for a quick trip for errands - such as the dentist! Francois and Alta

will be gone until late October as they visit supporting churches and friends in South Africa and the UK.

Also this past week Rick came down with a bad case of Malaria combined with the flu - thankfully he is almost back to his regular self now, and Tendai has recovered from her pneumonia

completly! We are very grateful to the many around the globe who sent out prayer requests and prayed for them as we KNOW it made a big difference! Please continue to pray!

Blessings, Rick, Heather & Tendai.

p.s. i realise words are cut off on lines.. but i cant figure out what went wrong.. sooo you will all just have to try and figure it out! LOL

100

My blogger "dashboard" has informed me that this is to be my 100th post. I feel like I should be doing some sort of celebratory thing-a-majig or something. My friend gave away some books to a lucky reader with her 100th post, but somehow the prohibitive cost of postage from Mozambique to where most of my readers live is not making that a very appealing option. I thought of uploading a hundred pictures from our year here, but the thought of uploading for four days straight with our crazy satellite internet pushed that idea out of my head as well. Then I had the bright idea to come up with 100 quotes and experiences from the last year, until i realised that by quote #10 you would all have gone asleep or have given up on my Blog entirely.... so i scrapped that idea as well.  At this point i ran out of ideas and decided to simply blog a few pictures from the week. So here you have it... my stupendous 100th blog post!

The yummy tarts I made with the strawberries we bought from a little store about half an hour away from here - quite an accomplishment for me, as a year and a half ago i couldnt cook anything that didnt come out of a frozen food box!

One of the pedreiros (bricklayers) working on the foundation walls for the mercy air house.

Quesito working on the cement and stone foundation for the bridge that will lead to the airstrip.

On our way back from taking pictures at the bridge, Lynn and I ran into this lovely lady, a grandmother who had come to the farm with another elderly lady the mission assists. We discovered she had her ten day old baby granddaughter with her, and asked her if she would like to have the baby weighed and see if we could arrange for some formula for the infant. That tiny bundle on her back is the baby.

The little girl gets weighed at the clinic.. she weighs 1.750 Kilos... sooo incredibly tiny.

Granny with the blanket and clothing we gave her to keep the little girl warm.

And what would a 100th blog post be without a pic of one of the HUNDREDS of creepy crawly ickey things that live in our neck of the country. Someone told me this is a baby bearded dragon. ewww. does that mean there are big ones like this running around???? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Tendai is doing sooo much better (for those who dont know, she had a bad case of pneumonia), and will be off the antibiotics soon. We are still waiting for paperwork to be aproved by a judge in Sofala province so we can begin the adoption proccess here in Manica province.

Rick has been down with the flu for the better part of this week, and ive been busy taking care of both of them! :) Praise the Lord Rick seems to be on the mend, and thankfully the weekend will be here soon so we can relax.  We heard this week that another 2,000 dollars came in for our truck fund - putting us past the half way mark! WOOHOO. God is good and we know He will continue to provide for our needs.  Thanks again for your prayers, as always, please know we appreciate each and every one of them! Blessings,

Rick & Heather