Hard working folks... and a stinky rat.

Chris and Corissa were able to complete the first coat of paint on our Chitundo Orphan house, hopefully they will be able to do a second coat yet. It was a hot day to do the painting, but they accomplished a lot and we are really grateful.

When we showed up the next day to take pictures of the first coat, we discovered all four of the orphans who live in the home hard at work loading bricks and stacking them so they can eventually rebuild their kitchen. I was impressed... four kids without any real supervision hard at work during their freetime hauling heavy bricks! Way to go Gabriel, Mibia, Francisco and Farai!

Thankfully the brick "factory" is only located about 30 metres from the entrance to our property in Chitundo.

Francisco hauls a heavy load of bricks on handmade "sleds"- can you imagine what they would do if exposed to a big hill, a ton of snow and a "crazy carpet"!!!???

This morning we had our first care meeting with the school kids in Pina. These are students from our bush school who have graduated out of our school (grade 5) and want to continue with their schooling. We rent houses for them to stay in and provide a food allotment, but in the past we have found they tend to get into trouble when suddenly introduced to "town" (ie... not the BUSH). So this year we are trying to meet with all the kids at least bi-weekly, to encourage them, keep track of how they are doing, and have some devotional teaching times as well. Of course, we play games, do crafts and just hang out as well. In the picture above only the 8 girls seated in front of Corissa are actually the ones we came to see... the rest are just community people who were curious about what we were doing!

One of the local ladies let us try our hand at maize pounding. Even Chris... which all the ladies found HIGHLY amusing. Its really hard work... that is for sure. Those sticks are HEAVY. Later on, one of the ladies started doing this with a BABY on her back yet too! I tried for about a minute.. but man is it hard!

This little one just would not smile for me... but man... she is so beautiful.

Corissa and Chris also accomplished some hard spiritual work again, by praying for students and neighborhood kids who are suffering from a variety of ailments, including malaria, toothaches and stomach issues.

I just really like this picture. Thought you (whoever all YOU are) might too.

Sooooo. Starting last night we had been smelling something... a not so pleasant something... and even after Lovemore had really closely looked (or so he said) nothing was found. Finally Rick went on a hunt... and discovered... this rat. a big one. a dead one. a very very very smelly one. he was behind the chest freezer and by the smell of things had been there a few days.. soooo gross. I almost puked. (but i didnt) thank goodness.

Rick and the offending varmint- eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww.

Just had to include those last two since everybody loves my gross pics. Im sure of it. Course... since i hardly ever get any comments I wouldnt know for sure.. (yes that was a shameless guilt trip to beg for comments.) I am sure people read my blog, but i sure would like to get a few comments from folks who actually read (instead of spam ones) just so I know its getting read!

ok.. end of shameless guilt trip and whining!

As for our paperwork for Tendai.. we still have no news- please keep praying as our furlough depends on us getting these documents. We hope to meet with the new judge next week, please continue to pray for him and us. Also please continue to pray for the hunger situation, Rick and Dwight will be flying up north with the Mercy Air helicopter to deliver some much needed aid this weekend. We are praying for safety and good weather for their trip.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers...

Blessings, Rick , Heather & Tendai

Busy Busy Busy

Its been really busy here at the farm over the last little while.. since september we have had.. 21 different short termers (including current ones- i think thats the right number!)... which means there are allways lots of people ready to get projects accomplished! Recently we have been blessed to have a volunteer who is a mechanic who revived Izzy (now renamed Lazurus - ill still call her Izzy though!), worked on the mission truck, the van, Keren's bike, and numerous other machines as well.

The computers have been blessed to have several different computer geniuses working on them, creating databases, entering data, and in general saving us all a ton of headaches and hours of work.

Even our stash of donated clothing has been washed, sorted, and is ready to be given out!

Short-term visitors have also put the roof on the Mercy Air garage, the Chitundo Clinic, painted orphan homes, helped to build a wood storage shelter... the list goes on and on!

We are so thankful for the many volunteers who come and give of their time to help us here. So many jobs get accomplished that otherwise would not, or would be pushed aside for months!

Even with all the extra hands around here we have still been very busy ourselves! Between hosting the "extra hands," trips to town with sick kids, trips to town to meet with lawyers and judges, orphan food delivery, keeping our house in some semblance of order, and finance paperwork we have kept ourselves busy (just to name a few). It is only going to get busier with Dwight and Lynn preparing to return home to Canada for a very short three month furlough to see their Kids graduate from University, and more short term volunteers on their way! Heres some pics from the last few days of "busy."

Corissa takes on the orphan boys, with Esther- i cant remember who won but Im sure it was the girls.

Rick gives a devotional to the orphan kids.

Chris and Corissa on Sunday morning, outside Pastor Adriano's church at the base of Mount Chitundo

I love how the drum is almost as big as she is!

Corissa prays for a sick child at the end of the service.

The church presented us with a bunch of bananas as a love offering, again, it is incredibly humbling to be given so much from those who have very little!

Corissa gets to work painting the orphan home in Chitundo- with plenty of quality control specialists watching!

More painting.

And finally... little miss Tendai discovered TP this weekend... it was to cute to NOT take pictures of... and really- its jut a roll of TP right???!!! :)

Thanks again for your continued prayers, we are still waiting to get an appointment to meet with the judge - please pray that we can get an appointment, that the judges heart will be open to our request, and that we will be examples of Jesus to him as well.

Blessings! Rick, Heather & Tendai

NEW Visitors from the Great White North

Our new volunteers hard at work on the roof of the new wood shelter.

We are absolutely thrilled to have Chris and Corissa Mohan with us here in Mozambique for a month! They were actually going to be our FIRST visitors since leaving home but then Rick's parents suprised us so they ended up being our second visitors- still VERY COOL though! :)

Corissa was actually in our youth group way back when we were youth pastoring and it is awesome to now be able to work side by side with her!

Watching the orphan food be portioned out.

Tendai has taken to them both very quickly- even fell asleep in Chris's lap! (she hasnt even done that with ME yet!!!!)

Corissa and the two week old baby of a young former widow who had been in our program- she is now remarried.

Mae Zinia with Corissa and Felizado! (Felizado means Happiness)

Tendai... oh how cute she is! Sportin her new headband and hairproducts we ordered online for her. (if you'd like to know from where give me a shout)

and finally.. much to corissa's disgust- a snake. I think they had been here for two days when they found this guy outside HER washroom. Poor Corissa- I think God is trying to get her over her fear of snakes! LOL

We met with the head judge this week and were told he doesnt have any issue with our request for travel documents, but he is not the judge we need to speak with...... sigh. It seems like every time we get passed to someone else! The good news is that he didnt deny our request and he did point us in the right direction (we hope). Our lawyer is making an appointment with the other judge for next week and we pray we will be able to get the documents. Please pray as things here are very wishy washy and we are struggling to make sure we do the right things at the right times! Your prayers make a huge difference, and right now we need em! Without travel documents for Tendai and her adoption going thru we will not be able to go on furlough as planned.

Thanks for all the prayers and support! Blessings,

Rick, Heather & Tendai

Driving, Driving, Flying, Driving, .....

We made yet another quick trip down to south africa this past week- for two reasons- 1) to enjoy several days of holiday with Ricks parents in Kruger Park, see them off at the airport, and then 2) be with Bero before, during and after his surgery to release the skin contractions on his arm. Below are some pictures from our adventures. Above is the adventure it took just to get there. I believe Rick's parents now finally KNOW what a mozambiquan "highway" is like.

This is the toll bridge at Xai Xai (shai shai), wonder how much the cows have to pay to cross????!!!

Bero skipped the crazy roads and was able to fly down with the Mercy Air team returning to south africa after a week at our farm in Mozambique.

Bero and Paul Middleton, Mercy Air Pilot.

In additoin to spending several days in Kruger with Ricks parents, we took Bero for a morning. He (although living in the african bush his entire life) has NEVER seen Elephants, Lions, Girafes, Zebras.... etc etc. Needless to say he was so excited.

Bero's trademark smile.

Some animal pics from the two Kruger trips. Fighting Antelopes.

Lions... Bero saw so many lions- it was amazing!

bad pic... but of course it is a lion directly outside my window (thats the grey in the bottom of the pic).... soooo forgive me if i didnt stick my head out for a better angle!

African Sunset

African sunrise... thru a spiderweb, with the spider!

i love Zebras!!

Bero and the zebras.

yet another lion!

this guy was a little male, but he was so close it was amazing. we had seen bigger, much bigger ones earlier with Ricks parents, but nothing even close to being this near to us.

Bero the morning of his surgery. The surgery released that wholeband of skin that is restricting both his arm and his hand, as well as amputating one finger that was not useable and was hampering the rest of the fingers.

Bero with the surgeon before the surgery.

Bero after surgery with his nurses. Although the surgery did not make it possible for him to completly extend his arm it has allowed him much much greater range of motion, as well as hopefully making his arm more "normal" looking cosmetically. We praise God that he came thru the surgery completly fine and is happy with the results!

Tomorow, Rick and I head to Beira to pick up Corissa and Chris, two short term visitors who will be volunteering for a month here. Corissa was in our youth group years ago when we were pastoring, and we look forward to seeing her again, as well as meeting the man who stole her heart!

Please keep praying for Tendais paperwork- we really need the judge to be on board with us, and need prayers for us and him!

A whole lot of fun!

The kids at our orphan meeting on Friday really enjoyed the water fight we had- especially when they got to attack the leaders! In this pic Fani, one of the missions workers who is helping us with translating gets soaked!

These kids literally wear STRAIGHT thru the soles of their shoes... and then they just keep wearing them!

This past week I had the joy of getting pictures and profiles of EIGHT new orphans that are being added to our Amigo Orphan Program- their smiles lit up the area! Here are three of them- Twins, Abel and Zacharias, and their little sister, Rimbudzai. We now have ten orphans waiting for individual sponsors.

Here mom hands out new school clothes and a backpack to Gina, (who along with her brother Farai, are also waiting for sponsorship)

After the orphan meeting we played outside for a bit waiting for Rick to come pick us up. Tendai LOVED playing with Grandma and Grandpa.

We went to our Shepherd Domingo's house for supper and to see how he feeds his family. He has wisely saved his money and now has a small water pump that he can use to water his garden which provides fresh veggies and some maize for most of the year. He also has a larger maize plot, litchee trees, peanuts, chickens for meat and eggs, and in addition to ALL that he uses reeds and grass to make amazing hats that he sells to supplement his income. Oh wait.. I forgot, he also made a canoe out of bark and uses handmade nets to fish our local river- where there are crocodiles.

Domingo and Rick in the "canoe"- really a large piece of dry bark stabilized by pieces of wood slightly larger than twigs.

After touring Domingos garden, his wife fed us some amazing supper!!!! Including some wonderful sweet corn.

Mom and I sat on the mats and ate with the ladies and children, Dad, Rick and Domingo sat on chairs- this is completly customary.

And finally... Tendai is showing some (albeit limited) interest in walking.. Grandpa is really good at helping her along with a stick to hold!

This week we are driving back down to South Africa to drop Ricks parents off, as well as be there to support Bero before, during and after his surgery, before we leave him in the capable hands of several people from Mercy Air who have agreed to check on him after our departure. Please pray for safety as we travel, and for Bero as well as he heads into a major surgery, in a foreign country where they dont speak his language!

God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai

UPDATE:

We are now in south africa, enjoying Kruger Park, and all of the amazing animals it has to offer. Tendai, unfortunatly did not get her paperwork, so she is at Marc and Andrea's keeping them busy and being entertained I am sure. We praise God we have such amazing friends who are willing and able to watch her for us, and grateful too that she loves them and their boys!

Mom and Dad leave on Monday, so we have one more full day with them before dropping them off- their visit was short, but we are so glad they were able to come at all! God Is Good!