Full House!

Hey all, sorry its been nearly a month since my last post, but ive got good reason!! Aside from hosting four visitors for over a month, I also came down with the worst malaria Ive ever had and we have made another trip to SA to drop off visitors and run some errands as well as taking some time for a short family vacation with Rick's brother before he left! Its been busy, but its been good! Ill let the pictures do most of the talking, but I do want to let you know that although this past month has been CRAZY busy, its been a fabulous month for us! We were so blessed to have family visit us and work alongside us- its amazing how much more we value our family now that we "never" get to see them! 

My sister Brenda, her husband Justin and Rick's brother Kevin were such a blessing to us- Justin helped with so many projects around the farm and his knowledge of plumbing was sooooo needed! Brenda helped me out with orphan school supplies (including a very long afternoon of used clothing buying in a very hot and HUGE used clothing market!) and other things as well as helping Alta get some work done for the Ladies literacy groups. 

We were sad to see all of them go, but so thankful for the help, encouragement and support they brought! 

Heres a few ( ok.. a lot of) pics:

 Some of the clothes we sourced at the used clothing market... and bartered endlessly for! Along with the school supplies Brenda and Justin were able to bring with them (yey for good quality!!!!) and the rest of the items we purchased here!

 Putting together the bags of school supplies for each child in the Amigo Orphan Program.

 More donated items from brenda an Justin... balls, frisbees, skipping ropes, games, audio bibles, cars, ball pumps, flashcards...... etc.

 Handing out the clothes to the Amigo Orphan kids.. Farai got a special shirt from his sponsor... i might be a tad bit jealous!

Group shot!

 Gina made good friends with Colin pretty quick!

 The kids made foamy pictures for their sponsors. Hope to get those sent out sooner rather than later. 

 We went to visit the school on the first day of the new year! Colin was pretty much a rockstar celebrity instantaneously.... hes there in the middle of that picture.. I promise.

 Teachers from our school as well at the school in Pina with the balls and children's Bibles Brenda and Justin and a church from back home in New Brunswick donated.

 Brenda handing out the lunch meal to the preschool students.. and apparently their little sisters as well.

 Happy faces all around!

 Even those serving the VERY hot food in the VERY hot kitchen looked happy. :)

 My sister could NOT get over how Pastor Tome (our school chef) picked up a metal barrel that had been sitting in the fire over VERY hot coals for HOURS and moved it with his BARE hands. She wanted to inspect his hands since she couldn't believe he wasn't burnt.

Just one of the many children benifitting from the lunch feeding program at our school.

 My sister Brenda Faye, with Lovemore's wife, Flora and their baby girl, Emma Faye. I named Emma and obviously, used my sister's name, so it was really neat that Brenda got to meet her!

 One afternoon we visited the local "bakery" to pick up some FRESH bread... the kind that is almost to hot to hold still!

 Then we went home and got some FRESH bush honey... the kind where you just squeeze the honeycomb and it drips out! There are very few things in the world better than hot bread baked in a clay oven with fresh sqeezed honeycomb honey from your own bees on your own farm (well.. the mission's  bees & farm, but you get the idea). mmmmmm.

soooo good! 

Justin was kept pretty much busy all day every day and unfortunately I have very few pics to show for it!

Here he is trying to sort thru a whack of plumbing bits and pieces to see whether we have what we need to do the plumbing for our house. We didnt- thankfully he made a list so we managed to get a good chunk of it while we were here in SA.

 On this sunday I was SOOOO sick with Malaria, so I had to stay home, but everyone else went up to Honde to visit Pastor Paulo's church. Here they are waiting for the service to start.

 My sister Brenda, and Rick, praying for the sick, widows, and children.

 Work has also been continuing on our house. Rick and His brother Kevin put some time in helping to build the front wall, and Kevin and Justin helped to make bricks as well.

 Just some of the work! This picture is two weeks old, we have heard from the folks back at the farm that we will be AMAZED at how far they have gotten on the walls since we left.. I hope they are right!

 We drove to Beira to drop off Brenda and Justin and Colin at the Airport and spent an hour playing at the beach so they could at least say they touched the Indian Ocean....

And then drove with Kevin down to South Africa to run errands, have a few days of family vacation time with him, and then drop him off at the airport. In pretoria we stay at a guesthouse that has a lovely garden, Tendai loves to smell the hibiscus flowers that are nearly the size of her head!

Before I let you know some of our prayer requests and praises for this month, Im gonna show you a few more *yes, more* pictures. We often get asked if there are lots of wild animals on our farm or if we see lions every day. We dont have a lot of wild animals near us, and we dont see lions every day, but we do get to have some neat experiences with creatures that I thought might interest you.. sooo, here is a bunch of photos of creatures from the last month or so!

 Baby Colin, and Duiker Colin (Tendai named him after her cousin). At our house. We are in the process of letting him "go wild" so I have no idea if he will even be there when we get home.

 A very big and very cranky Chameleon Kevin found near our house construction site.

 A very tiny and curious chameleon Raymundo found and brought to us. 

 A very hungry giraffe we saw at a wildlife park tourist centre in South Africa with Kevin. And, yes, the giraffe is kissing me. (to be honest he just trying to get the food pellet I had for him) :)

 A very very curious lion we saw at the same wildlife park. First of all... I love this lion because he reminds me of Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia, and secondly.. I love this picture because the lion is seen three times, all various reflections!

 He was so curious that he stuck his claws into our tire and rolled our truck backwards with one paw. seriously. he also bit the back bumper...

see ... there is the scratch mark- I kid you not. Our truck was bitten by a lion. Im just glad it wasnt me. 

:)

Now that you have had a laugh... Ill get down to the serious stuff!

Praise and Prayer Requests,

Praise

-For Family and the Encouragement they were to us! Having family visit us gave us that extra "oomph" we need when the going gets tough and it feels like everyone is so very very far away.

-For safety as we have travelled many many kilometres recently.

- That Brenda and Justin were able to have a good trip and positively impact so many people by being willing to help in any area they were asked to.

-That our house is progressing at a good rate, or so we have been told! We cant wait to get back and see how far along they have gotten in the 2 weeks we have been on the road!

-That other construction projects on the farm, like the Women's ministry craft & literacy centre and the Aviation ministry airplane hanger have progressed rapidly as well!

- That Ron's finger (hes our colleague who cut off his finger in early January) is making a good recovery, and the wound left from the finger that was lost is healing well.

Prayer

- For safety and travelling mercies ( in particular border crossing mercies) as we travel back home to the farm on Saturday and Sunday. Parts of the road have been washed out by recent cyclones so your prayers will really be appreciated!

-For health for us as a family- Heather had the worst malaria shes ever had this past month, and Rick has been battling a stomach bug for weeks.

-For our finances, both for our house fund and our monthly needs. Please pray with us that our goals will be met and that the funds will come in on time so we wont need to stop building.

- For our ministry as we spend the next few months focusing on not only our house project but preparing for the seminars later this "spring" (north american spring that is) and expanding the involvement we have with the local orphan programs.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers- feel free to email us, or leave a comment on the blog, we love to hear from people!

God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai

Visitors from the "snowy" north!

I realize its been awhile since my last post- but I have an excuse!!! On Christmas day we picked up My sister Brenda and her husband Justin and their baby boy Colin in South Africa. Two days later we picked up Ricks brother Kevin and then squished all of them and us, all of our luggage (which was a considerable amount!) into (and on) the truck and then drove up here to the farm. It was a squishy ride for the three adults and two kids in the back seat, but we made it safely- Praise the Lord.

 (not our vehicle, but ours was just as packed!! LOL) this is a scene we see nearly everyday!

After we arrived here, we gave everyone a day or two to adjust to farm life and intense heat, before we got to work getting things done! Its been awesome to see our family experiencing what we do here. Some of it isnt so glamorous, most is rather hot and dusty, but its important work that needs doing and we are glad to be able to share that with others!

Here are a few pictures from the past weeks- I hope to update more regularly now that we are settled with them!

 Me and Tendai with Brenda, Justin, Colin and Farai.

 Kevin, Tendai and Casamilo and Cerio.

 Casamilo, Cerio and their sister Mariamo are living in the hut.... soon they will be living in that house in the background! YEY!!

Kevin helped Sowero take his maize and other food items back to his house.  It was raining off and on the whole time we delivered Orphan food, but we weren't complaining since it kept it much cooler!

 Brenda, Colin, Tendai and I spent a day driving Celestino (one of the mission's health workers) and Mathew around to visit some folks in need of home visits, delivering medical supplies to our other clinic and misc other errands. Here in Mucombedze community Brenda tried out the local water pump- did a pretty good job too!

 At Baba Andreas' house Tendai wanted to "help" so Mathew taught her and Brenda how to take the kernels off the corn cobs. The first step in the process to get them ready to go to grinding mill and be made into maize flour for sudza.

 She was pretty excited to help out!

 While Tendai was helping Mathew, Celestino did his soccarista work,

and Ernesto made friends with Colin.

 While we were off doing our visiting, Kevin and Justin were back at our house building bricks alongside our local guys.

 Here is pretty much what the house looks like now, those blue boxes are the electrical outlets, which Rick, Justin and Kevin installed earlier this week. So exciting to see WALLS going up! Once they have finished this next row all the way around (it takes longer since they have to chisel every brick to go over/around the electical stuff) the walls should go up "chop chop!"

 Getting the conduit pipes to just the right angle

Justin used a grinder and hammer to make space for all the boxes in the bricks.  He has also been helping our coworkers Ron and Barb install plumbing for their shower and fixing a drainage problem of epic proportions (ok.. its not that bad but it seems like it is to me!) at our little cottage. Everyone is pretty excited to have a trained plumber on the scene- skilled tradesmen are ALWAYS a blessing this far in the bush!

We are very happy to say that we recieved a HUGE blessing this Christmas- our December mission fund report brought tears to our eyes as we saw that over $20,000.00 had been donated towards our building fund! Friends, that brings us up to the half way mark in fundraising! Please pray that we can continue to reach our fundraising goals so that work can continue. I (Heather) cannot wait to be in this new house, with room for Tendai to play, have guests over, have space to move and not have to trip over boxes of supplies! Im praying the house building goes miraculously fast, but I know that it will still take a long long time so im trying not to get my hopes up too high! 

I hope your Christmas season was filled with family, friends and the Peace of our Lord. We are looking forward to this New Year and all the adventures that will come with it!

God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai

Oh how I love Christmas Smiles!

Monday Dec 12th, we had our Annual Amigo Orphan Christmas Party- it was sooooo much fun! Although the mission indirectly assists with Amor Orphan Programs in many northern communities (where pastors in our training program reach out to those in need in their areas, well over 1000 children!), we have a much more in depth involvement with the Amigo Orphan children here in our local area. 

This year we were again blessed to have the party hosted by Lamimos Lodge, and our friends William and Monica who own it. These folks open their restaurant each year on their only day off each week, and bring in their staff extra just to host our large group! We are so thankful for them! Each of our guests (children and their caregivers) ate a YUMMY lunch of 1/2 chicken and rice with salad and of course, the staple party drink in these areas-  coca-cola!

After lunch we heard the Christmas Story, played games, painted faces, made ornaments from seed pods and then handed out the gifts. It was an amazing day and everyone had such a good time. The kids were so happy, the grannys were so thankful for everything and the food was very yummy!

Since I cant possibly describe it any better, ill just let the pictures show you how much fun was had!!

 Joao and the caregivers celebrate the gifts!

 Mariamo looks pretty excited too (she was singing).

 This kid just melts my heart, Francisco you are such a sweetie!!

 Me and the Girls work on some glittery sparkly ornaments.

 Tendai somehow was given the job of decorating poor Francisco's face! He was such a good sport about it though!

 Tendai and Mae Vaida discuss the meal.

 Leila Frank (our colleague) joined right in with the singing and dancing!

 Serving the meal to the grannies.

 The older boys (Gabriel, Farai, Paulo and Francisco) enjoying their cokes.

 Pastor Mariano reads the Christmas story to a very attentive audience.

 When we first met Nailene three years ago he wouldnt even smile at me, or even look at me.. now just a glance in my direction brings big shy smiles and if I tickle him he just giggles! He is growing up soooo fast!

 The grannies worked really hard on their ornaments, Im fairly certain they had never had the chance to do something like that before and they loved every minute of it!

 Getting ready to give out the gifts.

 Barb Wayner (of Mercy Air Mozambique) helps to hand out the gifts.

 The older boys and grannies show their appreciation for Pastor Mariano,  who pretty much runs the orphan program under our supervision. We are so thankful for him and all the work he does!

Group Shot at the end of the party- lots of very happy faces!!!

We are so thankful for everyone who sponsors these kids. Your sponsorship helps us provide food, school supplies,  clothing and valuable life skills to the children.  If you are interested in knowing how you can help with our  Amigo orphan program please let us know. We do have several needs including staff sponsorship (sponsoring the salaries of the local staff who work directly with the children), additional sponsorship for students in higher levels of education, and individual children who are waiting for sponsorship as well.

This Christmas is going to be a really busy one for us! We leave this Sunday to go down to South Africa  to pick up some short term visitors. These visitors are VERY special to us as they are all FAMILY! Nothing excites us more than having family around for the holidays!! We pick up my sister and her husband and their baby boy on Christmas morning, and Rick's brother Kevin two days later! My sister and her family are coming as volunteers for three and a half weeks to help us with our house (he is a plumber!!) and with various other projects around the farm. We will also be visiting orphan programs and local churches to show them what our mission does, and what our mission trains others to do!

We plan to be back here on the farm before New Years and to jump right into work as soon as possible!

Please pray for us as we have an awful lot of travelling and errands to get accomplished in a short period of time. Pray that our visitors will not have horrible jet lag, or to many problems adjusting to the weather etc.

Ill try to post an update on our house from down in SA- but the good news is.. THEY HAVE STARTED LAYING BRICKS!!! It is sooooo exciting to see where the walls will go and how everything is laid out. Please pray with us that the funds we need will come in, as we have lots of supplies and materials that need purchased, and our house fund at this point is very very low!

Thank you so much for your prayers, we hope you all are enjoying this Christmas season and taking time to celebrate Christ's Birth as the central reason for it!

God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai