God Bless our Hosts!!

We justed wanted to post a special thank you to the churches and individuals who have made our travels so much easier! Although i dont have a picture of our hosts from Wetaskawin- they know who they are and we appreciate them soooooooo much! I started taking pictures at every host house on this trip however, so I can remember those who have been so gracious to us, opening their homes and providing wonderful meals. We truly do appreciate their kindness and willingness to let us stay with them. This trip we have stayed with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Ed, in Medicine Hat AB, where not only they, but their entire small group let us intrude on their potluck and partake in all the goodies! Here Rick is showing my aunt, uncle and cousins Kaitlynn and Benjamin, pictures from Mozambique and explaining what it is we are going to be doing there!

Our next hosts were Buzz and Judy from Buffalo Lakes AB, and their dog KUJO ( whom i fell in love with!) Although Judy managed to get a picture of us for her memory, i was preocupied with KUJO and only managed to remember to get pictures of him! Kujo is one huge dog- more like a small bear, and just like a teddy bear! We had a great time of fellowship with them, and enjoyed delicious home cooked meals and "a mean pot of porridge" compliments of Buzz - ( it really was very good porridge!). God has definetly blessed this couple with the gift of hospitality! Here is Rick and Kujo... just so you can understand how big this dog is!

Last but not least, is my Aunt Wanda and Uncle John- whose home we jokingly refer to as our "favorite edmonton hotel." They have opened their home to us so many times its hard to even remember how many! We truly do appreciate their willingness to let us move in for entire weeks at a time! Here is a picture of them... (they are still newlyweds! :) Many thanks to all of our hosts, your willingness to take us in makes our trips so much less stressfull, and we love to know we are making new friends everywhere we go! God Bless you!

Car Troubles

Well we knew it would happen eventually. We were just really really hoping it would happen at home- not at every gas station we stopped at. I guess our car is really letting us know how old it is! On our trip up to the Grande Prairie area of Alberta our car decided to quit. repeatedly...... after some frustration, prayers for forgiveness for the frustration and then some prayers for the car, and sometimes a whack or two it started up. At one point it had been down for nearly half an hour at a gas pump, when a man walked into the restaurant where I (heather) had just sat down to get warm and pray. He asked if i was having car trouble. I said- "yep- do ya know anything about cars??" He said- only that you give them gas and bang on them to make them go! I just laughed and went back to praying. About five minutes later, rick came in nearly frozen, and the man suggested he go back out and bang on something called the "solanoid" ( forgive my spelling) with a hammer. So we did.... (with a hatchet bc we couldnt find a hammer) and voila!!! It started! Just then the man walked out, smiled and waved and walked around the corner and away. I am convinced he was an angel.

Anyways, turns out we needed a new starter, and some adjustments to our battery posts. Thanks to the wonderful people at Bethel Church in Buffalo Lakes AB, for covering the cost of the replacement parts and arranging a nice warm shop with a pit for us to do the repairs in! Here is Pastor Dave, Collin, and Rick ( and another guy i dont know) putting their heads together to fix up the starter.

But it doesnt end there! On our way down from Grande Prairie to Edmonton the car started to make this absolutly AWFUL grinding/clunking noise. Turns out our alternator also decided to throw in the towel- we were able to get that fixed today- the price wasnt unreasonable, and we had exceptional customer service so that made it a bit better! He gave us a whole list of other things that could use some fixing, but we told him if it could still drive safely to just leave it! Weve decided when we auction off the car we are auctioning it as " a new starter, new alternator, two almost new tires- package comes with a cavellier frame and body !"

Please pray with us that this will be the end of our car troubles, and we will be able to make it safely home! We REALLY REALLY REALLY need those prayers! Thanks you.

The Prayers of Little Ones

This past week Rick and I had an awesome experience. We had the opportunity to attend our home church due to a cancellation from another church, and as usual, we spent a few minutes talking to the children's church group about missions. Now our children's church is not like many- it is actually like church, only there is only kids there! After Rick talked, he encouraged them to keep praying for us, because their faith is special- even Jesus encourages us to have Faith like children! Before we left, the leaders invited the kids to come pray for us. We were so humbled and blessed to have over 40 children come forward, lay hands on us, and bow their heads in prayer. I was moved to the point of tears as I watched children as young as 3 years old reach out to touch my knee and pray for me. We know that God has heard those prayers, and will continue to. Each child was given a prayer card- these kids were so excited to pray for us, we know we will have a good prayer covering just from those children alone- let alone the many, many others who have committed to pray for us! This past month has been a busy one, but we have really seen God continuing to work in our lives. Our monthly support is almost at the half way point, and our start up fund is complete! Now we are working on our vehicle fund, as well as continuing to raise our monthly support, and pay off our personal debt. It has been amazing to see how our needs are being met in every way. We have begun to plan our "Sell-Abration", dinner and concert for late March, where we plan to sell our furniture, etc, and also to have a concert with African music and praise and worship, and of course a fabulous dinner. Our tentative departure date is April 20, we still need to buy the tickets, but we are confident that God can bring our support level up to the needed amount. We cant purchase tickets until we have just over 1/2 of our support, and don't want to leave until we have 3/4. Please pray with us that our support will be raised, and also for safety as we travel to so many churches. Our car is running on God's Grace alone, as the kilometres just rolled over 340,000! Thank you for your prayers and support. Hopefully the next update wont take so long!

What do you SEE?

SO, What do you see? Smiles, happy faces, joy? Boys and girls who have never experienced a hot shower, Electricity, even a flushing toilet. Many of these children have not even experienced an outhouse. And all we see is smiles. What an incredible experience it is when you are surrounded by people with nothing, who live like they have everything. Smile like they have everything. Hope. They have a hope for a better tommorrow, and a knowledge that God has a plan for them. A plan that in a world of luxury, we so easily forget. I am soo excited as we begin our life journey to Africa, for what God has in store for us, and i hope that in each and every picture, and moment you see me, i too will be able to smile, despite life's sorrows. We have so much to learn from those who truly have it all figured out. God has a plan for tommorrow, despite the pain of today.

Our New Fashion Line

Well, we have discovered a new talent- T-shirt designing! We saw these iron on transfer sheets that you can print whatever you want on, and decided to try it on some of Ricks work shirts- it turned out pretty good, but we will have to see if it will withstand the washing machine before we create any more! The picture on the shirt was taken by a friend of Francois (one of the missionaries we will be working with in Mozambique) When we saw this picture we both felt there was such beauty in it, and that it is symbolic of the ministry of SAMM.

God has been blessing us in so many ways recently. Just this week someone gave us a gift of 200$ specifically to help with car and travel expenses. The very next day we discovered our car was in desperate need of two new tires. The bill for replacing them came to exactly $198.43. God is amazing!!!

Also- the expected LOOOOONNNGGGG lines at the passport office never came! I went in today to apply for my passport and was in and out of the office in about 10 minutes. Not that it is really that big of a deal. But it was nice to spend so little time waiting when you had geared yourself up for 3 to 4 hours of boredom!

We really want to say thank you to all of you who have been praying for us, and to those of you who have been supporting us as well. Please continue to pray with us that our monthly support level will be raised! Excluding the sundays before and after Christmas, we are booked to speak in churches until the end of January, and most of February as well. We are excited for these opportunities, but we covet your prayers for safety while travelling. God Bless!