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Remember Flat Tendai??

Remember Flat Tendai? The life-size cutout of Tendai that our home church has been hosting, one family at a time since September? We hear she is doing fabulous and has been going on lots of adventures. Hopefully we can get some of the pics from her travels soon and will be able to show you. In the meantime, we are going to introduce you to Flat Stanley (from which this whole idea originated!)  After starting our own project, we did some more looking into the Flat Stanley original idea, and signed up to host one from somebody else. Our Flat Stanley is from Annie, a little girl in Isreal! We will take him on adventures for a little while and then send him home. We also sent a Flat Stanley to her so she could take one on adventures too!

 Tendai decided to take Flat Stanley with her to meet some of the Orphan kids when we delivered the orphan's monthly food in January.

 Checking out the Maize. (corn)

 And the oil and beans and soap.

 Tito thought this was hilarious. Stanley was glad to meet him too. Tito wanted to keep him, but Tendai was not about to let him go. Since Annie's family checks our blog, hopefully they will get to see these pictures!

Remember last months photo of Pastor Mariano's hand guiding Mae Lolieta in writing her own name? In the month since, her two sons have taken it upon themselves to teach her how to write her name.. here she is proudly showing off her new skill!

We are praying that the grannies and widows in our program will join the Mission's SIMUKAI (which means "STAND UP") Womens Literacy program and learn to read and write, while studying scripture at the same time.

 Things have gotten very green around here since we have had LOTS of good rain in the past week. You guys must have been praying hard! Now we are to the point where we need a bit of a rain break so we crops dont get washed away! :) 

I got a bit distracted by the crystal clear drops of water on the grass, during orphan food delivery last week. So small, and yet so beautiful.

Thanks again for the prayers and support. We are grateful to have had a wonderful holiday season, health, safety and times of good fellowship with our coworkers. Please continue to pray that the rains will come when needed, that the crops will thrive. Pray for the children in our school and in the orphan program who will be entering school soon. Praise the Lord that pretty much all of the kids in the Amigo Orphan passsed their grades, with a few exceptions, and are excited to go back to school! We have a short VBS for the Orphan kids this coming week, which promises to be lots of fun as well.

 Storm clouds rolling in, as seen from our airstrip.

I love Rainbows!

On another note, please pray for our house to be completed, and soon. Our funds at this point are depleted to the point where work will need to stop fairly soon. We still need to paint the walls, install the tub, toilet, shower fixtures, sinks, light fixtures, glass and screen in the windows, and install all of the doors (which are already made, just waiting for the floor to be done to be installed). We also need to build all of the cabinetry, but we have had a donor cover the cost of that project already. Unfortunately we can't do much for the cabinetry until the floors, and painting and some plumbing have been completed! Please join with us in praying that the funds will come in so we can free up the cottage for short term visitors and be settled enough in our new home to jump headlong into the Childrens Ministry Training seminars we have planned for later this year! Our hope is to be in and settled before (a good time before) our 12th Anniversary at the end of April.

(me putting the first coat of stain on the main room floor)

Currently, we have almost finished the floor- and it looks GREAT! Ill post a few pictures of that hopefully this next week. All of the window frames are in and the frames for the glass parts are almost complete and ready to go in as well. The doors and windows have all been made by Gabriel and Pindurai in the mission's carpentry workshop and are lovely. They are made out of hardwood- its cheaper here than pine! The entire house has electricity- Rick hooked up all the plugs and lights last week! (right now there is just bare lightbulbs hanging, but at least its some light!).  I hope to do a full update on the house next week, complete with tons of pictures!

 What it looks like after stain, but before clear coat.

Stained and wet- which is sorta what it looks like when the clear coat is on, but you will have to wait till next week for photos of that!

Thanks again and God Bless,

Rick, Heather, and Tendai

a little bit of everything... and my apologies!

Hi all, Here I am again, apologizing for not posting for soooooo long! Our internet issues continue, and at this point, although I can do ALMOST everything... blogging seems to be the one thing that resists! I have to either find the perfect spot on the driveway on a good weather day and hope that the network is not busy, or wait for a day in town, where I can take a little while to get things done. Today is a town day. Im going to let the photos do most of the talking, its been a busy month but we have enjoyed it. For once I have several pictures of myself (that never happens!) but for some strange reason have very few of Rick and Tendai- oh well! Hope you enjoy the photos. 

 While most of the missionaries were extremely busy teaching at the Intensive Seminars for our Pastor Monitors in early December, I was able to help host a team of university students from South Africa. They were a great group and we enjoyed getting to know them a bit. Here some of them are checking out the ten metre deep well.

They helped to construct a chicken coop for one of the orphan families as well.

 Had a full scale salon going on with the orphan girls.

 Including Make-up!

 We had a GORGEOUS rainbow... you can see how green everything is in contrast to the last posts photos! Praise the Lord for RAIN! Please continue to pray for more... we need lots!

 I was selected (by virtue of the fact no one else could make it) to represent the mission at the Vanduzi hospital, Christmas Party for the admitted patients. When we arrived, the nurse (on the left) decided I should make the salad, and put me to work. :)

 After the party, I was able to visit with some of the patients, here is a baby... less than SIX HOURS old, in the maternity ward.

 After the seminars we had a graduation and certificate ceremony. Here is Pastor Mariano, he is the local guy in charge of the orphan program, he works closely with me and we are sooo proud of him! Here  he is receiving the certificate for passing another course in the program. He also received his very own Study Bible this year!

one of the local kiddos seeing what was happening at the church.

 Tendai, discovering that you cannot actually hold a sunbeam! Every time I see this picture it reminds me of the song.. "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam..."

 Me with the graduates!

Rick and the workers laying the final floor in Tendais bedroom.

Local ladies on their way home after washing their clothes in the river.

 December orphan food delivery went very well. Here is are three of the orphan children, Casamilo, Mariamo and Cerio along with their older brother and guardian, Sinnabale Paradzai, who teaches at our bush school.

 Pastor Mariano has made it one of his missions to get the grannies to attend Simukai, our ladies literacy program- here he is helping Mae Lolieta to write her own name.

 Fish anyone?

 The week before christmas was very busy... here are some photos of the Amigo Orphan Christmas party! This is Rimbudzai (1) with a doll she recieved from the south african team. We had a great time at Garuso restaurant, and we were able to do something we have not ever done before with the kids... TAKE THEM SWIMMING!

 Some of the boys with their presents.

 Mariano gets lifted and cheered for in appreciation of all he does for the kids.

 Group photo, children, caregivers and mission staff involved with the program.

 For these kids it was their first time EVER in a swimming pool. Im sure they had never even seen water this clear! It was so fun to watch them having an amazingly fun time, laughing and behaving like children!

 Getting some help out of the pool

 all smiles!

 Everybody JUMP!

 we played games.

ate very yummy food.

more gifts

 more splashing

more games! We also heard the Christmas story, sang and danced and in general had a fabulous time!

 Last week I was also asked to attend the Christmas party for admitted patients in Manica, about an hour from us. This is the spread of food, just for the "guests of honour" which apparently I was one of. They had huge amounts of food for the patients! Everyone ate till they were full, even lovely cakes!

 Afterwards, I again asked if I could go into the wards and pray with patients. It was wonderful to be able to share some hope, smiles and love with the women whose children were in the Pediatric ward.

 More working on the floor... by tomorrow they should be DONE. (well, done everything we can do, still have to wait in bathrooms). I cant wait, cus it means we can move on to the next thing!

 On sunday the shepherd asked Rick to help him with a crocodile that had been attacking the sheep. I went with for the walk and we discovered that our river turns into a beach in one area during the low water season!

 rick and the shepherd... in a piece of bark.

 what a beautiful country we are called to live in!

 this little one was on baby duty while her mother washed clothes and her other siblings played in the water.

 oh my land.. her name is Gina and she is sooooo cute! I would have taken her home if I could have!

One last shot with all the kids trying to get in the picture. :)

Thank you so much for your prayers and support this past year. We look forward to another year of ministry here in Mozambique, and are excited to see what God has in store for us. If we have the funding, we hope to be able to complete our house before April. We look forward to doing at least 5 Childrens Ministry Training Seminars this year, and hope to add more. Please continue to pray for us as we live and work here- we depend on your prayers!

If you would like to recieve our monthly email update, please contact us so we can add you to our list! 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and God Bless! - Rick, Heather and Tendai Neufeld