Now until end January

Pray, pray, pray. We have a hectic time ahead of us and that always means that we need to pray all the more. We are going to be traveling quite a lot and as always we would appreciate your partnership very much.
22nd Oct. I'm (Jinx) am going to South Africa to get "the new car" (see below) and should all going smoothly be back in Espungabera by about 2-3rd Nov.
16th Nov. we go to Chimoio for our regular shopping & banking trip and 17th return. 26th Nov. we got to Beira to fetch Toni from RVA in Kenya. She is then coming on holiday.
Dec. 1st we go to Chimoio for our yearly Aim Mozambique conference until the 8th Dec. This is also an urgent prayer item. As in past years the conference was subsidised a little but this year that is not going to be the case.
On the morning of the 8th Dec we leave for SA and arrive God willing in Pietermaritzburg on the 10th Dec.
So far on the 11th Dec I (Jinx) then leave Pietermaritzburg for Lesotho to spend 3-4 days there visiting Autust & Anita Basson who run a project called Farming God's Way. While in Lesotho I meet up with a short term missionary Leighton who will be coming to Espungabera for about 5 months.
Around the 15th or so of Dec. Leighton & I go back to Pietermaritzburg and will spend Christmas day with Dawn's mom & dad and our girls. We then leave on the 26th Dec. for Espungabera and should arrive on 28th.
Claudia our Aim Mozambique unit leader and Rebbecca will arrive to visit us and to meet Leighton on about the 30-31stDec. And spend new year with us.
Toni flies back to school on the 5th of Jan 09 from Beira
On the 6th Jan we will be receiving the Moyo family of 3 for 3 weeks as they are at Bible school and are wanting exposure to mission to help them decide where to after Bible school.
Please pray for travel and all the expenses that go with that but most of all for safety on the roads.

No words necessary

Hospitality Espungabera style

After the Thursday ladies meeting, punctuated by cake, coke and lots of joking. The ladies had been collecting little by little, maize meal, beans and a little money to buy some goat meat and some greens for relish. And after church on Sunday we were treated to a good meal. It's just beyond me, these folks are going through a very tough time at the moment with lack of food but they scrimped and scraped and we were spoiled.

Party time

The ladies have come to the end of their year. Which means that most of them will be out in their field preparing their gardens and fields, getting ready to plant and to tend their crops. Also once the crop starts growing they will have to guard the crops against monkeys and baboons. So it was party time. Dawn got a cake made by one of the local shop owners and they had a feast, cake, coke & lots of chat. Something special as they are never spoiled.

Ladies ministry

The ladies have had quite an eventful year. They have really been coming together as a team and we are very thankful for Virgina's leadership. They have been visiting the sick and have very often showed care for others as a group. That has been very good to see. Usually it is everyone for themselves.

This year the Church from our ministry area sent a group of 16 ladies to the conference in Beira. What a thing! Some of these woman caused others to be embarrassed. They were not used to wearing shoes so took them off in town when walking to see the "sights" of the big city. Man had never been further away from home than 15-20km. The stories about the "big city" seem never to end.

Vehicle

For those who have been following our situation concerning vehicles, we have decided to buy the Land Rover which is in the picture below "going onto the ferry". We are well aware that especially now, buying anew vehicle is an expensive exercise. Our car which we have at the moment is taking a lot of strain and needs constant maintenance. So this is why we have decided to look for a vehicle which is in good condition as well as being affordable.
It is a well looked after car and has had regular services etc. I will be going down to South Africa, Pretoria with Klaus & Sue on Wednesday 22nd. To buy the Land Rover and then to get all the paper work done for exportation and importation into Mozambique. Please pray that all goes well with that and all documents will be got with minimum of fuss. We especially want to thank God for the faithfulness of His people who have contributed to the "vehicle replacement fund". Thank you very much. But we are still going to continue with the vehicle fund as we will need to do some maintenance from time to time, seeing as it is a diesel engine and will need to be refurbished. So please continue to help if you feel led to do so.

Friends

Boy! Are we blessed to have good friends. Last week we had Klaus & Sue arrive in Espungabera to help us out with the electricity in our house. The house when it was built was wired for a single phase of 220v. Which very seldom got to above 175v. As you know not the best situation for computers & fridges etc.

So, as the town has slowly been installing new cable we asked for 3 phases (of 3x220v)to be brought to the house, which they did. And we have been very grateful about that. But with the new electricity comes new problems. Which phase goes where and how does the generator fit into the situation? Praise the Lord for Klaus who knows much more than I do about such things.

Now we have electricity (when to comes from town ) which is evenly distributed throughout the whole house. And with a flick of a fancy switch the generator works the whole house not just parts, as I had it sorted. The phases are still not all equal in strength but the stronger are now connected to the more important thing in the house.

It's good to have friends, Praise the Lord.

UUUGH! MIFFED! ("vexidley miffed")

For many of the folks that have been on outreach to us will recognise this picture. The ferry at Dombe 110km from Espungabera.

On Thursday I managed to organise a lift down to Beira to pick up a few things that we needed. At 12 midday I was picked up & off we went. The road is much worse that I remembered it and even more so in a 3 ton truck.

Well it took 3 hours to get to the ferry and when we arrived we were on the far side of this picture. Here is the UUUGH! part. right where this Land Rover is going onto the ferry a 10 ton truck with about 20 ton of timber was getting off the ferry but not quite. As it it left it's wheels sank into the sand and the back of the chassis / load bed pinned the ferry down.

Not to be phased by this the driver decided to spin the wheels and eventually broke the gearbox. So the saga doesn't end there. They sent a runner to get the tractor to come and help pull the truck off the ferry and out of the way. But the tractor is on the opposite of the river. And even if it was on the same side as the truck, how would a little tractor pull a truck up hill on dirt which weighs in excess of 20 ton?

After waiting for 3 hours and nothing was achieved during that time we decided to return to Espungabera. Another 110km, another 3 hours. SUM Total: 9 hours in very hot conditions 220 km and back in the same place as we left. UUUGH! Miffed

Just when you think that you have heard it ALL

The man in the middle is Mateus from the Church at Makumba. He has been growing in leaps and bounds and is a wonderful Godly man.

While at Bible school last time Mateus called a meeting of the Church leaders to ask for our advice on a serious matter. This is a situation which has been going on since 1996.... A man from the area where Mateus lives came to Mateus and said that Mateus must give his wife to him so he can sleep with her. Or otherwise something bad was going to happen to his family as he was an assassin for body parts and someone would be killed.

Mateus took this case to the headman of the area which produced no results at all. He then approached the community police and unless he paid an amount they were not going to do anything about it.

Last week the man came again and said again that he wants to sleep with Mateus' wife. As he was going to make sure that he did not stay there much longer. And on top of this he is now spreading rumors that Mateus is teaching in the Church that all woman should become prostitutes.

Please pray for Mateus and his family. As is the case for all our leaders as they are facing the ugliness of Satan on a daily basis. We have advised him to come to the "real police" in Espungabera. He said he was going to do that. Lets pray