On maintenance day

Then there was some serious work taking place for which we are so grateful. Much needed help and this with knowhow.

Maintenance Day

30th Turned out to be a day for essential maintance.

While out near Chitsama on our return trip a stone or stick went right through a fairly new tyre. So one keeps in practice and sharpens one's skills.

But the roads have got very bad. Since 2002 this is the worst they have been. And the rains have just made deep ruts and the mud deep. Not only did we loose a tyre but also two of the suspention rubber mountings. One in the front right and the other on the back left. Well necessity is the mother of all invention so they say. Today that proved to be true. I cut up a piece of old conveyer belting and mad a make shift mounting for the back. And for the front I had a rubber mounting which I kept in my garage of "treasures" from our first Land Rover.

29th A busy day

Monday turned out to be a day that didn't threaten to rain, as Espungabera area has had lots of rain in the last 2 weeks. So Leighton and I went and loaded up the Land Rover with mielie meal and went on a food distribution run. We went to Mukuyana & Makumba on our first trip in the morning. Then after lunch went and loaded up again and went to Mupengo and Chitsama. The morning trip was fine although we went through some difficult areas in the mud. But the afternoon trip was a whole new adventure. With long uphills which were so slippery and so much mud. God's good as He answered many arrow prayers to get through the mud. And when we arrived in Mupengo and Chitsama the folks were so happy about the food. They said that the situation had become much worse than a month ago.

But praise God he enabled His faithful servants "YOU GUYS" to help us feed our brothers and sisters.

We still need to make the next trip to Bunga, Goi-Goi and Siyabuzana. but right now it's raining again. So we are hoping to make the trip in a day or two.

BACK TO ESPUNGABERA

We were very glad to have seen some of the family again after a long time but would have liked to have been able to visit "Jinx's" parents in Port Alfred as well. But maybe the next trip will be a little less pressed for time.

The trip back to Espungabera was quite a long one. We left at 6am on the morning of the 26th December and arrived at 9.30pm in Musina. We then left Musina at 9am after doing some last munite shopping for vegitables, (but found only old and yuck!) We went throught the border in less than an hour both sides SA and Zim. And for those who have been that way before know that is very quick. But that is exactly what we asked God to do for us. And He made it all happen. We eventualy arrived in Espungabera at 4.30pm on 27th. Shoe! what a long trip.

Leighton from New Zealand taking a gentle 40 winks on the trip.

He is here with us in Espungabera for about 5 months. He will be helping us as we look into getting a project going called Farming God's Way. As he has studied agriculture in New Zealand he is well equipped to help us out. We would also like him to check out youth ministry. Between the ages of 13-18 especially.

Toni in one of the rare waking moments on the trip. These moments are qute noteworthy. But we are glad to have her back with us for the school holidays. She flies back to Kenya on the 5th of January from Harare.

Christmas

Dawn, Toni & I would like to wish all who know us a very blessed day as we celebrate the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ.
We pray that you have a wonderful day with family and friends. Consider all of you hugged and loved by us as if we were with you.

Plans

Plans for the immediate future, We are leaving Pietermaritzburg on the morning of the 26th to go to Musina. Then the next day 27th onto Espungabera God willing we will make it all the way through. Please pray that the border crossing at Beit bridge will go well with ques that are not too long.

On the 28-29th we hope to do the next food distribution. But we hear that it has been raining for a week solid. So bridges may be washed away again but lets hope we will be able to get through to deliver the food.

On 4th January we leave to take Toni to Harare to fly back to school in Kenya. And on the 5th we return to Espungabera with the Moyo family who come to us for 3 weeks and are going to take part in Bible school teaching.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

update

Hi everyone,
Just after I got back to Espungabera after completing the import and registering of our Land Rover, Dawn came down with a very bad bout of Malaria. That coupled with very bad diarrhoea she became very weak. But praise the Lord we had the right test and the right medicine and she was cured quite quickly.
Then we did the 1st food distribution and then off to our yearly conference in Chimoio. What a blessing it was close this year. We had a wonderful time with all our colleagues and a great time of fellowship. It's always good to share with our co-workers and what the Lord is doing through them.
We then left Chimoio to go to Pietermaritzburg. After arriving I was supposed to go and fetch Leighton in Lesotho. He is a young man from New Zealand who is qualified in agriculture and spent 2 weeks in Lesotho checking out a project "farming God's way". So we are hoping to get the project started in our area of Mozambique.

We have been able to spend some time with family in Pietermaritzburg. It has been quite a hectic time. When we arrived in Pietermaritzburg we took the Land Rover to the radiator repair shop. Because when we were doing our first food distribution a stone went into the back of the radiator and with the fan spinning around the radiator got a few holes. I managed to solder two holes that I could see. Then it still continued to leak. So 5 table spoons of curry powder were added to radiator water and that held until we got back to Pietermaritzburg.
The radiator repair shop fixed it but 2 days later it leaked again. So tomorrow it goes for a second repair attempt. Lets pray that this time it works and is reliable.