And we are all set to build

About 2 weeks ago we handed in our plans for building the new house for the new missionaries who will be coming soon. Today we were told to make a few small changes to the plans and they were accepted right away. Just as well as we had already started to clear the area for building.

Concern & prayer request

This morning we were contacted by our sending office. As with many of our fellow missionaries, companies and the every day folk, the big change in the Rand / Dollar exchange over the past few weeks and months has affected our situation quite seriously. And it has become a concern and also a point of urgent prayer to us. Please would you pray with us that the Lord would over rule and provide. He after all does own all the cattle on a thousand hills.

Moving right along!

An update to an earlier blog is that Leighton has planted the maize and it has germinated well and has planted in a few different ways so we can show local guys the difference in production.

We are about to take the program out to the Church leaders who we are hoping are going to be the core guys who will teach and train many others. Leighton is also focusing on ways that will produce nutritional value as well as provide some income.

Sunflower seems to be the crop to bring in an income and is also very hardy. Here Leighton is planting and watering the new sunflower seed.

We are hoping to be able to get enough seed to our church leaders so that they will make a bit of money out of their labour. It would be great to see them take a hold of this project and make it work. And by so doing encourage others.

We are planning a teaching week from 24th Feb to 28th Feb which is the Bible school week and will be teaching Biblical principals and good farming methods.

It's happened

It's happened, last week we came back from our monthly shopping trip to Chimoio and we brought the new pastor who is going to replace Alberto. Domingo is an wonderful young guy and seems keen to take on the new challenge. Please pray for our first planning and preparation meeting on this Saturday morning. He really wants to get to know what, where, how & when. So we are looking forward to the "new blood" being injected into our area.

Domingo is married to Laurinda and they have five children. One of whom is called Grace and is a bit retarded and for the second year running has not passed grade 1. Please pray for the family as they get used to new surroundings, schools and a whole new way of life. They will also suffer culture shock as this is all a bit strange & not their home culture

Then this passed Monday at 10am (rather late) we took pastor Alberto and Virginia and their four children to Maputo as that is where they have been transfered to. Talk about a long journey. We arrived back on Wednesday 3pm 2400km later. And the road!
The first 90km although dirt road is not too bad but the next 110km is just a shocker. The car rattled and shook so much that the bolts that hold the front and back axels to the car came completely loose. We stopped just in time. As the car started to crab along. As I stopped, just then the one bolt actually fell off. We managed to find the bolt and tighten every thing up again.

Then there are 2 sections on the main North / South "highway" which the potholes are just something else. In one place the pedestrians are walking on the "tar" while the cars have made a track next to the road.

So today has been spent fastening everything on the car. I'm just "gob-smacked" how almost every nut and bolt is now loose. Tar toll roads seem like quite a good thing to me right about now.

Blessed

Jesus is just so good to us. We are so often just humbled and at the same time in AWE of Him.

As you may be aware our generator has had better days and is now in need of some TLC. So how does that mkae us blessed I can hear you asking yourself. Well, I called the man who we got the generator from and asked if he knew where we could take it to be repaired. He told me to call his father in SA and he would be able to help me with all that sort of info. I dutyfully called and promptly had my socks blown off.



I'll call them, Koos and George, had decided between them that they would supply us with a refurbished good as new generator as an exchange for our old messed up one; and it was their contribuition to the extension of God's Kingdom. NO CHARGE. Praise the Lord for people who are so faithful and generous. All we need to do is to make a trip down to Louis Trichardt. Take the old machine and come back with the new one. And it is already there and waiting for us. God is GOOD!

Generator update

After a whole lot of work on Ben's part stripping the geni and finding that there are just too many problems for me to sort out in the backyard. So Ben has got the whole lot back together again and now I am going to have to find someone in SA to fix "old faithful" So at the same time I was wondering if it would not be a good time to look at getting a bigger generator unit which will be able to support all 3 houses when the other two are built. At the moment we have a 5 kva. run on a 10hp Lister diesel. Any comments?

Up & Coming

This week is Bible school week again from 12th-16th January. Shiela Moyo a Bible school student from Cape Town is going to be teaching on decipleship this week. This should be really benificial to the guys as Shiela is African and will be teaching from an African context or point of view. So please pray for the teaching as this area of decipleship is much need and has been neglected for far too long. This is also the reason that we are devloping the Mossurize Ndau team. And are looking for missionaries to come and be a team with us to deciple the Churches we have planted over the last few years.

Please also pray for the house plans which we submitted on friday 9th Jan. The Administrator seems happy so far, we just need the inspector to come and check where we plan to build the house on our property. We need to get a move on with this project as well. There is much building and planing to take place in a very short time. We are hoping to have the house built and ready for new missionaries by end of July 09.

If any one has some free time and is able to build, paint, plumb etc etc. You will be a most welcome guest.

Bitter sweet

Today has been a day filled with activities happening on all fronts. Shiela Moyo went with one of the Catholic sisters to visit the sick. (HIV?AIDS) and came back with a number of things to think about. One of them being, as evangelicals we focus a lot on Bible teaching and doctrine and the like. While the Catholic's are mostly focused on the "works" side of things. We can really learn alot from the Catholic's. If we can somehow continue the Bible, doctrine etc and then add to our faith the good works, careing, teaching and helping. We would be a mighty tool in God's hands. We need to find ways to do both and do them well.

Then as Ben Moyo is the qualified mechanic I decided to keep out of his way and let him get on with stripping the generator. At first we thought that it would be just a few small things that I could put back together once the parts arrived. But the bitter is that there is more damage than we can fix here. So the generator is going to have to be put back together again. Then taken to someone in South Sfrica who can repair it.

New Initiative

For a long time we have been wondering how we can help & to improve the food production. As many of you know the folks in these areas are going through an extremely difficult time of hunger. On this note: We would like to thank all those who have been faithful to God and contributing to the Mozambique Emergency Relief Project. We have been able to distribute much needed food.

But the new initiative, Leighton has been preparing and planting using a method called "Farming God's Way" We have started with experimental fields on our property in Espungabera. We are hoping soon to be able to take this project out to the rreally rural areas where folks are subsistance farming but have the potential to yield bigger & better crops. We are also hoping to introduce different food types which will dramatically add to the nutritional value of the local diet.

It would also be a good idea I think if we can start re-introducing the traditional African wealth system which was shattered by many years of civil war. That is to start a cattle project which and as people get involved they will become recipients of a cow and the first calf will have to be given back to the project to be given to someone else. These are new ideas which will fall under the "Farming God's Way" project. So we would appreciate your ideas.

Generator woes

We have been really blessed to have a generator that can run the whole house on the many occaisions that the electricity is cut off for one or another reason. We have been without the generator since begining of November. And we suspected that it was begining to seize. We have the priveliage to host Ben & Shiela Moyo. Ben a mechanic, helped me to strip the generator and we found that a small pipe which feeds Diesel to the injector had broken and had leaked diesel into the engine oil and the bearings were damaged & seized the engine.

So, now we need to find someone to do the repairs to the crankshaft and to supply new bearings. Another learning curve in progress.

Please pray that we will be able to get it sorted out quickly. As power cuts are still a problem although not as frequent and not for very long periods. But electricity supply is never certain.

2009 Already in full swing

We have got off to a flying start in 2009. And the start of this year was especially different of Dawn & I. Toni was home for her birthday for the first time since she started going to RVA (school in Kenya). The 3rd of January normally is spent at school or flying to school. So it was really fun to have her home this year

Leighton being the good cook he is made a pancake stack smothered in syrup for her birthday.