Well there goes another 2 months...they have been busy months for us. Back to October...Tim spent a 2 weeks teaching in Mocimboa de Praia on the coast of Mozambique. This is his 3rd year teaching there. Some Kenyan missionaries are training local Mozambicans in the Bible and sending them out as missionaries to their unreached neighbors. It has been encouraging to see the results and to be a part of this program.
The first week of November, we had our annual Training In Ministry meetings as a SIM team. We talk about our vision and mission as a team and how we can improve strategically as a team to reach the people of Mozambique. We held the meetings in our house, 18 adults and 11 children. We were all a little cramped, but the meetings went well.
The next week, I hosted a home school conference for the moms in the area. We had 3 ladies from the UK come as well as one South African to teach and run a children's program. It was also a big success. We had 10 moms participate and 26 children. The children were all able to take IOWA tests to see how they are doing(which is more a test of how are we as moms doing teaching our children than how they are actually doing). It also gives the kids experience in test taking, which is something that a home schooler lacks in. The ladies are all part of Anchor Education, which is a ministry that offers these conferences to home school mothers and fathers around the world who otherwise wouldn't have these resources available. They come at no expense to us and offer their services and time as a ministry, raising their own support to do this. It is a huge blessing to us here and has made such a difference in our home schooling.
Then we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving here with the American missionaries and Expats in the area. Our community here is a great blessing and we were thankful to have great people to celebrate with.
Now that we are in December, we are looking forward to the Christmas holidays. We have our house decorated and the Christmas music playing. Although, I just can't get used the hot weather during Christmas, we do our best to make it feel like Christmas in our home. Tim will be busy this month speaking at different churches for the next 3 weeks and preparing things for the Bible School. The land has been cleared and now we are working on getting is leveled and getting a well dug. He will give a more detailed update on email later this month. I am finishing up our school year with the kids before Christmas, so we are working hard at that. My parents come to visit us in January and we will have a couple weeks holiday with them. We are so excited about it and have been counting down the days until we see them. The kids insist on leaving all our Christmas decorations ups until they arrive so we can have another "Christmas" with them.
Lastly, we are enjoying our new car so much. Sometimes we just get in the car to drive around and enjoy the air conditioning during this hot weather. It is such a huge blessings and has made such a difference in our lives! I have included a picture as I think most of you haven't even seen the car yet. I have also included some more pictures from the past couple of months.
This is our new pet hedgehog, Pika (which means poke in Protuguese. She is quite pokey!).
When we first got her, she mostly stayed like this, in a ball to protect herself.
Now she is quite friendly and stays mostly uncurled from her ball position.
During our SIM meetings, the kids put on many plays for us. Here is Kallen as the princess and Jurnee as her servant, getting baby Moses out of the river.
Karis played Moses mother.
In another play, Traeger was Jesus in the tomb.
Our SIM team eating dinner on our back veranda.
Jurnee all proud of herself.
The kids "drama team".
Karis with Pika.
Pika also loves our cat, Obi. She just curls right up in his fur and goes to sleep. Obi doesn't seem to mind much.
Not exactly the most comfortable of pillows, but I think Obi is too lazy to find another one.
All of us at the home school conference.
This is Bernardo, his wife and son with Traeger. He used to be our guard and then we hired him as a helper in the office with Tim to do administration. He has now gotten a job in the city and no longer works for us, but is still our good friend. Traeger has always been friends with him and spent a lot of time with him while he worked here. Bernardo just had his first son, and named him Traeger. He even came over and got the exact spelling to make sure that it was correct on all the paper work for the baby's documents. Bernardo said he wanted to name is first son after Traeger because then each time he calls the baby's name, he will remember Traeger and our family and how we have helped him. It is a huge honor for Traeger and for our family. So there is now another Traeger in this world! This picture is Traeger holding Traeger:)
And here is our new truck!!!! It is beautiful and we love it!!! Thank you again to all who helped make it a reality!
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