July Update...

Well once again, time has gotten away from me and I have not given an update in way too long. It has been a very full 3 months for us. Beginning in the middle of May...we had three short term missionaries arrive, 2 from Colombia for 2 months and 1 from Ecuador for 2 years. They all stayed in our guesthouse and we fed them, got them set up, and did all the paperwork for their visas. At the same time, one of our SIM families arrived back from their home assignment in Australia and stayed in our guesthouse for 2 weeks. We were full of visitors until the end of May. Then the first week of June we ran a conference on orality. Last minute we got put in charge and had to arrange the whole thing. We had a guy from the States come to teach our team and other missionaries how to use orality in their different ministries. It was a great conference, but a lot of work to put together the last minute. Also during this time, Tim's brother, Alex, came out to visit us for a week. We had a great time, but it was just too short. We are so grateful for all our family that has taken the time and money to come visit us. It is such a blessing. The middle of June, our good friends, the Edens, moved in with us for 2 weeks. We found out just in May that the Edens, our closest friends here in Mozambique, were moving back to South Africa for good. So the last 2 weeks they were here, they lived with us as they sold everything they owned and packed and prepared to leave after 19, 16, and 13 years in Mozambique. It has been a tough time for our whole family as we have had to say good bye to them. We have been blessed the past 7 plus years to have had them in our lives. They have been our family while we have been away from our families in the States and it is so hard to say goodbye again to people we love. That consumed the remainder of June for us. Then the first week of July we had our annual spiritual life conference with our SIM team. I was in charge again of logistics, so spent much time shopping, organizing, and gathering supplies for the conference. We had speakers from Switzerland that were missionaries for years in Portugal, so they actually did the whole conference in Portuguese. It was a nice week and we were able to relax and enjoy the beauty of Lake Niassa in Meponda. The day we came back from the conference, which was also Traeger's 12th birthday, Tim left to pick up his other brother, Matt and his wife, Patty, and kids, Bryant, and Casey from the airport in Malawi. They stayed with us for 2 weeks and headed back to the States the end of July. We also had a great visit with them and were able to really show them our lives here in Mozambique and what God is doing in the lives of the people here. The kids enjoyed some concentrated time with their cousins as well. After a few weeks of school, we headed to Lilongwe to get passports renewed for the girls. We also did a few doctor's appointments and shopping. And now....after all that busyness, things should calm down a bit for us. The first weekend of September, Tim will be going to a church conference to do some teaching. He will also be working with another missionary to do some discipleship with some new believers that have been persecuted for their faith. In October, Tim has a pastor's conference and will be teaching for 2 weeks in Mocimboa de Praia, on the coast, about a 12 hour drive from here. You can pray for these up coming events. Thank you.

Traeger with his cousins. They had so much fun together.

SLC meetings.

The Edens...Keith, Bronwyn, and Zoe

Zoe has been Karis' best friend since we moved here.

Keith and Tim

Don't know how I am going to make it here with out Bron. She has been such an answer to prayer for me these past 7 1/2 years. I am grateful to God for each moment we had and trust Him to fill the hole that she leaves in my life.

Making Progress on INTEL...

Here are some updated pictures of what has been happening the past two weeks. It is moving fast now. Next month we will be doing the floors. We are excited about the progress!

The first building going up.  

The steel structure all finished on the first building.

Now the roof going on the first building

More roofing

The water tank tower getting moved by the crane.

Here is it set up. The huge water tank on the ground will be moved to on top of the tower.

Now this is the way to get to the top of the tower to make sure everything is right!

The second building getting put up. This one was too big to do by hand, so we used the crane for help.

Almost done with the steel structures.

Here are the two buildings now. We will finish the roof of the second building this weekend and then next month we will finish the floors. 

INTEL update...

Just thought I would post some pictures of the Bible School going up here in Lichinga. It has been quite exciting to see the progress. All these pictures and more are on Facebook under INTEL, but for those of you who don't have Facebook, here are some of the pictures. We will be posting more later this month as the steel structures go up. 

We are building a small building on the side of the container for storage, to hold the generator, and for a guard house. It will all be roofed as well. 

Here is the beginning of the foundations for the classroom building. These are all dug by hand and everything is done by manual labor. We have 17 people working on the foundation alone.

The water tank and pump. The water tank will be moved onto a tall steel structure at a later time.

Closing in the pump.

Unloading the steel structures for the classrooms.

The beginning of the work on the generator room next to the container.

The steel structures waiting to go up later this month.....

March Madness...

Well it is March and it is madness...more than just the NCAA tournament. This month construction has begun on the school building and Tim has been crazy busy with well drilling and getting a pump put in and having a tower built to hold the water tank. He also is speaking at a different church every Sunday this month and next. Jurnee broke her collarbone a couple weeks ago...as I said it is March Madness here in Lichinga.

We had a wonderful month with my parents and enjoyed a holiday in Tanzania with them. It included some unexpected adventures along the way. Including our safari vehicle rolling in the Serengeti, lions in our campsite, unbelievably crazy roads, driving through rivers, and having to tow a fallen tree out of the road in order to pass. And then another 3 more peaceful weeks here in Lichinga doing projects around the house and just hanging out. Traeger also got baptized while Grandpa and Grandma were here. He wanted Daddy and Grandpa to baptize him. It was very special as he made the decision totally on his own and wanted Grandpa to be a part of it as well. It was such a great time and many memories made.

Some prayer points for this next month are:

* Tim is working on getting electricity hooked up on the land at the school to run the pump, but there have been a lot of complications. It looks like it is going to be a lot more expensive than we anticipated as he may have to buy his own transformer. Please pray for a cheaper solution.
* For Tim's many speaking engagements in the next two months.
* For Jurnee's collarbone to heal well and that she would not re injure it.
* For Julio and Eugenia, a couple Tim and I have been doing marriage counselling with. They are making progress, but it is hard work. Pray for patience and perseverance in their relationship.

Here are a few photos of our time with my parents...

Traeger's baptism in a river in Muapula, which is a village about 4 hours from Lichinga, where friends of ours live.

It was a very special to have Grandma and Grandpa there to share this experience. 

The girls with Grandma and Grandpa

This is our vehicle after it tipped over. My mom and dad, Traeger and I were all in the vehicle. It was quite scary, but thankfully no one was seriously injured. My mom got a cut on her forehead and the rest of us had some pretty nasty bruises, but it could have been so much worse. The driver of the vehicle just lost control in the mud and went up on the bank and tipped the car. They got us a new vehicle and we didn't miss any of our safari time.

We saw this lion lounging in a tree. She was watching a herd of buffalo coming across a field. It was something we had not seen before. 

A beautiful bull elephant.

We had a pride of 15 lions come and surround our vehicle while in the Ngorogoro Crater. They were so close we could have touched them. 

This picture is NOT zoomed. I took this out the window as this young male was walking right next to our vehicle. It was really incredible.

Here are some of the 15 stopping to drink from the puddles in front of our vehicle.                  

The pride of 15 lions coming down from the mountain.

A gorgeous giraffe.

We also had the privilege of seeing 6 black rhino in the Ngorogoro crater. They are very endangered due to poaching for their horns and this is one of the only places you can still see them in the wild.

A beautiful African sunrise in the Serengeti.

We also happened to be there during the great migration. Almost 2 million wildebeest migrate through the Serengeti every year and as far as we could see in every direction this is what we saw as we drove for more than an hour. 

A pod of hippos...there were too many to count.

This was the largest group of giraffes we saw. There were about 32 in all.

We spent a couple of days at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was beautiful.

Towing the tree out of the road on our way back to Lichinga.

You can't beat the wildlife in Africa! One of the privileges of living an working in Africa!