The good and the bad....

Well we are officially back and settled (mostly). This is Africa. It is rainy season and beautiful. The weather is warm and mostly sunny. Friends. New kittens. Quiet evenings and simple food. Along with the good comes the bad though. Terrible roads, tummy bugs, power outages, broken pumps, and dust and dirt. We have been welcomed back with everyone of these good and bad things.

We are all truly glad to be back, but it doesn't come without its challenges. Many of you heard about our difficulties before we left and we just wanted to give everyone an update on that. We did end up leaving on December 7th, two days later than scheduled due to a cancelled flight. Last minute, the airline did cover all our extra baggage costs for our inconvenience, which was a huge answer to prayer. The flight went well overall, although Kallen ended up getting sick on the flight and throwing up several times. Thankfully she recovered quickly and was fine after we landed. We then went to the orthodontist for appointments for Kallen and Traeger. The Orthodontist needed some time to figure out a plan for Traeger and order a retainer for Kallen, so we had to make an appointment again for 10 days later. The trip between Lichinga and the Malawi border used to take us about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The roads are so bad right now it took us about 4 1/2 hours. That is 4 1/2 hours to go 150km or 90miles. We went to Lichinga and unpacked and got ourselves organized for 4 days and then we headed back to Massengulo, a village about 2 hours from here closer the Malawi border. We had a missionary prayer day for the Yawo people and also did some Christmas carols and worship to celebrate the birth of Christ. While we were there, a tornado came through. It was the worst storm we have ever seen in Mozambique. Although we were all fine, many of the local villagers houses were completely flattened or roofs blew off.  It took out a brand new school building as well. The next day several of us went around helping to cut up trees and clean up the mess. Then we went back to Malawi for Traeger to get his braces on and Kallen to get her retainer. While we were there I got really sick with a tummy bug. We still aren't sure exactly what it was. Then another 10 hours drive back to Lichinga again. We had fellow missionary friends from the bush come in and stay with us for a night and then we celebrated Christmas together as a family. For New Years, we spent a few days at the lake. It was a beautiful weekend and is one of my favorite parts about living here.

We have officially gotten back into school and we are making good progress on finishing up last school year. We hope to start our new year some time in February. We are also now working on getting things ready for the arrival of Verena to help with the Bible School and Tim has been continuing his discipleship and training with the local believers in Icuvi. The end of this month we will head back to Malawi once more for Traeger to get the bottom part of his braces.

Thank you for all your prayers and support over this transition time. Please continue to pray as we get back into all our normal routines and ministries. Please continue to pray for health and safe travel as the roads are terrible this time of year. Here are some pictures since we have arrived...

Lunch in Malawi at Hippo View on our way to Lichinga.

 So glad to spend New Years in this beautiful place, Meponda, Mozambique

A nice tarantula (Baboon Spider) we found down at the lake. 

 Rainy season...our garden loves the rain. 

Some of the devastation from the tornado in Massengulo. 

This is the roof of the new school which was completely destroyed. 

Christmas carols...and a prayer day for the Yao people. 

We set up our Christmas tree. 

Merry Christmas! 

Traeger sporting his new braces!