August Update...

I just wanted to give an update on our car situation and what the past month has held for us. It has again been a month of waiting and very little response on our car. We contacted Nissan International to see what can be done about our car that is still in the Nissan dealership in Tete and has been for a year now. At first they seemed quite attentive and assured us that the car would be fixed ASAP. Well that was over a month ago now. We received an email from them 3 weeks ago stating that the part they needed had arrived and the car would be fixed that week.  We sent several emails in the past couple of weeks because we had not heard anything from them since then. We finally received a response today that said they were still working on the car and they would let us know when it was running satisfactory and that is all. We are going to make the 10 hour trip down to Tete tomorrow and go and see what is going on. A year....It has been a year...Our new car arrives approximately the 29th of August. We need to have this car running and sell it before we can pick up our new car because we need the money from the sale to pay for the customs when the car enters the country. Please pray that this weekend we can figure out what is going on with the car and that we can pick it up. Pray that we would trust God in all of this and that he would help us have patience and respond in the appropriate way as we talk with the people at Nissan. We will be heading down to Maputo the end of August to pick up the new car and then we will be going into SA to get the car outfitted a bit for the rough roads of Mozambique. We will spend about a week there and then drive up through Mozambique. We will be gone about 2  1/2 weeks in total. We are all so excited about it as it will be our first time leaving Lichinga in the 6 months since we arrived back (and if you knew Lichinga, you would know why that is so difficult).

We have also had some issues with the land for the Bible school. Apparently some guy illegally sold the same land we have already purchased to several other people who are now building houses on the land. Tim has had several meetings with the government and people in charge of selling him the land and everything we have done is legal and is official and they are backing us, but a lot of people are very angry at this situation. The people who have paid money for this land and have started to build are now out a lot. It has been a very hard position to be in as they are angry that some rich, white guy is stealing their land. Even though they know what happened wasn't our fault it gets taken out on us as the "rich" foreigners. We don't want to make enemies and have people that are angry and in the end may try to vandalize the school and the property, so please pray we can work this out. They want us to pay them back for all the expenses that they are out, but we can't afford to do that for everyone who has started building and paid for land. The government says they back us, but really aren't doing anything about it. Please pray for a solution, that the people will leave the land without us having to force them off, that the government would do their part, and that there would be peace between all involved.

One other issue, which is smaller, but is causing a lot of inconveniences for us is Tim's cell phone. Many of you heard how he was hit by a motorcycle while running. When they hit him, they also stole his cell phone. It has been a process to replace it and he was able to use another phone, but that one has since broken. He has been about a month with a phone at all. The biggest problem with this is that he does so much communication through the phone and he has missed important calls and people have been unable to get a hold of him and with the land issues, it has been really difficult. We were able to purchase a new one and had a colleague bring it here with her from the States. We got the phone today and it isn't working. We now have to find someone to repair the brand new cell phone and wait still longer...Even though it is in the long run a small thing, it affects us greatly. Please pray it will be resolved quickly.

On a more positive note...we have been full into teaching and doing Marriage seminars. Tim spent all of July teaching. He took a chapa (local transportation) out to village of Itepela and taught on the book of Genesis to a group of believers there. He also taught a week at the YWAM discipleship school on Jesus. We did a three week marriage seminar at the church we normally attend here in Lichinga, that ended last week. We have another marriage seminar scheduled for the weekend of the 22nd of August and another in September. We also have been doing marriage counselling with a young couple here in town. They come from very different backgrounds, but are both believers and are trying to make their marriage work. It will be a difficult road for them both, but we are encouraged by their willingness and determination to make it work. We are grateful for the opportunities God has given us to teach and be involved even without transportation.

A Fulll Month...

A lot has been going on this past month. It has been a good distraction as we wait on our new car. We have officially ordered it and it will be shipped July 15th, arriving in Maputo, Mozambique on August 24th. We still have another couple of months of waiting. Our old car is still awaiting the new part and looks like it will not be ready until August as well, but hopefully we can sell it before we need to go pick up the new car. The last week of May and June was spent planning, shopping and gathering food for our annual SLC (Spiritual Life Conference). We, along with some colleagues of ours, helped plan the conference. Our conference was the 2nd week of June. It went very well and we all enjoyed some good fellowship and a time of spiritual and physical refreshment. We also attended the opening of a new church building for the SIM church plant where we regularly attend. Then this past weekend we had a prayer day for the Yawo people group. Missionaries from all over Niassa province joined us here in Lichinga and we all spent the entire day praying for Yawo people in the areas of family life, specific works in different regions, strong holds, and for development. It was really an amazing experience to be all united in one purpose and goal before the Lord.

The Yao prayer day. We began with some great worship.

 

The new church building being dedicated.

Our SIM team here in Mozambique along with everyone who came to help us at the SLC.

 

And just for fun...Kallen found this amazing locust in one of our trees. It was so beautiful and looked like a butterfly when his wings opened.

An Answer to Prayer...

 

Most of you probably know about our car situation and our emails about raising funds to purchase a new car. We are so grateful for the way everyone responded to our need and it was such a good experience for our kids as they watched God provide. We want to say thank you to everyone who played a part in this, from prayer to giving.

 

We asked the kids to write their thoughts and tell what they learned so I am including snippets from their letters.

From Kallen (age 6): I learned thit God luvs us and peppal cares for awr famlee bcus they gav us munee to get a new car. God is speshal bcus he get the peppal to gev us munee. I learned that the peppal cares for awr famlee too. I wud say to the peppal that gav munee thank you bcus we relee need a car. Luv Kallen

From Karis (age 9): When we prayed I learned that God ansewered our prayer when we asked Him. Thank you for lissaning to our messeges. Thank you for your jenerrosity for sending money for our new car. And for helping to support us in getting our new car. I also learned that God sometimes answars our prayers. And that God hears when we have a problem. And we also are planning a party to praise God. Love Karis

From Traeger (age 10): Thank you for the money because I can’t wait until the car comes. The first people that gave made me feel like giving so I did – I gave all I had and that made me feel good, so thank you for inspiring me to give. And once again thank you for the money for the car. All these days I learned that it is good to give and that giving feels better than to not give. I also learned that with God you can do anything even when you need tons of money God can give it to you.

 

What's in a name?

Choosing a name for each of my kids was a big choice for me. I really had a hard time deciding. I wanted something unique and yet meaningful. But I also wanted names that I liked and that sounded good with a last name like George. Here in Mozambique names are remembrances. They give their children names that will remind them of a significant person or event in their lives. Last week our guard Bonamar and his wife, asked me to name their new daughter. She was born on Feb. 2(she shares a bday with Jurnee), but they waited to name her until I arrived, because they wanted me to name her. They told me they are grateful for all we have done for them and want to always be reminded of us when they use her name. It is quite a humbling thing. I have only provided some clothes and maybe a coat or a blanket here or there. We do employ him, but to name his child seems like a little more than the "thank you", I would expect. I took a couple days and prayed about what I would name the little girl. I wanted it to be a name they would be familiar with and be able to pronounce, but have a significant meaning. He and his family are Muslim. So I wanted to give her name that reminds me to pray for her. I finally chose the name Ana. It means grace or full of the favor of God. I pray that she will learn of the Savior who loved her enough to come to earth, live a perfect life, and die in her place. I pray that she will be full of the favor of God and God will be gracious and draw her and her family to Him.

This is a picture of Bonamar and his wife, Amelia, while she was pregnant. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of baby Ana yet.

Back to life, back to reality...

Today is one week since we crossed the border and officially arrived back in Mozambique. The trip went really well and we want to thank each of you that was praying for that journey. I think over all it was our best trip yet. It has taken us a week to get moved back into our house and get settled. We still have a few undone tasks, but for the most part we are functioning as normal and it feels like we getting back into the groove of things here in Moz. We are officially back to life and enjoying the warm weather after the freezing cold winter of Michigan. The kids are back to bare feet and daily baths as they are always covered in mud or dirt. We have already had a number of visitors everyday and have been out visiting others. We have had people everyday at door wanting to buy eye glasses(we brought about 800 or 900 pairs back with us out of 4,000 that friends of ours have gathered for us). We are also back to the reality of life here, broken water heater, broken projector, and still no car. It is normal here to have something broken at all times, but our car situation is beyond the normal for even here. It has been a year since it has been working and it looks like another 3 months before the part comes in and we can see if this time it is fixed...Please pray that it will be fixed for real this time and will run well or that we can figure out what to do if it still isn't running well. We also found out a day after we arrived here that our second highest supporting church has decided to stop supporting us. We left thinking we were at almost 100% of our needed support and this will bring us down to 89%. Please pray that we will be able to make up that difference somehow.
Thank you again for all your continued prayers and support. We are so grateful. I will hopefully be keeping this blog updated much more frequently than I did over our home assignment. Tim is sending out an email newsletter in the next few days, so watch for that. It will give more updates on the Bible School. And once again, if anyone is not on our email update list and wants to be, please let us know!

We had two nights in Washington DC before we headed to Africa. We took one day and did a whirlwind of activities. We visited the Ford theater and happened to be there on the one day they had the box open where Lincoln was shot. The kids studied the life of Lincoln in our homeschool last year and were so excited to see where he was assassinated. 

We also visited the Museum of Natural History, which was pretty incredible.



Another Lincoln attraction.

The kids also attended their first birthday party back here in Moz. It was a dress up party.

 



All settled into our house again.

And three months later....

Yes, 3 months later. I can't believe it. In 3 more months we will be back in Lichinga again. Our time has been so filled it is hard to know where to begin. It has been a good home assignment for us. It has been a little bittersweet as we think about how short our time home is this time and as we watch the kids thrive in this new environment and get to do so many things they miss out on while in Mozambique. They do get so many amazing experiences living in Africa and I really feel our simple way of living there to be a huge blessing. So in many ways, we have the best of both worlds, living the majority of our time with lots of family quiet time and a much slower pace of life and then getting to come home every 2 or 3 years and doing all sorts of fun, busy activities. But when you watch how much your kids are enjoying being involved in these activities and really making some great friends, it is hard as a parent to take that away from them. And yet when we watch how easily our kids can make friends and how quickly they adjust to new things, we realize all the benefits there are to this crazy lifestyle as well. It has also been a great home assignment for Tim and I to have some spiritual refreshment. We have loved being back at Blythefield and getting fed from the Word. I have been attending a ladies Bible study that has been so refreshing and challenging. Tim has been attending staff meetings at Blythefield and meeting with his guys small group. We have finished all of our speaking engagements and are now ready for some relaxed family time this Christmas and New Year. The kids are still enjoying school, but the novelty of it I think has worn off. They no longer jump out of bed in the morning to get up for school and actually enjoy the weekends instead of complaining about them. Traeger finished soccer. Kallen's dance class just ended and Karis is finishing up horse lessons. We have bought our plane tickets to go back to Mozambique on the 24th of February. Please be in prayer about all the packing, travelling, and transitions coming up for us.

Watch for our Christmas newsletter in the mail sometime the end of December. If you are not on our mailing list and would like to be, please contact us through email or facebook.

Home Assignment...

Well we are home. Actually have been for about a month now. Time is already going by in a blur. It is amazing really how quickly you fall right back into the busy pace of the American lifestyle. I always think it will be a shock and seem so strange, after our very slow African pace of life. But always, it takes about a week and we are right back into it, like we have never been gone. The kids are in school, which they are loving. Kallen told me yesterday that "this school is even better than homeschool." Doesn't make me feel so good, but I think she may change her mind after a month or two of it:) They are involved in the kids program at church. Traeger is in soccer. Karis will be doing some horse riding. We have been attending sporting events of our nieces and nephews, accountability groups, Bible studies, volunteering in the kids classrooms, speaking at 7 churches, and visiting our many supporters, besides fitting in time with grandmas and grandpas and other relatives...the list could go on...In Moz, we are thrilled when we have an evening planned with an activity. Here we are thrilled when we have an evening alone with nothing planned. It is so fun to be involved in all these things that we aren't able to be involved in while in Mozambique. We find, though, that it is very hard to fit in the things that are really important, while trying to fit in all the things we have been missing. It is so easy to neglect your personal devotional time, our personal family time, and time together as a couple. Balance is always the key, but how to do this, is the challenge. Please pray that God will give us wisdom and discernment and the ability to keep our priorities straight. Our six months home we will be concentrating also on raising awareness for the Bible School we hope to open in Lichinga. We have a goal to raise $100,000 to help with the initial cost of buying the land, putting up a classroom block, bathroom block, fence, and guardhouse. Please pray we can communicate this need well, and that we would trust God to help us reach this goal.

 

For those of you who are interested our speaking/church schedule for the next few months is:

9/28: Faith Fellowship in Irons MI. We will be speaking in the morning service.

10/5: Northland Baptist Church, Grand Rapids MI. We will be speaking in the morning service

10/19: Rothbury Community Church, Rothbury MI. We will just be attending the morning service

10/22: Rothbury Community Church. We will be presenting during the missions conference in the evening.

10/24-26: Chinese Bible Church, Detroit MI. Tim will be the main speaker for their missions conference.

11/9: Calvary Church, Muskegon MI. We will be attending the morning service.

11/16: First Baptist Church, St. Johns, MI. We will be presenting in the evening service.

11/30: Blythefield Hills Baptist Church, Rockford, MI. Tim is preaching at both morning services.

 

All other Sundays, we will be attending Blythefield. Tim is also co-teaching an evening Sunday school class at Blythefield. He will be teaching the evenings of Sept. 14, Oct. 19, Nov.2, 23.