To Mozambique

In the capital, Maputo, Elijah and Esther entertain themselves while we disorientedly scurry around the city getting gov't documents, good for Nampula, etc.

Elijah enjoys our fellow missionary's (the Hulsey's) monkey.

We finally take off for the 1200 miles from Maputo to Nampula.

This is typical.

This is surprising as there are 4 people on top of all that stuff!

Our first sighting of the Indian Ocean.

Collected on the beach.

The place of our first night of rest - Morrungulo Lodge near Massinga.

The next day dusty roads full of pot-holes only allow us to travel 40 mph (60 kph).

They're deeper than they look.

Road construction here is a wheel-barrow, shovel and some dirt to fill the hole.

Yep. That will take a wheel off! (The roads do get better several hours later.)

Just before arriving at a Robert Koehn's house near Beira for our 2nd night of rest, we see an accident shorty after a gigantic pot-hole - I wonder...?...

The next morning (our 3rd day) we head for the Zambezi river and cross by barge.

Road construction is slowly going on so we are sent for miles on long detours to enjoy the countryside. We arrive in Namacurra at another missionary guest house.

On our 4th and last day of travel to from Maputo to Nampula we stop for lunch by the road. Soon there is a little crowd watching our every action. I offered some bread to a man that looked like the father and asked him to distribute it. He ate some gave a little away and then when asked by a woman for more he rudely pushed her away. So, I took some of our whole wheat crackers (a treat they never would have had) and gave several to each of the women (two women and a grandmother) there. The man asked for some but I told him (with the little Portuguese he could understand) that the women needed honored.

Hmmm... what do these people go through on a day to day basis? Who will bring them the message of Christ.

It starts to get very pretty. This area of Nampula province has many outcrops ("mountains") of granite stone.

And we can see miles of such mountains. Wow!

These Lomwe people along the road have a language that is similar to Makua (like Portuguese to Spanish).

Wow!

The kids are looking forward to arriving home.

We see all kinds of things being carried on the back of bikes or on peoples heads. This is charcoal going to the market.

We finally arrive in the city of Nampula (490,000 people) on Thursday (May 15th) and are directed by other missionary's into our "home" on the outskirts.

On the Lord's day we gather with Christian's and try to follow along with their Portuguese pronunciation (which is neither true Portugal or Brazil Portuguese) and to imitate their Makua sounds from their songbook.

There are plenty of women and nursing children.

Surprisingly or not so, with a constant movement of people in and out of the church and no real discipleship, a majority of the men and women believe that when we die our spirits roam the earth instead of going straight to God as in the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16).

They requested I give a Sunday message on International Children's Day - I spoke on how we can bless our children with all the truths God has given us and gave them an actual blessing they could read to their children or have someone in their home who could read do so. They all wanted it. (Note: The 2nd man to the left of me is a king of a clan of 87 people. Please pray for him as he wants to win his whole clan to Christ. They are now wanting to reject him as king because he won't offer the sacrifices to appease the spirits of their ancestors. He has helped plant a couple churches and is giving me many cultural insights. His name is Antonio.)

We have gone through periods of not having water during the days for a week to only receive a dribble at night with which we can fill our buckets. Those who work on the property come and get water also.

Better stock up.

We have some guard dogs left by the previous missionaries.

There sure are some interesting critters around - a millipede for instance.

He sure is big.

Elijah and Esther wanted to dig a hole in the yard for fun.

Or is it a grave?

Maybe in a couple years they will have dug their way through to Kansas and Missouri

Those hose leaked and busted on the water heater so we had to drain it into the toilet to then replace the hose. We've also had to do many other repairs - like clearing out a whole termite trail with Baygon and then sawing the limb laying on the roof that was allowing them to have their trail go from the tree to our roof and into our house.

We rejoice that there are beautiful places near Nampula. This is a farm run by Portugal immigrants. Their produce stocks their restaurant. This place also has a great lake surrounded by mountains.

Ready to eat?

When can we come back?

Some tender care sure makes for a beautiful garden.

On another note, Some honey bees set up residence in a small nook in our mango tree and were a threat to every passerby.

This fellow smoked/burned them out by night.

He cut into the knot hole and further exposed their nest.

They had no honey but were multiplying in the small area inside the tree.

Those bees who have been put into a stupor by the smoke and scrapped out need to be put to their final rest.

Our fellow missionaries, Dan and Robin Been, invited their trainees and families over for a party on the Intl Children's Day. The kids played games. The adult men played horse shoes and the women sat around a talked. We all ended with food and a game of tossing water filled balloons from husdand to wife till we got to far away and the busted. Everyone had a great time. The children each received a gift. Hot dog's and pop were served. One father expressed gratefullness and commented that he hadn't had a pop in three months (because of their poverty.) The interns that Dan is teaching are being supported by other churchs for three years though this training period.

The women dress beautifully

Esther enjoyed playing a game with the girls.

Friends... (The Been's daughter, Karunia, loves time with Esther.)

Horse shoes (Yes, it's not a Mozambican sport but imported...)

They had never played the game of seeing what couple could throw the water balloons the farthest. They sure laughed when the balloon broke on someone, getting them all wet.

The babies are precious and C U T E !!!

Our fellow missionaries, the Beens, are committed to help this Christian, Lazarus, who has a wife and children all with aids. Thankfully, they can cheaply get gov't subsidized retroviral AIDS drugs. We along with others are each giving him a day of work in our homes to help him provide for his family. He is very loves the Lord, is very trustworthy, and a great worker cleaning cooking food, washing clothes, etc. (Here he is making tortillas by hand.)