Week 4 and Counting :)

We have had another great week at mission school here in Mozambique! Heidi and Rolland Baker have taught many of our classes, and we are so impressed and in love with them and their ministry. They are truly a couple who has laid down their lives for the poor and serve with great joy.

Jackie Pullinger, who wrote Chasing the Dragon, was our speaker last week. She has worked in the very dangerous slums of HongKong for 30 years. She had such great insight about working in difficult situations and still living a life filled with faith and hope. I can't wait to get home and order the book :)

We are all healthy, but it is a challenge to stay that way in such a dirty place. Please pray for our new friends who are at school with a 4 year old and 7 year old. The 7 year old might have malaria, and we are awaiting test results. If you remember the worst case of flu you ever had and multiply that by about 20, you can imagine what having malaria feels like.

Homeschooling is going well and helps break up our days. We still love going to the beach whenever we can. Last week we went to the ocean when the tide was very low and explored the tide pools. We found sea urchins, starfish, and several "unidentified" sea animals. Having the beauty around us helps make up for the diet of rice and beans and beans and rice :)

Please continue to pray for our Michael, Missy and Dan. We miss them soooooo much, and it is worth every penny to call them when we can. Please also pray for continued guidance for our future mission work. We will meet with the long-term mission committee here before we come home. Hopefully, we will know an exact city and have very clear direction about the type of work we will be doing by the first of August.

Love you all!!!!!

Two Weeks and Counting!

Hi sweet friends and family!!!! We have finished our 2nd week of school, and we are having a great time here. Molly asked Jesus into her heart, lost a tooth, and has a birthday tomorrow - woohoo!!!

We also have had a great answered prayer in regard to our future mission work. We both feel strongly that we will not be in Africa, but in the country where our three little ones were born. Iris Ministries has a small mission team there, and we will meet some of them when they come to Mozambique for a conference in July. We love the people here, but we have realized that our hearts are somewhere north of the equator :)

Here is a schedule of our days: We wake up at 5:00 am because the sun comes up EARLY here! We have breakfast (hard roll or mommy-cooked something), have class from 8-1, lunch at 1:15 (beans and rice or mommy-cooked something), afternoons at the beach, the sun goes down at 5:00 pm, dinner at 5:30 (rice and beans), bedtime at 7:30. Fridays are our practical missions day where our family goes down the road to minister to 4 VERY poor families with blind mothers and grandmother caregivers. We come home from this outing dirty and very tired :) Saturdays are our free days which are spent shopping in town and at the beach. Sunday is a very wonderful (and hot) church service led by Heidi Baker and a pastor from Mozambique.

The teaching at this school has been phenomenal!!!! Heidi and Rolland Baker are simply amazing and have such wisdom after 30 years uf living in the dirt and loving the poor. We know we are exactly where we need to be this summer :)

Please continue to pray for my mother and our children at home. The enemy is a poop-head and loves to attack those we love. We so covet your prayers as we continue to enjoy where God has placed us for this season.

We are learning so much about peace and faith. Pray that we are willing to receive everything God wants to give us.

I think any pictures will have to wait until we return home. The internet cafe here doesn't like my laptop or camera :(

Love you!!!

We are here!!!

We have been in Mozambique for 1 week, and this is the first time that the internet has worked since our arrival. Everything here is beautiful and fragile. The internet in fragile, the water system is fragile, the children are fragile. We have met so many beautiful people from all over the world who have some to this place to learn and serve.

We are living in a tiny house on base that is glamorous in Mozambique, but it would be condemned in the states. We have found it very humbling to live among and learn from the poor. They truly know the heart of God and have to totally rely in Him to merely survive. We are house parents to 8 beautiful girls from America, South Africa, Finland and Australia. We all share two tiny bathrooms, a very tiny sink and a very, very tiny refrigerator. We are learning to navigate the local market and have been able to buy (at a high price) many of the things we need. No Nerd Ropes in Africa, but we have found the best strawberry cookies on the planet :)

The three little ones have done incredibly well!! I have been amazed at how adaptable they are. Africa is "boy heaven" - dirt, sticks and bugs everywhere! Having Matt here has been an incredible blessing, and the little ones adore having him here.

I can't post pictures yet because my Mac Book won't sync with the computer system here. I will keep trying :)

PLEASE be praying for my sweet mom. She was admitted to the hospital this week, and it has been incredibly hard to be so far away from her and my dad.

We love you all, and hope to post again soon. We are loving every minute here!!!