Christmas 2011

The Christmas celebrations started with the staff at WR going to Costa de Sol, a great seafood restaurant across from the beach.


Check out this seafood platter with prawns, lobster, barracuda, calamari and more:


Christmas Day we were in church and then at home with a Korean friend. We forgot to take pictures! We had invited several others but for one reason or another they could not come so there was plenty of food left to eat the rest of the week.

Monday we stopped in to see our Cuban friends. Miss Debora is modeling a dress I made her out of two head scarves (with room to grow into it). I got the idea from the last church team that came. Ladies in the village are making them (and other items)to earn money for another truck for their agriculture association.



Then we were off to a great B&B at a farm in Swaziland. They have lots of litchi trees that are just starting to be harvested. I didn't know they could get this huge!


The hydrangea were also in full bloom. The Afrikaners call them Christmas Roses.


We spent time reading, and walking all over the farm on hiking trails.


On the way home we stopped at a small game park, Hlane. The animals were being shy, or maybe just lazy with the heat like these rhinos.


This dung beetle was certainly being industrious.


The giraffe family was fun to watch and almost close enough to touch as we drove by.


Anyone who has been to a park knows that the impalas are abundant. This time we came across two "nurseries" with very new babies. So cute!


We also saw a herd of waterbuck, wildebeest, warthog, kudu, hippos. It was a great mini-vacation.

Tribute to Steve's Aunt Mary

Steve's Aunt Mary passed away this week at the age of 86. This is our tribute to her - a gentle, wise and caring person who exhibited the fruit of the Spirit.

While I don’t remember the first time we met, I can only guess it was when you and Grandma N. stopped by the hospital in Elkhart to visit the latest arrival in the family. During my earliest years, you helped care for us as you did my other siblings when they came along as well. You were the one that collected the grade school papers and artifacts that others might have disposed of and sent us post cards from Chicago while you were on study leave there.

You came to our house quite often, but visiting your place was an unusual treat partly because of the challenges of getting the group of us corralled, cleaned up and put in the car and partly because there were so many unique things to explore at yours. You took us places that were special and it was special just to spend that time with you.

When you were at our house, there was always a clamor around the supper table as to who got to sit beside Grandma and Mary. Fortunately between the two of you, you had four sides and the majority of the demand was satisfied. Once you even crawled under the table so you could say you experienced what we did to make a quick escape from the corner nook.

After Grandma retired, you drove her to Elkhart 2-3 times a week, where she spent the day and then came back for the evenings events. I am sure it was a challenge to spend that much time on the road. Gas was 35 cents a gallon and US 33 was a long stretch of farm land, but you never complained.

We remember the many times you gave of yourself to the family by working in the garden, helping with homework, typing papers, snapping beans, playing games, encouraging, reading books, giving your time, donations and support and living a life of integrity and love for God and others.

You always had high expectations for us, but you never pressured us. You helped us through the tough patches by believing in us and reminding us that we could do it. You planted the seeds of the love of learning and watered them.

It is with much love and appreciation that we think of you now, hoping that we can be of the same encouragement to others.


Mary is on the left with Steve's Mom on the right.

All in a Day's Travel

Greetings from Mbeya Tanzania. It was an eventful bus trip, but not due to problems with the bus, from Mumba this morning. I arrived dusty with a suitcase covered with dust and something, not sure what, but it smelled a bit fishy. We went straight to a guest house, dumped the clothes that were not impacted on the bed and asked a guard to wash it “very” well. We took a small stack of clothes to the home of my hosts and they are washing as we speak.

I woke up early (5:30) so we could drive about 40 minutes to catch a bus passing from Sumbawanga to Mbeya. One of the mission contacts where I had been staying had pre-purchased the ticket. I was warned that this bus would be full, standing room only, but that I would have a designated seat and the conductor would make sure I had access to it.

When the bus came, I tossed my bag in the cargo hold and got on board. There were at least 10 people that I had to squeeze past, just to get to row 6 and sure enough my seat was occupied. The conductor chased someone out and since there were so many people in the aisle and I did not want to climb over two others, I thought no problem, I can sit on the aisle.

The first thing I noticed was the two babies to the left across the aisle and next, one came over the seat from behind to sit beside me on a young girls lap. This one was a bit older and not too compliant as it ended up fussing for nearly 2 hours.


The bus could not travel more than 40-50 kilometers per hour as the dirt road was pretty rough. There is a major project underway to put in a tarmac road but completion is several years off. The view was not all that interesting, so sleep seemed like a good option. The problem was one of the guys standing ended up with his elbow banging my head or hand gripping the seat where I was trying to rest my head. The bus also kept stopping to discharge and accept new passengers.



At one stop, we picked up two moms with two more babies, who ended up in the aisle right beside and in front of my seat. Five babies within arm’s length could get interesting. I started dozing, and woke up to find the one baby’s back side sitting on my shoulder as its mom tried to shift her weight around. OK, hopefully it won’t get closer. I went back to sleep. Suddenly, I felt someone rubbing the inside of my left knee. I came to, to find the mother in front of me trying to rub something wet and yellow off my slacks. I can only assume it was spit up and not the other end as there was no significant smell.

Since she had been standing for some time, she decided to sit on the floor, jamming my left leg up against the metal seat frame, which would not have been too bad had the road been smooth. However, it took a knock with every bump the bus went over. Of course since the one was on the floor, the other could shift around a bit more and I found that baby’s rear was suddenly in the middle of my chest and his back up against my face. So much for not wanting to inconvenience any one and sit on the aisle. The guy sitting in my seat by the window was sleeping un-molested. We had only been traveling 2 of the 6-7 expected hours!

Fortunately, after 3 hours we took a bush break (this is where the men go one direction and the women another). When I got back on the bus, I told the guy sitting by the window that I wanted to sit there and he obliged. The young girl took the aisle seat and started holding the baby that was so in-my-face and everybody has happier. I am grateful that I did not have to stand for the entire time.

All in a day’s travel. I guess that qualifies for the “willing to endure hardship” clause in my job description that I read sometime back. By the way, my bus ticket reads, “Sumry High Class.” Maybe it is the best thing going!


Roasting bananas along the road.

Steve in Tanzania

I arrived safely in Mumba, Tanzania after an overnight bus ride from Mongu to Lusaka, then I flew to Kamama in the northern province of Zambia, bussed to Mbala and took an $11 taxi ride 21 kilometers on a bumpy road to the border.

At the border there was no guard, just an empty guard house, so I went through the gap in the fence and walked about a half mile to the other side of “no man’s land” to Tanzania. It was a warm day so I got a bit warm myself, not dripping though as the altitude is pretty high and it was not humid. I stamped in (the passport) on the other side and met my new friend, coworker Jeff Friesen (interesting Menno connection here with his great grandparents having come out of the Ukraine through China and India, at one point serving as pastoral missionaries in India for several years). His grandmother was born two weeks after the family left China and crossed the Himalayas. Sounds like a Joseph and Mary story.

The trip to Mumba was uneventful with the exception of a bumpy road. We had a late supper of chicken, peanut sauce and rice. After having an omelet for breakfast, chips and juice on the plane for snack, one hardboiled egg and water for lunch, it was delicious. I will teach them how to make maize meal porridge and oatmeal pancakes before the week is up. My cooking skills are coming in real handy! Ha.

The view out my window is more like Switzerland, than Mozambique or Zambia. There are lots of pine trees here on the Bible school campus and the wind blowing through them with the cool clean air make me think of Heidi in the Alps, we are only missing the milk goats. Only the clay brick walls and thatched roof on the little shed give it away. It is pretty amazing though, to have internet and be online with a little phone like device and wireless to the computer. The house has solar energy and batteries. This will change within the year as the reason for this couple to be here is to install a hydro electric generator for the campus and nearby village. It will be a separate, off-the-grid electrical system.

Visitors and Village Visits

It's been a busy but fun couple of weeks since we last wrote. Tim and Joan from our church came to visit and arrived on my birthday. I was surprised with a cake and singing by my co-workers plus other surprises that came in the days ahead - flowers from the kids, a meal out with Tim and Joan, gifts and well-wishes.


We spent a couple of days in Maputo getting organized to go to the villages and meeting a team of two ladies who were also going out. We bought lots of capulanas for their sewing project and some for Joan's rag rug project. We also visited our friends at the orphanage in Rio Matola. Here we are with Yudel looking at pictures of Dondo where Tim and Joan spent their first week.


The heat and humidy in the villages was intense - 100+F. We hadn't had it like that since last December. Now I understand why in some countries people sit in the shade and take it easy, especially in the middle of the day!

We did a kid's club with Sybil and found a little energy to jump and sing.



Then we passed out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on big rolls and sodas ("cool drinks" in Shangaan) to all the kids. What a treat for them!

After a couple of days we moved on to Mukhotwene. We did the rag rug project. It takes a lot of material to make a small item! But at least they learned quickly and hopefully they can find more scrap material to continue on their own.













We also met with the agriculture leaders in the village, visited the field, talked about faithfulness, told Bible stories, and listened in on a Spiritual Transformation Group meeting. That was a highlight to see Atalia leading the group and to see the eagerness of the members to learn what the Bible really has to say. They have been taught many things and are now finding out that the Biblical truths are different.



In the village Steve had an encounter with a small scorpion. He felt it under his shirt and brushed it off. He jumped up and said "I felt a scorpion!" We searched on the floor until we found it and promptly stepped on it. Wow, two scorpions in less than a month when we have never seen one in 7 years.


It was also a week for power outages. In the villages we used candles and went to bed early. In Maputo the challenge at our house is that when the electricity goes, the water pump also stops! Thankfully the first outage was short. The next one was 24hrs but most of the time we were away from home. Our guard called to tell us that the transformer just outside our gate was on fire. I guess people were running and in a bit of a panic. Thankfully they replaced it with another one fairly soon.

After getting everyone to the airport we made a flying trip to South Africa then had a church leadership retreat over the weekend. Sunday afternoon Steve got on his first flight of many as he visits four countries in the next weeks. Sunday night I caught my breath and enjoyed the quietness of the house. Thanks for your prayers!

Mabuda

This past week we were busy with Ancient Paths seminars. Four afternoons we were with seminary leaders. We were excited that they want to continue with Level II and then on to facilitator training so they can train their own students. We also want to get other seminaries involved.

Friday we went to Swaziland to help facilitate a seminar with our friends that we mentored there. People traveled to a B&B whose owners are also very excited about AP. They allowed us to use their house which looks like an English Manor and is filled with antiques. I appreciated their low key approach to their wealth (much of it inherited). The B&B is part of a working farm and we enjoyed some long walks around the property.



It would be a great set for a movie!

I was so sorry that we left the camera at home. There was a row of gorgeous orange trees like I've never seen before. I need to find out what they are.

The small roundavel we stayed in was very quaint and nice. The only problem is that the creepy critters thought so to. Steve killed 4 big spiders, 1 scorpion, 1 centipede, a beetle and two worms. The second night I decided to sleep under the mosquito net in case anything decided to venture into the bedroom. During the seminar one of the facilitators had to jump in and kill a tic that was climbing someone's leg. Better an interruption than African tic bite fever!

The seminar went very well and some people were healed deeply by God. Sorry I can't share specifics as it is confidential. Let me just say that it leaves us with a deep joy at the end to see what God can do.

Steve's Travels - Zambia and East Africa

In August, I Steve, took off for Zambia and spent 9 days there with the ZambiaWorks team. They are working hard and doing a great job of helping small farmers to raise vegetables using a low cost model to generate income for their families. The area had experienced its first hard frost in years and some crops and trees were damaged. One of the resulting factors as that the green vegetable crops needed to have the damaged leaves stripped off so they would shoot new ones. As I was watching the farmers strip off the leaves, I noticed that several were still in pretty good shape, so I said, “Oh, you could eat those. “ Wiggan just looked at me and smiled saying, “They have so much of that kind of food at home, they are not even interested in these leaves.” Wow, what a far cry from where these families were just one year ago when there was not enough to eat. It is amazing to see what a little assistance and motivation can do.



In early September I took off again on a 3-week trip to East Africa. The first stop was Burundi where I worked with the micro-finance board for two days. I then traveled to the hills of Makamba in the south and looked at the work of one of our partners and some cassava projects. There is a serious problem with mosaic disease and this program is propagating mosaic resistant varieties and selling the cuttings. We are getting ready to hire an agriculture manager who we hope will oversee the program long into the future. The goal is to build an agriculture institution to provide technical and marketing support to the rural farmer as well as provide much needed agri-credit to these communities.

After the week, I went to Kigali, Rwanda and met with one of the WR regional technical people whose focus is village savings and loan associations (VSLA). WR has been doing savings programs for a couple of years and after some time, most of the participants start asking, “What’s next?” For me, the obvious answer is agriculture or some kind of micro-business. I have created an approach that moves people through the phases of savings, saving plus agriculture, then if they qualify, agriculture plus loans. I was also able to visit the essential oil business that had been started by WR several years ago. The grow and distill oil from geranium, lemon grass and eucalyptus.

The second week found me in Goma, eastern DRC on Lake Kivu (see left side of map). I spent several days working with the MFI and looking at their ag-credit program. You might think that this is becoming a bit routine, which it is as I get to know the process and the people. However, it really is a challenge to make loans of any kind to poor people, but when you add agriculture to the mix, it gets even more challenging.


At the start of the third week, we traveled back to Burundi for a conference hosted by the Canadian Food Grains Bank. They have provided us with a 3-year agriculture grant in Congo and wanted to train us on the proposal writing and reporting side of the equation.

Mid week, I hopped on a plane to Nairobi to meet with our WR office there and see how we might go about starting a sustainable agriculture program in Kenya. Some early impressions about the capital, is that there is construction and cars everywhere. Their challenge is the street sizes have not kept up with the demand. Imagine a two lane road, backed up as far as you can see, and no stoplights or stop signs to direct the traffic. Let gridlock prevail, and it does! Fortunately the only time I had to go through the main part of town with bad traffic, was on the way back to the airport. While stuck at a traffic circle, we saw a herd of cows moving through the intersection!

It was a good interaction with the Kenya team. We just scratched the surface with two days of meetings and a little travel outside the city to see the countryside. There are some huge, 10+ acre greenhouse businesses there that fly their fresh cut flowers straight into Europe. We also saw some Maasai herds of goats and cattle out on the dry grass ranges and experienced one of the first rains of the season. The countryside will look very different next time I see it for sure.

Joy in Chaimite

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of accompanying a team from Ohio to the villages of Chaimite and Koka-Misava. It is always a treat to leave the city and get to the "real" Mozambique. Sometimes people say that Maputo is like another country. In the village, people are very traditional and many speak their native language and do not speak Portuguese. It was a good week and one of the highlights was being invited to the dedication of a new water station. Here's the background:

From The Chapel, Akron, Ohio Website:
“Our Christ-centered, holistic ministry gained momentum in November 2006. A team of eight taught the Bible to many Bible-illiterate church leaders and served in very practical ways such as health education. Chapel representatives met with village leaders and learned of their biggest health need—water. The village wells yield only brackish water. And, in just a year, 32 women and children were killed by crocodiles in the nearby river while collecting the only potable water available. Added to the problem, severe waterborne diseases in the river threaten the population. Upon return, the team led The Chapel’s congregation to give $25,000 for a pump, a two-mile pipeline, and storage tanks so clean water would no longer be a concern.

“With great delight, as of Summer, 2010, The Chapel has provided four clean water stations in Chaimite (serving 1000 families), with all of the water pumped from the Limpopo River (no more crocodiles or waterborne diseases!!). Three water stations exist in Koka-Misava (serving 1500 families), with one station drawing water from a solar-powered well and the other two from another well–all water from deep, clean aquifers).

“The two villages have a history of some Christianity mixed with a large dose of animism and witch doctors. Either no understanding or a warped concept of Jesus and the Gospel is the norm in southern Mozambique. However, Chapel teams, in cooperation with on-the-ground World Relief personnel and others committed to Christ and sound doctrine, have been able to teach the Gospel widely to adults, youth and children. There is a growing embrace of Christ and his Word. Physical water has saved many lives, but our prayer is that the living water of Christ Jesus will quench the thirst of those who are spiritually parched. ”

Each water station is staffed by a person who collects a small fee for each container of water. The community water committee handles the funds and uses them to maintain the water stations and pay the staffers. In Chaimite the fund grew and they decided to build another water station themselves. They dug 3,600 feet of trench to lay the pipe and paid $10,500 for the materials and labor to do this.

The team from The Chapel that was visiting was invited to the dedication, October 4, 2011. The village was very grateful to The Chapel for providing the seed money for the first water stations and to World Relief for organizing the construction of the stations. This has led to a sustainable water project for this village of 9,000 people. They are taking responsibility to meet the needs in their community with their own funds. It is a good example of giving a hand-up so people can help themselves instead of making people continually dependent on hand-outs.



During the dedication they sang a song that speaks of the water of life that satisfies and quenches thirst. It is living water and we will never be thirsty again. A skit was presented of women collecting water at the river and being attacked by a crocodile. They are so grateful that now they can get clean water close to home and without this danger. The community leader expressed deep appreciation to The Chapel and World Relief for bringing this resource to Chaimite and for helping the community to begin reproducing water stations. They spoke of The Chapel and WR being the “grandparents” seeing this new “child” born. No celebration would be complete without singing, dancing and presenting capulanas and scarves. It was a very joyful day in the village of Chaimite.

You can view more pictures of Chaimite and Koka Misava here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mjsm1th?blend=22&ob=5#p/u/0/HwXyDzGDpg0 This was a trip two years ago but some of the same people returned this time.

Training Church Leaders

We have some catching up to do on this blog!

Today I'm thinking of World Relief and the work we help to organize from the head office. I work with Church Development. One of the main things we have done is to help four coordinators in different areas to hold trainings and seminars for pastors.

Pastor Madeira, who has worked in the center of the country with World Relief reported that “lack of unity among pastors brought unhealthy competition among themselves, disunity, lack of trust and enmity to the extent of some of them going after witchdoctors in order to prosper more than the other. With the unity we brought among them, there is now the spirit of cooperation, repentance from the wrong done in the past and a passion to serve more and more strongly for the Kingdom.” Jose Madeira is the one on the left of the picture, next to Anastase Nzabilinda who is the director of Church Dev. and other leaders from Sofala Province.



Willem Nel, director of Volta a Biblia, a Bible training center said that it takes a long time, much prayer and discipleship before people are willing to leave ancestor worship and animism. And then he commented that we are all tempted with idolatry, whether it is ancestor worship, or trusting witchdoctors in Africa, or materialism and security in the West.

I learned early in my time in Mozambique that many pastors are chosen because they can read, or they have natural leadership abilities, not necessarily because they are Christians. The country of Mozambique does not have a strong background of Christianity. During the Socialist era Christianity was suppressed and it has only been 20 years since then.

The training these coordinators have been doing is very basic "What we believe" teaching so that the pastors will receive the truth and then pass it along to their congregations. The sad news we received recently is that we can no longer give them even the small stipend we were giving because there is no budget money for this in this new fiscal year. We are also needing to stop support to two young men who have worked with children's clubs and with trainers of children.

It really grieves me to see this part of our ministry end. Who knows, these pastors may continue going out and training even without funds for transportation but I know it will be difficult for them to continue.

If you would like to contribute to WR, one way to do so is through the catalog you can find here: https://worldrelief.org/page.aspx?pid=723&nccsm=15 If you'd like to give to leadership training go to "Stand for the Vulnerable" and then "Train a Church Leader." Mention Mozambique if you'd like.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Hab. 2:14

Magaliesburg Adventures

We recently returned from two weeks in Magaliesburg, SA for a Family Foundations training. They asked us to come help facilitate some groups and we also benefitted from the change of pace and learning to know some wonderful people from S Africa, Malawi, DRC, Kenya and Nigeria.

I never saw a more faithful dog than this one! He went everywhere with his master.

The event was held at a YFC camp with beautiful surroundings. We hiked up the stone mountain a couple of times and explored the gorge.


The last day a group of us went hiking early in the morning.





We enjoyed spending time with and learning from Leon and Marietjie, the Africa coordinators for Family Foundations. They are an inspiration and have a huge job to get the ministry to all the countries of Africa.


On the weekend we stayed with the camp directors. They asked if we wanted to go see kids swinging from the bridge as they had a visitor with them that wanted to swing. So we went and watched and then got in the vehicle to leave. Then the young man said he wanted to go again, so we all piled out. As he was swinging, I decided I'm not too old for a little adventure so I said I wanted a turn too. Here I am thinking to myself "What am I doing? Am I crazy?"



And here I am swinging away. It was worth it, although it was a bit scary. I never quite got the courage to let go of the rope.


Coming and going we met an interesting group called the Latter Rain Assemblies of SA. Some people call them the Blourokkies because many of the women wear blue dresses. They live very simply in community and eat their meals together. In some ways they reminded us of the Hutterites, although their theology is more Pentecostal. We met some very nice people who are also involved with FFI and who hosted us very well. When they found out we would be on an overnight bus ride they were sure we needed lots of food. We said we don't usually eat at night, but they insisted on being generous.

The Saga of Our New House

One year ago we learned we would need to move from the house where we were living. It is owned by the Wesleyan Church and they had a missionary couple coming that would need it. Since housing prices have risen steadily in Maputo and you can hardly rent anything for less than $1,500 I was a bit worried. First we were told we would need to move in January. Then the time was delayed until it finally became July. God impressed on me that He would take care of it and I should not worry. I kept praying and tried to trust.

In March a neighbor friend whom I walked with sometimes said that they were leaving their house and we could probably have it (at a price comparable to what we were paying, and much less than the going rate). Steve and I went to visit and were pleased with what we saw. The furniture belonged to them, so we purchased quite a bit of it as all our other houses have been furnished.

Things were great until she called one day and told us that another couple from their mission who had originally planned to leave had changed their minds and would now be coming back – to “our” house. Wow, that was hard to handle and we were very disappointed. But I came back to what God had spoken – “Don’t worry, trust Me.”

We were given some small rays of hope that possibly they would not actually return. We kept praying. In June I started thinking I needed to do something, so I started looking in the ads. There was nothing encouraging. We looked at a very small apartment and another house that would have needed lots of TLC and work.

We made a “partial” move to another WR Guesthouse. The lease was ending there so we knew we could not stay more than a month. Now what? Finally at the end of July we received the good news – we could have the house we wanted! We met with the landlady who is a Christian and knows she could rent the house for much more, but says it is God’s house and she wants to bless others. We are certainly blessed and so thankful that God can be trusted and that He is always faithful.

Travel in Zambia

Travel can always be challenging here in Africa and usually we do our best to avoid the stress of travel by sticking to well known travel options. Yesterday was the exception. Due to the illness of our pastor in Mozambique, I had committed myself to be at the Sunday services as much as possible. I had agreed to preach on Sunday, long before we had any idea that the service might be a memorial service for Pastor Sammy. It was one of the most challenging sermons emotionally, but it met some real spiritual and emotional need for all of us.

That meant that Monday was the big travel day. I decided that I wanted to maximize my time in Mongu, Zambia, so I would try to make it all the way in one day. Usually I travel in the evening of the first day, then bus for 8-9 hours the following day. It is tiring, but doable.

However, since the SAA and LAM (South African and Mozambique airline) companies have started to code share flights, I can catch the 7 AM into Joburg and the 10:30 AM into Lusaka, arriving by 12:30. Then catch a 1 or 2 PM bus to Mongu in Western Province, arriving by 10 or 11 PM, if all goes well. In theory it works nicely, without too much exhaustion. Notice I said, in theory.



The first leg went fine, arising at 4:45 am and getting to Joburg by 8 am. The next flight was a bit delayed, but we arrived in reasonable time. What I did not plan for was the Kenya Airways flight arriving just ahead of us with their 757 and filling the arrival lounge with visitors. Since both flights were international, the lines were long. Fortunately, I had a seat in the front of the plane and managed to get to the front of the visa required line. Unfortunately, others had some sort of clout to budge and it took more than 50 minutes for me to get through immigration. Now I was in trouble--would there even be any buses left at the station?

I grabbed a taxi and we got to the station by 2:30. All the big buses were full, although two were still sitting there. There was one smaller bus(30 passenger) still there taking on the last three passengers. After I bought my ticket, then there were two still to be sold. This should go fast! Wrong!!! They sold the tickets well enough, but took another hour to load the trailer with luggage and stuff. We finally left the station at 4, but did not make it out of town for another 40 minutes. Hmm, maybe we will arrive by midnight?

We made pretty good time in the first leg, but the second was slow due to the rough road. My seat was actually the last seat available and my knees were up around my chin, on top of the motor compartment. The last two buyers ended up sitting on the motor compartment and the stairs. I was thankful for the flip down seat, but it was still painful. Did you know a neck pillow work pretty good for seat pillows and back support too? I made full use of it.

At one point we stopped and dropped a young couple. The problem was their bags were buried. Time to unpack and re-tie the trailer. Ok, a least some time to stretch my legs. But then, there was a guy who wanted to take a dozen grain bags to Mongu for sale. So, they drove ahead about 80 feet, unloaded the whole trailer and then reloaded it. Total time, one hour. Ok maybe we can arrive by 1 AM now. I texted Wiggan and said, "Get some sleep, I will call when I arrive."

The next stretch of road is typically horrible and it was even worse in the small bus. It took way too long, but we arrived at the Kaoma stopover and took another hour to unload and reload the trailer--again. On the way out of town, there was almost a riot on the bus as the passengers began complaining about how the bus manager had disrespected them by taking so long and he should be forced by the driver to apologize. One guy even started to get out of his seat to get physical. It might have been more amusing if I were not sitting right beside the “manager.”

By now it was 11:30, we only had 200 kilometers to go and I was dozing or trying to. Maybe we can make it by 2:30? The neck pillow only worked one place at a time. I had moved seats when the young couple left, but the seat was not in great shape, so it was like exchanging one pain for another. Once I woke up to the bus sitting beside the road and a loud discussion about fuel. Something along the lines, “It must be the fuel pump, because we should have enough fuel to make it there, we should not have run out.” How comforting. Maybe we will be here all night!!

They restarted the bus, but shut it down again later for what seemed to be an attempt to unclog a fuel line connection. There went another 20 minutes. We did finally arrive at 2:45 and I was in a bed by 3 AM. Guess that makes it a 22 hour plus travel day. I would say never again, but you never know. After all, this is Africa.

Pastor Sammy Gumbe

It is with a heavy heart that I write this as we have received news that the pastor of our church in Maputo, Sammy Gumbe, has passed away. In June it was discovered that he had lymphoma. He had a couple of chemotherapy treatments but then was unable to continue them.

Our friend Mark Estes, who was part of the church for several years and now lives in Thailand with his family, wrote this tribute:

"Within five minutes of receiving the message [of Sammy's death], our family had just finished our evening meal and was listening to some praise and worship songs. My favorite – courtesy of Pastor Sammy’s love for the song – “He Knows My Name” played.

"I found myself suddenly alone with the music – Marcia in the kitchen cleaning as the kids meandered to their rooms to play. I sat down and sang in worship and remembered the passion of the song that was shared on so many Sundays not so long ago in Maputo – with Pastor Sammy up front enthralled in God’s Awe and encouraging Bruno to ‘play it again!!’…and Pastor wanted us all to experience that moment as he did.

"I recall often looking up to see Pastor Sammy holding one of his sons – sometimes both (he was a big strong man!) and seeing how much he and Christine loved them – and each other.

"I remember getting to know Pastor from our early days in Maputo back in 2007. We liked to “challenge” each other in loving and brotherly ways. We often didn’t see things eye to eye, but we let love guide our discussions and in the end, regardless of agreement or disagreement on a subject, I walked away with a deeper and growing respect and love for Pastor Sammy. I hope he did the same of me. I think he did.

What would Pastor say?

“God is Good…all the time…and all the time…God is Good” I can hear his voice. Do you remember how he said the word “Love”?

"I’m far away and know that many tears will flow in the days to come as MICF and the Community that knew Pastor come together to comfort and support Christine and the boys as they say “see you later” to Sammy. There is no such word or phrase in the Christian language that means ‘goodbye’ or ‘farewell’ as our assurance of Pastor’s new home is with us – and our comfort through faith holds us fast to the fact that one day…I’ll enjoy shouting praise with Sammy in a better place with the Father who indeed, “knows our name”.

"I can see Pastor Sammy now with the list of questions for the Lord… "OK Father, now that I’m home…and here for a while…there are a few things we need to talk about!”


The other thing Pastor Sammy would say is "God is faithful...all the time... and all the time...God is faithful, for that is His nature." These are good things to remember in a time like this when we could be tempted to ask "Why" and wonder about God's nature.

Pastor Sammy officiating at the wedding of Bruno and Letticia, from our church.

Jamene and Irene's Wedding

After we moved to Mozambique an accountant from the WR office in Malawi came for a short visit to the Maputo office. He stayed with us at the WR guesthouse and became our friend. It felt like we bonded quickly as we are both TCK's (third culture kids). Jamene's family lived in the U.S. and Canada during his growing up years.

During that visit he mentioned that he didn't think he could live in Mozambique. However, later on he ended up moving here and it seems he will be here a good while since he just married a Mozambican! Irene is a lovely person. She is the deputy director of AfricaWorks and is studying law.

Here he is with his uncle and some of the bridal party, waiting for the fun to start. The wedding time was moved up due to many ceremonies taking place at the church that day. Towards the end of the ceremony we could hear the other wedding party singing.


They had the cutest junior attendants. This little guy caught my eye - he can really move to the music!




After the church ceremony we traveled to Matola for the civil ceremony and the reception. This is the civil ceremony with the godparents, Larry and Mandy, friends of Jamene's from Malawi.


The reception was very nice in a huge tent in a park.


The happy couple. Congratulations!

Moving News and Prayer Request

Here we are in our naturally cooled office. Many times in July and Aug we’ve been in the U.S. so we haven’t really experienced a Moz “winter.” It hasn’t been bad, but it is strange to feel cold in Moz. We moved to our new temporary place last Saturday and it is cooler than our other house because of its orientation. Sweaters and blankets feel pretty good.

The move went quite well. We took a load of boxes Friday night. Saturday Maria, our cleaner, and her strong son came to help us move. Antonio actually carried the small stove up the stairs without any help from Steve! That was fine with him… :-) We had things moved by noon and then the unpacking began. We actually left many things in boxes in anticipation of moving again - it's a long story.

We received hard news about our pastor in Maputo, Sammy Gumbe. He has been ill for the past months and no one could come up with a diagnosis. Last week they did a biopsy and this week they said he has aggressive lymphoma. He started chemo in SA yesterday, but he is very weak and thin. They really need a miracle. Please pray for him, his wife Christine and three young sons. They are Kenyan/Mozambican. The church needs prayer also. Thanks.



We were together at Christmas '09. Sammy is at the head of the table.

Burundi

My arrival in Bujumbura, Burundi did not go as planned as the schedule challenged folks at Rwandair moved the 8 pm flight back to 5:30 pm and did not tell anyone ordering tickets. I arrived at the terminal in Kigali looking for the transfer desk and it was smaller than a lemonade stand. Literally a small stand up desk that said, “transfers.” With no one around, we asked the cleaning lady, who asked someone else, who got a third person who eventually tracked down a fourth. After ushering us through a keyed door way, he told us to wait here, they needed to load a flight to Uganda first. About our flight, there wasn’t one. "May we have your passports and tickets?" After about 30 minutes, when the flight was supposed to leave, a fifth person showed up and said, we would be put up in a hotel and get the 11 am flight out in the morning. We were introduced to a 6th person who said all was well with our tickets and handed off to a 7th person who took us away to the hotel. There were three of us and we were all expected in the WR office at 8 am. This is Africa.

They did put us up in a nice hotel. The going rate is $189 per night, supposedly a 6star, but I think the ladies at the front desk were exaggerating a bit. I have stayed at one 5 star in my life and this was not close. Maybe a 4 but I’m not complaining, except they did not give me the wakeup call I requested. Fortunately I woke up at 6 by internal alarm and made it to the pickup site on time.

We got the airport and you guessed it, 1) our tickets had not been changed and 2) the plane was not even ready for its first flight of the day on time. We left a half hour late, making it 10 am, pretty close to the predicted 11 am, although they had said it was to leave at 9:30. Their in-flight magazine for the month said, departure at 11, so who knows, the employees didn’t and they get the planes ready! This is still Africa.

I had lunch with some of the leadership team in Bujumbura and the expectations were pretty high. “Tell us what to do so that when we get to September start date of the new program, our implementation team will have it all figured out.” Hmm, at least I get three months to do that. This is more of an assessment trip for me since the first time I did not make it out of the capital city due to meetings and shortness of time.

To round out the afternoon, we took a road trip along the coast of Lake Tanganyika and then up into the mountains of the southern provinces. We stopped to visit an association that WR had helped start with a few goats, vegetables, bananas and cassava two years ago. My task was to ask lots of questions and try to figure out how to fashion a real, business-based agriculture and value chain development program out of what is and what ever opportunities exist in the region. These 17 young men were trying to raise small eggplant on a hard rocky and clay soil mix. It is the kind of soil that someone cultivated so poorly years ago that all the top soil has been eroded off and washed away. They get some water from a stream up the mountainside so at least they don’t have to spend money on pump fuel. They just dug a trench across the dirt road, around the bend and into their small garden field and the water just runs. It doesn’t even soak in that well.

To their credit, they had covered the stony ground with a grass and weed mulch, and apparently used come goat manure underneath. The plants looked relatively healthy and had fruit. If all goes well, they could earn up to 30,000 Burundian franks, or $25 every two weeks for the next 6-7 months off that patch. Some of that money will go to buy spray to keep the bugs away, if they can find it. There were lots of little raggedy clothed, bright eyed little kids around, some with swollen bellies. Many of the young men didn’t look much out of their teens themselves.

How to have a real lasting impact on agriculture, incomes and development in such a situation? That is quite a responsibility to carry the next couple of days. When I thought about it, it was a little overwhelming. Fortunately, there is a team here that should be a good resource. The idea is to see the situation as it really is before we try to envision, with God’s help, how it could be different. We'll use the skills of the local people, the resources they have been given, plus realistic ideas from other places that if implemented, could change the future of many who now live lives of quiet desperation.

On a lighter note, needing to have a gluten free meal on the plane, provided me with sirloin steak instead of the chicken, fish or vegetarian option. That was a first. I am staying at the UNHCR hotel in Makamba and the chef said the meal would be ready in an hour. I had a pretty good lunch, so I told him I only needed a small plate of food. I was tired enough to fall asleep on the bed, then was awakened by a knock on the door about 8 p.m. He came in with 3 plates of food. Since it was late, I was hungrier than I thought and could have eaten it all. The temp is pretty cool up here and I will use it to keep warm tonight. As for the meat? You guessed it, sirloin steak, two days in a row. Another first. My compliments to the chef!! He has pretty good taste.

Mongu, Zambia

We've just returned from two weeks in Zambia. We started from Lusaka with an 8 hr. bus ride. Normally the buses are good but this one was crowded with 28 passengers behind us in seats for 17. Then they filled the baggage hold with freight so the aisles were jammed with boxes, suitcases, you name it. It was an obstacle course to get on and off the bus!


Once we got to Mongu we hit the ground running. We thought we were doing a CHE seminar the second week we were there and the coordinator thought we were doing it the second week of May. We were hoping for a week to prepare, but we had a day and then evenings. Once we got going it went well. Now the question is whether these folks will start a program that is community-based with volunteers. We had an interesting discussion and they stated that volunteerism does not work. They suggested that the communities pay the volunteers. Well, that could work, except that those funds should be used for community initiatives. And when the money to pay them runs out, then what? One pastor stated that we need to pray that God will transform minds and give people a willingness to volunteer again. Sad to say, it is one of the down sides of receiving so much aid from NGOs and other organizations when it shuts down local initiative and looking for their own resources.



When we weren't at the seminar we were working on other Zambia Works work. Since Steve grew up on an apple farm he was very interested to find a guy who is growing apples in Mongu! He also has tangerines and oranges in the same mini-orchard. He says the apples grow quickly as they can grow year round. These are Mexican apples.


At church on Sunday we enjoyed the worship team, except that the keyboard sound ran through this big speaker which was on HIGH. I definitely wouldn't sit right in front of it if I attended this church regularly. Whooeee! It was ear-splitting. Note the other items besides money in the morning offering - some reeds and something in a bag.


The pastor of the church is our friend, Lubinda, who directs a ministry to orphaned children, Kids Alive Intl. They have 57 kids in different houses and they wish they could take more as the need is great, but they are filled to capacity. Here he is with his wife, Esther and some of the boys.





Lubinda also took us to meet a man, Emanuel, who was an Angolan refugee. (Angola is about 500 km from Mongu.) He started a preschool and then an elementary school. He also takes in the elderly and others who need a place to stay. He calls it is "village of refuge." It was encouraging to find someone who is giving his life to help others.


No recounting of a trip to Mongu is complete without a note about the Oasis Restaurant. It is Lebanese owned and has great Shwarmas. Their business has gone down since they raised their prices, so we'll see if they survive. The ambience is great with mounted animal heads, a fountain with bubble soap and golden oldies music.




The trip back on the bus was a whole lot better with no overcrowding or stuff in the aisles. We got on at 10 p.m. and got to Lusaka by 5:30 a.m. Sleeping sure does make the time go faster!

I'm always amazed at the signs that include references to God or the Bible and the Christian music on the buses. Zambia definitely has a different culture and history than Mozambique!













This is a little hard to read - it is the Good Samaritan Bar and Guesthouse.