We have missed our own children so much being here - sometimes it is almost a crushing feeling - but we find solace in that God has provided so many children here that we can love – this morning there was a baby dedication and those are special times of celebration. This precious one-month old girl was an absolute doll and I enjoyed carrying her around – not something you see the men do a lot here and the older ladies always enjoy watching me do this and it gives me a chance to talk with them. Of course, that always gives me a chance to engage in conversation about my four precious daughters and about the older ladies' families – family is very important here - people are genuinely interested in learning all about your family as they see it as an important part of understanding who you are.

Dave

This picture is of our church congregation at Sao Damasao. This small church was started as an ECC plant a few years ago. It is one of our favorite churches to visit (I think I say that about all of our churches!) because of the wonderful spirit of worship that precedes the preaching every Sunday. Today we had a baby dedication and that is always a special event and I enjoyed carrying the one-month old baby around – a precious baby girl.

This church is one of our nicer reed-style churches and is quite well constructed although the reed is getting quite a bit worn. This morning, next to where I sat, I could see the candle wax on a beam on the side wall, and where a fire had been put out from the candle – close call as the reed burns quickly! The fire hazard is very real here with all the reed structures and in some cases thatch roofs.

We would like to put in a well for this church also. It would serve the community and the church – a dream of ours that we will just begin to pray about. There is a small garden at the church, but it doesn’t do that well because of the lack of water. The water under this area is quite good and just needs to be drilled. Not having water tends to limit the kinds of community activities you can have at the church – so - an opportunity for us to pray and work and see what God will do.

We have two leaders at this church – one is truly bi-vocational and works in town during the week. He is a good leader and well respected by the people. This morning, one of our national church leaders (Lucas, the albino in the picture) brought the message – he is a wonderful man who quite engaged the congregation with a “back and forth” style of preaching where the congregation became a part of the message.

Blessings on this Sunday.

I'm not sure this picture will show what I want it to - but it a brisk wind blew in last night and with it cooler weather as our summer begins to transition to winter. On the way to and from church today, the children were out with their kites.

The Mozambican kids are very cleaver and they build very exotic cars and toys out of old tin or aluminum cans and we see them rolling them around everywhere we go. Also, they can are quite clever at building kites out of sticks, plastic, and cloth - stuff you find along the side of the road here, and they are everywhere on a windy day.

In the picture above, a boy is reeling in a blue kite - there are others around him flying kites but they are in the sky.

I have such a burden for the children of Mozambique as a country is always only one-generation away from disaster or glory. In our morning devotions, where Ann and I read our way through the bible chronologically each year, we are currently in Judges (finished today) and it is the cycle - the nation of Israel falls away from God in one generation, the nation falls into captivity, the people cry out and turn back to God, He hears and sends a deliverer, and they have about one generation of peace, and it starts over - one generation to lose a relationship with the creator of the universe. A cycle of history that teaches us how important it is to train up our youth.

The young children are learning English in School and we are able to talk with them in our Porteglais (Portugese plus English) and we continue to encourage our national church leaders to really reach out to the young people - they are the future. We must have programs that train our young. One technique we are hoping to start here, possibly with teams that come, is a Biblical story-telling program where you use story boards and other things to tell and discuss stories in the Bible. We have a friend of OMS in South Africa who uses this technique successfully in the village settings and we have asked for training on this so we can train others here - basic stuff that works - you just have to 'put yourself out there'.

This morning I was asked to great the church, which I almost always expect to do as we make the rounds each Sunday to our OMS related churches. This morning I spoke in Portuguese (mostly) and the Pastor, who knows us and our accent, interpreted my Portuguese into Portuguese. I think that is progress! I still kept thinking - "I just said that, why are you saying it again?" but my accent must be horrible. Anyway, it seemed like progress. Then someone else translated into Tsonga. Can't make long speeches with two translators!

I'll put some other pictures up for you on a couple of short blogs. It is a beautiful day today and I praise God for what He is doing here in Mozambique. Thank you Lord for all those wonderful people who make it possible for us to serve you here.

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years." Judges 13:1

Here is a picture of one of the school buildings under construction for the government school discussed in my last blog.

Blessings to you this day and may we stand firmly on what God can do – His arm is not too short, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and his network is beyond understanding.

Blessings to you this day.

Dave & Ann