Some frustrations

Looking for a house has been a continual source of frustration for us. Every time we get ready to sign a contract, someone beats us to it or something happens that we can’t make the deal. We have noticed so many cultural differences just in looking for a house. The realtors we have had are completely unorganized and unprepared. We spent hours driving around to see the “outside” of the houses and being asked, “would you like to see the inside?” After such a statement, they figure that we are actually wanting to live inside the house and that they now have a dilemma. They will need to contact the owner and track down the keys…wherever they may be. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a simple phone call away. Every thing just works different here. Sometimes it is bearable, but on days that every thing seems to be going wrong, we find ourselves not appreciating our differences. For instance, we went without electricity for 3 days this week. Every thing that we had bought/stocked up on spoiled in our fridge and freezer. Everytime we called the electric company, they said they would be at our house in 15 minutes. Let’s just say that got really old by the first night. The second morning we went to their office to complain that no one had come and we were told to be patient…Corey responded that he thought 28 hours was patient enough! It has been really hot and for some reason, rainy season didn’t help us out for 3 nights we stayed awake sweating. We didn’t even get a breeze or a slight rain shower. We decided that it would be good to sleep downstairs, since it would be cooler. We made a huge mistake…we were eaten alive by mosquitoes! So, we have had quite a stressful week looking for houses, battling the language barrier, battling the electric company, watching hours slowly go by through each night, being covered with mosquito bites, and having the house we liked rented just hours before we could make the deal. AAAAAHHHH!!!

So, needless to say, we are in some serious need of prayer! Despite these frustrations, God has been good to us and He has shown us how blessed we are and how much we take our blessings from Him for granted. Please pray that God would lead us to the right house and that this week we would strive to respond to every situation the way Christ would! Pray that bad circumstances wouldn’t get the best of us and change our attitudes in a negative way. Please pray that we would be patient. Please pray that God would grant us clarity and a vision for our AIDS ministry…there are so many details that are unknown to us right now. Please pray that God would continue to protect us from Malaria!

Christmas in Africa

We are back again in Nampula. We returned yesterday from our trip to South Africa for a prayer retreat. We have been on the go so much lately. Thank you for your prayers for our safety. God has blessed us with His protection throughout all of our travels. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. On Dec. 22nd we went to the orphanage and decorated a paper Christmas tree and ornaments. Then we decorated sugar cookies…it was the first cookie decoration and tasting for all of the orphans. They loved it. Then Jenni took the girls and taught them how to make them. They are excited to venture on their own and make more of these new delicious treats. We also spent time sharing the true meaning of Christmas with all of them. We challenged them to share this message with at least one of their friends and they all committed to doing it! We were excited. We had such a blessed time with them.

We had a wonderful Christmas, although it was very different than what we are used to. We spent time with our new supervisors Eddie and Janice. It was great! They spoiled us and made us feel like family. Also, we were able to talk to our families in the States and actually see them on the web cam. Thank the Lord for Skype and instant messaging! Eddie and Janice are blessed to have a fast internet connection, so we had a blast and took advantage of seeing our family. It sure made our separation easier. We can’t complain since we were able to actually see and talk to our families. We are so grateful that God has blessed us with Skype and a missionary family that took us in. Being away from family, friends, and pretty Christmas decorations and goodies was hard, but God made the transition wonderful. Whether we have any of those things or not, we still celebrated the most important thing…Christ’s birth. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the meaning of Christmas remains the same. It was actually weird to be stripped from the commercialism of Christmas, but it was wonderfully weird. It helped us to focus only on the birth of our Savior!!!

After Christmas, we drove to South Africa. Can you say culture shock??? We had adapted to having nothing, and all of a sudden we felt like we were back in America. We went from a land with huts for homes and bad dirt roads, to a land with beautiful homes, movie theaters, hair salons, real grocery stores and PAVED roads! It was so weird…we felt like we were in America, however we were missing everyone we love so much. Everything felt so familiar, yet it felt so empty without our family and friends. We miss all of you so much!! Here is a picture of the first place we went to in Johannesburg…yep that would be Micky D’s! It was like a party in our mouths!!! Who knew fries, nuggets, and a McFlurry could taste so good!!

The Prayer Retreat was wonderful. There was a team who came from the States and they led us in worship and Bible Study. It was awesome to praise God in English! The days were very full of prayer time and worship time. We enjoyed it very much. At night, we had free time, and we took advantage of it and went to the movies. We highly recommend Charolette’s Web to everyone! Jenni also got her hair cut and styled, which was quite the experience. In the States you can just say I would like a cut/style. In Johannesburg, you have to be very specific and say you want your hair washed, then conditioned, then cut, then blow dried, and then straightened…Why??? Well because you have the privilege of paying for each and everything done to your hair. We know for next time, but it was quite an expensive, frustrating experience. It did turn out good though, so no complaints there!

Upon our arrival to Nampula, we were blessed with several Christmas packages awaiting us! We want to thank all of you for the time and money in postage/package materials that you put out to make us feel so special. We felt so loved and we appreciate the kindness and generosity that you showed us. THANK YOU!!! Now we are refreshed and stocked up on lots of yummy American food that should cure some cravings!

We had a meeting with Samaritan’s Purse when we returned to Mozambique a couple of days ago. We are in the process of looking at a bunch of AIDS ministry materials and making some big decisions on how to do ministry here. We need your prayers as we seek God to lead us in this decision making process. We also need you to pray for us this week as we search for an apartment to live in. We need to move ASAP out of our house, because the house we are living in now is going to be the home of our new supervisors. We had found a great option, but it fell through. Pray God would lead us to a good home and that the move would go smoothly. Also, pray that we would just lean on the Lord and not worry about the details of the move and decisions we need to make! God bless you and we hope that you are all having a wonderful New Year!!