Computer Down, Portuguese Up!

Our computer is broken and so we can only email from our friend's
house. We are sad because this was our only way of communication to our friends and families. Pray that our computer will be fixed soon! We will probably have to take it to South Africa when we go on vacation with our parents. They will be here soon and we are so excited!

We have had a good week. Our pastor's wife Ruthi had her first baby and she asked Jenni if she could come and stay with us for a couple of days. It has been such a great experience for us to have her in our home. It has been our first real opportunity to speak Portuguese continually day and night. Also Jenni has been able to do newborn care
and postpartum teaching with her IN PORTUGUESE. We have loved it! Before Ruthi came to our house we visited her in the hospital a couple of times. We were impressed with the actual structure and cleanliness. By no means does it compare to an American hospital, but it is pretty good for Mozambique! Unfortunately the nursing care was non-existent, but at least it was clean.

Our supervisors Eddie and Janice will be moving in a couple of weeks and we are very excited to have them come to Nampula. They came for a visit this past week and our meetings with them and the government went well. Now we are in the process of applying for a nursing degree in Mozambique and exploring more ideas of how to use it where it is most needed. Again, we ask for prayer in all of this decision making...as many of you know we are the most indecisive people!

Prayer requests for this week: 1) Pray for safe travel of Jenni's parents as they leave March 9th and return March29th. Pray they will be protected from uneasiness and illness during their preparation and their time here. 2) Decision making to be led by God. 3)Praise that our Portuguese has improved greatly! 4)Discipline in our spiritual and physical lives.

Our new house...and kitten!

We have a new house! Thank you for your prayers and encouragement for this! We are still unpacking our things, but it is starting to feel like a home! Our house is nice, but a lot of work had to go into it before we moved in. As we hired painters, electricians, phone installers and even a plumber, we found ourselves improving in our language ability as were challenged with many new words. Our house is on a very busy street and in the middle of Nampula which has its good and bad points, but for the most part we are liking it. We are just happy that we can finally get settled again!

Other great news…we have an addition to our family! Yep, we got a new little kitten. His name is Lucky. He is keeping us on our toes. He loves to play, eat, sleep, chew on feet, and poop on Corey’s shoes. He is so cute! We are glad that we have him.

We had dinner with an American doctor/missionary last week and he gave us some great insight on medical ministries here in Mozambique. The government is pretty strict with foreigners practicing medicine so we have a lot of challenges ahead of us. We will be meeting with the Director of Health this week so please be praying for this. We will also be meeting with other organizations to see other possibilities. We are still on the search, but we know that it is not in vain! At our dinner, the doctor reminded us of the story of Hagar. As Hagar was in the desert, she cried because there was no water left for her and her baby Ishmael and she didn’t want to see him die. However, she didn’t see the well of water until God opened her eyes. (Genesis 21:14-19) So it is the same for us. Whether it be ministry or any other situation, our eyes must be opened by God. We tend to always see the problem, but God sees the solutions and we must wait for Him to open our eyes in His timing. So we are learning more patience as we wait on the Lord to see “our well” of ministry opportunities in Mozambique!

We are excited to announce that Jenni’s parents will be coming March 9-29. This is quite a huge step for them to do overseas travel. Please pray that it will be a great experience for them and that they will have peace of mind, safe travel, little culture shock, little jet lag, good health, and lots of wonderful memories. We can hardly wait!!! Thank you again for your prayers for our housing situation, language acquisition, and protection from Malaria. God is so good and He is faithfully answering them! Please continue to pray for us to wait with patient hearts for the Lord’s direction and clarity. Please pray for Corey as he will be starting a sports ministry next week. He will be seeking out places to play basketball and soccer. We are very excited about this! Also, please pray for continued protection against malaria. Thanks again and we love you!!