We are so pleased to be part of a church that baptises new believers regularly.  On this particular day, nine people publicly professed their faith after having attended classes at church to teach them the Bible truth of what they were professing.

 

 

Here is a photo of all the church members who attended to encourage the new believers.  It was a big outing, requiring a walk to the meeting place, a ride in the back of a truck, a long walk down to the river, a wait while someone checked to make sure there were no crocodiles around (yes, that is necessary!), the baptisms, the walk back to the truck, and then transport to a house where refreshments had been prepared to celebrate lunch together.  This young man being baptised had been on journey into the bush with Kevin the year before, and expressed a lot of fear about evil spirits in that area.  We are thankful that he is choosing to find courage in his faith now.  – C

Below are two photos that capture some of our daily reality – one of them very happy.  After bumping down the road to our house for months (and pretty vigorously since the rains started), the city brought in dozens of hills of a clay-like filler soil, then smoothed them out to make our street lovely and smooth!  What a treat.  The second picture shows Kevin replacing the brakes on our truck, much earlier than should be expected.  This was due to the constantly wet state they were in for a long period of time, due to the muddy and wet driving.  Road conditions takes a serious toll on vehicles (and people’s backs and necks) in this area.  Remember the little Honda CRV we had a couple of years ago?  Part of the reason we sold it again was because the suspension was simply not tough enough to handle the rough roads of Nampula – it could make it through sand and potholes, but the cv joints couldn’t handle the abuse.   – C

 

Ben turned 9 years old in March and we celebrated by going out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in town – the one that serves delicious Chicken Tikka Masala made with cilantro, and homemade naan bread.  We go about every six months and boy is it good.  Benjamin – what a lively little guy!  He loves to read, and we are told that he demands a recommendation every week from the school librarian but is usually skeptical about the suggestions.  He giggles frequently , delighted over some irony in a conversation or play on words.   He loves playing around on the piano, and hums melodies constantly.  He has started making useful things with legos, like dvd holders, and startles us with astute observations when we thought he wasn’t even paying attention.  We are so thankful for him.  Happy Birthday, Ben!

 Here’s a photo of Kevin and the kids sitting on the “men’s side” of church last sunday.  I’d like to point out that Toby is wearing my flipflops since his were temporarily lost.  That’s how big his feet are now!  He’ll be 13 in April.  And yes, that is an albino child in the photo.  People who are pigmentally challenged are not uncommon here.

I sit on the women’s side, and the ladies are always so kind to make a space so I can sit against the wall (necessary for my back).  Often a lady gets up and moves so I can sit there.

The singing and preaching is all in Macua and in Portuguese.  Here is a photo of Kevin preaching, in Portuguese.  He’ll be preaching at a different church every Sunday this month, visiting the monitor’s churches.  The man beside him translates into Macua, which is the language used by almost everyone in their daily interactions.  This is the language we are trying to learn, with limited success.  We keep pressing on!  People appreciate the effort.  Please continue to pray for Kevin as he builds up the TEE program and encourages the monitors.  We are so blessed with a group of men who are committed to seeing this program grow in the city and beyond. – C

We were so thrilled that power came back to Nampula on February 9th, exactly 4 weeks after it went out.  We didn’t get power at home until 4 days later, and it has been mostly steady since then.  The broken bridge which completely cut off the north from the south (see photos below) http://camikevin.aimsites.org/2015/01/22/flooding-in-mozambique/ was temporarily fixed just last week, and supplies are flowing again.

However, the heavy rains continue and there are a great many problems with erosion, bad roads, houses falling down, and illness.

Local authorities said this week that there have been 400 deaths from cholera this year in Nampula city.  However, local people tell us that the number is much, much higher.  With all the standing water, much of which is polluted by sewage, cholera is really doing a number on the local population.  Just this week I heard an announcement on the radio about how to handle those who are ill with cholera, bodies of people who have died from cholera, and how to avoid catching it.  Malaria numbers are also way up, and last week one of our TEE students died from malaria.  A resistant strain is emerging and it is getting harder to treat.  A missionary in Nampula had typhoid fever this month, and another two had dengue.  Those diseases are also going through the local population.

The photo above was taken in a city on the coast last week, and is a road that has eroded due to water flowing downhill on that road toward the sea.  The cavern is big enough that a tree fell in it!  – C

 

 

This week we were pleased to be able to host a dinner at our house for the TEE monitors and their wives.  We got fewer than we’d hoped for, due to one thing and another but we had a nice time.  We are thankful for the neighbor’s generator, which allowed us to keep our small fridge/freezer cool so that we could store some food for the meal, though the cokes weren’t as cold as we’d like.

A major topic of discussion at the dinner was the current situation and especially the danger in the slum areas (where 90% of people live) at night.  Robbers are taking advantage of the complete darkness.  Kevin drove everyone home afterwards (they were eager to leave early, due to the situation) and said that it was positively creepy to drive around such a dark city.  We try not to go out at night these days.

We are so thankful for these faithful men, who lead classes week after week without any payment whatsoever.  They are committed to the interdenominational character of these classes, which is very unusual here,where denominationalism is very strong.  – C

About a week and a half, ago, the heavy rains started in northern Mozambique, and apparently they were the heaviest in quite awhile.  All of the rivers rose.  Below is a photo of the floodwaters raging under the bridge outside of Mocuba, and below that is a photo of that bridge a short time later, after it had broken.  Unfortunately, this bridge is the MAIN north/south route and connects us to Southern Mozambique and to South Africa.  The other routes to the south and west were also closed within a short period, from broken bridges and from flooding.  You can see the church standing in flood water below – we saw video on the local news this week that showed huge areas under water, further south.

We live about 5 hours north of this broken bridge, which may take months to fix.  Most of the supplies to our city come via this route, and so we have stocked up on non-perishables in the anticipation that prices will rise steeply in the next couple of weeks.  Indeed, when I was out shopping earlier this week I saw many others who seemed to have the same idea.  However, there is not a rush on the stores simply because most people do not have money to stock up.  They live from day to day or week to week.  The train which comes from Cuamba, a city to the west of us, has derailed due to flooding and is not expected to resume for at least a month.  This is where most of our fresh produce comes from, and prices have already risen. There is local stuff available too, though, and we still are getting pineapple, mango, and some other things.  In fact, most things are still available at the central market, but prices have gone up sharply.   We do anticipate that as the weeks pass, it will become harder to get things.

We bought 20 pounds of flour and yeast, if we have to make bread.  Rice, sugar, and 10 pounds of beans.  Cans of tomato paste to substitute for tomatoes, and stocked up on garlic and onions (which come in from the west).  50 pounds of milk powder is now in our pantry, though we don’t anticipate needing near that amount in the next couple of months.  It was a good price, though, so we bought the big bag!

At one point, there was only one exit route from our city to get onwards to another country, north 12 hours to Tanzania.  We have purchased extra diesel and are keeping it aside in case exit is necessary for medical or political reasons.  However, we were happy yesterday to hear that one of the western routes is now open again, though many cars get stuck in the mud en route.  Eventually though they are getting unstuck and continuing, depending on how wet the road is that day.

We are very thankful that we live only 2 1/2 hours west of a major port city, where all of our diesel comes from.  Therefore, supplies are still flowing through that city, though we are about to find out how many of our supplies come from that direction!  We also hear that the major grocery store here is beginning to route trucks through Malawi, and we will see how that works.  Flooding is malawi has been even worse, from what we hear, with more people displaced.  This may be because Malawi’s population is much more dense than Mozambique, where there is more land per person.   Unfortunately we get no news about Malawi here, and very little about what is really happening south of us.  There are people here in Nampula who want to go and help, but they have trouble getting information about what routes are open and what is needed.

We’ll post more on the flooding next week, when we have heard more.  We are so thankful that the heavy rains we had here resulted in very little damage to infrastructure, though the roads were a mess for awhile.   Many  people’s homes have collapsed, which happens every rainy season.  Lots of people have mud-brick homes, and if the walls get wet they fall down.  This can be prevented by making sure the roof is properly covered by good plastic and by enough straw, and those who have constructed poorly or not done repairs will lose their homes.  Of course, sometimes the rain is just so hard and so strong that there is little that can be done.

Another by-product of all this rain is cholera.  We have cholera here every year, but this year is is more because there is more standing water and contamination of wells.  The cholera clinics are full.  Did you know that you can survive cholera as long as you get proper treatment?  The devastating diarrhea and vomiting will pass once the bacteria is purged from the body, but it is the dehydration that kills you.  Therefore, IV fluids and other medications are vital for treatment.  We are concerned that there will be a shortage due to the cutting off of the southern route.  Please pray for this situation.

Rainy season. . . it’s a bad one this year.  Our family is doing well and we are fine.  We are thankful for provision for all we need at this time, and ask you to pray for us for wisdom in how to help others.  This is planting and growing season, and there is much concern that crops will fail this year, resulting in widespread hunger in the months to come.  – C