Mozambique Part 2

We have been so thankful to our friends here who have let us interrupt their lives for a few days and let us stay with them.

Our time in Cuamba was a blessing, some of the highlights of our time with the SIM missionaries:

• We stayed with the Overton family(Kenny, Carla and kids)our kids had a great time playing. The first day Lucas fell out of a tree and hurt is wrist, but thankfully he was back to normal after a few days!
• We had the opportunity to visit Rocio Silva's after school program. Her students had a great time decorating backpacks.
• Camilo, Kenny and the boys went to a village to join missionaries, Millie and Victor's kids club, while Cindy, Carla and Camila went to a women's meeting at the church they attend.
• We drove up the mountain to the dam. On the way up the kids had a great time tubing down a section of river and later swimming in the lake. They even tried out some repelling!
• Our kids participated in the church's kids program Saturday evening while Cindy and Carla had a nice visit of prayer and encouragement with the pastor's wife, Jewida.  Kenny and Camilo went to a game his soccer team was playing in.
• Sunday was a wonderful time with the church family. Lots of wonderful singing  and Kenny preached in Portuguese while someone helped translate to Makua. We were proud of Lucas for participating in the kids chorus and reciting the memory verse in Portuguese!
• Camilo was able to learn from Kenny's carpentry workshop and help out a little.

We are thankful for a great time with our friends and appreciated their hospitality and encouragement!

Tomorrow (tuesday) we are off to South Africa for the last couple days of our trip.

We thank you for your prayers!

Mozambique Part 1

This is quick summary of what we have been able to do and see in the Niassa Province of Mozambique:

We are grateful that we had long, but smooth travels! All of our luggage arrived and had decent rest (with showers!) along the way during the two long layovers, one in Qatar and the other in Johannesburg.

We were picked up at the Lichinga Airport by Tim George, SIM administrator and we dropped off our luggage at the SIM Guesthouse. Janice, another SIM missionary let us hang out at her place for lunch and much needed rest. Later in the afternoon we headed to Muembe with Josue to meet up with his wife and family. Josue (from Mozambique) and Diana (from Romania) have three beautiful children, Abby, Naomi and Caleb. Our kids instantly bonded as Camilo and I could relate naturally to Josue and Diana. They are church planting among a Yao Muslim community. They have a small congregation. Their current ministries include: evangelism/discipleship efforts, after school kids program and carpentry workshop (in their backyard). They have set up a community well from their water source, where villagers come in the morning to fill their buckets for the days water supply.
We had a chance to meet the village administrator, tour the area, and also participate in a church service. Camilo had a chance to preach in Spanish while Josue translated into Portuguese. Songs were sung in Portuguese, Chiyao and some Swahili. They are doing an amazing job and working hard! We enjoyed our two nights with them, and always wish there was more time!

On our way back to Lichinga, we stopped in for a brief visit with SIM's Mozambique Director, Alfred Paetzold, his wife Belinda and three boys.  I had met them last year at the conference I helped at. After a going through the entire Bible story telling beginning in Genesis with a few from their Yao community there have been people who have become Christ followers!

We met Shawn Dollar back at the Lichinga Guesthouse on Saturday and headed 2.5 hours south to Mandimba. Shawn and Dierdre, with Frontiers have been working with the Yao Muslims for 14 years. Part of that time in Malawi. We are enjoying our time learning about their vision for reaching the Yao people. We are learning about their strategies and challenges. The entire family is fluent in the language Ciyao and their children have many friends that come over everyday to play. Camilo and I were able to practice some basic phrases. We met the chief of the village today and he was happy with the wooden bowl Camilo had made for him. We saw the school building that the Dollar Family built for the village, it's located at the entrance of the village between the Chief's home and the newly built mosque.

A note about this type of Islam...it is considered a "folk" Islam. It is mixed with animistic tribal rituals and superstitions.

Lucas and Camila have fit in very well with all the children. They go along with them in hours of outdoor play in the dirt, climbing trees, learning to start fires (!) and more...I think they would adapt well as future MKs!

On Wednesday we head Southeast to Cuamba to spend time with the Overton Family. Another family I had the opportunity to visit last year. We are excited to learn about their ministry as well. I will write another update about that visit.

Thank you for your prayers for us. Please as you pray for the nations and people groups, please remember the Yao. They have centuries of strongholds that seem humanly impossible to breakthrough but of course we know our God is bigger!

Another blessing has been to deliver gifts some of you have sent to the missionaries! They are very grateful that you have thought of them!

Please scroll through the photos below! Thanks for your interest in our travels. :)

Taking a snooze at the Qatar Airport

Muembe: backpack decorating with Diana's kids club

Muembe: new friends, Camila and Caleb

Muembe: new friends, Lucas with Abby and Naomi

Muembe: Missionaries, Josue and Diana Bulande

Mandimba: A favorite pastime, playing in the sand

Mandimba: Homeschooling time, Dierdre with Issy and Joy

Mandimba: Swimming on a not-so-hot day!

Mandimba: A visit with the Village Chief, he appreciated our visit,
our prayer with him, and the bowl Camilo made for him

We are about a month away from our departure to Mozambique. We are very excited and feel very blessed for the privilege to travel to another part of the world as a family!

Camilo and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary on July 22 and we thought a big trip to celebrate would be perfect and why not start exploring different cultures thinking and praying about where God may want us serving someday?

We praise God that we now have our passports in hand with visas, and we have our itinerary pretty much set with places to stay and families we will be visiting.

We value your prayers for the following:

For preparation-

• materially, for what to pack, not to forget anything especially for the kids
• Physically, for good health before, during and after the trip, this week we have appointments for getting malaria meds and vaccines
• Spiritually, that God would speak to our hearts on our desire to live abroad again one day wherever in the world that might be.

For our travel-

• Safety and protection
• For the kids that they would enjoy the adventure and find ways to be comfortable on such long flights.
• That all connections would be smooth
• That luggage would not get lost

For our time there-

• Blessing over our visit with the Bulandes, Dollars, Overtons and with Rocio Silva's after school program
• That our kids would be able to discover things about the culture that they appreciate
• That the kids would be able to adapt to the different food
• That the kids would bond well with the missionary kids we will be staying with

I feel that this is a long list of requests, we just want this time to glorify God!

As we prepare we are working on phrases in Portuguese and Chiyao.

We depart on July 11, we will only miss two Sundays, this will not be a problem as we have a great team from our church helping us take care of everything!

In a nutshell our route to get there:

LAX-Qatar-Johanesburg-Maputo-Lichinga 

On the way home:

Nampula- Johannesburg- Qatar- LAX

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Learning about Yao culture and practicing phrases

Camila future geography teacher!

Stars show what towns/villages we will be in. In order from top to bottom:
 Muembe, Lichinga, Mandimba and Cuamba, forgot Nampula! 

Visit to Arancibia Family: Bolivia Part 2

We made it home safely! We would still be in Lima waiting for our flight if it wasn't  for the nice lady at security that allowed families with children to the front of the very long line! A day full of tight connections, but it all went well, we are so grateful for your prayers! Here is our last update:

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As I write we are sitting in Cochabamba airport with a two hour delay to get to Santa Cruz.

It was a hard goodbye to our dear friends, but we feel so blessed and very thankful for our visit! 

Here are some highlights of the rest of our time in Cochabamba:

-Our 3 days of Missions Conferences went very well at Logos Baptist Church! The congregation left encouraged and challenged to carry out Gods mission to the ends of earth. The conference theme was: Missions for our Generation. Pastor Antonio shared that the messages served as a good reminder of the true mission of the church. Many people shared that they were challenged and a few shared with us how God has stirred their hearts towards service locally and abroad.

Timara and I put together the conference for the children. The last day we ended with serving them Chai from India, dressed them up and marched in at the end of the church service to the old hymn  "América Será para Cristo." And then they sang,"Yo quiero ser un niño misionero". (I want to be a missionary kid) 

It was awesome to meet and fellowship with our Bolivian brothers and sisters.

  

-Camilo's birthday was on Sunday. The church (thanks to Facebook) figured out when his birthday was and surprised him with a cake. We drove up to Tunari National Park for a picnic lunch and later  Timara and Osvaldo surprised him with a special concert of traditional Andean music by a Christian band, Luz de Vida, and a taco dinner. It was a very special day!

-We also had the privilege to visit House of Love Children's home. This was a special time to meet and play with the children in the girls and babies home and meet the boys at their separate home. It was hard to see so many with out their parents and wish we could adopt them all. There is a sweet girl who is blind she got to know us by touching our feet as we sat on the floor to play. Camila said, "mommy she needs new eyes." A little one year old boy named Omar trying so hard to learn to walk became attached to me rather quickly. These children need so much love and attention. They have wonderful "Tias" that live with them and care for them. The director, Rosa and her staff are amazing! That night Lucas and Camila prayed for them. I sure hope we have a chance to return for a visit! 

-Us adults had a chance to get a babysitter and go out with another cross-cultural couple who will be married in August. We enjoyed getting to know Bridgette (Switzerland) and Jimmy (Bolivia). We were able to share some advice from our experiences in creating a family of two different cultures! Timara and Osvaldo meet with them once a week for a Bible study and pre marital counseling. 

-Camilo had a chance to help with some yard work, and I helped Timara start a new key chain project for the guest house rooms. 

Timara and Osvaldo have a lot of projects for the Guesthouse and the house is going to be busy with visitors for the remainder of the year. Timara is helping organize Bolivia's first Perspectives course. Osvaldo and Ramon try to stay on top of maintenance not only of the guesthouse but of all of SIM's missionary homes. They don't have any days off during the week but have the great help of Roxana and the possibility of hiring someone else part time. With the extra help this should allow the family to have some personal time and time to serve their church.  

Please pray for their ministry as they continue to bless many short and long term missionaries that come through!

We pray we have the opportunity to return soon!

Below are some more pics from our experience:

Cochabamba - Bolivia Pastoral Visit to the Arancibia Family with SIM

We have been in Cochabamba for 5 days! Travel went well, we made all of our connections, got through immigration and customs no problem! We had a chance to visit with Camilo's mom, brother and grandmother during our extra long layover in San Salvador.

So far:

- We have been able to set up a few of the Guesthouse rooms with the new duvet covers, Bibles and journals. Thank you TFBC family for your donations!

-On Sunday, we lead a Missions conference at Timara and Osvaldo's old church in a rural community. Timara and I lead the kids program and Camilo gave his testimony and encouraged the congregation. 

-The kids have had a wonderful time playing non stop. The guesthouse is an easy place for them to roam around!

-We have seen a few sites around the city including going up to one of the tallest statues of Christ that looks down on Cochabamba. 

-We have met a variety of missionaries and have learned about their amazing work in Cochabamba.

-We had the opportunity to visit the SIM headquarters and visit the MK school that Jaran is attending.

-We have also been having very much needed prayer time together with both families. We already feel refreshed and blessed by this visit!

What's planned:

-Missions Conferences on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

-A visit to Hogares de Amor, children's home

-a visit to Mosoj Yan center for young women

-Misc. projects around the guest house. 

Osvaldo and Timara have a lot on their plate running the guesthouse and managing maintenance work on the SIM properties! They seem to be on call 24/7.

They are doing an awesome job making guests feel at home and providing an oasis of rest and retreat for missionaries.

More to come...

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