Just wanted to let you know that I am planning a trip out of the country for this Saturday/Sunday. My visa expires on September 7th so I have to leave the country, stay overnight, then come back in to Mozambique as a “tourist” again to get a new visa. I do have to say this summer has been quite the tourist’s adventure.
As of right now, I have arranged a ride there and back so I will not have to use public transportation (Praise God!). However, there is the possibility I could run into problems – namely getting into that country or subsequently getting back into Mozambique. Please pray for God’s favor with the border people and for safety on the roads. Also, getting visas for both countries is not inexpensive and once I make sure I have another 30-day visa, I will be able to book my return tickets home for October 5th-6th, which comes with ticket-change fee from delaying my original August flight. I stayed in Mozambique on faith that God would provide for all my needs, and I am believing Him for it. Please pray that God would release the finances in whatever way He chooses!
As I wrote in an e-mail earlier this week, Pastor Amos, our co-director of the Bible school and Tuesday night home group leader, died in a public transportation accident on Monday. We found out that the bus driver was driving extremely too fast, so when a wheel fell off the bus, it caused it to flip and crash, killing many people. It has been rough around here, especially just having Domingos’ funeral on Saturday. Please keep the Iris Dondo family in your prayers. They are having the funeral for Pastor Amos in Chimoio today – several hours away where he lived with his family. (He commuted here every week on public transportation.) Many of the missionaries went, but I stayed behind to work on the database system I am creating for the base. My visit and work here have been God timing in thatrespect because one of the things that Social Services mentioned in their last visit was that it would be good to have better documentation on the children at the center. It’s great to be able to tell them that things like that are already a work in progress.
Last Sunday we had a missionary outing to Pastor Mario’s church in Beira. We had an awesome time. They translate all of their services into English, so that was a blessing. The worship time was anointed and it was songs I knew! Even though the worship was in Portuguese, they had a projector for the words and they were doing newer music that I knew from home – namely some Hillsong worship songs like Hosanna and You’ll Come. It was a breath of fresh air from the Spirit. They even did one song right before the message from the Hakuna worship DVD that we use on outreach. (Side note: Not exciting. We were screaming “Lord, no! Have mercy!” — we’ve heard it SO much it’s worn out, and it’s not even in a Mozambican language. Why, Lord, why?! It really made us laugh!)
Alright, that’s all for now..