Just a brief note from the home of David and Susan Woods and their family. He is the Maranatha Director for the 1001 church build in Africa. His house is about 6 doors away from where we are staying. I just walked out the front gate of our camp, turned left, walked to the corner and then turned left. 3 doors on the right, behind a locked gate, is their home. He said that they have faster internet service here in Africa, than they could have in Roseburg, Oregon!
Tuesday we had a delightful trip to Inhaca Island. See the previous blog for a blurb about that. Also follow the link there to Dick and Brenda Duerksen's blog. There you can find an entry with my picture on it. Click on the photo for 10 more pictures from this trip. That will have to do for now.
If a picture appears on this blog post...it's off Aljandro...the oldest man in Mucapane. I found it on the computer here at the Woods' house and thought I'd through it in. I hope it made it.
A brief report on Yesterday, Wed. June 11. We left our camp at 8:00 a.m. and drove to a completed school. It is the first Adventist school building in the country! It has about 70 students so far, and eventually could handle 400+ in two sessions a day. It was beautiful.! Then we drove to the shop and heard the story of the water. It would cost too much to connect to the municipal water system...something about unpaid bills from the previous owners...so they catch the rain water. In 1.5 years of work there, they have made many bricks using the rain water. When the tank gets low, the shop manager calls David and says "You should pray for rain." It rains that night! This has happened 5-6 times! They have only had to buy a tanker truck of water once to fill the tank!
We also saw how the steel is cut and welded into posts and trusses for the building of schools and churches here. Everything is made by hand and hard work.
We then went to the site of a 1/2 finished school. It will take two more groups to come to finish it, but it was nice to see it in process.
Then we had lunch at a nice Indian Restaurant. Second Wed in a row I've has Indian food for lunch. Last week it was in San Francisco!
In the afternoon, we toured some more...a stop to collect 70 care boxes for distribution on Sabbath, a visit to a completed church where they are having adult literacy classes for women 3 afternoons a week. There were about 25 women present, all learning how to read and write. Some of them were nursing their babies, as they learned how to spell TOMATOE. When the class was over, they set us on our way with singing and dancing.
We finished the say at dusk on a bluff overlooking the Indian Ocean, as we devoured about a dozen vegetarian pizza's and had a couple scoops of ice cream for desert.
On Thursday, it's back to work.... but first a tour stop to see the first Maranatha Well drilled in the country by the drilling rig that was released from Customs just yesterday. It only cost an additional $4,000 at the last minute. I don't know what the total cost of getting this rig in the country has been...but it will be well worth it, sinking a well near most of the churches so thirsty souls can find water...as they seek the water of life.
One final note...Please pray for Ron. He is from India and works for Maranatha. If his visa situation can't be straightened around, he and his wife and son will have to leave the country very soon, and who knows when they will return. He is very concerned...but trusting God for Divine intervention. His wife is Anu and his three year old son is Arien. Ron is the logistics person here, shepherding groups to where they need to be and keeping them safe, paying off thieves, etc. so he is muy importante!
That's it for now.
The church will be finished today! Thursday, June 12.
Much love to all.
And thanks for all you do for World Missions.
Pastor Kris Widmer
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