Our Commute

Check out the map I got from Google Earth!

Follow the red line from bottom to top...from Western Maputo...around the outskirts of the down town...and up to a red road...from there it's a 20 min bumpy ride on a sandy road to Mucapane. This is the drive we made 6 times as we visited the site on Sabbath and work days.

You can go to Google Earth and zoom in yourself....just look for a red (dirt) road north west of Maputo. Follow it out!

Sunday: Work Day

June 8, while our beloved Redding Adventist Academy holds commencement services, we are working to build a church. All it takes is one brick at a time.

I have been assigned to the Left panel behind the platform...and the first seven courses go up pretty quickly. A while later, I'm having trouble holding the brick to the string, and my wall develops a large bow...outward. I finally remove 5 courses...and turn the job over to one of the local Maranatha employees to fix. I work on the side wall with Rebekah, who is building in the afternoon, after finishing VBS in the morning.



At the end of the day we can look back at our work...and know we've done our best and made good progress at constructing a church that will be a meaningful contribution to this community.

Go Rebekah!
Go Kris!
Go Team!

The Old Church

The churches that are being replaced may look very much like this....or less.

This was the church that was the old church in a community about 10 km from where we build a church. Right behind my photo graphic position is a new church, built several weeks before. We distributed food in this community as part of our food distribution on Friday.

Perhaps a few of the locals have already taken material from this church to improve their houses or corn cribs...but I don't think a lot of material disappeared. I was told the church had a tarp as the roof.














All that is changing now in many communities...as one by one...Maranatha builds a church/community center.

Praise the Lord.

First Sabbath

Kris Widmer and Sylvia Ahn sing for church at Mucapane, Mozambique, Africa on June 7, 2008. They are first cousins through marriage. Claude Steen married Donna Chalmers, and thus the two singing the duet are related!

Our first Sabbath was the last Sabbath for the church to meet in the outdoors. Next week there will be a completed church. The skeleton of the steel frame and the stacks of bricks are silent witness to the reality of what will be taking place this next week.

The visitors from North America do the children's sabbath school, and the adult Sabbath school. Jim Pedersen, president of the Northern California Conference speaks for church.

Tomorrow...it begins.

* This blog entry and others that I'll post in the upcoming weeks are obviously done when I got home. But I hope to put several entries here...and record our trip on the internet in this way.

OKW

Home Again

We're home safe and sound and as I type this, we're at the pastor's meetings for the Northern California Conference at Pacific Union College.

We're still recovering from Jet lag if you can believe it! I want to go to bed at 7:00 p.m., but then I wake up at 2:00 in the morning.

I'm also still recovering from the 24 hour stomach bug, and the "sore throat" I got in route back. I think getting 3 hours of sleep in 47 hours of living didn't help things any either. That and the car trouble we had coming back from the airport made it one long two days of travel.

I'll blog more later...with pictures when I get home.

OKW

Just a quick post as we plan on leaving the country.
We had a delightful trip to South Africa and a trip into Kruger National Park.
We saw all the big animals, except the Leopard. But then many people come 2 times a year to the parks and never see a Leopard either.

We saw two male lions sitting by the side of the road, and hippos in the river near the car. We saw lizards and birds (An awesome owl) and a glorious sunset. There were even 3 zebras that visited our hotel, in the dark, just as we were loading the bus for the trip back to Maputo.

In 3 hours we will head for the airport and the trip home.

All The Best and see you soon.

Kris Widmer

Feeding Program Day

I write this from the home of David and Susan Woods. He is the director of Maranatha in Mozambique. They are wonderful people. They had our whole group over to their house for a brief vespers and supper. 25+ in the living room.

Today from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. we visited 3 locations and passed out bags of beans and rice.

It was a neat thing. We started at a completed SDA Church, stopped at a location along the way, and finished at our church location. When we pulled up at our location, two boys were just beginning to skin a goat! I got lots of gross pictures. We distributed 100 kgs of rice and 50 kgs of beans. When the people got them, they thanked us with songs and ceremonial dancing. It was pretty amazing.

At the first stop, we were providing food to people really out in the bush...who mostly live off their own labor. They seldom make it in to town. But they have a new Seventh-day Adventist Church in their community.

I teach the SS Lesson tomorrow...so should be fun....with translation.

That's it for now. This trip is drawing to a close. Tomorrow will be a high day at our church, and then a couple of days looking at Africa's amazing Animals.

Kris

P.S. We have learned connections we have to the other staff here...for instance Mrs. Dederer is related, by marriage, to Ms. Noble, a young adult volunteer here. Tim, the videographer, was in my cousin's son's wedding, and calls Llona "Aunt Llona." The Adventist family is a close one.

OKW

Hannah Johnson, Missionary

Hannah Johnson is working on a long resume. Different than the one she planned a few months ago.

Hannah Johnson
8th Grade Graduate, Redding Adventist Academy, 2008, in Absentia.
World Traveler (Her first flight ever was SFO to London...to Africa!)
VBS Leader - Song Leader and Actress
Barterer Extraordinare - Shopping Till Dropping
Jeep Trail Navigator
The Indian Ocean Fish Whisperer
Friend of Mucapane Children
Friend of God
Missionary

If you want to know the details...ask Hannah Johnson about her two weeks in Africa.
She'll tell you all the wonderful details.

Thanks Hannah for being Bold for God in Africa.

O. Kris Widmer
okwidmer@sbcglobal.net

Sticker People

What can be said about VBS. It's kids learning to sing Father Abraham in their own language, it's watching a church administrator become the prophet Daniel in a skit, and it's watching 50 smiling faces (some with runny, dusty noses) clamor for balloons.

Look at a former post for a link to Dick and Brenda Duerksen's for more pictures. But I couldn't resist harvesting this from their site and reposting it here.

These children will grow up with a brick church down the trail from their house, instead of a reed backdrop under a tree. We connected for a few days in June of 2008, and will catch up on the rest of life's details in Heaven

Bribery Will Get You Somewhere...Special

Answer to Prayer...with the Proper Money...

Money makes the world go round...and it also greases the palms of the authorities.

Ron Kedas, the logistics contact for Maranatha here and our guide, has had his visa issues resolved today...with the payment of an extra $1,000 US. When it was finally figured out that money payment was what was holding up the process, it is being cared for today, and should be resolved for this precious family of three by the end of this week. This will make them secure for the year...and then have a simple (and less costly) renewal for as long as his work keeps him in the country.

He will also be able to travel to South Africa and Swaziland and back with no problems.

Praise the Lord...and the generous people that support Maranatha.

Please don't be uset that your offerings go for bribe money. It's how things get done in much of the world.

Ron politely bribes people on a daily basis....today, the bribes were for him.

okwidmer@sbcglobal.net