Greetings! It doesn't seem like a month since our last posting on this blog, and I'm sure no one has checked it out. Still, it's early days and it hasn't been publicized at all. Just a few events since the last posting:

February 26 - March 1 = We took off for a a few days of break to celebrate - 6 months late - our 30th wedding anniversary. We spent a night in White River, South Africa and then the next day headed north to the Letaba Camp in Kruger National Park. We had spent a night there on our honeymoon in 1978 and went back for old time's sake. We spent two nights in a rondavel overlooking the Letaba River. We didn't see many animals on this stay as there's been lots of rain, water is plentiful in the park, and the bush is very overgrown. We had to do an 80km detour to get out of the park as the low-level bridge at Crocodile Bridge Gate was under water. When we got home, we could hardly use the office due to the smell of a dead rat somewhere in the office.

March 2 = Dr. & Mrs. Jerry Porter, our general superintendente and his wife, arrived for a two day visit here in Maputo. The evening of the 2nd we had an ordination service for three pastors who couldn't make it to the ordination services held in January.

March 3 = While the Porters were doing a seminar for pastors and students, we make a lightning trip to the Johannesburg airport to take missionary friends - Phil, Karen, Luke and Isabel DuBert - to get their flight to the USA and a ten-month furlough. We made a stop in Nelspruit to get the front end aligned, have breakfast, pick up mail and let Phil purchase a tire for his car (which we brought back to our house) and had them to the airport by 2pm. After getting them unloaded and checked in, we turned around and headed home. On the way we stopped at our nearest McDonalds (in Witbank, RSA) for supper and also did some shopping as we knew we'd be late getting to Nelspruit. We got back home in Maputo around 10:30pm.

March 4 - We finally were able to hunt for, and find, the dead rat. It was cleaned out of the bottom drawer of the file cabinent, but although the rat is gone (and a lot of stuff that it messed up), the smell still lingers faintly in the office, and more strongly in the filing cabinet.
March 6 = Dave spent the evening in the pediatric emergency room with a couple and their 3-month old baby girl. She was eventually admitted with bronchial pneumonia and spent the next 4 days in the hospital.

March 7 = We took our former neighbor, Dona Beatriz, shopping for a new refridgerator. The one she was using was only about 50 years old and was about dead!

March 14 = Today we attend the birthday celebration of the wife of one of our pastors, Mama Mate. She was 60. It was a lovely time with a service of celebration with lots of special songs and praise to the Lord for His goodness to her. Then we had a feast with the usual African dishes and some cakes. It was all held out in their yard under some big cashew trees with a lovely cool breeze blowing. It was delightful.

Tomorrow we'll be going to Xinavane to preach - about 150km north of Maputo in the sugarcane producing area of the province. We'll take some students with us and do some publicity for the Seminary as well. Then on Monday we'll be back to the regular routine of classes and school activities.