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.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Greetings from Maputo!
Well, at the close of our first week on this blogspot, we've had one comment. Thanks, Dave!!!!
It's been a good week this week. Here at the Seminary we've been having our annual Holiness Convention all week. Basically we've had special chapel services each day with our former District Superintendent, Rev. Manuel Tshambe, as our guest speaker. He has preached well and there have been good responses to his messages. Classes have gone as normal with nothing too special to report on that front. We're at the mid-point of our first module of 1st Term so next week we'll be having mid-term exams and/or quizes.
Believe it or not, we've slept under blankets two nights this week - and it's mid-summer here. Wednesday afternoon a storm blew up and the rain poured and the wind blew. The temperature dropped into the upper 60's which for here, at this time of the year, is COLD!!! It rained all day on Thursday and only cleared in the wee hours of Friday morning, but yesterday the temperature was back up into the normal range - high 80's/low 90's - and it's been that way today as well.
We've had a different kind of day here today. It started out normal enough, and Rhoda and I both had our lists of things to do, what with it being Saturday and a "day off" and all that. I must say that Rhoda's list had things for me to do in addition to my own list, ha! First on my list was to get the grass cut in the back yard. I did the front yard last week but didn't get the back done, and with the rain we've had this week, it really needed it. I could have done the front yard as well it's grown so much since last week, but I didn't.
After that was done, I headed off to the men's dorm to hang up a bulletin board and to replace three lock sets in doors to student rooms. I also needed to replace some door handles as well (our guys don't know their own strength). Just as I was finishing the last door, Rhoda rang to say she'd discovered the drain blocked in the guest apartment where we were planning on putting some visitors tonight, so I went by the took shed and got a plunger and headed up there. When I got there I discovered, to my horror, that the termites had struck yet again and filled the drain pipes with sand, including the trap under the sink, and not only the kitchen but also the adjoining bathroom. My fear was that the pipes from the other bathrooms and the washing machine was also clogged up with sand, but fortunately, it was just the kitchen and the one bathroom.
Well, there wasn't anything else to do but tackle getting the pipes unblocked. I went out to the back of the building to check the inspection plug and found that the sand filled the pipes all the way out of the building and into the ground. So, I came home to get a shovel and the hose pipe since it appeared we'd have to dig up the pipes. I got started on that and a couple of the students came to give a hand and we worked steadily on it until almost 5pm before we finally got all the pipes cleared out and the water running through the drains again! The sun was beating down on us most of that time and we were exhausted when we got finished. In the process, I discovered some plumbing problems in the bathroom which I'll need to fix before we can put anyone in there to stay, and we need to replace some broken drain pipe outside of the apartments as well, so we'll be working on that on Monday it looks like.
When we first came to Mozambique in 1992, other missionaries told us - "Mozambique is a place where anything can happen, and if you wait long enough, it usually will." We've found that to be true! And as we write this blog week by week, we'll try to share some of that "anything" that happens.
Every blessing. Dave & Rhoda
Well, at the close of our first week on this blogspot, we've had one comment. Thanks, Dave!!!!
It's been a good week this week. Here at the Seminary we've been having our annual Holiness Convention all week. Basically we've had special chapel services each day with our former District Superintendent, Rev. Manuel Tshambe, as our guest speaker. He has preached well and there have been good responses to his messages. Classes have gone as normal with nothing too special to report on that front. We're at the mid-point of our first module of 1st Term so next week we'll be having mid-term exams and/or quizes.
Believe it or not, we've slept under blankets two nights this week - and it's mid-summer here. Wednesday afternoon a storm blew up and the rain poured and the wind blew. The temperature dropped into the upper 60's which for here, at this time of the year, is COLD!!! It rained all day on Thursday and only cleared in the wee hours of Friday morning, but yesterday the temperature was back up into the normal range - high 80's/low 90's - and it's been that way today as well.
We've had a different kind of day here today. It started out normal enough, and Rhoda and I both had our lists of things to do, what with it being Saturday and a "day off" and all that. I must say that Rhoda's list had things for me to do in addition to my own list, ha! First on my list was to get the grass cut in the back yard. I did the front yard last week but didn't get the back done, and with the rain we've had this week, it really needed it. I could have done the front yard as well it's grown so much since last week, but I didn't.
After that was done, I headed off to the men's dorm to hang up a bulletin board and to replace three lock sets in doors to student rooms. I also needed to replace some door handles as well (our guys don't know their own strength). Just as I was finishing the last door, Rhoda rang to say she'd discovered the drain blocked in the guest apartment where we were planning on putting some visitors tonight, so I went by the took shed and got a plunger and headed up there. When I got there I discovered, to my horror, that the termites had struck yet again and filled the drain pipes with sand, including the trap under the sink, and not only the kitchen but also the adjoining bathroom. My fear was that the pipes from the other bathrooms and the washing machine was also clogged up with sand, but fortunately, it was just the kitchen and the one bathroom.
Well, there wasn't anything else to do but tackle getting the pipes unblocked. I went out to the back of the building to check the inspection plug and found that the sand filled the pipes all the way out of the building and into the ground. So, I came home to get a shovel and the hose pipe since it appeared we'd have to dig up the pipes. I got started on that and a couple of the students came to give a hand and we worked steadily on it until almost 5pm before we finally got all the pipes cleared out and the water running through the drains again! The sun was beating down on us most of that time and we were exhausted when we got finished. In the process, I discovered some plumbing problems in the bathroom which I'll need to fix before we can put anyone in there to stay, and we need to replace some broken drain pipe outside of the apartments as well, so we'll be working on that on Monday it looks like.
When we first came to Mozambique in 1992, other missionaries told us - "Mozambique is a place where anything can happen, and if you wait long enough, it usually will." We've found that to be true! And as we write this blog week by week, we'll try to share some of that "anything" that happens.
Every blessing. Dave & Rhoda
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Greetings! This is our first attempt at any kind of a BLOG, although we've been doing daily family letters for some time now. We hope that with this blog, we'll be able to give everyone at least a weekly update on events and happenings in our lives as well as in our ministry here at Seminário Nazareno em Moçambique.
Please feel free to leave any comments.
Every blessing,
Dave & Rhoda
Please feel free to leave any comments.
Every blessing,
Dave & Rhoda
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