Hello!

Well hi again,
few things happened here recently, shot was fired in the square next to us after a crazy man smashed a car up then got attacked by all the pedestrians who saw him do it, luckily the shot was fired by the police who were trying to break it up! so no one, except the crazy guy, got hurt.... i don't think hes dead but it turns out street justice out here is pretty brutal, they caught 4 guys breaking into a house the other week, 2 got away but the other 2 got killed. then the police took the bodies away. nice.
so, went out to Kedesh yesterday, was pretty good, played football and kicked the ground really hard, feels like i've broken my big toe... ouch.... met an american couple out there too, seemed pretty cool!
dondo today, messing about with the kids, killed a big ol' pig too! was a bit reluctant to go though.... which made everything quite messy.... blood all up our legs and stuff! nearly got free at one point halfway which would have been really unfortunate, he had his front legs out and had got his mouth free, was frantically trying to bite everyone! but in the end we got him!
sadly i didn't get to stay and help gut him, which is what i was really looking forward too, i had to go due to a dinner invitation, with 3 english girls who turned out to be really nice! had a great time with them, good old chat and they're all my age too!
hopefully they'll visit at some point... its nice to speak english properly again!
theres lots more and lots more detail but i won't go into it now! pictures too! they'll come on the newsletter!
xxxx

Second Newsletter

I’m starting to wonder whether it’s really a good idea to name each newsletter “First…”, “Second…” and so on! At the moment there isn’t a great deal happening, when I was asked to write the newsletters I imagined great long essays written in the dead of night… But there isn’t much of particular significance to write!
Base:
A problem again, Alfredo once again has malaria, so prayer for that would be greatly appreciated.
Brought one of the puppy’s from Dondo back yesterday, just for an overnight stay, he lives at Inihamizua now, he’s Augusto’s and was named Frog…. For what reasons I can’t really be sure……. The gorgeous little thing’s covered in fleas but he’s so cute……. I can overlook fleas.
Going to try and get the paint for the stairs and do that jazz in the evenings when it’s a bit cooler. One of the main problems for me working here is of course the heat, so I’ve decided it would be much more clever for me to try and paint in the afternoons and evenings, when it’s “cooler” haha.

Inihamizua:
As far as I know there’s no one ill out at Inihamizua at the moment anyway! Mungo is all good so the prayer obviously helped that along to say the least.
The building seems to be coming along slowly but surely! I’ve attached a couple of pictures of that so you can have a peek. Sorry, I’d totally forgotten about Pastor Bongo’s house, so I’ll get some pictures of that for the next newsletter! Will begin painting the front walls next week hopefully! Make it look a bit posher!

Dondo:
Going out to Dondo again today, had a big old thunderstorm out there a few days ago, after a rather loud, to say the least, crack of thunder – at which point the electricity went out - I was immediately engulfed by a horde of screaming children! Seven had gone up in the coconut trees earlier after many futile attempts to knock the things down with a few big rocks. So fresh coconut all round whilst we sat watching the storm.
The painting is all finished there now, everything’s yellow!
Seven and I started walking back to town at about 1700, in the rain, which was actually really nice, walking barefoot along a warm tarmac road, in the warm pouring rain. It just wasn’t as uncomfortable as the normal heat, which made a nice change. We flagged down a lift from a big bus when it was still miles away from us, the driver decided to charge straight ahead until he was within about 5 feet away from us at which point he slammed on the brakes and came to a halt – after skidding for about 30 feet!
Suddenly walking is looking very appealing……..
Also turns out that I am Steve Irwin (RIP), if you don't know who he is shame on you! At Dondo I heard cries of "Cobra" which means snake in Portugese, so I immediately rushed over and caught it, the kids were going to kill it but I stole it away and let it go free! Not before having a couple of pictures taken though! Sadly I can't commend the efforts of the camera man - 7 million megapixels ain't any help if you're a small African kid!

Other news, met John from Kedesh the other day, was sat in the office when suddenly this hairy white man walked in! I just went “oh! Er, you must be er, John?” Turns out he’s a brilliant bloke, a really nice guy. I must say he looked like the type of person you could definitely see wearing a tie-die t-shirt though! I’m planning on visiting out there at some point during the time here, apparently he has about 20 kids living at Kedesh. For some reason I was under the impression that he was miles and miles out but he’s in between Inihamizua and Dondo.
Got to go, the dogs crying…..
xxx

Pulling Sickies

Hey everyone,
just to apologise for the lack of info coming back from me, not too well at the moment, not malaria luckily though! Got a few pills to pop for it so should be well and sending back the newsletters soon enough.... will try and keep you updated on that!
Dan
Also, as far as I know Pedro does not have malaria, and if he did he recovered from it remarkabley quick!

This is Pedro introducing himself. He's the one with Maleria and this was done on my last day in Beira.

Phil's last days in Beira

It's difficult to know where to begin as I write this having just got in from Birmingham airport and with my luggage only making is as far as Jo'berg - same as last year.

Such a lot has happened since Sunday. God is Good - Deus é bom.

On the way back from Dondo I called in at Inhamizua and prayed over Alfredo aka William that the malaria would leave him. On Monday when we called in on our way to Dondo there he was as large as life vertical and saying he was almost completely well again. Allelulia Amen. Thanks to all of you who prayed for him - God has answered.

Over the weekend the blue truck was mended. But hey nothing is simple. On Monday it wouldn't start. Corrosion of one ot the battery terminals meant that insuficient current was getting through. However by the time Dan and I were due to leave Dondo the blue truck was on the road - it came to pick us up. Photo evidence to prove.

Now Pedro has Malaria.

On Monday we complete the outside lighting of Dondo as per Alece's or is it Alice's instuctions. We also do a lot of the painting of the outside with help from the bigger boys. Dan should be able to complete the rest as most of it is high altitude stuff.

Back to base for dinner. At 9-15 Dan says he's going out with some lads he's met at the centre. They're going for a Pizza. I'm not sure who the boys are but they have been in the centre. I later find that Dan hasn't taken his Mozambique phone with him. When 11-00pm arrives and Dan hasn't I am quite concerned. So I go and ask the guard if he has Pastor Bonga's phone number as Dan is missing. The guard takes me out on to the front balcony and asks Sophia about Dan. She says he's gone out with Bento, so at least I have a name if we have to involve the police. Does she know anything about Bento, 'Yes he's quite safe Bento's good' Phew I breathe a sigh of partial relief as I don't know where he is. She calls Bento and I speak to him. They are both apologetic they were just having a meal and a good time. I'm just another nagging worrying parent - but not Dan's - Deus é bom. You can hear it cant you, "I don't know what all the fuss was about I was fine". "Ah! yes but I didn't know you were"

Tuesday dawned and with it the enevitability of my return to England. I'm not good at goodbyes. We were off to Inhamizua to say goodbye. Nothing ever seems to be straight forward. We don't go to Inhamizua, but to some place I've never been before in amongst the shanty buildings of one of the suburbs. No one has said why. Than it happens the blue truck joins us. we stop and I'm called in this house. There in front of me are the gass cookers they're complete and ready for shipping out. Deus é bom.

Off to Inhamizua with the stoves, a gas bottle and the cooker engineer. Yes they work - Allelulia Amen.

The boys sing for me and pray over me for a safe journey. They present me with a book of good wishes and than it's back to base for a quick lunch, more prayers and another presentation then it's off to the airport. Check in. Pay exit tax. Say goodbye to PB, Boniface and Simao. Go through Passport control and suddenly I'm on my own. I've left ......... For the time being physically, but not mentally, spiritually or prayerfully. I will return.

We have achieved a lot but there is more to do - much more.

Beira Trip November 07

Here is a link to a photo album of our visit on Picasa - hope you enjoy them....

First Preach

Yeh so, for the second time, it's Dan, your beloved! (and wow, literally just as I was writing that the mice/rats tried to kill each other...... who needs mousetraps when you can breed anger between the things!)

So, quite frighteningly the pastor of the church I was to preach at only arrived 5 minutes late! Totally scared, totally not prepared, just so...... argh!

Got to the Church and after waiting about an hour, people started turning up. I won't go through the whole of church as it was quite long, but all in all my preaching went well I think! YAY! No one left anyway so it couldn't have been that bad!

Caught the public transport back to base, wow, now thats something...... All you people who think the underground is bad check this out, at least the underground isn't likely to crash into another train, wall, person, bike, dog, goat etc... Its actually amazing how many people you can pack inside these things..... and sardines think THEY have it bad!

At about 1530 we were supposed to be going out to Dondo for a "feast", Pastor Bongo arrived at 1550, which to be honest, was a pretty good effort for him! I'm kinda hoping they don't adjust to English timings just for me though, as i'm definitely enjoying the lazy ol' laid back style of an African!

Ok, so, got to Dondo after stopping to check out some land Samao had just bought, turns out the "feast" is a birthday party for 3 of the kids!

As you can see, pictures of the three kids, and their names up on the wall, everyone had a good time, pretty awesome cake!

Sadly some bad news too, which can be turned into good news I'm sure, a little girl was taken to the hospital as she was very ill, don't know her name or whats wrong with her but please pray! Williams also not doing too great, so prayer for him would be appreciated too!

Ok, well as far as I know thats it...... no noise coming from the mice/rats....... they've started being far too cute recently..... not good!

xxxx