Thanksgiving Week Happenings

This week, we expanded the egg farm by 4,000 additional birds.  In the pouring rain and some of our crew working long, long hours to be ready, we installed the cages and got the watering systems up and running.  This left us with another problem though.  The part of the building where there were no chickens has been serving as our meeting place for church on Sunday.

Previously, Rodger had talked to the Mayor of the community about using an old abandoned clinic for our Sunday services.  At that time, he didn't see fit to grant that request.  At the 11th hour, though, he came through!  We now have a place to meet on Sundays.  Praise God for this!  We worked hard to clean it up and get it ready to use on Sunday.

While preparing for our new chickens, it's been necessary to lay some pipe for drainage when we clean the floors of the coop.  The workers started to dig the ditch and lay the pipe.  Then, the heavy rain started and last 5 days.  The ground underneath the structure started to erode and one wall of our building is starting to collapse.  It's another headache, but God has been faithful to us, and we know that in this too, He will provide all we need.

Happenings!

It's not for lack of news that our last blog post was September 16th!  It's for lack of time!  There is so much to share, we often don't know where to begin!  Here are the highlights:

Rodger made a month long trip to the States, while Stephen and Lynne stayed in Mozambique.  The purpose of the trip was to raise partners and funds for the next phase of our ministry: the expansion of MozOvos, our egg farm.  He met with many, many people, sharing the vision and the need.  He was also able to squeeze in a few days to visit his family in Kansas.  Here he is with his sister and brother.

Here he is with mom and brother.

On September 8, we welcomed our two American interns, David and Lee.  Both grew up in Brazil and speak Portuguese.  They are integrating into life here and will be with us until late July.

We also welcomed our new colleagues, Rob and Heather Blanks and their 4 children.  Marian, Hayden, Judah and Josiah.  They will be going to language school and working directly with us in the Internship program for their first term in Mozambique.  Here they are, enjoying their new life!

In addition to all of these happenings, the churches in 25 de Junho and Agostinho Neto are doing well!  We have 6 people in process to be baptized.  We have completed our first discipleship class and are beginning another.

The $77,000 needed for the expansion of  MozOvos was raised and we are beginning that process now.  Cages and birds have been ordered.  Soon, we will be better able to meet the demands for eggs that we have each day and be further along in our goal to make the ministry of the International Internship in Missions a truly self-sustaining ministry!