English newsletter

The year is only a few weeks old, but we feel as if we are already behind!!
2010 promises to be a full year!!

Project: House building!
We started building our house in May 2009 and now 8 months later and still building, we look back and thank God for His provision and wisdom in every step of the way! When this house is done it will be a monument of God’s faithfulness!!
Two rooms as well as the kitchen-living room floors still need to be finished, doors still need to be made, glass is being fit and the painting has begun!! Lately we have had some setbacks when the drill, water pump and two circular saws broke, but even with all this going on we are progressing well!!
We have tried using as much as we can of the local materials – wood from the veld for the beams and verandas, grass mats for the ceiling, mud bricks and beautiful dead tree stumps all over! A real House of Africa!

Oliver visited us in December and helped a lot with hauling sand, cleaning out the pump, playing with the boys (local boys too) and just being an encouragement to us! He even ate the little stinky fish with relish!! Well done, Oliver – you are a good missionary already!!
Hannes of the White River church is with us at the moment doing some of the carpentry work. We are so thankful for his help!!

Talking about help – is there anyone interested to come and help as we finish off the house – tiling, painting, plumbing, etc?? We guarantee lots of exercise, fresh air, NO traffic and a good night’s rest every night!!  There are flights 4 times a week between Johannesburg or Maputo and Lichinga!!!

Home assignment:
To become part of SIM, or mission, we still need to do a 2 month course. They graciously let us build our house first and so we will return in May to do the course. We will be in SA form late March to mid June. We would love to see some of you then!! We will give out a more detailed program closer to the time.

School:
The Springbuck School started early in January – this year Christiaan will be doing gr 5, Bernard gr 3 and Stefan gr 2!! This is our 5th year of homeschooling!! I do have good students and they work really hard!! When we attend the SIM course they will go to a “normal” school for the term. They are really looking forward to it – dreaming about having friends from their own culture, playing rugby, chess and just having FUN!! Longer school hours and homework is not part of their equation, yet!! This is then also part of our challenge for the year – to finish our own curriculum on top of a longer than usual home assignment!!

What other things keep us busy??
Apart from being a builder, Alfred also helps the community where he can – he has welded many a broken bicycle, motorcycle and mended many mill parts!! Our village hand pump has been out of order for over two months and he fixed that too – the people really suffer from drinking the river water during the rainy season - it was a huge blessing to them! He also helps to haul all kinds of things with the little white truck! Just imagine if the only transport available is a bicycle!! We have been blessed to bless others!

I try and help out with all kinds of medical problems – colds and flu, wounds and burns, tummy aches! The closest clinic is 10km away!! Where I can, I try to make use of things that are locally available – honey, salt, papajas, bananas even custard powder! It is exciting to see how the Lord uses this to touch (and heal) the lives of many people!


The boys enjoy living here!!! They build and plant, saw and recently have started to weld with Alfred’s help! A wonderful life for a child!! Sometimes they miss their own friends, but believe me they can play cops and robbers with any able and willing child and have serious fun!!!

Please pray!:
• We are very thankful to have our car back and also fixed!
• Praise the Lord with us that we could get the roof up without any damage done to the house with all the rain!!!
• Please pray for Alfred and the building work – it is NOT easy to build a house out here in the “bush” – pray for endurance!!!
• We hope to move in soon – maybe end of February – please pray for us as we move again! This will be our 4th move in Mozambique alone!!
• Pray for the boys – the schoolwork, the adaptations lying ahead in this year, fitting into the SA school, etc!!!
• Pray for our general health!
For the people here who need God…..

Thank you:
Thank you to each one for making it possible for us to be here – giving, praying, emailing and many more ways! May the Lord bless you!

With love