Any deaf people here?

I went on outreach last night, it was a bit of a confusion (as usual) as to where we were going, and we didnt even go to the place where we had originally planned! But it was all good when we arrived at the village - a huge (1000+) crowd turned up to watch the Jesus Film, and they were fairly open to the gospel message. When Heidi got up to preach afterwards she called all the deaf people forward. She asked their family and friends to being them. She asked again and again.

NO ONE came to the front.

Finally one of the village elders came to her and said, "We have no deaf people here, they were ALL healed last time you came!"

WOW!!! :-)

So that was awesome, there were at least 48 believers who had already established a church, and many more were added to their ranks last night. So even in all the confusion and going to the wrong village, it all worked out for good!

The rest of the team stayed the night in Mieze, a village close to Pemba where we regularly do Medical Outreaches, and have a large church and a small orphanage established. I opted to drive the 20mins home and sleep in my own bed, but the visitors wanted to experience a night in the village.

This morning I drove out bright and early to setup the sound for the morning service - I set the speakers up outside the bamboo mud building, one pointing into the church thru the window and the other for the overflow outside. (If I'd set up inside the church we would have been deafend!)

Inside the church they had strung twine across the room, and hung pieces of paper with scripture verses on the lines. They had also picked wildflowers/pretty weeds and hung them too. The church was packed and Heidi had to dedicate 5 little babies, and marry 3 couples.

It was a really good time!

Art Show

Last night I did something new and fun - I went to an Art Exhibition in downtown Pemba. It was fairly interesting! The artist had about 20, oil on canvas, mostly abstract, very colourful paintings on display in a badly lit basketball court! Afterwards Jessie and I went out for chinese - just the 2 of us, we havnt done that in forever!

Watch out fishies, here I come!!

... after only 2 years of saving and trying to find the time to do it - I am FINALLY DOING IT!

PADI Open Water Diver

My roommate (Jessie) and I started the course yesterday, and today was our first dive - we'll be doing more over the next few days, but its AWESOME - so beautiful!! I can't think of a more beautiful place than Pemba to get certified... So I'm really enjoying this little 'holiday' I'm having - its great!

... and I'll let ya'll know if I find Nemo :-)

Bye-Bye HG5

HG5 Graduation on Wednesday had to have been the longest graduation in the history of the known universe... over 5 hours long! And that was just the part in the tent where I had to do sound... But it wasnt all bad, just long. And I was hungry cos I was silly and had only eaten a few cookies for breakfast! But it ended eventually - I delegated the packing up of the system to some of the students and then I left at round 6pm.

Thursday saw me frantically working to tie up all the loose ends for the extended outreaches... I had been prepping the whole week, but now I realized how much still had to be done and there wasnt much time left... So I was up till 3am finishing up stuff (the fact that I had gone out to dinner for Josham's birthday didnt help matters much, but it was his birthday, so I figured I could sacrifice some sleep). One of the things that really stressed me out was the fact that one of the screens we use to show the JESUS film was missing. Just GONE! But I knew it HAD to be somewhere, so I went in search of it - I looked in each and every mission school house, I questioned people, I begged them to let me know if it turns up. Nothing! But I had to send a screen out and so I went to Margaret our sewing lady and asked her to make a white sheet to fit some bamboo poles - a makeshift screen. Not the best, but at least something. Finally at 8pm I get a text - the missing screen had turned up. I was SO relieved! One less thing to stress about.

Heidi had instisted that she wanted to go on an over-night outreach that night (so that was another thing that I had had to organize that day - and I had to find a sound person who could go), which meant that half the equipment needed for one of the extended outreachs wouldnt be in Pemba. But as always a plan was made and the equipment was arranged to come back late Thursday night... and locked away in a room to which I do not have a key. (I didnt arrange for that to happen, it just did)

Then Friday - the BIG day, all 3 teams left for the extended outreaches. I was there at 7am to finalize some things - namely trying to get into the room to which I didnt have a key. I call Neto, my 'assistant', and ask him to please bring the key, and to hurry - they wanted to load the trucks... So Neto eventually arrived. WITHOUT the key. GRRRR, so frustrating!!! But his house wasnt too far away, in the village behind the center - so we hop in the car and I head into the village. The road cannot be called 'good' at all, but it is oh so much fun to drive! We get the key, we get into the room, and we get the equipment needed for the outreach. YAY!

Finally we can load it all onto the back of the 3 open trucks that will soon be heading out across Mozambique - There is so many people, so much stuff!!!

I was amazed that there was even room for the people on the back of the trucks - they were sitting on all the bags, pots and sleeping bags... I'm sure it'll be fun - one place is over 18 hours away! ...hope they brought sun screen :-§

Finally at 10am everything is loaded and they are ready to go - I slip away quietly and head home. I'll take a little nap... 6 hours later I wake up!!! Where did the day go??? :-) But its all good - things will be nice and quiet for the next 2 weeks (i hope) then the teams get back and I'll see if the sound systems survived!

Church in Progress - Photo

We are building a REAL church building here in Pemba - soon the green and white striped tent will be a thing of the past!



There will even be a room in the back for me to store the sound equipment in - so no more lugging heavy sound systems up a hill... not that I actually do any of the carrying :-)

Victor

This is Victor Jose - his birth certificate says he is 13months, but developmentally he is more like 7 months. Jessie has him over at our house quite often, so I get to play 'Aunty Nikki' and babysit! He is adorable - sorta starting to crawl, and he has 5 teeth!

He is such a happy baby, and he loves to 'dance' to our nokia cellphone ringtones. His mother died, and his father had him registered as an orphan... not sure how that works, but according to the government little Victor is an orphan, even tho he has a father! Crazy!

Strange Noises

This morning I was woken up by loud crashing, banging noises. It sounded like someone was breaking down one of our neighbors' door... both Jessie and I rushed to look. We were astonished to see that yes, someone was indeed breaking down our neighbor's front door! But it was all good - Dr Eric, our resident medic was locked inside his house - his lock has broken and he was unable to leave his house! Josham had to come to the rescue. It was so funny!

Yay for Alpha!

We finally have decent qualified security guards at base 2!!! YEAH!!! It was awesome today to not be mobbed by village kids as I got out of my car. Usually even when I am just quickly downloading emails, the kids will surround the car banging on my windows, the doors, trying to open the car doors, pick at the paintwork, adjust the mirrors. Its horrible! But today it was quiet. Peaceful! AWESOME!

I even had to sign in at the front gate when I arrived - all the usual theives, bandits, village kids and vendors were kept outside in the street, away from our center kids, away from the mission school housing, away from the tools and equipment. It has been a long long loooooong time coming - lets hope these Alpha Guards keep the banditos away at night too! So happy!!!