Birthday Week - By John

Saturday was my first birthday in Africa, and it was a great day. It actually started on Friday. We had sixty teachers at the center, learning about how to be better teachers. They came from all over the rural areas, and many have little or no training, their main qualification being literacy and availability. A program at the school our girls go to called Penreach, endevours to give them greater skills, and by so doing benefit all of the learners they teach. In any case, I was called into the patio area where they were having lunch, and was rewarded with a cake and the whole bunch of them singing Happy Birthday in SiSwati.


Click here to download a short video clip (sorry Daryl, windows only).

On my actual birthday, I got up early and went for a nice long run, and when I came back breakfast was waiting for me. We also went out for dinner at a local Mozambican/Portugese restaurant, which was yummy, and the girls dressed up in their special "Dad" T-shirts Also, I got a bunch of nice happy birthday emails, thank you to all of you who remembered.

More Tech Talk
This week we are going to pick up a radio tower, which is the start of our major internet connectivity upgrade project. It just so happened that a couple of weeks ago we were touring a group from Mozambique around, and stopped at the airport (it has a thatched roof and is very interesting architecturally). By complete coincidence, we bumped into a couple from Mercy Air, a missionary aviation outfit just down the road from us. By another complete coincidence, we started talking about what they were up to and what we were doing, and they mentioned that they had an old radio tower that they didn’t want. Amazing, just the thing we were looking for, what a coincidence! Upon reflection, I believe it wasn’t a coincidence at all. God may move in mysterious ways, but in this case it was not so mysterious but pretty much in-your-face. So, this week we will go down to Mercy Air, disassemble the antenna, and start re-building it on top of our water tower. All this will allow us a line-of-sight wireless connection to Nelspruit, and from there into the internet. We are pretty excited about this gift. Stay tuned for pictures, pray for us not to fall off the antenna as we take it down and put it up again.

Short Snappers

• I encourage you to check out Ben and Holly’s blog (Click Here). Ben and Holly are a couple who are working in Northern Uganda with MCC, whom we went to orientation with. I feel Ben and Holly are doing amazing work, and to read their blog is moving. Toothpicks vs Dragons, what a great analogy. We are thankful for people like Ben and Holly who are really on the front lines and confronting human suffering that we cannot even imagine.
• Good news on the Lawnmower front. A local engineering firm/machine shop made a new drive shaft for us (for only about $60, from scratch, in one day!), and now the lawnmower works great! Vusi is a happy man, he gives me a thumbs up everytime he sees me.
• This week we’ve heard that Chuck may have to go to Canada on short notice because of family health issues. Please pray for the Stephens' as they deal with this issue.
• We have put in our visa applications for renewal, we are hoping that we get everything approved in the proper way, and for three years. The Visa regulations, particularly for volunteers like us, are very confusing. We showed our visa to the Visa Office in Nelspruit, and they told us that we would have to go back to the US to re-apply! MCC has hired an Immigration Consultant on our behalf, so we hope he can pull the right strings and get everything done right. For us it’s a case of waiting and praying. You pray too, please.
• Finally, my parents are arriving on Wednesday, and we are very excited to see them. They now have a nice bed to sleep in, courtesy of Flo from our Bible Study group,and we have a bunch of things lined up to do with them. This is going to be a real treat for us!