Check out our photos! (Click the added links in this msg and in the top right margin.)
First! What a wonderful mother and wife Melissa is! She is always thinking of others - giving away food, clothing, and other items to Mozambicans who need it more. It's amazing how the house is cleaner and more organized without that extra stuff around. (I guess I didn't really need that extra shirt..:) We're glad she is feeling better after having some kind of flue, as today she and Esther are planning a very exciting sleep over party for some single missionary women (school teachers) here in Nampula. She is also a wonderful prayer partner and supplier of wisdom for the ministry!
Blessed Repairs: We're also very excited that most of the repairs on our house are done - a very leaky roof, cracked walls, screened in porch to protect from mosquitoes during Macua language lessons, false ceiling in our bedroom to protect from the vicious summer heat, new paint, more re-bar on windows for security... What a relief and blessing!!!
Cancer: Please pray for our forwarding agents, Tom and Linda Ledford, as Linda is undergoing cancer treatment. They are so faithful and giving, serving our Lord Jesus!
Greenhouse: In addition to her outdoor herbal garden, Mom/Grandma Pat has completed her screened in greenhouse. This is an important step to getting preventative health to the villages. The challenge now is to get all her fruit and plant seedlings to grow, especially Artemesia. Artemesia has the proven drug to combat Malaria. She will also be writting materials to standardize training for clean water, sanitation, nutrition, and preventative health which will be combined with our training of bible story tellers.
Conference and Farming God's Way Training: Thanks for your prayers! The training went very well and we hear that the churches are already implementing it! Their first large compost piles are complete. Click here to see the Macua/Portuguese steps. We've also started the large task of implementing this on our property, with about 2 1/2 acres to farm by hand. The brothers are overjoyed about this better feeding their own families and also serving to train others. The principles of "Farming God's Way" (see site) are to do everything 1) With Excellence, 2) On Time, 3) Without Waste, & 4) With Joy. Sounds simple, but you'd be amazed at how much discipling is needed in each of those areas. I was surprised to find out that the three families who will farm this land don't even have a calendar at home, so this morning when we measured out the land for each, I supplied them with a calendar so that everything can be scheduled and done *On Time*. They were so enthusiastic about just having a color printed picture of themselves.
Well, Well!: We really need a well on this property to make the Community Health Evangelism and Farming God's Way trainings what they need to be on this farm. This will get us through the very dry periods and times when the city lacks water. We estimate we need about $5,000 to do this. Just designate checks as "Farm Well" to give toward this project. Praise God!
Storying Dialogue: Please pray for Antonio's and my ongoing work of preparing dialog questions for each of the key evangelistic and discipling bible stories. Each time we teach these lessons we are amazed at how God opens hearts! We hope to have the 1st draft completed by the end this year.
We belong to such an amazing God!
Daniel & Melissa with Esther (we're missing you - Elijah!)
