Palm Sunday

Bom dia a todos,  

 

We are having a lazy Sunday afternoon.  This morning I taught SS for the first time and had a good time with five 8-10 yr. olds.  They had fun acting out the story and were generally well behaved so it was a good start.  At our church we teach once a month which is not ideal for the kids but works for the teachers who travel so much.  Our pastors have been in the U.S. for 3 months and it was great to have them back.  The church is going through a slump and needs leadership that is united and working together.  Steve has been asked to be an elder (again) and is considering meeting with them until we go to the U.S. in Aug and then seeing where we go from there when we return.  We may not be living in Maputo then, which would make it difficult to be in leadership. 

Last Thur. we said good-bye to Joanna which was not as much fun as saying hello to her.  We really enjoyed having her here and she says she will be back so that’s good.  Last weekend we were in Maxixe and enjoyed a wonderful day at the Tofo beach.  We jumped the waves, explored tide pools and walked the beach.  The tide pools were incredible with live shells, crabs, a sea slug, small fish and more.  There are a lot of fascinating critters in the sea! 

We met a very interesting Italian man who has been traveling the world for the last year and a half and has visited 54 countries.  He is an architect who now lives off the rental of his house.  He hitchhikes as much as possible, camps or sleeps in very low-price places, etc.  He wasn’t very impressed with the U.S. because of the lack of public transportation and other high costs, although he did like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.  He is working his way up through Africa back to Italy and then plans to move to northern Peru by Ecuador.  He’s decided it’s the ideal place to live and raise a family.  

The main reason we traveled to Maxixe was to visit a coconut oil plant.  I, Steve, had gotten a name of a South African farmer who had a micro press that was developed by the Australian group that David Hagen worked with and was producing some of the oil we bought.  I pretty much knew what we were going to see from the research I had been doing, but it was very enlightening to hear about some of the detail of oil production and challenges he had faced in starting the press.  We also looked at some land that WR has gotten permission to develop and are considering what to do with that option. 

Overall, it looks like we will do something with coconut oil and byproducts next year starting in October.  The next steps are working on the business models, financial plans and details of starting something like a real business in Mozambique.  It would have to be different than the chicken process as there we just let them run every aspect of the activity except for the supplies and finances.  With oil production, there are lots of different aspects to consider and management of the quality, marketing, etc.   

Yesterday we had a mini-adventure as we celebrated our anniversary on Catembe, which we can see across the bay from Maputo.  We took a short ride on the ferry and then drove around a bit.  It is a fairly rural area and there is not a lot to see.  But we satisfied our curiosity and had a good meal overlooking the bay at a nice hotel/restaurant.  I don’t think they get much business as the beach is not so clean there and there’s not much to do.  Their prices are way over what the locals can afford so they are dependent on outsiders.  While we waited for the ferry in Maputo we visited the newly opened “Park of Love,” had some ice cream and observed a bridal party having pictures taken.  It was fun to see a bride and groom and realize that’s where we were 28 yrs ago. 

Between the fun times we’ve had work and challenges as well.  Whoever said that at times missionaries are challenged most by other missionaries was right.  Pray that we will have grace and right attitudes as we work together.  We also got pulled over by a policeman again for turning right where we were not supposed to.  I think they are just looking for ways to make money and harass vehicles with SA plates.  We are ready for a different vehicle as this one has gotten us pulled over nearly too many times to count.   

This next week we will start another Train the Trainer series in Zimpeto, just out of Maputo.  We will meet three times a week for three weeks and Steve will only be there as he has time between chicken runs.  These training times are fun as the participants start teaching the lessons themselves and learn by doing with some coaching by us.  We are working with OMS, a mission agency that has asked us to do training and is setting everything up.  It’s nice to only be responsible for the actual training and not all the other logistics.

 

Enough for now, we love you all,

 

Steve and Rachel