Life moves on

Life moves on and the blog has been ignored for awhile. We just wrote a newsletter so that should be posted here soon or coming to your mailbox so you can catch up with us that way as well.

Some big news that you may or may not have heard is that we have another wedding coming up soon. Joanna and Keith announced their engagement and will be married in Oct. at Winona Lake. We are excited for them as they make plans for their future together. Our exchange student from Norway will come to the wedding and we are really looking forward to seeing her and her new baby.

Steve has been working really hard at marketing coconut oil. We got jars and labels (thanks to Keith and Joanna who designed them). The woman we got jars from wanted to know what product we had so Steve gave her a short spiel and she was sold! She wants to be our distributor in South Africa. Now we need to find out what the process is for taking it to SA and what taxes need to be paid etc. Steve is working with a Mozambican young man, Ricardo, who is doing the bottling and some marketing. They took a sample to a grocery store run by Indians and you should have seen them all passing it around, smelling it and smiling. But then they asked, "Has this been tested by the Health Dept? Has the label been approved?" Well, no because in our earlier research we had not been told that this was a requirement. Yesterday Ricardo and Steve went to the Health Dept with a letter and a sample but after much time and bureaucracy they were told to come back with a different letter that has to be stamped. Eventually we will jump through all the hoops but the process can be frustrating and we need the income from sales to keep the plant in operation in Maxixe.

We have enjoyed several visitors the last couple of weeks. I'm getting pretty good at stripping the bed just in time for the next person to fall in (usually exhausted from traveling). I've been reminded that visitors bring gifts, not just material, but spiritual and emotional as well. One of them has offered us his beach house in North Carolina if we are ever in the area! We have met some very interesting, beautiful people the last few years.

Steve will travel to Zambia next week to work with the agriculture project that is just starting there. Please pray for safety, stamina, good health to keep going and do all that needs doing. Thanks, we appreciate your support and communications.