Dear friends,
We do have an urgent pray request for you. Dan went today to turn in the paper work for our DIRE's - the 2nd part to getting our residence visas which was started in Portugal. Well, Sr. Ramos, the immigration officer, would not accept the paperwork b/c we only have photocopies of our criminal reports from the States. Dan told Sr. Ramos that he'd look to see what we had at home and return tomorrow. Well we don't have anything different at the house either - the Mozambican Embassy in Portugal had to have the originals when we started the process (1st part of the residence visa). Anyway - when Dan returns tomorrow it will be a matter of pleading our case and praying that he relents and accepts the copies. Sr. Ramos, the immigration officer, has the power to make us step out of country while waiting to get new reports or he can simply accept our photocopies, or he can extend our visas, allowing us to stay in country while awaiting new reports. Please pray that he would accept our photocopies. He has the power to make things simple or Painful for us. We must watch our every word and not act frustrated. In the past if people have lost their tempers or gotten frustrated he has caused them to go to great extremes to finish the process. Please pray that we would be humble, calm, patient, intelligent, speak clearly, and bless Sr. Ramos. Robin, Karunia and Asher still have a bit of time before their visas run out, however Dan and Josiah have already been in country about 45 days and they only have 60 to get the DIREs stamped in (we've been working on this since Robin's arrival - it's just been slow). We need to remember that the immigration office is doing us a favor by processing our papers. We are guests in this country.
Also Dan was supposed to be flying tomorrow (Tues) to Maputo to pick up our things from the boat - that has changed to Wed. since he has to meet with Sr. Ramos and his plane leaves earlier than that, however - please pray for safety for him when he does leave and that the entire process of clearing customs and such would be smooth.
We are doing well and continuing to settle into life here. The house is organized for the most part, though that will soon change with Dan getting the things we sent from Portugal. Once those boxes arrive here then I'm quite sure that things will be in chaos again for a few days at least. Still it will be nice to have them and get things even more organized.
The kids are continuing to do well - they enjoy playing with their friends each afternoon and running around our yard. Josiah has become quite adept at climbing one of our mango trees, though he still desires to learn to climb the trees with no branches as his friends are able to do - grab hold of the trunk and shimmy up!
All 3 children have a bit of trouble sitting through church - on the floor for 1 to 2 hours surrounded by people, etc. but they're doing better.
Dan hasn't gotten as regular in ministry as he wants, however he's been able to do several things. He and our teammate Shawn Gardner have been meeting each Friday to talk and set common goals, strategies and working on who will teach what, etc. They're still working out a coarse schedule for at the center but are pleased with how well they think and strategize in the same fashion. They've established one discipleship point outside of the city which they will begin to work at two Tuesdays a month beginning in August. Dan will be researching 3 or 4 other areas (during the month of July) and will select one of these areas as a place to work the other two Tuesdays a month.
Dan went yesterday with a national minister to another spot which will possible be a 2nd discipleship point (to be researched more in July) away from the city. We don't know for certain if this area (named Natia) will end up being the 2nd discipleship point, however this was a church he'd visited with while on our internship and they basically indicated they'd been waiting 2 years for his return. It would be a good point - there are several churches surrounding this one from which leaders could come for teaching (how's this for a cultural point of view - by around them I mean several churches are within a 2-5 hr walk away, but leaders would still make the trip for a day of study!).
We've been asked by several people to help them with tasks that make us more and more aware of the poverty around us. Please pray for wisdom on our part in knowing how to handle the constant requests for help, work, food and medical aid, etc.
Thanks so much - we look forward to communicating with you again more regularly and once we have a phone line in our house we'll either send a few pictures or post them to the web page and let you know!
Blessings,
Robin
