Visiting Waukesha (New Tribes Bible Institute)

Just after the wedding I got to stay in Waukesha for a week and visit NTBI. I stayed with Eric Smith (roommates together again). Fun times! On the morning of Michael's wedding, the NTBI students had a free community carwash as an outreach.
I went and picked the groom up in Old Blue (Eric's car). They washed it up real nice!
Mary Ellis was my sister Rachael's roommate at Ecola Bible School. Now she's at NTBI and she just had her birthday. Kristine Lewis (on right) went to Interface in Papua New Guinea this summer. We helped Mary celebrate.


Went down to the lakefront by downtown Milwaukee, WI.
The city sure looks cool at night. We were out on a pier...there was a salmon run going on and fishermen were pulling some big ones out!

Lake Michigan and Downtown Milwaukee.
At the end of the week I went back out to the lakefront with Skeeter and Nate, friends from Idaho & Utah. These guys are goofy (we get along well).


Eric and I got to visit with Gabriel and Rachel Nunez. We went through the NTM training together. Guess where they met?

Meagan and I hanging out with Abel Richards and Jonny Freeman (staff kids)...these boys have grown like weeds since I saw them three years ago!!

Some of my NTBI dorm bro's and sisters got together with our dorm parents (Freemans & Weavers)...had a little reunion at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Meagan was my dorm sister at NTBI. She came up to visit us from Emmaus Bible College where she's getting her teaching degree. She wants to teach missionary kids overseas. Pray for more people like Meagan...there is a huge need for teachers overseas, even as short-term associates. If you want to know more about opportunities how you could serve overseas even for a year, visit www.ntm.org/go

She brought Nicole, her friend from Emmaus. Nice weekend gettaway.
Josh and Andrea Saari, friends from Idaho, are living in Madison, WI. My friend Joe and I got to have dinner with them.
A week after the wedding, I got to go see Kelly's Senior Violin Recital. She just graduated as a music major from Maranatha Baptist Bible College. Plays a mean violin. Go Kelly!
Maranatha has a beautiful campus. This is the hall where her concert was.
Got to hang out with R2-D2 in Milwaukee. He collects mail for the US Postal Service as a day job.

Arriving in Mozambique

So here's a look at our trip to Mozambique, September 1-18, 2007.

We flew through Johannesburg, South Africa....on our way up to Nampula, Mozambique, we made two stops. One in Maputo (capitol city) and another in Beira.
Here's Nampula from the air. Pretty small airport.

Pretty city, especially at sunset.

This one was a mystery. These flowers grow right out of the stone.
Having coffee with Pete and Stephen.

Check out this toaster!

Since our bags didn't arrive for 3 days, we had to wait to fly into the village. We had a great opportunity to get to know the missionary support team in Nampula. I drove around town with the guys on a supply run. We had to get plumbing and electrical supplies for the missionaries' house.

Here, we're checking on light bulbs for inside the house. "Hey Pete, do you think this one might take a little too much energy?"

Into the Tribe

We were able to go into the tribe on this Cessna Caravan. MAF South Africa (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) was running a once-a-month shuttle flight back to S. Africa and they dropped us off on the way.

This is Dave. He's been a pilot for 15 years here in Mozambique! He helped us a lot with our preparations to come and was a great help in getting us into the bush.

Coming in for a landing on a grassy strip.

The Missionaries met us with their trucks & we loaded everything up.

The airplane has made these remote areas a whole lot more accessible.

We were all happy to arrive.

The Hendersons' House

This is the family we stayed with.

Here is the Henderson's house.

Some leftover bricks from the making of their house...these can be used to build smaller buildings.
Here is the "hedge" that surrounds their property. Does a pretty good job of ushering people through the proper entrances.
Phil is showing us guys the well that was hand-dug as their water-supply.
Phil installed an antenna for his cell phone. Now he can check his email from the window, instead of having to climb to the top of the turmite mound to get reception.

Wiring the House

We were so glad to be able to help Phil and Elin wire their house for their solar-power system. This allows them to use lights, computers, fridge, freezer, and other things that will allow them to live simply, and be able to focus on their work as missionaries.

We had to solder together the wiring-harness for their house and then install conduit to hold it in. Here we are putting up the central harness that will bring power to all the lights.

Once all the wiring was in place, we had to connect them to the voltage regulator, fuse-disconnect box, and the batteries.
Here we're running the main cable up to the solar panels which are on the roof.

Team effort.

I had to hang it all the way up over the main beam to the top of the palm roof.

I just buried the ground-plate. It's pretty important to have good lightning protection, especially with a solar powered system that uses DC electricity.

Ducks can be Quite the Detour!!

On Monday, Sept. 10th, I drove to Quelimane ("Keeleemanee") with the Hendersons' partner, Francois ("Franswa") to buy some supplies for our project. Of course, we filled the truck with Mwinika guys who had reasons to come along. One of the guys was gonna help us find DUCKS. Francois had built a pen for 6 ducks, and we needed 5 more. So instead of going to the market in town, one of the guys had a connection...a guy "just outside of town." In other words, we spent 4 1/2 hours just looking for ducks!...a wild duck chase that led us WAY outside of town. Seems frustrating, so why would these missionaries do it? Because right now building relationships with their Mwinika friends is more important than "doing things our way." These missionaries have a message to communicate, and if they aren't sensitive to the Mwinika's culture and how they do things, they may not have an audience to share with some day. What a great lesson this was in flexibility.

Since it took so long to get the ducks, we didn't have time to do the rest of our supply-buying. We had to stay overnight, since it is very dangerous to drive that highway at night. We had mini-pizzas at this Italian restaurant. Francois made some phone calls and got us a place to stay with a pastor and his wife in town.

The next day, we had to put some of the supplies up on top...
...since the ducks took up space in the back.

People of Mozambique

This is Augustine. His people are called Mwinika. He helps the Hendersons get some things done around the house, so that they can focus their attention on learning language.

Pounding grain and collecting food can be a social event - a good time to catch up.

The kids try their hand at it from an early age.

Some just make good use of a well-earned nap-time.

While I was on my excursion to Quelimane, my parents got to experience some cultural events of their own. Here, they're waiting for the celebration to begin at the opening of a new market.

Many of the Mwinika people are Islamic by identity. Here, they are sweeping the graves of their ancestors in preparation for Ramadan, an Islamic religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar year. Graves are marked by broken pots.

In this traditional ceremony, a king is being made (clan leader). On this 2nd day of the ceremony, he is recieving advice from other clan leaders about how to be a good Mwinika leader.

This is from my duck-hunting excursion. These kids sure liked the land-cruiser.

Their regular mode of transport is a bicycle.

Or they just huff it on foot. If you're little enough, hopefully, you can hitch a ride with an older sibling.

These guys are skilled carpenters! All of the furniture in the Hendersons' house was hand-made by the local people.