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October 01 2004
ON THE ROAD AGAIN... It has been quite a long time since our last newsletter where our team had made the decision to send two families (Holtons and us) to Lichinga to start a new work among the Yao people. And now, we've finally arrived at our final destination, Lichinga, Mozambique! Two weeks ago, we received permission from the Government to return to Montepuez only for a short stay to get our things. The conditions were that we wouldn't do any "work", whatever that means. Anyway, we made the trek to Montepuez in order to move our stuff out, hired an old clunker to haul it, and drove the 2 days to Lichinga. We arrived September 25th, moved into our house, and are settling in. OUR NEW HOME.... We really like the house we have moved to. It is located right outside of town in a good neighborhood. The outside of the house is very colorful so you couldn't miss it if you wanted to. It's nice and spacious and in fairly good shape. There are still a couple of things we will need for the house but we'll manage just fine as it is now. We have a hand-dug well outside the house where Rusty fetches water for our baths every night. Hopefully in the near future we'll have it running into the house. The soil here is bright red, so everything in the house that was once white now has a red tint to it. The rainy season is about to begin so maybe the dust storms, that have been very annoying, will turn to mud pits soon. I don't know which is better, really! LICHINGA TOWN.... Being a provincial capital, Lichinga is a surprisingly small town. We have a couple little grocery stores with the usual African goods in them and a fairly good hardware store nearby. We are also close to Lake Malawi, which will be a good place to cool off from time to time. I know it sounds like the vacationers paradise, but Lichinga is actually a beautiful place to live. We're up in the mountains on a plateau so the temperature is bearable and there are pine forests around town that remind us of east Texas. PLANS.... Well, we have just moved to Lichinga, so for now we will still be settling in and getting the house to have running water. After a couple of weeks, we want to get started on learning the Yao language. We hope to find a language helper/teacher that can teach us in the mornings and then we'll use our afternoons for practicing with people and building relationships with new friends. We also have spent countless hours as of late, re-working our vision and sharing the initial things that we would love to see happen here in Niassa. Because the Yao are mainly Islamic, we will be spending our time in the following months learning about Islam in general, about how Islam has been integrated into this specific context, and about how best to join in the story that God has been writing among the Yao people. MAKUA TEAMMATES Our teammates in Nampula have started learning Makua-Metto while they wait for permission to move back to their homes in Montepuez. Leaving Nampula was bittersweet for us, because we were excited about settling into what would be our new home, but we were and are saddened to be farther away from our teammates who are still there. It made it easier on us knowing that we have a retreat with the entire organization Good News for Africa (the organization that we are a part of here) planned for Thanksgiving week this year in Nacala (on the beach- lobster for Turkey Day!). So, we left knowing we would see each other very soon. We also have plans to have annual retreats for just our team, so we will all be together at least twice a year. BABY STUFF.... I am still feeling great and healthy, in spite of all this moving around. I have really been blessed by feeling so good and having the energy to do some things around the house. I (Rusty, too!) have felt the baby move more and more these days, which is very fun and reassuring. We are now in South Africa having our midway appointment, and we are happy to announce that all is well. Our doctor has given us the clearance to just come back in mid-January (a month before the due date) and await the birth! Both of our sets of parents have plans to visit us in the weeks after the baby is born, so we have a lot to be excited about this coming spring. EVERYTHING ELSE.... We're in the process of trying to get a phone line into our house so we can do internet more often. But because we live close to the tower of a local radio station our phone picks up the station crystal clear. So, every time we try to dial-up there is a Mozambican voice telling us about the latest news of our booming metropolis. (Who needs high-speed internet when you have that!) So, as soon as we have it working we'll be more consistent in our e-mailing. Also, we have a new website that deals more with our work specifically in Lichinga. We will post all of our latest pictures and updates on this site. We will have an updated mailing address in about a week or so that we'll post on our website. The address is www.mzmission.org. PRAYER REQUESTS.... - continued health for Ann and baby - finding a language helper - relationship building with new Yao friends - new paradigm of a smaller core team and Islamic ministry - enrichment of relationships with teammates farther away
The peace of the Lord,
Rusty and Ann Caldwell |