Armindo's house

Its been along time coming but its here now, Armindo's House is now well out the ground!

A very proud Armindo surveying his new build!

Checking on progress !

His lads are excited too!

I have been working with Armindo and Delfina since 2005 when we did our first small crusade in Maxixe, Armindo had 13 people in his first church at that time and we used to meet under the shade of a tree

Armindo is a great example to all of us, crippled from birth with club feet due to Polio, and unable to work he refused to allow his disability to limit his possibilities in life. Grasping the fact that God has a plan for each of our lives he started to pursue his relationship with God and study the bible.

Armindo now heads up our work here in Maxixe, overseeing seven small churches, he is a gifted leader, a born evangelist, with a passion to reach his nation for Christ

Vision Mozambique has been supporting him and his family for the past four years , and built his first small reed house with the limited funds we had at that time,  it is our pleasure to help him now build his new block house

Kevin Betts and a number of very committed friends have worked incredibly hard to raise the funds for Armindo's dream, to get out of a rat infested reed house into something which is going to last them their lifetime!

A huge huge thanks to all the guys who have helped raised the funds to help build this house with their sponsored bike rides

Any one else wishing to help contribute to this project would be enormously welcome!

more photo,s of this project will be following over the coming weeks

Thanks again to all of you who support our work so faithfully

More on the Medical Centre

It's been great to work with Manuel on this exciting project, our new Medical Centre coming together by the day!

Our new building showing off its roof system, which Noah would have been proud of !

More on the roof system.

Manuel fitting the doors and window frames.

At last we have a building! The internal walls are now being cement rendered, the door and window frames are already fitted, it's looking better by the minute!

The building is lovely and cool inside with its Luzalite roof, a cement based roof material, which is so much cooler than the zinc coated steel sheeting that so many buildings are equipped with, and it also has the big eves, which help keep the sun off the walls of the house.This is a winning combination, in such an environment, with temperatures at 40 degrees and more, at the present time.

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Trouble at the Well!

We have some difficult times recently with the well at the orphanage. Our well provides essential water for washing, cooking, and cleaning for the whole of our orphanage and provides a huge amount of water around 7,500 litres each day to the local community


The well failed for the third time in a month, leaving the whole area without water, except for local surface water supplies that are not clean. People had seen one person removing condoms from the water, before taking the water home to drink. Things were getting desperate!


We had just had a new pump fitted after waiting weeks for someone to come out and help us, then to our horror, discovered the next morning that the whole shooting match had come undone at the top of the well, our pump, cables and pipe work had somehow dropped down 10 meters into the well. We still had the rope attached to the pump but every thing had jammed! And we were now in danger of snapping the rope, it had already started to fray...


No one would come out to help us, the word was that we would not be able to recover the equipment, and worse still we would need to drill another well, at a cost of around £12,000


Long story short... we stopped everything and prayed that God would give us wisdom and a way out.... It's amazing what happens when you pray. Things that would normally be impossible, somehow become possible as you trust God and believe.


Trying to get as much wisdom as possible, we talked to loads of people in South Africa... the word was still the same. " You would not get it out! it's too narrow a well to get specialist equipment in, and too deep down to do anything"

However God was speaking a different Word!


Much thought and prayer later, and we decided to dig down as far as we safely could, and break in through the well casing, so that we could then reach down still further, and try and attach something to the water pipe.


I found an engineer in South Africa who loaned me a steel cone with a coarse thread on it, which we welded on to a very long steel rod, back at the orphanage.

Against all the odds, and after quite a struggle, we managed to locate the 2'' thick pipe, and screw the cone into the pipe, strongly enough to get a good hold.


With bated breath, and with six of us in the bottom of a narrow hole, sweating and straining, standing on each others feet, hands wet and slipping on the muddy rope, we heaved.... To our amazement the pump came free, and we managed to lift it off the bottom by about a metre. It was dark now, so we decided to leave until the next day.


At 4 am the next morning, our strength recovered , hoping and praying the thread in the pipe would hold, we started the long pull up, 220 feet and weighing about 250 kg


Screams of delight and shouting went up as we dragged the obstinate beast out of its hole. None of us could believe it. We had not just managed to save the well, but all our equipment as well!


The next few days were spent sourcing new well casing, refitting new connections, and lowering the pump back into the well.

With everything back in place and securely fastened, we turned on the electric.... nothing happened for a minute, then there was water every where!


Taps that had been left open for weeks, began pouring out the treasure!


Screams of delight were heard from over at orphanage. The liquid treasure was already pouring out there too! It was so moving to see the reaction of the local people and the kids, God had answered their prayers!


Thanks so much for supporting us in prayer and words of encouragement, and a huge thanks to our amazing God, who helps us as we call on Him, who is able to do so much more than we could ever imagine or think!

Digging down, in up to 40 degees, for five days, was not funny!

The beast was out!

Filling back in the crator!

All hands on deck!

Loading it all back in again. 190 feet of pipe work, pump, and electrics in a 220 foot hole!

Then the water arrived!

Time for a proper wash and a cool down!

Every one was overjoyed ...
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