The Training Center in Maxixe

Here is our new training center under construction in Maxixe
Its currently our forth church building here in Maxixe, we have been out growing the previous buildings at the rate of one every two years

The first one was a beautiful tree that the church met under for the first year, which Armindo later chopped down for fire wood!

We then built a building from local material as we call it, meaning palm fonds and poles, which cost about forty five pounds to build!...very beautiful but not very durable, fortunately we out grow this one before it rotted and blew away

Our last building was a bit posher again with woven reed walls and a corrugated iron roof, trouble with this one was . You slowly got cooked under the tin whilst preaching, or you had to stop the service during a hail storm due to the excessive noise coming from the roof.

This building was nearly washed away in the sub tropical storms as the water from the road pored through the walls across the church floor out the other side through Armindo`s house and finally filled up the 3meter deep long drop out door toilet to the top with sand rendering it useless! Such are the hard ships that a church building in Africa have to endure!

In all this the people continue to flock to church

We are now building our Forth church to stay! Its four times larger than the last one made from concrete with enormous foundations and a modern roof, this building will function as the church with two other very important functions , It will become the Training center where up and coming leaders from the surrounding area are trained for the ministry
And at least in the short term one third of the building will be partitioned off to be used as the Sewing school which is running here in Maxixe to help widowed ladies come out of poverty and start their own businesses

Thank you so much to the people who have helped us with the construction of this what eventually will be a fantastic building for our work over the years to come in Mozambique

Home grown school uniforms for our kids!

Pictured here two of the children who have stolen the hearts of alot of people Celenia and Alfredo, it does not seem long since we brought them into the orphanage sick and very weak from severe malnutrition, now they are up and running and off to school

Up till now our children have been going to school with no uniforms, which the goverment allows but is not good for the poor children who obviously feel awkward and left out. Its not only a huge joy to see them so excited and happy but even more than that our very own sewing school in Maxixe has produced the uniforms themselves, we started this project in Maxixe just over a year ago bringing in a tutor for six months to teach the ladies how to sew. Now these ladies are producing clothes to order.

For more on the sewing school visit blog 18 oct 2009

Exciting News at the Medical Center

We now have a Doctor at our medical center at the orphanage!

Its been a joy to connect with Dr Madalane from the hospital in Manhica a well liked and respected lady by the local people in the area, With a real love of children she was delighted when we approached her to see if she would be prepared to come and do some clinics for us.
After further chats with the director of the hospital who was also thrilled about our work with the orphan children, The director happily released her with her blessing telling us we could also open the clinic up to the surrounding area and that the hospital would help with the medical requirements .
Its difficult some times to contain your joy, when a door of opportunity opens, for the past few years we had planned to build a medical center at the orphanage, believing as we prayed that this was one of the projects God wanted us to do
See the building under construction please visit blog 17July 2009
The Medical center is now finished and tiled with running water, electricity, and a doctor
We are currently raising funds to further equip the building
Thank you again for every one who has worked so hard on this project and supported us amazingly

Blessing Pete

Back to Mozambique!

Its been an absolute thrill to be back in the country that I love for a holiday after being away for nearly nine months.
Over the past 6 months I have been undergoing chemotherapy and numerous other treatments to try and fight off an extremely rear disease that hes been attacking my nerve system.
For the last few years my body has been producing a rouge anti body called "Mag " that has been attaching its self to my nerve fibres and progressively destroying them, It has been a difficult experience as I helplessly watched my body slowly degenerating. Knowing very little about the disease and less about treating it my neurologist refer ed me to the Cancer hospital in Manchester where they eventually discovered the Mag anti body causing the problem.
The hematologists got together and decided to give me a strong course of a particular type of chemotherapy in the hope that it would kill the anti body and so stop the progression of the disease.
On January 11th both my neurologist consultant, and my hematologist consultant at the Christie in Manchester gave me the go ahead to go back to Mozambique. Its currently looking like the spread to the disease is now no longer getting worse and could even be starting to reverse its self! I am due to see my consultants again mid April. Thank you so much every one who has been praying for me, for so long, and sorry for not being in touch for so long,
Its been such a joy to visit friends again and so see our children at the orphanage, our churches and other projects we are currently running in this beautiful but very needy country
Thank you for journeying with us in the exciting work God has given us to do, please continue to pray for vision Mozambique, that God would continue to lead and guide us into all that He has planned for us to do.
God bless
Pete