Posting from Mike!

Hi everyone, or all 3 or 5 of you.

As you know by now, internet access is a joke.  The internet cafe is open when it is convenient for the employees which is not very often.  My wi fi issues continue, so if you would like to pray for that, as well as everything else, feel free.  So far, internet access is the biggest stumbling block.  I cannot communicate like I would like to and I have extremely limited access to outside news.  Internet access would be a huge moral boost for me since my weekends are hugely boring without anything to do.

Progress on the house is coming along very well.  We are getting close to having a complete septic tank, the plumbing is about half done and the platform that holds the water tank is upright and being welded on as I type this.  It is amazing to watch the welder work with equipment that we would have thrown away 20 years ago.  I donºt know if that speaks bad for us and good for them or what...but it is amazing to watch.

Speaking of amazing, if you had an 8ft long piece of PVC pipe that had to make a 90 degree turn and you didnºt have connectors to glue together, how would you do it.  Canºt get all keys to work, sorry for punctuation.   I saw workmen take an 8 ft long section of PVC, blocked the end with paper, fill it with sand, block the other end, mark where they needed to make the bend. put the plastick pipe over a paper sack on fire and as soon as the pipe softened, they bent the pipe.  Because it was filled with sand, the pipe made a nice smooth bend, no kinks.  Really cool.  At least for me.

The workmen at the house are doing great, and as a sign of appreciation, I bought everyone working at the house a Coke or Fanta.  No big deal right? Wrong!
Four city workers are working on the water pipe from the street to the house.  They are 50 to 60 yards away.  These guys saw me buy their friends Cokes and so they ran down the path between the houses.  We had to go to the Mayorºs house so he could interpret what they wanted.  Hafiz, the Mayor, said that since I bought their friends Cokes, they wanted one also.  So, I agreed.  Then they told me the rest of the day is a holiday for all municipality workers....and they quit for the day!

I have met some interesting tourist while I am here as well.  Last night 4 chineses tourists stayed at my hotel.  They bought a car in South Africa and are taking 3 months to drive to Egypt!  I did have a special treat on Sunday night.  A pastor from South Africa was on a 3 month sabbatical with his wife and 4 children.  The 3 girls were aged 14 to 9, their son was about 3 or 4. They had driven from Durbin, South Africa to Pemba, Mozambique to work with Iris Ministries.  Iris Ministries is run by Rolland and Heidi Baker and some of you may be familiar with their books and stories.  They stopped in Ilhe de Mozambique as a rest and stayed here 3 nights.  I had a wonderful time with Jacque and his family.  We talked about Iris Ministries, his church and my general overall craziness.  He comes to the states every other year to attend a conference in Redding, CA and so I invited him to stay with Diane and I for a couple of days next time he comes to CA.  They were a Godsend!

So, I will stop.  I will try to download pictures, but without Wi Fi working, I donºt know how I will. 

Want to pray?  Pray for my wisdom and discernment.  Pray for our workers, they are great men.  Pray for Ilhe de Mozambique, things here are tough.  This is a diffucult place to make a go of life.  All of Mozambique is difficult. Pray for the internet and for WiFi!

Thanks for your support, interest and prayers,

Mike