About a week ago, Allison checked with me that I didn’t already have plans for last night, and said I was having dinner with them at the Seilers. So that was who I expected to have there – AKA (Angie, Allison, Kelly) and the Seilers. On Wednesday I saw my friends Kris at the New Tribes office and she said, “See you Friday!” so I was like, o cool, Kris is coming too. In the end, as I discovered last night, Allison had pretty much asked everyone she knew I was esp. befriended with – that was such a nice thing to do! We had great food, tacos – I haven’t had Mexican food in ages! – and cake and ice cream, and in between there was just a lot of pleasant mingling. After eating, Dr Woodrow and one or two other people said some nice things about the work that I did here and then I was surrounded and prayed for. I felt very loved and it was great to have so many people express excitement about what the Lord has in store for me next. I think it has taken my leaving for me to realise fully how many of my fellow missionaries have become special friends and have shaped and sharpened me. I have been truly blessed and even though I am still sad and concerned for the work I am leaving, I know that people are being supportive of this change and that makes things even better, somehow. The Lord is good!

Me and my hand-picked group of closest friends in Nampula

There hasn’t been that much to blog about for a few days, as things have gone into a different gear with me leaving. I got another cold, probably my body’s response to what has been a rather stressful time. Last week I was oscillating between feeling well occupied and bored, wondering what I was forgetting about, but this week I have inventory to do at the  bookshop and spent a large part of Monday looking at some things for the Conference. I’ve also had some more registrations for the Conference – we’re up to 74, if all the people who signed up super-early do come. That’s pretty good with over 2 months to go! I’ve started packing and Saturday is moving day, so I am hoping that I will be able to get a lot of work and visiting done the last almost 2 weeks that will then be left. All that really remains to be done is to trust the Lord for whatever He has planned for me next!

Although it’s an ironic time, it is so good and exciting for me to have my first visitor to Nampula here! Pastor Irving Steggles pastors Birchleigh Baptist Church in Kempton Park, and he has known and supported me personally in my missionary ambitions since the days when the church had just gotten started and I was regularly playing the piano for them. Poor Pastor Irving only got in at 22h00 last night, after his flight got delayed by 3 hours – luckily he was able to sit in the Executive Lounge at Maputo airport and was fairly comfortable. Shame, and then I waltzed in this morning and asked him almost immediately whether he felt like going to the orphanage! I just really had a desire to see Victor and Christina, wanted Pastor Irving to meet them, and had a lot of stuff to take there, so I decided to kill a few birds with the same stone and borrow Kris’s car, pick up some stuff from Shoprite and also be able to drive the two of us around in the luxury of air conditioning and power steering – I was very grateful for this! It was so nice to see Victor and Christina and so cool for Pastor Irving, who hadn’t ever gotten a sense of how big the orphanage is from the little I told, and who had just been praying for Victor’s recovery, to get to talk to them. I think we tired poor Victor out, he told the whole story of how the orphanage came about, and how he and Christina met, and that takes a while! I just loved seeing Christina again and suddenly the whole month that passed because I was too busy with work to see them just seemed like such a shame and I was really sad about leaving her… She then showed Pastor Irving around the orphanage while I got the chance to visit a little bit with some of the girls I used to see regularly.

Pastor irving Steggles chatting to a convalescing Victor Carlos in their living room

Afterwards we went to lunch, quite fun for me as I don’t usually get to go “out” to lunch, and spent several hours talking, not in all respects agreeing about my situation, but let’s leave it at that,  I know the Lord will work things out. I hadn’t planned on being away all day, but after showing him the bookshop and a little bit of the town, as well as my apartment, it was quite late when we got back. Yet now I know we have talked, tomorrow the containers might arrive and he has plans with our friends the Seilers anyway, so I think it worked out well.

This would have been just a normal blog post about how my weekend went, but I have some news I need to share sooner or later. Last week my elders from my home church informed me that they have decided, for various reasons, that it is time for me to go back to South Africa. At first I couldn’t believe it, though I knew they weren’t terribly happy with the frame of mind I started the year with, and I was dismayed about  what would happen with my work. I am still rather concerned about how Dr Woodrow will manage and what is going to happen with things like the Adopt a Pastor Project, but the Lord has given me tremendous peace about it. I know, somehow, that this is His will for me right now, I trust my elders and I am even starting to feel excited about what the future holds! I have learned so much during this time in Nampula, have met some wonderful people and have, I think, come to know better what I am gifted for and what I might enjoy and be good at doing. I am awed at the way the Lord has given me peace about this, and can only trust Him to provide for the Woodrows and the Fiel work. I know He will do whatever will most advance His glory! Thank you to all who have been interested in reading about my journey! I guess I will have to change the name of my blog now, huh?

After all the happenings of the past week, yesterday was decidedly dull! I hate it when I’ve been really busy and my worklist seems to be as long as my arm – and suddenly I am waiting for people to get back to me, certain things I can’t do for practical reasons (like being unable to meet with Dr Woodrow and do inventory on the same day) and I find myself twiddling my thumbs, yet afraid I’m forgetting about something important. Dr Woodrow got back on Thursday evening, but aside from talking about some of the finances and catching up on a more personal level, we haven’t really talked about work. After a number of perfunctory hours over there I at least got one useful thing done – I was able to take the Landrover to SIL and give a missionary from Beira the books for our pastors on the programme there. Then I just went home, dropped in on Tricia to give her an extra set of keys in case I lock myself out again, and then had an exciting Friday evening of some cleaning and dishes. My plans for today had been cancelled and I was happy for the lack of responsibilities, but I think I’ve had about enough solitude right about now! At least I got quite a lot of stuff sorted out, suddenly I was irritated by all the old bookshop receipt books and things that I’ve somehow accumalated – I think I need to take some of this stuff to the bookshop.

Late yesterday afternoon I heard from Christina – they had discovered that Victor has a bacterial blood infection, had been given something to treat it and were finally on their way home! Thank you for everyone who prayed for them, the Lord was gracious. They have a challenging ministry and I’m sure it’s not going to be easy to manage things with him on the mend, but at least the scare is past.

Well, the car definitely won’t be coming to Mozambique. Yesterday, my elders were trying to figure out how to get the car to Pretoria so that they could get the starter motor replaced and I guess the wiring fixed; then, this morning I got an email asking me how I would feel about the car being given to someone else. Apparently, a married student with a family at the Seminary where I used to study urgently needs a vehicle. The word “exchange” was used, but I have no idea what that might end up meaning in practical terms. I’m just so glad that none of this happened while Dr Woodrow was driving it to South Africa or something, and I’m happy to be able to help someone out who actually needs something more than I do.

I made today a staying at home day – this morning I had a succesful run of bakery-bank-bookshop-market and was then back home at 9h3. The rest of the day was filled with intermittent phone calls about the containers – I finally heard how much we need to pay, then let the motorist know to go and get the money from the bank; however, it took so long for them to verify the signature at the bank (heaven knows why), that the motorist could only go to the money exchange at 14h00, after the beloved lunchtime, and then, instead of going straight to the customs agent, he went back home to sort out the money with Julie as he always does. So of course by the time he went back the office was closed, since they close at 15h30 (which has been really inconvenient). I guess it’s no good getting upset about it, but I wish he had listened to me! Now I have a tremendous amount of money in the house and need to go and pay it tomorrow before work, which I am not very happy about – may the Lord keep the house extra safe tonight!

I also tried to stay on top of what was happening with my friend Victor Carlos. For those who don’t know, he is a wonderful Mozambican guy who runs an orphanage here in Nampula, and about 18 months ago he got married to an American girl, Christina, who has just fitted into his life incredibly well. Yesterday I heard from Christina that he was terribly ill, he had almost died and on top of that they weren’t in Nampula, but visiting his sister in Cuamba, 5 hours away. This morning at 2 a.m. I got an sms saying his fever was extremely high and that it was a terrible night for Christina, and asking for prayer. I was very relieved this morning to hear that MAF was bringing them to Nampula and that his fever had broken before they got on the plane. However, later today his fever was high again and they still don’t know exactly what is wrong, whether it is a strain of malaria they haven’t tested for (he tested negative for the ones they did test) or perhaps something else. They are still waiting for the test results. Neither of them have lept in three days. Please remember them in your prayers!

I had a quiet and fairly productive day, but lots of things were happening in SA! It looks like Dr Woodrow will be coming back either tomorrow evening or Friday morning, and Julie and I had a frustrating time trying to confirm his booking and make taxi arrangements for him at a guest house in Maputo – he had sms’ed someone and got a response, and yet when we tried phoning that number and about 6 others, none of them were working. He also emailed and phoned throughout the day to tell me of all the problems he had been having with my car – yesterday the battery was dead and he had to get a new one, and today the car caught fire! I guess it was an electrical fire, because it sounds as if the car is mostly still fine, but the starter needs to be replaced and who knows what that is going to cost? Sigh. There is still nothing much happening with the containers, and I think I’ll stay home tomorrow. Amongst other things, I have many pastors who need to be informed that they need to pick up their books from the bookshop – but the main cellphone network, MCel, has been giving such problems that I almost despair of succeeding…

One of the things I most dislike about Dr Woodrow being away is being the one who has to give the labourers loans. It’s a sad and vicious cycle: manual labourers get paid a pittance, much less than I can imagine anybody can live and support a family on – but the other side of the coin is that all those low wages still cost Grace Missions a lot, and if Dr Woodrow were to pay them much better, he would have to pay them double that in a few years anyway with the way the wage increases work. Anyhow, almost all the workers are continually borrowing moneyand it’s another fun part of my job recording all the loans and making sure the correct amounts gets subtracted at the end of the month. I think I have really messed up the giving of the loans though – I’m not supposed to give them more than they’ve already earned in the days they’ve worked so far this month, but I don’t know how to be hard and mean with people, and I just haven’t emotionally felt up to it. It seems they’re always asking me at awkward times! Like this morning, after a hot and sweaty and fruitless walk to DHL I got to the house craving just a few minutes to get my bearings, but it wasn’t to be! I can’t reason with someone when I am in that state. Getting our documents from DHL, as well as getting other things done in town, became a whole complicated affair which finally involved the driver dropping me off at the building where the DHL office is and me waiting for about an hour for them to re-open after lunch (some days I hate this 12h00 to 14h00 lunchtime! One can’t get things done!) – I figured I’d rather wait in air-conditioning than be at home a little while, only to go out in the heat later. So by about 15h00 I finally had the documents, had made copies for us and delivered them to the customs agent. Now I can only pray that the rest will go quickly and that we won’t have to pay for the containers just sitting there! I was really exhausted today without really having anything to show for it, but this evening I at least did some good work planning and feel more organised and less anxious.

After spending the entire day on Sunday in bed, feeling quite miserable once again, I felt much better yesterday and got a lot done. I think the ship arrived yesterday, at least it was supposed to, and this morning I am off to the customs agent again, as well as to DHL. Apparently it can take quite a few days until the containers are released, though, so I am grateful for the time to get other work done. I am just about ready to send the books for the pastors to the post office and got a lot of admin on the programme done yesterday, work which I tend to leave for later, just creating problems for myself. It looks like Dr Woodrow’s plans might change considerably – he may fly back around Saturday and then drive down again to SA with his family in April, only bringing mycar afterwards. Just another reminder that things just about never work out the way you think they’re going to…