WEEKEND IN SOUTH AFRICA SEPT.25-SEPT.27

We started our day at 5 am which is too early for me but was well worth it once we got to Kruger National Park. It is a beautiful area and just like you would think it would be. We saw so many animals. Giraffes, Hippos, crocs, baboons, monkeys, zebras, rhinos, wart hogs, wildebeest, kudu, nimpalas, elephants and much more. We left the park at 6 pm and then headed for Nelspruit.

As we headed into town we saw a huge cross on a hill lit up. It was an amazing sight. It was hard to get used to the people in Nelspruit speaking english to us. We had a hard time not trying to answer them in portuguese. But it was a good relaxing time and the girls enjoyed their time too.

We picked up our boxes, all 14 of them, and headed back to Mozambique, after cramming our girls in the car with the boxes.
As we got to the border we prayed hard so we could get through without problems. They like to make you pay taxes for anything you bring into the country. The Lord provided a nice man to help us and he just made us open a few boxes to show him that they are our personal items. He stamped out paper and sent us on our way. Thank you for your prayers.



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Sao Damaso Outreach 9-18

It was a hot long day, but it was incredible. Sao Damaso is a village just about 30 to 40 minutes from Maputo, but a world away. The church there had been planted about 1 1/2 years ago and two ECC leaders Nelsen, and Dinis lead the church currently. The door-to-door evangelism started around 2:00 and by 5:30 the outdoor concert started. We had a great time of music by a 4-6 person band depending on the song, and then we had a time of preaching. The gospel was shared and many, many people came forward for prayer afterward. It is a privilege and an honor to be here serving the Lord. You never know what your day brings but it is always awesome, and nights like last night are humbling. The crowd was mainly youth with a few older people, totaling somewhere around 400 people. We had a great time meeting and talking with a lot of new people. The village “Chefe” came out to see us and to meet our family. He wanted us to meet his wife and the rest of the government officials of the village. Raul, Juka, (ECC Coordinators) and I had met with them the day before to receive the necessary permission to put on the outreach concert. So he had known my wife and kids would be there and it’s important in this culture to meet and shake hands with everyone. I have tried to learn a few Shangaan (one of the main tribal languages in the province of Maputo) words and it is always a hit to speak their heart language. Most nationals find it funny to see us say anything in their tribal language. It is always good for a look or a laugh. The girls had a good time playing games with the kids and drawing in the sand. We attended church there today and there were a couple new people there from last night and one had accepted Christ and said this will be his church home.

In Christ,
Nathan & Family


Emily and Chelsea enjoyed singing and dancing last night at the concert. They are beginning to remember the words to the songs and enjoy singing them and doing the motions. Most of the songs we sing in the village churches are sung in Shangaan. Emily loved playing in the sand and anytime one of us would walk somewhere there would be a following of little kids. It was so funny and if you got the camera out they would all try to get in front of it. It was a good time for all! And as always I judge the night by how well my girls did and they did great. Even with how hungry and thirsty they were after being there for 4 and half hours. We did get them fed at around 9:30pm and then home to bed. Thank you all for your prayers. We felt them. The Lord protected us and all who took part in this evangelism concert.


Love,
Deanna, Chelsea & Emily

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09-12 Update

Hello Family,

Well this week was another great, but fast week. The “Train & Multiply” material is great. The ECC teams are growing in their understanding of God’s call in their lives. We have an evangelism tour in Sao Damosio this weekend. We will have a concert and show a movie. There is a fairly new church plant their so please be praying for that.
We went to church today in Zimpeto (the newest church plant) today and things are going well. They have two bible studies, one prayer service and then the Sunday services each week. That is all ran by ECC team members until new believers can take on some of the ministries. We saw a lot of new faces today. Thank you for your prayers.
We are doing very well. The girls enjoyed a couple extra days off last week. Their school had Labor Day and a Mozambique holiday off. Our language studies are going better. Some times you feel very confident and the next minute somebody (sometimes my wife) laughs at something you say. This week I walked to this bakery around the corner from our house and on the way there I was putting my sentence together. Okay, I have it… I know what to say… Then you get there… Say your masterpiece of a sentence…. Then the lady behind the counter laughs so had she can barely stand. That is the life of language learning. Most people are very gracious and help you, but some just have a good laugh.
We were out looking for two church sights this week. There are two home churches we need to move to a church building. Of course this is exciting, but a big job. You could also pray for that. We have had a couple large donations come in the last couple weeks for the seminary. That has been a true answer to prayer.
We had a hailstorm last week (picture below - out our front window). It was very odd to see these huge hailstones falling here. I asked the next day if this was common and it’s not. The last hailstorm was in 1977. We want to thank each one of you that pray for us every day. I know your prayers make a difference. We can truly feel them at times. Thank you for your financial support as well. We are all in this together, and we do feel part of a team. I hope you feel the same.

In Christ,
Nathan

9-5 Sunday

This was another busy and great week. We had our services in Mavalane today. It is currently one of our smaller churches but is growing. It is held in the pastors’ house and there were 30 people in attendance. There are a lot of kids at this church and the worship was lead by two kids (maybe 12 – 13 years old). They love to sing, and are very good at it. We had about an hour and half of song and some dance, then the message.

This week was great for ECC also. We had a church wide fast and prayer time yesterday. It was a great time. This week we are going to start all the pastoral leadership training for all the leaders of the churches. I'm very excited about this and we will be looking for a couple new leaders to add to the ECC Leadership team. Please be praying for the right people.

Please continue to pray for our language study. We are in our fourth week and feel like we are lost at times. I know we are learning but your prayers are needed.

As Deanna's Blogger from yesterday shown, we had our first chance to do something none ministry related and it was very relaxing. Though the beach we went to is only about 1.5 hours away, you feel a world away. We left in the morning and were back for prayer services last night, but it was an enjoyable time with friends. Thank you for your continued support and email of encouragement.


In Christ,
Nathan

OUR DAY AT THE BEACH!

Today we had the pleasure of going to the beach and getting out of the BIG CITY! It was beautiful and relaxing. The weather was perfect at about 85 degrees and the sun was shining and the water felt great. We had a fun time driving in, crossing the river on the fairy(which fit everything on it that it could, a tad bit scary) and getting stuck just seconds from the entrance. We all laughed, ok maybe Nate wasnt laughing during it, but he did later. I took some pictures and they will follow. The girls had a blast swimming, playing in the sand and finding sea shells. There were small crabs running all over the place, emily loved chasing them. We are looking forward to going back to this beach to see the turtles as they come ashore to lay eggs in about 3 weeks. We went with a missionary family that we met at the school and Madalena, an OMS missionary. This was a wonderfully relaxing day!

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