Dear Friends and Family
As I write this its only 930am and already in the high 30C…summer has come early this year. With the heat come the rains and the storms which brings the mosquitos and other creepy crawlies. We ask that you keep us (the Utuie family) and also the people of Mozambique in your prayers against malaria.
We have recently returned from another outreach in Chibuto in a village called Kooshibanye, about 5km from the land. Outreach was great. We have recently purchased the Jesus DVD and we showed it again and it went down like a treat. Many people who live in the villages do not have running water or power, so when we arrive with the outreach team and show a film, many people are instantly interested in what is happening.
As we are still waiting for the building permits to come through to build the houses on the land, we have started the clearing of the land, for the roads that divide the land into four sections. The temporary canço (similar to thin bamboo) church is done. We have also worked out that for us to stay in a tent every time we visit the land, is getting harder to do, so we have also started to build a canço house to stay in while we wait for the permits to come through. But we are very happy to say that we have a green light to start digging the first of two wells!! It was a miracle, but after much prayer and researching and walking around and talking to many people, the water in the ground is not very deep and therefore we do not need to hire a big "well-digger" which is very expensive!! Yay, thank you God!!
Issachar is growing up fast and is now starting to speak …much to our delight. He has both English and Portuguese words in his little vocabulary and his comprehension of all three languages is superb. He is doing well. Though recently has had a bought of rashes which we have managed to sort out he has allergies and are now slowly working through the foods and creams etc…
Paulina is wonderful as always. She finishes school in early November for the year, which she is excited about. So we are discussing regularly with her what she wants to do with her holidays and much of it includes playing soccer with friends and eating chicken meals with her favorite salt and vinegar hot chips.. She has passed this year at school so far and this week and next week has her end of year tests. So we are praying and hoping for great results from our star.
Felito's brother got married at the end of September. He now lives in South Africa, and it was such a treat for him to want to return to Maputo for the wedding. It was a great day, but long. I was asked to do the photos, we all had a ball.
On a funny note: Yesterday we made it into town to do our grocery shopping. It took over four hours. Nothing is a simple task in Maputo let alone in Africa. As all of our cars have broken-down we borrowed a car from a friend whose petrol gage is broken…so as we were making our way home the car stopped due to lack of petrol…I had just brought some meat too (a very special treat)…I was frustrated and then saw the funny side as I had been praying for God to make a way for Felito and I to have some "space" and God answered that prayer. Ok, so not the way I was expecting, but we got some "space"…hahahah
Another young couple from church have had their second baby. It was such a joy to be asked to name another baby. I love it! We get to hold them close and pray and bless the baby and parents too. Baby Ester (Esther) was three weeks early. Baby Ester was born at home as she decided she wanted to come quickly, didn't even get time for the traditional midwife to come over, as she was attending another birth. So Ester's grand-mother stepped up and did a great job!. The first two weeks were rough for both Mum and Baby, but now they are both doing well. Thank you to those you have donated blankets and baby clothes and cloth nappies.
Also the weekend just past. We did our first outreach in Khongolote, about ten minutes from the church in the local soccer field. We had been waiting for the local council to give their permission, which finally came last week. We were very happy. For the last two weeks the youth and the music team had been practicing their singing and dancing and also learning how to minister to people. Though with an early summer and now being the wet season, about half way through the worship, the starry night turned to black and the rain poured and poured down. The lightening was an amazing show and the thunder deafening. We were wet, very wet - all the equipment and all the people helping. It took about three days for the speakers and mats to dry out. We were disappointed, the youth were frustrated at all their practicing and then outreach had to be stopped. We put in another application to do another outreach. Waiting for permission could take months, but God knows best and within days we received permission to do another outreach sometime in December. So, please join with us and pray that, that night – no rain, no storms. We want to reach the people of Khongolote for Jesus.
Once again thank you to all of you for your prayers and support and partnering with us in Mozambique as we serve and love the people here. We couldn't do it without you!!
God Bless and lots of love
The Utuie Clan
Felito, Anna, Paulina and Issachar
