Last week Pastor Coelho and his church put on a three-day retreat in the nearby Baptist Church building near the orphanage. About a dozen of our older kids went and had such a great experience – several of them were really on fire for the Lord when they came back.

Kids who went to the Retreat (Back: Ruben, Helder, Daniel, Rock, Claudia, Lazaro, and Regina; Front: Felix, Leonora, Jeremias, Felix, Clara, (Dorcas), and Sara).

A little more boys' dorm construction . . .

Here is one more picture of the bathroom – it’s just about finished. We think this is now one of the nicest bathrooms in Nampula.

And tiling has finally begun in the huge dormitory bedrooms!

Construction Update

Plastering on the outside.

Gigantic window frames going in.

Door frames.

New boys’ bathroom stalls and toilets.

Protecting the well pipe until the tower is built.

Vacation Bible School

Sueli and several other wonderful friends came and did a week long VBS (Vacation Bible School) in the orphanage with our kids and a huge number of neighbor children. It is really awesome to be able to have something like this inside the orphanage where we can invite all the children who live near us. This is the only time that many of them are exposed to God’s word and it goes a long way with their parents and families. We are incredibly grateful for Sueli and others who have volunteered so much time and energy teaching the children God's love and lessons straight from the bible.

Kids from the orphanage and the neighborhood being instructed in a game.

Another VBS game (sorry I'm not able to explain exactly what's going on here).

Other News

A few weeks ago when Victor and I were in Maputo little Dorcas got extremely sick with malaria. After several trips to the hospital she was only getting worse. Victor told the staff to take her to a private clinic but they were not able to until he returned. We did get Dorcas to a clinic and she was there for several days. Janete, Claudia, and Sara took turns staying with her and taking care of her until she finally recovered. Many babies and young children (many people of any age) die of malaria every year and the case with Dorcas was very scary, but we are happy to report that she is now completely fine and totally recovered from this.

Victor with little Dorcas after she returned from the hospital.

Terçia was running and playing in the orphanage when she fell down and got injured badly enough to need to go to the hospital. At the hospital they said she had a “broken leg.” Looking at where they put the cast it’s kind of hard to tell what is “broken” (?). But whatever it is – Terçia’s in good spirits and still having a good time every day.

Terçia in her cast.

Speaking of casts . . . this is old news but if you remember back in July – Isac Pequeno broke his arm (or shoulder?) and was put in the most outrageous looking cast ever. About a month after the cast went on Janete came and told us that she was watching Isac running across the orphanage when his entire cast fell off. He just pulled the cast back up over his shoulder and kept going. So then we knew the cast wasn’t doing anything and must be coming off all the time. We called Isac into the kitchen and asked him what was going on with the cast. We found that it was not supporting anything and Victor only had to cut off a few hanging threads to get the whole thing off. At first Isac walked around holding his arm in the same position the cast was holding it in. But now he is back to normal and doesn't seem to have any left-over problems from his broken arm/shoulder.

Isaque holding the bizarre, humungous cast that fell off by itself.

Maputo, Nampula, U.S.

Last week Victor and I flew to Maputo for a few days where we were able to visit some of Victor's family, get a visa from the embassy, and celebrate our second wedding anniversary together. After that Victor flew back to Nampula and I flew back to the U.S. Victor is hoping to join me as soon as the boys' dorm in finished!



In celebration of our anniversary, here is a pictures from our wedding two years ago . . .

During one part of the wedding all the kids came up and threw flower petals on us. Some of the kids looked like they were throwing the petals with all their strength and we were glad they were only petals! We had so much fun at our wedding and we are having even more fun being married today!