Wow! We can not believe that we have been in Pemba for 1 month already!
This month has met us with many challenges! The first one being that we were named hospitality directors! You must understand that when we decided to come to Pemba we knew that we were going to be in hospitality but we thought that we were going to be working under someone not the leaders. So now we are in charge of a group of locals and a missionary couple. Ok we know that God knows what He is doing and we do want Him to use us as needed but this was a bit of a shock.
The next challenge is learning how to communicate with the team. We are learning very fast that they way we communicate in the states does not work here. We may say something and mean nothing by it but the locals get upset with us and then they may something to us and we get upset with them. So a new form of communication is definitely the key. Communication is also very difficult because we do not speak the language and even though the locals that we work with do speak English there are things that they just don't understand.
Another challenge is shopping here. It takes so long to shop for even just a few things. There is no Target or WalMart here so you have to go to many places to get a few items. Not only that but we had to go 6 hours away to Nampula to buy stuff for hospitality. You may ask why so far and the answer is because things are a lot cheaper there and because we needed so much stuff Heidi wanted us to go there and buy it.
This shopping trip was a big challenge! We got stopped a few times by the police and one stop took us over 3 hours. We found out that we had the wrong documents so we had to wait for someone to bring us the right documents. Getting there was an adventure but shopping was even a bigger adventure. We managed to get somethings before the stores closed and then we had to find a place to sleep for the night. One of the guys that was with us knew of a Brazilian family and we went and stayed with them. It was a great blessing and we even got to sleep in a room that had A/C. The next morning we were off to do a lot more shopping before the stores closed. The stores close from 12-2 daily for lunch and we really needed to be on the road after lunch anyway so we would not arrive back in Pemba too late.
Of course the biggest challenge for us is not speaking the language. We are trying hard to learn Portuguese but it is very hard when we work in a department that has to speak a lot of English. Both John and I are determined to learn the language so we will but we really need your prayers on this one. The other day John went to the kitchen, Cozina, to get our bread for breakfast and he decided that he would practice his Portuguese. He told the guy that he would like dues Paos, two bread, and the guy went to the back to get his bread. Now the food is already at the front so John is wondering why the guy went to the back. Well today our bread was supposed to have egg ,ovo, with it but since John only asked for bread the guy went to the back to get him what he wanted. Normally our bread in the morning is just that but on Fridays it has egg on it. John has now learned this the hard way. I must admit that I was so proud of him for trying to speak Portuguese but yet a little upset that I didn't get my egg. However, John being the sweet guy that he is he made me one himself that morning.
On the positive side of things we have started to have some breakthrough with our team. John and I are learning to listen to God first and then say what He says. He is giving us keys that are helping us in the communication area we just have to remember to listen.
February ended up with a YWAM team blessing us with a bunch of chocolate and some coffee from Hawaii. Another visitor took us to dinner and we were blessed with bicycles. We then gave the bicycles to two of the local youth that work with us. They live pretty far away and this will allow them to get to work and school easier.
We are so thankful for all of your love, prayers and financial support. Please remember that everything we do you also do. We love all of you very much! Please continue to pray for us and for the prayer needs that we have listed at the bottom of this post. We also want to hear from you so please email us with comments, questions and/or prayer needs.
I hope to post pictures of our team in the next fews day so look for them.
Much Blessings and love,
John and Cindy
cindy@pishonriver.com
john@pishonriver.com
You can also send us a card, letter of encouragement etc to the address below and they will include them with the next box that they send us. Financial support can also be sent to this address:
Wellspring Fellowship
PO Box 71733
Albany GA 31708
Prayer Needs:
Financial Support: We are still in need of people to support us on a monthly basis. We only have about 1/2 of the $2500 that we need per month. Please pray about supporting us on a monthly basis!
Communication- for us to learn Portuguese and for better communication and unity in our team
Allan Boyett: for healing of seizures and confusion from the meds that they have him on.
For all of our family back home as they get used to us being so far away
John has an infected sweat gland in his arm pit so healing for him
