Greetings from Pemba!!!

Greetings to all of our family and friends!

 We would first like to say a great big thank you for the people that have sent or are sending care packages from home. These care packages really make our day and they always seem to arrive at the time when we need them the most. Every time we receive a package we feel like we are getting a little piece of home and we can feel the love from these packages. We are so grateful for each and every package that is shipped. We know that it is not cheap to send something here so we do appreciate the sacrifice that you make when sending a package our way. We are including a list of items at the bottom of this letter for anyone that would like to send us items.

IRIS FARM

This month John and I were able to take a day and visit the Iris Farm. The farm is a new adventure that was started in December 2011 by the Reed Family. Jeff & Heidi and their 2 amazing children, Justice & Eva, are the brains and muscles behind this farm. They have long term goals for the farm to make enough food to feed our Iris base here in Pemba, about 1000 people a day, and also to help feed the people in the villages. The Reeds are facing many challenges with this new adventure and could use your prayers. One thing that they desperately need is a well that will be able to be used for drinking and cooking purposes. The well that they currently have is so salty that the locals will not even drink from it. God did show Jeff  where  the  next  well should be dug, so please be in agreement that the water will be sweet water.

  This month has also continued to meet us with new challenges. We constantly have to learn how to lead in a different culture. The ways here are so different then we are used to. For example we had something that we needed to deal with but were not sure how the best way was to handle the situation, so we talked to our base directors about the situation and they told us what we needed to do. However because the base directors were involved our local workers did not like it. We cannot seem to get them to understand that our base directors are our bosses and if we have questions or concerns we must take them to them. However, our local workers feel like we are betraying them and they have gotten  very upset with us. We can really use some prayer in this area.

SEA AT PEMBA

One thing that God has continually spoken to us during this time is that we must keep our focus on Him. The enemy is out to distract all of us from what God has called us to do and we must keep our focus on Him. Remember after Jesus had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights the first thing that the enemy wanted to tempt Him with was food. The enemy knew that Jesus was hungry and he felt like if he could get Jesus distracted with His hunger then He could get Him away from God. But what did Jesus do? He kept His focus on God and so Satan ended up fleeing in the end. (Matthew 4) This is what God wants all of us to do. To remember who we are in Him and that no matter what Satan may throw in our path if we keep our focus on Him we will win the battle. We are praying for each and every one of you to keep your focus on God!

We would also like to thank all of you for your continue love, prayers and financial support. We are so honored that you have chosen to partner with us. As far as financial support goes we are getting closer to our goal but we are still shy by about $900. God is providing for us in some incredible ways. A visitor that was here just a few months ago just recently got in touch with John and said that he would like to support us on a monthly basis. How cool is that! We know that God is our provider and this just shows us one of the many ways that He will continue to provide support for us.

 If we can pray for you in any way please email us at john@pishonriver.com we would love and be honored to pray for your needs.

 With much love,
John and Cindy

 Prayer Requests: Tara Okon, close friend of ours who has ovarian cancer
Unity in our team

THIS IS ONE OF OUR
MANY HOUSE GUESTS

Creative ways to lead
Mary Jo Harrington, John’s mom, recovering from shoulder surgery
Divine health and protection for our families
Joe Courson-healing

 Things to send: Coloring books Crayons/markers Crafts for young children Flavored tea bags Coffee Beef jerky Cans of chicken, beef Velvetta cheese Spices Muffin/ pancake mixes (just add water) Peanut m&ms Another that God lays on your heart! If He is showing it to you than we can use it!

Address Correction

Our address that we posted previously should have look like this:

Ministerio Arco Iris

In care of

John & Cindy Thalheimer

CP #275
Praia de Wimbi
Pemba, Cabo Delgado
Mozambique, Africa
Sorry for the mix up

Our first month in Pemba

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