It always seems we are running at a mind boggling pace here on the base!  (Sounds like a poem!?  Nevertheless the last few weeks we ran the quarter mile in an Olympic best – thanks to all our visitors and helping teams from all over the world.  We ran together with purpose though and a lot has been done in the process.

A huge emphasis was placed on women and children as they usually are the most vulnerable in rural Mozambique and all over Africa for that matter.  Our second nursing team from Canada (Prairie Bible College, Three Hills) played a significant part in helping our efforts here in the bush.  The Women’s Ministry has exploded with more than 1 300 ladies joining the group.

Photo:  A local lady making dolls as part of her training in arts and crafts.  Good produced by the ladies are being sold and the income are given back to the ladies to help them to sustain their households.

Photo:  A lady teacher and monitor getting ready to teach her lady’s class.  The main purpose for the Women’s Ministry is to help ladies through a literacy program that uses the Bible as main tool.  Health and other pressing issues are also dealt with through the literacy training program.  Five manuals was written over a period and are being used in the program with great success – also due to the fact that there are NO books or literature available in rural areas.

Photo:  A typical scene in the classrooms.  Ladies do have a deep desire to be educated, to read and to write which has been a basic right all along but has been withheld from African women due to cultural restrictions.  The Women’s Ministry on the base provides the opportunity for women to make their life long dream a reality.

BABY HEALTH

PHOTO:  Weighing one of the many babies to determine if they suffer from  malnutrition.

PHOTO:  And there you have it …… only a nurse can smile like that ……. a smile of hope!

PHOTO:  The leading nurse of the group sitting next to Simon our First Aid Officer, Suzanna Tipton (we call her Mother Superior) explaining through the interpreter to parents what the health status is on their babies.

I have seen great love given the last few weeks …… by groups without expecting anything in return.  I personally have been deeply moved in ways that I simply cannot explain in words.  You want to cry because you know how fortunate you yourself are ……….. I want to cry because I am glad ….. I want to cry because I have seen God’s hand move through the lives of all the wonderful people visiting us!  And then …. I am limited by my vocabulary ………. and all I can say is …….. there is hope, there is victory ………. thank you!