Elephants, Accidents, and Photo Ops

We wanted to share with you some of our recent events and photos from here in Northern Mozambique over the last couple of months:

Dave had the opportunity to fly in the Niassa Reserve.  One morning before take-off, he actually had to wait for an elephant to get off the runway before he could take off.  While he didn’t have his camera ready for that shot, he did get a good picture of some elephants in the reserve from the air. 

Can you see the elephants in the bottom left-hand corner?

A week later I got to go on a flight with Dave to bring a missionary, Phil, back to the village of Pebane where he is a part of two missionary families that are teaching the Bible chronologically.  The work they are doing is incredible and it was a privilege to fly Phil back in and carry some needed supplies.  When we arrived, we needed to wait for the vehicle to arrive before we could unload the airplane.  While we were waiting, I asked some of the people who had come up to watch the plane land if I could take some pictures.  Once the camera came out, everyone wanted to be in a picture. 

Photo op with kids at Pebane

Dave and Phil unload the plane

We often fly to a titanium mine, flying in both doctors and workers associated with the mine.  One worker received a head injury and needed to go to the hospital.  Seats were removed from the plane and replaced with a stretcher so the man could be flown from the mine to the hospital in Nampula.  To travel by car for hours on the bumpy roads would have been much more difficult for a person with a head injury. 

Unloading the patient to go to the hospital in Nampula

Our old sign at the hangar was in bad repair and still had MAF’s old logo.  When the vision students were here, they removed the old sign (click here to see old sign), sanded it and painted it white.  I then painted the new logo on the sign.  With some repainting, the new sign went up for a fresh look.

Jill painting the new MAF logo

The new sign in place

Towards the beginning of September, I was returning from the orphanage where I teach martial arts to the kids.  Shortly after the turn-off, I drove into a cloud of dust in a construction zone.  As I went through the dust, suddenly out of nowhere was a large bus coming straight at me in my lane.  We struck head-on, and our Land Rover was totaled.    As bad as the accident was, I walked away from the accident with only minor injuries and no one on the bus was injured.  In the next week or so, the case will go to court to determine fault.  We appreciate your prayers:

• That the trial will be corruption free.  That the police will give true information to the judge and that the judge will look at it fairly.
• That I will be able to understand the questions the lawyers and judges ask and will be able to communicate clearly.  That a translator will be allowed if necessary.
• That the bus’s insurance company will pay for our vehicle and that we can find a suitable replacement vehicle.

The Land Rover after the accident

We had the chance to show the JESUS Film, the story of the life of Jesus in the village of Namialo, the hometown of the wife our our guard Armando.  We invited Alberto, our first language tutor to go with us to show the film.  While we have all the equipment, we have not come up with a good frame for the screen yet.  In good African fashion, Alberto and some of the men from the village improvised and quickly built a frame out of bamboo with machetes.  About 100 people showed up to watch the film.

Building the bamboo frame for the screen

Alberto (in Portuguese) and Armando (in Makua) inviting folks to watch the film

Watching the film after sunset

Missing Body Parts

Dave & Jill at Lone Creek Falls, South Africa

1st Corinthians 12 talks about the body of Christ…how each part is necessary for the whole to function properly.  Have you ever had a broken bone or a sprained ankle?  As you hobbled around, you probably found that you couldn’t accomplish as much as when your whole body was in good working order.  

The MAF team in Mozambique is small, just three expat families.  Each person plays an important role and if they are gone, their absence is felt.  We find that we can’t accomplish as much without them.  Dave and I experienced this reality upon returning from our trip from South Africa.  One family took their vacation after our conference (whereas we took ours before) and the other family returned to the U.S. for a month.  

With only one plane and one pilot/mechanic, it was up to Dave to keep the flight schedule going.  Immediately, he was faced with some major maintenance.  A part was ordered and we were praying that it would come in on time and so that Dave would have time to do the repair work before the next scheduled flight.  On top of this, our first day back at the hangar was our scheduler’s last day on the job with MAF.  We were hastily trying to learn his job, find out where all the loose ends were, and train someone new to take his place.  Because it was the end of the month, all of the bookkeeping needed to be wrapped up at the same time as well.  

It was a good experience for us to “man the fort” by ourselves for a bit, but we are glad we don’t have to go it alone all of the time…we were designed to operate as a body!

The first week we were back, Dr. Hanneke along with Jacinto, a Mozambican pastor, decided to show the JESUS film each night of the week in a different village during her week long visit in the Gurue area.  Dave was there the first night to help set up and hundreds of people came to watch the story of the life of Jesus. 

Huge crowd waiting for the JESUS film to start

Below are some photos (mostly animal pics) from our time in South Africa and Lesotho...enjoy!

Inside Sudwala Cave...Sleepy Bat

Who doesn't like baboon pictures?

 

Hiking around Bridal Falls, South Africa

Sleepy Cheetah

Sleeping Hyenas

White-Fronted Bee-Eater

Crested Eagle

Mac Mac Falls, South Africa

A view of the Indian Ocean from Durban, South Africa

Common Myna

Here kitty, kitty, kitty

Yum!

Play time!

Meerkat Alert

Cape Batis

Zip lining near Hazyview

The Vision Dudes

For the last two weeks we have been hosting three mission aviation university students on a “vision trip” where they have the chance to experience what life is like as a pilot/mechanic for a mission organization in a foreign country.  This was MAF-Mozambique’s first time to host such students and our team really wanted to share the enthusiasm we have for living and serving here Mozambique.  We wanted to help them see that while life here isn’t always easy, with the right attitude, it is a true blessing to do the work we do.  

Two students, Tommy and Jacob were from Letourneau University in Longview, Texas.  The third, Josh Q., was from San Diego Christian College in California.  Coined by Dave LePoidevin, they affectionately became known as the “Vision Dudes”. 

Tommy, Jacob, and Josh with kids in our neighborhood

The first day they showed up, despite the long airline flights and jet lag, they were still up for getting on a plane again, this time as a copilot of a Cessna 206.  Over the two week period, each guy was worked on to any flight we could find room for them on.  They made trips to Tupuito, the location of a titanium mine, Gurué to drop off/pick up Dr. Hanneke, and to Chupaputa for a commercial client.  On one flight they even experienced encountering a water buck in the middle of the airstrip, making a low pass to chase it off the strip. 

Jacob getting ready for a flight

When there were no flights going on, there were plenty of maintenance tasks to assist with in the hangar.  They helped fix a fuel leak, replace break lines, and install a secondary seat stop system on the Cessna 210, and helped repaint the landing gear on the 206.  They even helped us with the ever present car maintenance that comes from the beatings our cars take on the rough roads here!  Their presence here seemed to motivate us to begin work on some long overdue projects, like updating our hangar sign.

Tommy, Josh, and Dave working on the 210 seat

Tommy getting the landing gear ready for paint

Casimiro holding the ladder for Tommy while he took down the sign

But it wasn’t all work and no play.  Dave and I drove them to the coast for a little beach time.  We started by driving across the one lane bridge to the Ilha de Mozambique (Mozambique Island) to see the Fort São Sebastião (the oldest complete fort in sub-Saharan Africa with a chapel that is the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere) and eat some delicious seafood.  Then we drove to Chocas Mar for a chance to play in the waves and explore some tidal pools. 

The bridge to Ilha de Mocambique

Fort Sao Sebastiao

At the fort with the chapel in the background

Checking out the tidal pools at Chocas

  We wanted to make sure they experienced a little of the culture here in Nampula, so on Saturday I took them to the orphanage with me.  After a little Taekwondo, they were able to play with the kids some and even practice a little Portuguese/English with them.  On Sunday morning, they made a trip with us to our church just down the street from our house.  On Sunday night at our English speaking fellowship, they each gave a brief testimony.  

Jacob, Jill, and Josh holding pads for the kids to kick

Singing at church

 Hopefully in the end, it was good experience for them and maybe we will even see them again as MAF pilot/mechanics in the future!

Dave H., Jacob, Josh, Dave L. and Tommy