MozamWeek

What else is new? Ask anyone who has been "left behind" after the Mikael and Jeni leaving the country blitz... it is a mess, we never get it all done, and somehow, people still love us. Of course, they may be glad that we are gone for 3-4 years at a time. That way they don't have to deal with the mess as often. We are going to bed. I weighed the suitcases and they come out to 20kg, 17kg, 17kg, 20kg, and 26kg. Now, if you average that out, you will notice that we have precisely the right allowable weight in our bags. I was impressed with that result since it was the first and only weigh-in. Hopefully they won't make us shift the heavy to the light, but it would not be too hard. We have NOT packed the carry-ons yet. But the "pile" beside them looks reasonable. We are tired... did I say that yet. I have again learned a lot from the leaving experience. Watching the kids deal with it is encouraging. They have actually been great. Today they hung out together and ...

The following slide-show has pictures from the last week. We have been checking off the "to do" list and it is getting shorter every day. That is a positive accomplishment! The kids went swimming with Mikael and Farmor one last time on Tuesday. I stayed home and showed the house to the potential buyers. The house is sold now... we haven't met the new family, but have heard that they are expecting a baby. It is a good place to have kids. Quiet, near the forest, and just enough neighbor kids to keep things interesting. We went ice-skating yesterday! One last time. John go to try out the ice for the first time on skates. Katie and Jake still fit in their skates from last year. It is nice that they opened the rink just in time for us to check it off the list! Mikael's sister is now the inheritor of a pair of ladies' white figure skates... size 38 (Europe). I'm not going to make a place in a box for those! See the snow? Farmor found it behind the rink... dumped ...

David Ker our long-time friend and partner with the Nyungwe Bible translation project in Mozambique has just created this short promotional video to show in churches. I think he did a great job... and just in time for us to use it once or twice here in Sweden before we return to Moz in about 11 days! Have a look and let me know what you think! I will also encourage you to save the link to this blog. I think some of you get my posts by e-mail, but don't log on to see the rest of the stuff I have on here. I love your comments by email, but if you share them on the blog, others will see them as well. Thanks!

How many boxes does it take to hold all of your worldly possessions? I don't know. How many cubic meters of storage space are you willing to pay for for your worldly possessions? None! While packing to move my family halfway down the globe, I have to make a lot of judgment calls. As the time gets closer, I become very aware of size and weight. I see everything as a piece of the 20 kg puzzle that is each suitcase. One bag per person... 20 kg/bag... 8kg carry-on each. That is a total of about 50 lbs each for a 3 year trip. Plenty. Today. Tomorrow it will seem impossible again! Yesterday it was impossible... but today, I think I can do it! Again! And, you can always count on about 23kg when they say 20, right? What have I learned about packing? Do what the Kers do! I always imitate Hilary to the best of my ability. Now, I know that the Kers change their packing style every year, but the last trip they made to Africa they let each person pack his own trunk without breaking any laws.....

Hello there friends all over the world! I was happy to find an old friend this morning... she has a blog that I didn't know about. I've been out of touch for about 10 or 15 years or so. We must be getting old! Anyway, she commented on my last post and I enjoyed a time of browsing her blog and catching up on her life in Benin. Amazingly, much of what she has written about is very familiar to us even though her part of Africa isn't near our part of Africa and we don't have cool round mud houses stuck together in interesting formations. Have a peek and meet Nora. She was a first year student at SIL in north Dakota when I was a third year student... or second? I remember that my computer moose pronounced her name funny... some Mac hack from the good old days... I've found that Facebook and blogging are a fun way to meet old friends and keep in touch with people I care about. Actually, I guess I can only keep in touch with people who care about ME... since they have to...

There is something very exciting about being dependent on God for just about everything. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present. He is the beginning and the end of every life story. Still, we rely on ourselves for most things, don't we? I just talked to Mikael. He was leaving Chimoio later than planned. The new battery that was intalled in Tete on Monday actually bounced out of place on the way down to Chimoio. I told you that the road is bumpy in Mozambique! He just peeked under the hood this morning to make sure things were ok, and noticed the battery leaning against the fan belt! God was in control even in this situation: the battery didn't become disconnected or explode, but it was damaged. Miraculously, the garage in Tete has paid for all the repairs and the replacement battery in Chimoio! They actually stood behind their work and admitted that they failed to secure the battery properly. Now, that is progress in a developing country! So, Mikael is on the road aga...