Time Out!

Mushroom on a stick....another strange mushroom that the rainy season brings!

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."   John 4:10

In the Bible studies this week, I really saw a spiritual breakthrough. People with AIDS suffer a lot and have very little.  So 100% of the time their prayer requests are asking God to get well from serious health problems, a need for a house because their mud house has collapsed, a husband to care for them because they have no means of support, and the most vital...a way to find food. But as serious as these requests are...they still are just temporary needs. After this week's lesson, I started hearing different requests. One person was asking prayer to have a heart to forgive those that had deeply hurt her.  One admitted he needed prayer for getting angry too quickly.  Another person asked for prayer because she needed help with her compulsion of eating flour when stressed, and another for procrastinating and not attending church faithfully.  These matters of the heart shed a new transparency. The water they were wanting to drink from this week wasn't from an ordinary Mozambican well. It was the true, living water and it will satisfy their thirst. 

Sweet little Em....snuggling with her auntie.

Another cute little boy in PL.  May he come to know Jesus as his Savior!

If this picture looks like the ocean...it is!  We have been here one month and we committed to get away once a month for a break.  So we headed to the beach.

But not an ordinary beach.  The Chinese spent 150 million dollars on a resort in Beira called the Golden Peacock.  So we grabbed Alan and Kathy (friends who are missionaries here in Dondo but spent many years in Portugal before coming here) and Jimmy (an American working with another organization and has been here for two months...he is struggling with his visa so you might pray for him!) and decided to explore this new resort. It has 14 buildings with two restaurants, a casino, gym, spa, Olympic size swimming pool, many guest rooms.  We didn't know what to expect because it has been open for only two months. I couldn't imagine something this extravagant next to such extreme poverty.  Would it surprise you to tell you that we five were the only guests that day?

Well....we weren't the only ones exploring this new resort.  Mr. Chameleon was exploring it right along with us.

These fishermen were on the beach...doing what many Mozambicans do to survive...fish.

This is a typical boat that the fishermen use.

You can see the resort is quite amazing. But very empty of guests right now.

Mozambique has a long beach front on the east side of their country.  It has some of the best snorkeling and scuba diving in the world. Some resorts along the Moz beaches are there just for this purpose.

It was fun trying to catch the birds and waves in action.

Can you see the other guest?  There were lots of dragonflies and Tsetse flies at the beach with us.

You don't expect to see pine cones in tropical locations.  But these trees are very beautiful and many of them grow here. Mozambique really would be a beautiful place if it were to be developed so other countries have come here trying to develop some businesses and attractions for tourists.

The Chinese have some interesting architecture. They built a huge rock formation with bathrooms and changing rooms hidden in it.

They built two man-made lakes here and have a huge swimming pool.  They also have many little bridges over some of their water ways.

Part of the rock formation.

Of course you have to have water lilies in the water.

Another guest.  Actually, these crow-like birds are probably the most plentiful birds around and they had come to the resort in the hundreds.  They love to sit on the buildings.

Another dragonfly.

This is the Indian Ocean. It has received some attention these last two weeks because of the Malaysian airline that disappeared. It really is a vast ocean. I can't even imagine looking for a plane in it.

Who is to say what will become of this resort - if it will be successful or not.  We spent a few hours there enjoying it and pretending it was just built for us.  After all, it kind of felt like it considering no one else was there!

We Americans enjoyed the Chinese resort in Mozambique, Africa. However, we ate at their restaurants, enjoyed the beach and sat in their air-conditioned reception area. I don't think they were running to the bank after we left. :-)  We were thankful to enjoy a day's reprieve and rest.