Christmas Greetings

December 14, 2014

Christian Academy in Mozambique (CAM) is seen by all who come to the front of the school

My plan to add to the blog every month just didn't pan out.  Where does all the time go?  We finally have a break from school and now our schedule is not as busy.  I see that our last entry was in August just when school was starting its new year.

Dr. Tim Roehl and us in front of CAM School

In September we welcomed Tim Roehl and Jose Banales from OMS to offer our team and other groups here training in Transformissional Coaching.  It was offered to our local churches, the seminary students, the CAM teachers as well as our missionary team.  Later in September there was a team from the UK that joined our team for two weeks.  During that time we had a family from Brazil come and do some medical consulting and health training.

Dungeness Community Church ministry Team

October was special for us as we welcomed a team of five from one of supporting churches in Sequim, Washington.  They came will lots of wonderful goodies for our team and the people here and enthusiasm to serve here.  Part of their service here involved leading a spiritual emphasis week with the high school students.  It was so good for the CAM students and they benefited from the counseling they received.  The team also painted the chapel at the seminary and cleaned up and organized the compound storage rooms.  They were able to meet our missionary team and experience some of their ministries as well.  We were so blessed to have them visit.  

Bob and Esther Fetherlin

During this team's visit we were honored to have the new OMS president, Bob Fetherlin and his wife Esther, visit the Mozambique OMS team and see the ministries.  Their visit was just for two days, but it was packed full for them.

Pouring the basketball court

November was full of Larry supervising the building project and regular school activities.  We were able to have a long weekend off to celebrate US Thanksgiving in South Africa for a little break.  The building project is going slower than we would like, but we are seeing progress.  

Pouring the cement with the drama stage in view

Polishing the court

putting the final smoothing on the cement court floor

December has arrived and we are finally experiencing some warm to hot weather.  We have enjoyed the cooler days and nights that have been unusual for this time of the year.  The last two weeks of school were full of tests and exams for the students and everyone was glad to finally reach the final day.  

K-6th grade choir with Susan directing

The Christmas program was on the last day and the students did a beautiful job of the musical Legacy of Love and the other numbers.  

K-2nd graders at the Christmas Program

Susan directing and Larry singing with the high school worship team at the Christmas Program

We are now on a more relaxed schedule.  Larry is still busy getting all the pieces in place for the new building.  Most of the businesses close down during the Christmas and New Years break, but he wants the supplies to be available for the workmen who will work during these weeks.  The building is coming along and we look forward to its completion soon.  

Wishing you a Merry Christmas:  Larry, Susan and Sammy

The house is decorated and most of the Christmas baking has been done.  There are just a few things to finish up.  We have invited all the families on the compound to an evening of Christmas caroling and cookies on the 19th.  We going to have a quiet Christmas at home with no big plans.  

We hope you will have a meaningful Christmas and a blessed new year.

Happenings in August 2014

August 2014

CAM Staff 2014-15

Recently I felt like I was back in India helping my mom bake some family favorites, peanut butter fingers and chocolate chip cookies.  As I was mixing, I was thinking about the wonderful heritage I had growing up in India with different cultures and people.  I am so happy to be in Mozambique, directing a school that has 20 different cultures represented. Living in another country is an adventure every day.

On August 4^th, CAM started its 19^th year of school.  We welcomed a new kindergarten class of six and six others with a few more students interested.  We pray that the students and teachers will grow in the Lord this year and that we will live for Him.

CAM School 2nd graders

Chemistry experiment

3 Directors: Pastor Nelio (Moz), Larry and Pastor Jaco (Brazil)

Pastors conference with CONIM from Brazil held at our Compound at CAM

One of the great things about having this property is the fact that we can use it for retreats and conferences.  In July we had a youth retreat for the youth of our churches and in August we were able to host 50 pastors and church leaders for a conference.  Three pastors from Brazil came to be the speakers for the conference and the Almeida family was the ones in charge of all the details.  Our prayer for the churches and leaders is for spiritual maturity and good leadership abilities for their congregations. There is still so much spiritual darkness in Mozambique and only God’s power can overcome it.

National Church services in Khongolote

the cooks for the conference being given a coppolana (wrap around skirt)

Children attending the National Church service

front of the Living Word Evangelical Church: Khongolote

Pastor Jaco from Brazil preaching at the National Church being interpreted into Shanghan language

Construction on the CAM School auditorium

The auditorium building project is coming along.  We are seeing more work above ground now.  The first few months we didn’t see much because they were working on the foundations.  Now the roof trusses are up and the buildings around the basketball court are in process.  The students are looking forward to having the new building completed.  Larry and I walk through the construction site regularly to vision its capabilities and what blessings it will be to the school, our mission and the community.  We are hoping the structure will be finished enough for our work team that comes in mid October will have lots of opportunity to help paint and even move classes into the new buildings.

Construction worker clinging to one of the first supports for the roofing

Roof structure making good progress

preparing for the second floor above the kitchen for the Library

OMS Mozambique Team August 2014

God bless,

Susan and Larry

April to June update

July 12, 2014

It is already July and we have been so busy with life in Mozambique, we have not kept up with our blog.  Here’s a review of the last few months.

April – The highlight was our team retreat with special guests David and Lori Long from OMS USA headquarters.  We had a wonderful time at a lodge in South Africa with lots of amazing animals running around the property.  David Long was our speaker and encouraged our hearts with a study of Spiritual formation: growth in Christlikeness.

OMS Mozambique Team and guests
Front: Steve, Katuska, Joseph, Samuel, Benjamin Davies, Laura and Paulo Almeida
Back: Aimee Howarth, Majka Kuriakova, Monica Gonzalves, Laura Almeida, David & Lori Long, Lou Sierra
Gary & Diane Gray, Larry & Susan Weil, Fernanda Almeida

The end of April we had the opportunity to attend the ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) Administrators conference in Malta.  We had wonderful speakers and met many other school directors and administrators and brought lots of ideas back with us.  Yes, Malta was beautiful too and we stayed one extra day to sightsee the lovely island.

Valleta, Malta harbor

Early in the construction stage

May – The addition to our house is finished with three months of construction and we move to our new bedroom with attached bathroom.  We now have our laundry room inside the house and there is a pantry for storing extra food.  We are so blessed.

Our new bedroom

CAM 2014 grads: Elizabeth, Amanada, Jin, Caris, Luc and Ashley

Larry & Susan presenting the CAM graduates their diplomas

May 31^st is graduation day for six CAM students.  The ceremony is special with each of the grads taking a part of it.  Tears are shed (by us) as we say goodbye to these wonderful students who have come to mean so much to us.  We pray for God’s leading in their lives in the future.

June 5^th is the last day of school. We have our awards ceremony, hand out yearbooks and serve bbq beef sandwiches to the entire school.  What a day!!!

June 9^th – 27^th is teacher’s training time with Diane Gray.  Susan has time to get her desk organized and meet with parents and recruit new teachers. 

Susan, Golden, Diane Gray, Mary and Eva: Teacher Training time at CAM in June

The CAM school book order arrives with much rejoicing.  Now the work is cut out for us to get them inventoried and distributed to all the classrooms.

Larry traveled June 16th to OMS headquarters in Indiana for mission meetings.  He had a terrible cold with chest and head congestion.  After four different antibiotics he is finally on the mend.  He arrived back in Mozambique on June 29^th.

Obviously the warthogs liked a nice warm fire too!

July 4^th – 10^th Time for a break.  We travel to Swaziland and stay at a game lodge.  It is cold and we are bundled up and glad for the campfire they keep going all the time.  I guess we aren’t the only ones who want to enjoy the fire.  We share it with 6 warthogs.  We were surprised the impala and the nyala didn’t join us as well. 

The last three days are spent in South Africa.  We have our shopping lists to buy things for the start-up of school and we squeezed in dental appointments and a vehicle servicing.  We arrived back home in Mozambique July 10^th with a car load of school supplies and gratefully no hassles at the border.

Construction on the CAM school basketball court and auditorium/specialty classrooms is finally making progress.  It has taken months to get the foundations ready, but we are now seeing good progress with walls started going up July 11th.

The next month will be busy with visitors, teams, construction, repairs, ministry and team Field Council.  Please pray for health, vision and wisdom daily as we serve the Lord in Mozambique.

In Christ,

Larry & Susan