Back in the USA

Well it only took 34 hours but we are finally back in Atlanta. Then we were stuck in traffic on I-85 and 400. Maybe we will get home sometime tonight.

Sent from Mike Vanderhoff's IPhone 770-888-9269

Sunday October 30th update from Mozambiçue

Sunday October 28th

We were awakened by Zef at 5am with his bags in his hands saying lets go. I told him a little warning on what time he wanted to leave would have been helpful. He gave us a little time to get ready…then we headed out, only to have the same tire go flat again  We put the spare on and limped to the next small village where we were able to buy a used tire of the correct size allowing us to continue our trip. We drove non stop to Vilanculos arriving about 1 in the afternoon. Considering we didn't have breakfast we were a bit hungry. We stopped at a beautiful cafe/Resort on the beach in Vilanculos (did I mention that this is one of the premier beach resort areas in all of South Africa). The Indian ocean is Turquoise blue against brilliant white sands. 

After a nice meal and the purchase of some freshly caught fish, we headed for the well site. It is located on a nice parcel of land in a poor community that we plan on building a church in the very near future. The well was up and running and the well drillers had temporarily hooked up an electric pump to show us that they had found good clean water. We left them with the manual pump that we had brought with us for installation. They would not accept payment for the well until they had installed the pump and sent us photographic evidence that the well was operational. Now that is the kind of people we like to do business with. 

Although the beach at Vilanculos is a very expensive resort, the area around it is a very very poor part of the country. The people struggle every day just for a small amount of food and water and the clothing on the children is little more than rags. Our hope is to expand the ministry in this area with water and the gospel. The need for the word and the hope of Jesus are in great need here.

We left Vilanculos about 3:30 in the afternoon and began our 400 mile plus drive home. We finally arrived in Maputo around 1am Monday morning.

Mike & Melody

Mike & Melody Vanderhoff
Founders, New Hope In Africa, Inc.
P.O. Box 3092 
Cumming, GA 30028

770-888-9269
mike@newhopeinafrica.org
http://www.NewHopeInAfrica.org
 
Just $7,500 builds a new well and saves countless lives. Be part of the solution.
 
Support our mission to build wells and deliver life-saving water:
 Click here to donate to New Hope In Africa 

Update from Mozambiçue Saturday October 27th

Saturday October 27th

We headed out of Maputo early Saturday morning pulling a trailer with pumps and other necessary equipment for the wells we were drilling in Malonguelo and Vilanculos. We had purchased a new electric pump for the Malonguelo and a manual pump for the well in Vilanculos. 

Fwd: October 25th update from Mozambique

October 25, 2012

Thursday and we are still in Maputo. But the good news is that the wells in Malonguelo and Vilanculo have been drilled and are just waiting for the pumps that we will deliver Saturday. We took the manual pump off our well in Tchumene (our headquarters/guest house) and will take that to Vilanculo with us to install there. We have purchased two electric pumps, one for Tchumene and the other for Malonguelo. We have also purchased the holding tank necessary for Tchumene. We will have a tower erected to place the holding tank. We anticipate this will be done by the end of next week. In the interim the people of Tchumene have lost their supply of water from us and are having to walk quite a distance to get water…but it is only temporary. The gentleman that owns the property where the well in Malongelo was drilled is purchasing the holding tanks and having the tower erected there to accommodate the electric pump. The advantage of the electric pump system is that it allows you to pipe water into your building as well as continue to have a faucet outside that the people can still use to draw water from for free. The well in Malonguelo will serve over 900 people and will be piped directly into the church as well as the parsonage. The well in Vilanculo should serve about 700 people and will be the location of our next church plant. 

We went to a Bible study Wednesday evening at Esperança Community Church or as I find it translated in Portuguese "Igreja da Comunidade da Esperança" 

We had an excellent turn out and we were able to distribute the Bibles and Hymnals to a large portion of the church members. We had bibles in three languages. Portuguese for the younger members, Ronga and Changana for the older members pending on which language they spoke. The hymnals are actually in several different languages making them very helpful. 

Each person got up at the end of the study and told us how grateful they were for the bibles and that now they would be able to better study and understand the Word of God. This was expressed by the young as well as the old. It was really a Blessing to be able to observe this moment in time and all this was only made possible by your support. We appreciate your continued support of our mission here in Mozambique and hope that one day you might be able to accompany us on a mission trip here.

May God Continue to Bless you and your family.

Mike & Melody

Mike & Melody Vanderhoff
Founders, New Hope In Africa, Inc.
P.O. Box 3092 
Cumming, GA 30028

770-888-9269
mike@newhopeinafrica.org
http://www.NewHopeInAfrica.org
 
Just $7,500 builds a new well and saves countless lives. Be part of the solution.
 
Support our mission to build wells and deliver life-saving water:
 Click here to donate to New Hope In Africa 

Live from Mozambique October 20th and 21st

Monday, October 22, 2012

Live update from Mozambique. 

This weekend we traveled about 30 miles north of Maputo where we crossed a river on a ferry to get to a beach area where there are a few beach resorts and many private homes. Once you cross over the river there are no longer paved roads and what is their consist of thick mud due to recent rains and once past that stretch nothing but paths made of soft beach sand. You absolutely could not get to this area without a four wheel drive vehicle.

We were fortunate enough that a friend of Zef's who owns some properties in this beach area let us have access to a duplex about a  quarter of a mile off the beach. It was a nice newly constructed home with a large front porch where we spent most of our time when not at the beach. The only facilities to cook on was a charcoal grill. So we had grilled chicken and baked potatoes and a nice salad for dinner on Saturday night, Cooked scrambled eggs over the charcoal grill with bread and jam and juice. 

The beach was beautiful. A steep sandy beach with small boats scattered here and there on the sand dunes. We were not to sure how they were used until Sunday when we saw them in action. They had very large nets with buoys attached every so often. The net was about six feet in height and about 300 feet long. The net was deployed by boat off the shore. Once deployed, it was pulled back in onto the shore by about 20 men. It was quite a lengthy process to watch. Once the net was completely in, the catch was quickly sorted by what appeared to me by type of fish. In the catch we observed they were all very small fish about 3 to 4 inches long. There appeared to be about 3 different kind. The majority looked like large sardines. They string these small fish thru their mouth and gill and wrap them in a circular fashion to carry, then string them on long lines between trees to dry. These small dried fish are their diet do to the remoteness and difficulties of travel, there is no way to take them to a market and very rarely is someone out there that buy these small fish. There were also several large jelly fish caught in the net, they were just thrown on the sand. It was apparent that on occasion a large fish or two are caught along with the small ones. We saw some fellows walking along the beach holding a couple of just caught large fish, about 24 to 36 inches long. I have no idea what kind of fish they were, but people will buy them to take home and cook. Judith bought about ten pounds of the small fish for five dollars (a lot of money for those fishermen) to take home and she said to use on their salads. That will be interesting to see.

October 18th update from Mozambique

October 18, 2012

It has been 10 days since our last update. We have been busy finding different well drilling vendors in the two different areas where we are going to drill wells. The locations are far apart and different vendors supply each area. This has been a lengthy and tedious task. Business is just not done here in Mozambique like it is done at home. Everything takes a lot more time to complete. But in the end things do get done.  

Just a small example of where our time has gone. One day just to track down the man to exchange a manual pump on our Headquarters / Guesthouse well for an electric pump. Another day to purchase the electric pump and the parts that go with it to install in the Guesthouse. Another day to procure the bibles and study materials for Experança Community Church and another looking for a sign company to make a professional sign to put on the road in front of Esperança Community Church.  

Most importantly is relationship building with the new church and encouraging the people who are building and supporting the new church plant. The members have a hunger to hear the Good News of Jesus and their enthusiasm is contagious. Most exciting is how the children and youth listen intently to every word, they are our focus and hope for the future of the church and world. 

Communion Sunday At Esperança (Hope) Community Church

Communion Sunday At Esperança (Hope) Community Church

Temperatures reached near the 100 degree mark as we worshiped Sunday Morning. 

Esperanza Community Church

Communion Sunday

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This is a test posting

Mike & Melody

Mike & Melody Vanderhoff
Founders, New Hope In Africa, Inc.
P.O. Box 3092 
Cumming, GA 30028

770-888-9269
mike@newhopeinafrica.org
http://www.NewHopeInAfrica.org
 
Just $7,500 builds a new well and saves countless lives. Be part of the solution.
 
Support our mission to build wells and deliver life-saving water:
 Click here to donate to New Hope In Africa 

New Hope Association Board of Directors Meeting

Next Board of Directors Meeting at Chlumene (not 100% sure of the spelling)

We are scheduled to hold a Board of Directors meeting Saturday for New Hope Association. The meeting will be held at the (almost completed) headquarter building/guest house. We will determine the exact location for the two newest wells we are going to drill and where our next church plant will be located. It should be a great meeting and it will be the first time I have met some of the Directors.

 

Mike & Melody

Mike & Melody Vanderhoff
Founders, New Hope In Africa, Inc.
P.O. Box 3092 
Cumming, GA 30028

770-888-9269
mike@newhopeinafrica.org
http://www.NewHopeInAfrica.org
 
Just $7,500 builds a new well and saves countless lives. Be part of the solution.
 
Support our mission to build wells and deliver life-saving water:
 Click here to donate to New Hope In Africa 

update

This is a continuation of the previous blog. Sorry for some reason it cut this last part of our message off.

Once we went inside we realized that they started without us. They just could not wait to start worshiping their Lord. New Christians are like that…overflowing with enthusiasm. I just wish we could figure out a way to keep that level of enthusiasm going all the time.

Church Service continued for about two hours, rather short by African standards. We think they did that for our benefit. When services were over we all gathered out side the building and visited with each other. We had brought a couple of soccer balls for the children and several Beanie Babies for the younger kids.

It was a great day. 95% of these people had never set foot in a church before we opened New Hope Community Church. It continues to grow and attract new unchurched people weekly. We have decided that one of the wells we are going to drill this trip will be at this location in order to attract more people, grow the church and serve this community.

Mike & Melody

Mike & Melody Vanderhoff
Founders, New Hope In Africa, Inc.
P.O. Box 3092 
Cumming, GA 30028

770-888-9269
mike@newhopeinafrica.org
http://www.NewHopeInAfrica.org
 
Just $7,500 builds a new well and saves countless lives. Be part of the solution.
 
Support our mission to build wells and deliver life-saving water:
 Click here to donate to New Hope In Africa