Almost thirty years ago

Almost thirty years ago, we lived in the Philippines with no internet or cell phone.  Mail took twenty days - ten to America and ten more days for a response.  If we wanted to make a phone call, we had to take a two-hour bus ride to the city, wait 30 minutes, pay several dollars, and go into a booth.  So, talking to two of our pastors in Mozambique this morning, using an app, and paying nothing, still amazes us.

After spending nine years in Africa, we are getting settled in the States.  We now live in Redding, California.  If any of you are in the area, please come for a visit!  Grandma has moved in with us now.  As many of you know, Lorena’s mom needed more attention than she was receiving at her independent living center.  She is almost 95 and we felt it was important for us to temporarily leave the mission field to help her for a couple of years.  We are also helping our teenage boys, Caleb and Nate, transition into American life before heading back to the mission field.

Weekly leadership training seminars continue in Central Mozambique as we continue to organize and monitor them from here via regular internet phone calls and fellow team members… We are excited to report the printing of 2,000 more discipleship books just this week.  This time they were made in Blantyre, Malawi, where the quality is better and at a lower price.  Please pray that the documents we have will be sufficient to get the books across the border!  (Often this is where corruption takes place, making up “fees” with no receipts.)  Most mornings we spend speaking to our Mozambican leaders.  We are so thankful for smartphones!  For a few cents, Mozambicans can go online for one hour and communicate with us via WhatsApp, Messenger, and email.  After each seminar they send us videos, photos, and written reports, so we are always in touch and able to move forward! 

Lorena and I are both writing.  I hope to finish another discipleship book by the end of November.  Lorena is writing a unique curriculum for teaching and training the illiterate, using her experience in Africa and India.  We are also writing a joint book on missions. 

The family is doing well. Caleb and Nate are finishing high school at home and taking some classes at Shasta Community College. Nate has also enrolled in the Welding Certificate program at the Community College.  This will our first Christmas in America in ten years!  It’s wonderful to be in the same town as our daughter, Marissa, and her family and Matthew along with his wife Danica. Leaving family and friends behind is one of the greatest sacrifices missionaries make.  We’re blessed to be reunited with our family for this season and hope to see many more of you during this time as well. 

We so appreciate all your support and prayers over the years.  

Love,

Brian and Lorena