This week we read reports on the BBC website of hundreds of people marooned in the West country of England because of blizzards. Here we are approaching summer and already we consider it cool if the temperature 'only' reaches 30°C! In this environment it takes quite some effort to imagine a blizzard.

This month has held its share of pain and excitement for us. The worst experience was two weeks ago when Samuel went down with a chest infection. He scared us witless when he woke at 3 a.m. with a fever, cough and difficulty breathing. He seemed to settle and we thought it was something mild and treated him with some antibiotic syrup (available over the counter).  But 48 hours later he was deteriorating and at midnight on Saturday, after getting the advice of a British paediatrician working nearby, I was back at the pharmacy for a different selection of medicines. If these, plus earnest prayer, did not work there would have been nothing left but to have him admitted in the hospital. Thankfully he began to improve and by Wednesday was back to his normal cheeky self. A sick child is always worrying, doubly so in a far off country with a medical service of dubious reputation, and a language you struggle to understand. We are so grateful to God for bringing Samuel through this illness.

As a family we enjoyed a long weekend in Nelspruit, South Africa. Until we get our permanent residence permit, we are required to cross the border every 3 months, and the deadline for this was 16 November. So we arranged to stay at a place that is a support base for missionaries in Mozambique. We braved the cold water of the swimming pool, did some shopping and took the boys to some limestone caves and a park with dinosaur statues. Once they had convinced themselves none of the great lizards were alive the boys had a great time, and we photographed them in some interesting poses. We had been told us that each person is allowed to bring back $US 50 worth of goods into Mozambique duty free, and Gregory decided to take advantage of this allowance to buy a computer monitor, which was well within the limit for a family of six. We couldn't understand therefore why we had to fight our corner with different sets of customs officials at the border. We stated our case quite clearly in Portuguese and showed the receipt, but they were still argumentative. The third time we were stopped one of the officials told us the allowance is only for food and clothes not for electrical goods, but after further debate he waived the rule and allowed us through. Once again we got that all too familiar feeling that the advice we had received had not told the whole story!

The daily routine continues. In addition to our regular language tuition we have started meeting twice a week with Ricardo. He is a Christian school teacher and was introduced to us by Anabela, our language tutor. He is teaching us to 'do church stuff' in Portuguese: preach, pray, give a testimony, lead a Bible study etc. He is a lovely man, and very sincere in wanting to help us improve. Last Sunday there was an extended time for testimonies during the Portuguese service which we attend, and I had a 'now or never' feeling and spoke in Portuguese about how the Lord opened the door to bring us here and has provided for our needs since we arrived. I was encouraged that people understood what I was saying and hope that the next time won't be so unnerving. It is one thing to give a testimony to a language teacher, but quite another to get up and talk in public!

For our own spiritual nourishment we continue to attend the English language international church where the boys can benefit from the Sunday school. I have joined the worship team and sing most weeks, and we have joined a midweek Bible study. Our biggest frustration with our nomadic lifestyle is the difficulty we have in making meaningful friendships, and sometimes we feel very lonely. Having such opportunities for fellowship helps ease this problem.

Totally outside of the normal routine was the incident of the exploding tin can. We had invited an American couple to lunch on Sunday and decided to cook lasagne. We bought a tin of tomato puree to add to the sauce but as soon as the tin opener broke through the lid there was a loud pop and the kitchen walls and ceiling were covered in tomato puree. The mess would have qualified quite nicely for a Hollywood murder scene! We reckoned the tin was contaminated with botulinum, and needless to say we didn't use the tomato puree!

We didn't take a photograph of the 'murder scene' but you can view a number of new photos elsewhere on this web site

Please Pray

Praise God that our freight was finally cleared and we received it intact Praise God for Samuel's recovery from his chest infection Continue to pray for our health and for the Lord's protection against all kinds of unexpected dangers Emotionally we have been very up and down. Pray for grace to cope with the heat and the struggles of daily life Continue to pray for progress in our language study We plan to stay in Maputo for Christmas but many expatriate families will be away. Pray we don't feel too lonely or homesick

Grace to you

Sharon and Gregory Kane

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Sharon's 'Joke of the Month'

* Unexpected Visitors *

Nights in England are coal black and making parachute jumps can every difficult. We attach small lights called chemlites to make our jumpsuits visible to the rest of the team.

Late one night, lost after a practice jump, we knocked at the door of a small cottage. When a woman answered, she was greeted by the sight of five men festooned in glowing chemlites.

"Excuse me," I said, "Can you tell us where we are?"

The woman paused before answering and then replied, "Earth."