"Boas entradas!" We hope the new year has got off to a good start for you. We have got back into the regular routine of language classes, which continue to go well, and the boys are back at school. There are soon to be changes in the teaching staff at CAM so that Daniel will have a new teacher and Josiah will have different teachers for some of his subjects. Nathanael has several new children in his class and his classroom has been rearranged.

Gregory has had three preaching engagements this month. He has preached twice at the English speaking international church which we attend, and both sermons were excellent. He certainly hasn't lost his flair. Last weekend he preached at a small church where the service is bilingual English and Portuguese. He preached part of his sermon in English and part in Portuguese. His interpreter then put whatever he had said into the other respective language. It was a bit of a strange set up. However the fact that the English translation came out saying roughly what he meant it to say was a pretty good indicator as to the standard of his Portuguese! Praise God for progress.

Much of our time this month has been spent in preparing our papers so that we can apply for our permanent residence, called a DIRE, which stands for 'Document of Identification and Residence for Estrangeiros' (foreigners). This will allow us to live and work here on the same basis as nationals. It is a complicated process and one which you really need someone who has been around for a while to help you get through. We had no such advocate and initially things were looking pretty bleak. However by the grace of God and in answer to the prayers of many people, we obtained assistance and advice from the Irish embassy. The process is now moving forward. The next stage of the application must be made at the Department of Immigration in Tete since that is where we will be working. And it must be Pastor Aivor, the superintendent of the Elim Church in Mozambique who takes the papers there. Unfortunately Tete is three days' drive from here. Also Pastor Aivor lives about 20 miles outside of the city in a village without any means of electronic communication. Last Thursday we sent our papers by DHL to the Bisters, friends in Tete who are missionaries with SIL.  We also contacted Trevor Mackriell, the Elim missionary in Blantyre, in neighbouring Malawi. He agreed to send a messenger to Pastor Aivor instructing him to phone the Bisters and arrange to meet them so that they can go together to the Department of Immigration. We are hoping he will make contact with them this week so that our application can move forward. It will be a great weight off our minds once we have our DIREs. At present we are required to leave and re-enter the country every 3 months. This is not too onerous since we are only just over an hour's drive from the border, but when we don't actually have anything we intend to do there it is a bit irritating! Yesterday (Saturday) we got up at 5am, got to the border at 7:30 and we were through it by 9. We had breakfast in a hotel on the other side, played hide and seek with the boys, got back in the car and were home by 3 in the afternoon. Not an unpleasant day but not too productive either!

Our plans for the year are coming together. We plan to stay here till the end of March. In April we will be in the UK. We will be at the Elim conference at Minehead and then at the special conference for Elim missionaries in Cardiff as well as spending 10 days with my Mum in Wales. We then plan to fly back to Maputo, pack up and drive through Zimbabwe (where the roads are better) to Tete. We hope to spend a few days seeing friends in Zimbabwe. We also need to pick up our dog, who has been cared for by Pastor Munembe for the past year and a half, and arrange for our household goods  to be transported to Tete. They are in storage in the church and pastor's house at Penhalonga. The logistics of doing all that are pretty daunting, but it seems the only practical way to go about it all. We will be arriving in at the coolest time of the year which is a great blessing as Tete is a very hot place.

Once in Tete we will need to set up home and start home schooling the boys. We want to make contact with the Elim churches in the area, and start to assess how best we can serve them. Clearly it will take time to get to know the leaders, the strengths and weaknesses of the churches and the practical needs of the local people. We are likely to come face to face with poverty in a way that we have not encountered previously. We will need wisdom to know how to respond to people's physical needs without detracting from the primary task of strengthening the church. We also want to avoid creating a mentality of dependency on foreign aid.

At the end of rather a heavy newsletter, here is a lighter anecdote. Samuel is a source of constant delight, and is beloved of everyone who knows him, including all the neighbours, and the local shop keepers. He is now talking much more, though not always very clearly. A couple of weeks ago Gregory was trying to encourage him in this so he said, "Samuel say 'How now brown cow'. Samuel looked at him for a second and said, "Mooooo!"

Grace to you

Gregory and Sharon Kane
Elim International Missions

• Pray that Pastor Aivor will make contact successfully with the Bisters
• Please pray that our papers would be processed without unnecessary delay and that Pastor Aivor will find favour in the eyes of the officials
• Praise God for the opportunities Gregory has had to preach. Pray that further opportunities would be given to us, particularly to preach in  Portuguese
• Please do pray for our health. Gregory has been feeling 'off colour' for reasons that we have failed to identify. This interferes with his ability to concentrate on language study
• Praise God that emotionally we have been more positive. We still ask that you pray for grace to cope with the heat and the struggles of daily life
• Continue to pray for progress in our language study. We need to stay focussed on it as our time in Maputo comes to an end
• Pray in particular for Gregory for greater ease in following spoken Portuguese
• Pray for the children to cope well with the changes in school

*Gender Instructions*

A sign in the Bank Lobby reads: "Please note that this Bank is installing new "Drive-through" teller machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles. Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts. After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE procedures have been developed. Please follow the appropriate steps for your gender."

MALE PROCEDURE
1. Drive up to the cash machine.
2. Put down your car window.
3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN number.
4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw.
5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt.
6. Put window up.
7. Drive off.

FEMALE PROCEDURE
1. Drive up to cash machine.
2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine.
3. Set parking brake, put the window down.
4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card.
5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.
6. Attempt to insert card into machine.
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car.
8. Insert card.
9. Re-insert card the right way.
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.
11. Enter PIN number.
12. Enter amount of cash required.
13. Check make-up in rear view mirror.
14. Retrieve cash and receipt.
15. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside.
16. Write deposit amount in check register and place receipt in back of cheque book.
17. Re-check make-up.
18. Drive forward two feet.
19. Reverse back to cash machine.
20. Retrieve card.
21. Re-empty hand bag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided.
22. Smile sweetly  to irate male driver waiting behind you.
23. Restart stalled engine and pull off.
24. Redial person on cell phone.
25. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.
26. Release parking brake.