Monitors Press On!

Kevin has been busily supervising the new TEE monitors (the six men chosen to teach classes in Theological Education by Extension) as well as teaching two of his own classes. Mostly, it has been good and Kevin is impressed by the level of commitment from most of the monitors. He has been attending almost all of their classes and helping them to improve and condense what they know into a great environment for discussions. More on that in our upcoming newsletter! -C

Ben turns 4!

It was sad to me that I wasn’t with Ben on his 4th birthday, since I was in South Africa, but being Ben, he wasn’t sad. He is a happy little guy and despite his many moments of stubborn determination to do exactly what he is not supposed to, we enjoy him a great deal. He is destined to do great things, with all that willpower. Here is a photo of him with his Spiderman cake, which mommy made after she got back. We enjoyed his party with dear friends, and he also had a party at school with his little playmates. Ben’s accomplishments this year include learning to use a computer (seemingly effortlessly), beginning to speak Portuguese, pouring drinks without spilling (mostly) and inventing all kinds of new ways to try to get what he wants. We are on to him, though. What a joy he is to all of us, and his funny remarks frequently leave us laughing. - C

From this to the Superhighway

We have purchased our tickets back to the USA! I was tempted to write “home” but Mozambique is our home now and we try to make that a point with the kids. They are living here at home, not away from their home.

Here is a photo of us walking home from church. We have to ford a small stream.

We will land in New York on July 19th, after 21 hours total flying time and one overnight stay in Tanzania. We have been looking at schedules and plan to be in Ohio in August for two weeks, then settle in Casa Zwart (Kevin’s parents) from September to December, then in Fairfield Country, CT (near our main supporting church) from February to May. During those months, we’ll be doing a lot of side trips to various places including Oklahoma, Colorado, Hawaii, Ohio and two locations in New York State. We should have our schedule published in the next couple of months. Meanwhile, we’ll be moving out of our house here in early June, and staying at the SIL missions compound in town until our departure date. So, May will be “pack up everything we own” month, which we aren’t especially looking forward to. It will be sad to leave our house here, which has been a huge blessing to us, but we are excited about what is ahead. Top of the list: seeing loved ones. It is hard to believe it will be 3 ½ years since most of our family has seen us and the kids, and it will be a happy reunion. - C

Going to South Africa

Many of you know that I have been having back problems for a long time now – over two years. The severity of back pain has ranged from bad to none, though since August of last year it has been constant. After seeing a German physiotherapist (translation: someone who is actually qualified as opposed to the treatment you’d get in the physio department of the local hospital here) for some months and seeing little improvement, God made a way for me to leave my family for 10 days and fly south. This would be 2 ½ day trip by car (over some bumpy roads) but I was able to fly only two hours to the capital city of Maputo, then take the bus 3 hours west, crossing the border into South Africa.

Long story short, x-rays revealed that I have mild scoliosis (which we knew) and a tilted pelvis. Because my “core” muscles that support the back are very weak (after 3 c-sections) my spine is not properly supported and parts of my spine are rubbing together, resulting in some arthritis. This is part of the reason for more severe pain when I do a lot of driving over our bumpy roads here in Nampula. Since my core muscles don’t work right, my back muscles are trying to support the spine and have all gone into spasm. Pain cause number two. The physio I saw who specializes in backs feels that strengthening my core muscles will resolve a lot of the back pain, and has given me an hour-long program which I do every morning. I appreciate your prayers for me, that all back pain will be gone! I am so grateful to God for the doors he opened for me to take this trip, and to Kevin for being willing to shoulder so much while I was gone, as well as to the dear friends who helped him out.

by the way, I brought back MacDonalds french fries for the guys, but they were a sad disappointment - 30 hours on the road did not leave them very tasty! Toby still loved them, though. – C

What is Normal?

Conversation between Kevin and Cami, driving in the car one evening:

Kevin: There’s the crazy guy.
Cami: He doesn’t have any pants on tonight.
Kevin: Well, it is hot today.
Cami: Yup, that’s true

Cami: Did we just think that was a normal conversation?


Yes, we have given him clothes before, but sometimes he doesn’t wear them. Sometimes we just take for granted things here that would be totally off-the-wall if we lived in America! This conversation was about a mentally ill man who lives in town – there are a few people like this around town, and sometimes you do see totally naked people walking down the street. Likely they need medications, but that type of thing isn’t very available here. They are still doing shock therapy at the mental hospital to “cure” people. Sad.