Steve and Katuska have sent the following update from Mozambique:
‘We’re getting ready for the school Christmas talent show: the boys are practising In the Bleak Midwinter, singing in time to the rhythmical creaking of our ceiling fan, on a regular sunny afternoon, in temperatures of 36 Centigrade. They’ve just collapsed into fits of laughter and decided to try Good King Wenceslas instead.
Our patch of suburban Maputo is a sandy rectangle with the school on one half and the housing on the other. A dry wind blows across it most days, and thunderstorms sometimes batter it at night. There are coconut palms, lemon and mango trees and hopeful attempts to grow grass. We live some way from the city centre, but the alternative would be impossibly high rents, traffic pollution and noise; OMS and the school moved out here two years ago, and overall it was a good decision.
We’re pleased to detect that we’re all making some progress in Portuguese, including the boys, who have it in their school timetable. Mozambicans are very forgiving, and we can get the subjunctive tenses all tangled up and still be understood, but we do have a very hard time making phone calls. We’ve had some opportunities to preach already; and we can be called on at a moment’s notice to take some part in a service, so we have to be wide awake for the whole two hours or more.
In our prayers we give thanks for you and for your partnership in the gospel. We do look out eagerly for news from home, so any updates are always gratefully received. When you remember us in prayer, please pray for:
* safety on the roads, which can be very dangerous;
* for security generally in Mozambique, as the political situation feels very tense;
* for our work as we both prepare to teach at the seminary in the New Year.’