We are back home in the village, after a much longer time down south due to all the car “challenges” we’ve had (see our newsletter below). However the Lord is faithful in bringing us back safely and in His timing. After a few days of settling and moving into our house, we are now able to put our full time effort back into the ministry (and home schooling!). 
We are discipling towards a mature Mwinika church and one of the aspects of a mature church is that they are able to take ownership and responsibility for the pastoring of the believers as well as the reaching of the unbelievers in their community. One of Francois first tasks on our return was to sit down with the church leaders and teachers and plan for the next year. Plurality of leadership is still a foreign concept, but the leaders soon jumped in to set goals, identify needs and allocate each of these tasks to specific people.
Please pray for the Mwinika church leaders! Pray that they will grow “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”. (Luk 2:52)
**** Hattingh newsletter (2014 228)
Plans change… and our timing is not His timing! We wanted to be back home weeks ago, but due to work on our vehicle*, we have not been able to leave South Africa yet. In all this we have to continually give to and trust the Lord with the ministry to the Mwinika, our kids’ home schooling, the timing and urgency of our return.
Things to thank the Lord for:
* . 
We’ve NOT been in the Henderson vehicle or were already on our way home when the fire broke out! *We would have returned with the Henderson-vehicle and leave ours in the RSA for repairs, however on the last test drive before the vehicle would have been handed over to us, a fire broke out and the whole vehicle burned out. We had to stay in SA longer to fix the many repairs on our vehicle
· We’ve had some extra time to be together as a family.Franco’s hearing aid could be fixed free of charge
* We’ve met new friends who also minister into Mozambique. We are staying with a missionary couple that we just met… They opened their house to us while our vehicle is being fixed and we are being blessed in more ways to count by them and their colleagues! They are also using the Chronological teaching material of NTM and are open to see how we can serve each other in the future. * More opportunities to share with other believers what the Lord is doing under the Mwinika people. * Time to catch up with our emails! J Things to pray for:
* Go now or stay a little longer? We need wisdom to know when to stop trying to fix our vehicle! The vehicle is road worthy again, but we are stuck halfway up the country trying to get the AC fixed. Since our trips usually involve days in a very hot climate, we tried to fix our 20 year old vehicle’s A.C., but the aluminium pipes are disintegrating and it is taking even longer than we hoped. Should we just leave it and get going? [We were greatly helped by the folks of Samaria Mission in Pietersburg. The AC was taken care of and we were able to leave in good time. During the few days that we were waiting, we were even able to do a much needed resetting of Franco’s hearing aid by an audiologist!) * Border crossings: due to the unrest in the middle part of Mozambique, it is better to drive through Zimbabwe. But that means two border crossings of two different countries! And that means … exceptional amounts of patience, time and wisdom to know how to dodge the increasing corruption and ever changing rules, overworked officials, heat and no trees at the borders. One of these new rules is that we now need our kids’ original birth certificates in order to take them across borders. We were not aware of this and the birth certificates are safely at home in Mwinikaland… We applied for new ones, but as of today, received only one. It may take many more months to receive the other two! [No one asked about the birth certificates… There were however many challenges crossing the border into this country. We thank the Lord that by staying patient and respectful we were able to cross without paying any bribe money or problems]. * Back home: Apart from the normal unpacking and settling back into a routine, we need to move back into our house after the recent repairs needed because of the flooding of our house. Our responsibilities are numerous and we need wisdom and energy to be able to negotiate it all! Our friendships and the various ministries must be picked up again after a much longer than planned break. We must get our kids back into home schooling.