Update From Mills on October 19th.......

Mills has not had internet or SMS access for several weeks. Below are to recent communication from him. He is heading south from Mozambique to Cape Town. Thank you all for your prayers.

Dad,

Hey Sorry this is going to be short and no pictures....

I am in Inhambane right now, and it turns out Gabe and I will be leaving Sunday Morning not Friday, today.

I wanted to let yall know though. The internet is too slow to send pictures or anything, but within the week I will be in the Cape so I will be able to from there.

Love yall so much, and I will try and give you a call before we make our last push south on Sunday.

Mills

Psalm 119:9-11 "How can a young man keep his way pure, by living according to your Word. I seek you with all my heart, do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You."

Hey dad,

Sorry I have been so out of touch lately. Just know I woke up from a quick nap to type to you. This morning we went to gather firewood which turned out to be a bit longer than we expected. I don't know if mom told you about our dam building on Monday, but it went alright. We didn't get the water level any higher yet, but that had to do with only two locals showing up to help. Anyways Gabe had an old injury in his back start up again and was in bed for the rest of the day. He is better now, but
with very limited mobility. So it was Normand, Francisco, Paulino and I to get firewood. We use iron wood because of the good quality for burning, but it is darn heavy and I was already beat from throwing rocks into the dam. I just looked at the clock and realized that I slept a good hour and a half immediately following our late lunch.

We got to the SLC and then on the 8th of October catch a ride with one of the families to Cuamba, and then take a train to Nampula. Then we make our way south. Other than that I have no idea. If you were looking for our places of sleeping and all we haven't a clue. All we know is that I have to be out of the country by the 22nd of October because of my visa.

I really doubt I will get internet over the 2 weeks, but it is possible to have in Maputo, but it depends on where we stay. I should have cell service fairly often so I will text as we go, but who knows how that will go?

I am pretty much all packed and I feel quite ridiculous with all the things I have. My bag is nearly full and I haven't put my clothes in yet....

Also Gabe and I had the idea to carry our case of cokes down as we go. People carry goods on the chapas so it won't be a problem. Then we will have drinks, and refill it when it is empty. I am contemplating bringing the case home, it would make for a good story.

Alright Dad, Love you and I will try and get an SMS to you when on our way to Gurue.

Oh yeah I had a HUGE mantikenya in my foot. Henriette said that in English it is a chigger, but who knows for sure. Anyways this thing was about the size of an eraser of a pencil on the side of my foot. The good thing is it totally kills the skin and you can't feel a thing when you dig it out.

Until.... who knows when. Thats the way I like it.

Love Mills

Mills writes on September 30th........

I know I have been out of touch now, and I am really sorry. Our schedule has been really packed with tons and tons of last minute projects and then when we have time to sit down, we are taking with the Saindons. I have been trying to make the most out of each of these last days with the local boys, with playing and swimming with them.

We are in a way ready for the SLC. Today Gabe and I will sit down and talk more on it. It's funny most of the YL games would be perfect except they waste food! Duck, Duck Egg, and flower bomb fights are offensive because of the wasted food. We are working around that, but I think it will be fun. We are getting a lot of advice from all of the missionaries that are attending. Haha!

Church was good today, Gabe finished the book of James which was a real blessing to the church. It is our last Sunday here and we said a few words each and then the church kinda said some things back. We were both really touched by Aubi and what he had to say. He just said he can't find any way to say it, but that he was blessed so much by our time. He just kept repeating that he couldn't find a way to say it. I was really really humbled when he cried, especially because of what it means in this
culture. He and his family said that they really feel like they were losing part of their own. It is never good leaving a place where you get attached.

Tomorrow we are building a dam in the river to raise the level so that we can pump water into Chiconono. We built a huge cage to lay and stack rocks in. We will drain the existing and broken dam and then bust out the bed rock to make way for the new. Then we will carefully go in and fill this HUGE 10 by 2 meter cage. It is about as tall as me, and we want to fill it with rocks. We are telling the locals to all bring rocks to help. I will try and take some pictures and things.

Oh yeah today after church I asked if we could take pictures of all of us, I think they turned out well. I gotta run.