Where's Heath?

Hello Team Africa!
Many of you are expecting to hear how our travel back to Pemba and
readjusting back to life and ministry has been since coming home from
vacation.

Well . . . . . . we've had a few hiccups in our situaiton!

The primary reason we had to leave Mozambique was to renew our 6 month
visa (vacation and rest was bonus). We were scheduled to leave
Nelspruit, South Africa on Saturday the 8th by bus. Heath went in on
Thursday to purchase our new visas. We anticipated no problems!!! HA
HA.

Five hundred dollars, the WRONG VISAS, and a few hours later, and we
were in the middle of our next Locke adventure! The Mozambican
embassy here in Nelspruit would ONLY issue Heath a 6 month visa with
the stipulation that our entire family had to leave for a Mozambican
border every 30 days! That's ok if you live near a border!! But for
us in Pemba, that would mean about $2000 to fly our family to a border
every 30 days!!! OUTRAGEOUS!

Two months ago, Heath felt like the Lord was telling him that he
needed to be back in the States on this break and for 3 weeks. When
he shared this with me, I was not feeling that excited about lugging
our entire family back to Oregon for only 3 weeks! But I let him
pursue the options, not wanting to get in the way if Jesus had
something for us there now. But it just wasn't working. So we
pursued Nelspruit and everything fell into place almost in one day.
Still, Heath was a bit confused why he felt the Lord had said to go to
the States for 3 weeks.

Well, 6 days ago, it all came together! The Lord was preparing us for
Heath to go back to the States now and possibly for 3 weeks time.
After lots of prayer and confirmation from our prayer team and some
advice from a connection in DC who works with visas, we knew Heath
needed to be Stateside to try and resolve our visa issues. (Even so,
we both know that visas were simply a way to get Heath back. We
really believe there are some divine appointments and needed rest and
refreshment for Heath back home.)

Our next dilemma was a ticket home! Thursday we found out about the
mess. That night we prayed and worried and prayed and stressed. All
the while, the answer pulled into the guest house late that night in
transit to another location. He was only at this house for 2 nights.
The next day, Heath headed to the travel agent to see if it was
possible to get a CHEAP ticket home! Ahhh, NO! He came back and met
Steve (we still don't even know his last name!!). Steve had
connections and got Heath a FIRST CLASS standby round trip ticket for
the price of the taxes only! If Steve had come to this guest house 2
days earlier, we'd have not known about our need for a ticket. God's
timing is unbelievable!! We are still in shock!

So, Heath is currently lounging in a first class flight from
Johannesburg to Atlanta (17 hour flight) and then on to Portland for 2
or 3 weeks!! He will be needing to do lots of praying and finagling
to get the visas we need (we think it won't be as easy as it was in
Februrary to get them). It seems that policies are changing in the
Mozambican government concerning foreigners. So we will be needing
your prayers. God has to move on this one for us.

He will also be tying up some details that we needed to attend to and
then doing lots of resting and trying to hang out with as many friends
as he can find relational stamina for!!Meanwhile, the kids and I are
hanging out here at the guest house we have been at for the last 2
weeks. Kent and Shay are so unbelievably gracious and willing to
allow us to be here longer. We feel safe here (which is a big deal.
I have felt more tension and fear in the spiritual realm in South
Africa than I have the whole time I've lived in Mozambique!) and the
kids love it here. I'll be doing hospitality emails, homeschooling,
and the normal mom/life stuff and trying to rest and receive without
feeling in the way or guilty that I'm not doing more! Yep, God is
uncovering some things!

So please be praying with us. Abiel and Judah were quite sad today.
Abiel is super sad because she doesn't get to see her friends and
Judah's just sad because he isn't going to be with Papa. Pray for our
health. Asher seems to have some sinus infection, goopy right eye and
an aching right ear. I took him to a clinic today but the doctor
looked in his ear and said, "His ears are so full of wax I can't even
see his eardrum." So she didn't give him any medication but only
suggested putting oil in his ear to soften and clean out the wax.
Please pray that this is all it is.

Ok, I'm exhausted, physically, emotionally and mentally. Pray that I
will have everything I need to handle life in the next 2 or 3 weeks
without Heath, with 3 kids, and very pregnant! So glad God promises
that we really do have "everything we need for life and godliness
through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and
goodness . . ."

Love you all,
emie for the crazy locke clan!