The Miracle of the Sewing Machine

This week we started with a trip to the island of Santo Antão.  The island is to the west of Mindelo and can be reached by a one hour ferry ride.  Our purpose was to meet with the ministers of education for the towns of Porto Novo and Paúl.  We discussed the possibility of providing paint for a couple of the schools as well as providing dental hygiene kits for several hundred pre-school aged children.  Some of the schools are so remote that after a two hour drive there is still another two hour walk to reach the village.  One school is reached by hiking to a village on the coast and then riding in a row boat for another couple of hours.

In addition we met with the missionaries to inspect their apartments.

The ferry to Santo Antão

Ruebert and Rosine with their 10 month old child, Rodrigo.  The missionaries invited us to attend a family night with them on Monday night.  They dropped us off at the family home and left to get some others that they were teaching.  We visited with the family for almost an hour and were beginning to think that the missionaries had forgot us.  In the mean time the sun had gone down and it was totally dark outside.  We had no idea how to get back to the apartment where we were staying.  Finally the missionaries returned with nine kids from several families to participate in the family night.  We sang songs, had a special lesson taught by the father, and then played several games and ate popcorn.  We had a great time!

Elder Sá, from Manaus, Brazil and Elder Vieira, from Portugal and 9 more kids from the neighborhood. We were all in a room about 8 feet wide by 12 feet long.

On Tuesday we had lunch with the missionaries in Ribeira Grande before returning back to Mindelo.

Stephen and Linda.  This young couple was married on Friday.  Marriages in Cabo Verde are performed by a civil authority.  The couple arrived at the municipal building at 10 am.  After waiting for several hours the couple was finally married and left the building at 5:30 pm.  Afterwards a special ceremony and celebration was held in the stake center.  They arrived in a long procession of cars and taxis that were continually honking their horns.

Elders Ramirez and Robinson with Luiz

Sisters Day and Cavalcante with Kleider and Andreia.

The Miracle of the Sewing Machine

This week we had an incredible experience of seeing how the Lord will use us to bless the lives of his children here in Cabo Verde.  When we arrived in Mindelo, there was a sewing machine in our apartment.  Sister Erickson set it up and found out that it works perfectly.  We were trying to figure out what to do with it.  A couple of weeks ago we got a message from a friend in Utah, Doug Holt, that served as Mission President in Portugal 28 years ago. Cabo Verde was part of his mission. Doug is still friends with many people here. In his message he asked us to find Odeth Simiao and help her find a sewing machine.  He did not know that we had a sewing machine.  

We had no idea how we could find Odeth here in Mindelo. There are no addresses nor house numbers. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Doug Holt told us that if we could talk to Bishop Jose dos Santos from the 1st Ward he could help us find her. Well, on Saturday morning, guess who should come to our house, Bishop Jose dos Santos. We asked about Odeth and Bishop Santos told us that he would be glad to take us to her home later that evening. Odeth and her family live on the outskirts of town. We had a wonderful visit with her and her children. 

We found out that Odeth has been taking sewing classes  and wanted to use her new sewing skills to provide for her family. She has been using
an old treadle-sewing machine at home but it is missing the belt to power it so she has to use one hand to turn the spindle while working the material with the other hand. She was so excited when we told her that we wanted to give her the sewing machine that is in our apartment.

Bishop Santos with Odeth and her two daughters, Isamira and Marcy.  Odeth lives in a home that was built by a Humanitarian Especially For Youth project two years ago.  We are actually standing on her roof.