Hello my dear ones,
How are you today? I am fine:) Thanks be to God. That would be something that we say here each time we see each other .... como esta? tudo bem.... eu bom.. gracias a Deus.
The last couple of days have been a time of getting myself rested and ready for the work to begin. Even though we have done inventories and making arrangements and plans for when the teams come the time has been good seeing people bit by bit. The Cessito's are doing well and their vision has even expanded more from what we knew last year and this is good as God's plans are always growing and developing.
Saturday we drove into Beira the port city to buy a few things and a cell phone. I ran to the open market to see my veggie lady and there was a young woman there and I said with much enthusiasm, "where is Farita?" Her daughter answered, "Farita is my mother and she died." I couldn't breathe for a moment and tears filled my eyes as I stood there with my mouth open. It took a moment and I said, "I am so sorry" and I walked out the door. I had to remind myself that life is hard here, people die, they die often in our circle of friends, but God has the master plan. I don't know if Farita is in heaven, I didn't talk to her about Jesus, we only talked about church. My hope is that I don't let too many more days go by that I only talk about church and that I don't waste time to talk about Jesus. Pray that I will know when the right time is to talk, pray that other's trusting me will come easy, pray the relationships will grow quickly. Time is running out. Pray that I am in the Father's will.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The time to leave is drawing near!
I can't believe that this year has gone by so quickly! It seems like I just get home and I start to prepare for the coming trip and before you know it..... it's here. I am to the point of this process that I have to start removing activities of my schedule to be free to think about and work on the things that are of importance for being out of the country for 3-4 months. Speaking of which, my plane ticket is scheduled to have me back in country August 16th. The beginning plan was to have me home for our family reunion, but I'm thinking that staying for the Women's conference might be the deal for this year.
Hundred's of women gather for the Sofala Baptist Women's Convention each year and it is a sight to behold! Each church has it's own tribal dress and dance that they perform at their own appointed time. Then there are groups who join together and learn a dance and show their gifts. Then towards the end of three days, all of the women who would want to participate, join in together, learn a dance and they all together perform a dance for all to view. This is an important part of the conference. This is an act of worship to God, to worship Him, to give thanks to Him, to love on others and to know that each day is another gift. Life is hard in Africa. Everyday is hard.
Hundred's of women gather for the Sofala Baptist Women's Convention each year and it is a sight to behold! Each church has it's own tribal dress and dance that they perform at their own appointed time. Then there are groups who join together and learn a dance and show their gifts. Then towards the end of three days, all of the women who would want to participate, join in together, learn a dance and they all together perform a dance for all to view. This is an important part of the conference. This is an act of worship to God, to worship Him, to give thanks to Him, to love on others and to know that each day is another gift. Life is hard in Africa. Everyday is hard.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Obedience Now!
I just received my support report from the office and I look at this form on the screen of my computer and I am amazed at the names I see before my eyes! Old friends.... loved ones... new friends, just a small group of folks that God has privileged me with over the years to call them my people. But the thing that makes me smile more than anything else is that they listened to God speak to them. They answered a whisper in their ear. They were obedient to obey the voice of the Master. Supporting a missionary is not about the person who goes.... it's not about where they go.... I believe it is about obeying God. It's the knowing that all we have we do not own. You can not out give God. God calls... we answer! We call.... God answers! You just gotta love the Lord! He is so good:)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Ely Pres. church in the country
Today I share with the congregation of a small church in the country outside of Ely, Iowa. These folks were absolutely a delight! There was one woman, her name was Zelda, she played in a band in my past from years ago. Another little older woman, shorter than myself if you can believe that! Mrs. Biderman, the drummer on the MBC worship team, his Mother! The bass player and banjo player from the Bluegrass band I have played with for years. Just a number of really nice folks thanking me for sharing with them my adventures in Africa. Pastor Heather, a warm hearted, easily taken to tears, young woman who has been given a gift of pastoring this flock of believers. I looked at her as she prayed when the service started and prayed that God would annoint her service to Him with the family. Bless them all! They were very generous in their giving to my ministry. My prayer is that they would consider a full time commitment with me in the future. Pray with me on this one as I seek God's leading for this next year to work on the field serving Him in Mozambique.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Baptism
It has been some time now since I have sent out a mailing but as some of you know I had another bout with malaria a UTI infection and a worm in my foot all in two weeks! I am praying that this is the end of the difficulties with my health for this year. Fortunately for me, Val Dorsey, a nurse from New York was here for a month long visit and she was willing and more than able to take over my role in assisting Janine with the teams. As God would have it, Val has extended her stay until the first of August and we are the new kitchen and anything else crew absolutely freeing Janine to focus more on being the field director for CRI. Enough about me and on to a wonderful experience at church.
It was Sunday and the Minnesota team was spending their last morning at the worship service in Dondo. This was going to be a celebration, a recognition for those who had completed a 3 month long class to prepare their hearts for a baptism. 17 men, women and young adults lined up outside of the church to enter into the side and walk into the baptismal. When a certain loved one would step into the water you could hear cheers coming from the family and friends. Some sat there with a longing for their time to come, for their special Sunday to exclaim to the church, to their family, to the community that they would take a stand for Christ, to lay down their cross and follow Jesus. It was a time when all of our hearts would swell with pride for the faith and courage of a people whose culture and their lives are filled with witch doctors and evil.
I sat and watched one woman in particular, Emelia. Emelia is a woman of 50 years, married for over 30 years, a leader of women’s ministry and has 7 children. I looked over her way as her husband walked into the water, he closed his eyes after pinching his nose and taking a deep breath. Emelia was smiling ear to ear and could hardly sit still as the Pastor spoke to him. As he dropped into the water and his soul was washed with the Holy Spirit’s cleansing power he came up with a smile and a welcomed squeal from his wife. Emelia has spend most of her life praying for her husband to come to know the Lord. She shared with me the countless years and days that he would spend drinking and spending time with his friends and coming home only to ignore her and treat her and the children poorly. But her faith took her through each day trusting that God was listening while she was waiting. The war came and went, 7 seven children were born, raised and have left home and today this man stood before the congregation of the Baptist church of Dondo committing his life to Christ and asking other’s to keep him accountable as a leader. What a day, what a smile, what a celebration. God was honored and praised for His faithfulness to answer a long hoped for prayer from Emelia. We were all blessed to see Emelia’s smile.
It was Sunday and the Minnesota team was spending their last morning at the worship service in Dondo. This was going to be a celebration, a recognition for those who had completed a 3 month long class to prepare their hearts for a baptism. 17 men, women and young adults lined up outside of the church to enter into the side and walk into the baptismal. When a certain loved one would step into the water you could hear cheers coming from the family and friends. Some sat there with a longing for their time to come, for their special Sunday to exclaim to the church, to their family, to the community that they would take a stand for Christ, to lay down their cross and follow Jesus. It was a time when all of our hearts would swell with pride for the faith and courage of a people whose culture and their lives are filled with witch doctors and evil.
I sat and watched one woman in particular, Emelia. Emelia is a woman of 50 years, married for over 30 years, a leader of women’s ministry and has 7 children. I looked over her way as her husband walked into the water, he closed his eyes after pinching his nose and taking a deep breath. Emelia was smiling ear to ear and could hardly sit still as the Pastor spoke to him. As he dropped into the water and his soul was washed with the Holy Spirit’s cleansing power he came up with a smile and a welcomed squeal from his wife. Emelia has spend most of her life praying for her husband to come to know the Lord. She shared with me the countless years and days that he would spend drinking and spending time with his friends and coming home only to ignore her and treat her and the children poorly. But her faith took her through each day trusting that God was listening while she was waiting. The war came and went, 7 seven children were born, raised and have left home and today this man stood before the congregation of the Baptist church of Dondo committing his life to Christ and asking other’s to keep him accountable as a leader. What a day, what a smile, what a celebration. God was honored and praised for His faithfulness to answer a long hoped for prayer from Emelia. We were all blessed to see Emelia’s smile.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
2008 and it's going to be GREAT!
Well, I'm here and I'm feeling like, 'it is so good to be back home again in Dondo.' My house is almost in order in less than a week. Of course we have 4 cars and only two of them are working, so what's new with that idea? and the electricity has only been out almost everyday at least one part of the day since I got here. I spent two nights with Janine because of no electricity and was a scaredy-cat. We tried watching a movie on the computer with just the battery and guess what..... you are right! Just as the best part of the movie was coming up, the battery died, the screen went blank and we screamed! NO! NOT NOW! But.. we watched the ending the next night. It was so good. Sometimes watching a movie can take your mind away from the moments of the day. Seeing all that is here, and so upside down from how we live in America. God has blessed us.
Friday, November 2, 2007
3 Angels in one day
I have had a wonderful experience this past almost half a year in Mozambique Africa. Again God has taken me to another level with Him and I have had time to bask in times of prayer knowing that only God would be capable of pulling this situation off.
One short story I will share is this..
Janine and I have three trucks...2 Toyota Surfs and a small white truck maybe a Nissan I can't remember right now. Anyway the little white truck was causing us some problems and it would die on us at the most inconvenient times so we decided to take it into Beria to have our mechanic look at it. Since one of our other trucks was already there and ready to be picked up this sounded like a great idea, take this one in, pick the other one up.
So we take off for Beria and about 10klm out of Dondo the truck starts acting up so I pull over and lift the hood, make a small adjustment to the carburetor and we go on. Then about another 2klm the truck starts jerking again and so I stop again and make an even larger more aggressive adjustment to the carburetor and we go on. Then pretty soon the truck starts acting up again and finally I cannot get the truck to run any more. So we are sitting along a very busy road, and I am under the hood of the truck and a beer truck pulls over and this young man comes up and asks me what the problem is and I tell him I don't speak Portuguese. He says, "What?!? You don' speak Portuguese?" I said, "No" He rolls his eyes and then Janine gets out of the truck and they start speaking Portuguese and trying to figure out a plan to get us to where we are going. Then an older gentleman with white hair gets out of his truck and he tries a few things to get it going. I might add here he did nothing more than what I did but the darn thing started! I think it needed a rest quite frankly. He said, "We will follow you into town to make sure you get to where you are going." So off I went and left him in the dust and we never saw him again. He was our first angel of the day.
On down the road another 5-7klm the truck wanted to die and Janine is telling me...we can't stop here it is too dangerous...keep going..keep going...I don't care what you have to do...keep going. I just flatly told her, "If the truck stops I can't help it." It did, but just for a moment. I was able to get it going again and off we went.
On down the road and at last we are on the outskirts of Beria about ready to make our last turn to go to our mechanics garage. And around the corner we go and you know what happened. The truck stopped and there was no way it was going to start now. It was done and we were sitting in a very busy two lane road and we are stalling traffic and cars and trucks on both sides of the street are honking at me to get a move on it. Janine is praying at this point and I am trying to figure out the next move. All of a sudden a group of about 6-8 young men in their late teens or early twenties came up and started pushing me out of the way of traffic to a safe place. They came to the window and said put the hood up we will fix your truck. At this point I was willing to have anybody fix it! I was laughing because this was funny by now. We were not in a good place and we did not know any of these people so what could I do? I had to laugh because this was a God only situation. We had a large amount of money on us because we were going to pay the mechanic for our other car's work and buy food for the next team that day. So up the hood went and they all drove into it trying their best to fix the problem. In the meantime Janine called our mechanic and he came within about a 15 minute period of time. When he pulled up got out of his truck walked over to our truck all of the young men stepped aside. There is a humbleness given to older people in this culture. Guess that makes me look good here too! Anyway he did something and the truck started again and we drove to the garage. But before we left the young guys we gave them a coin that would buy them some bottled water. They were thankful and so were we. Thankful no one knew how much money we had in our purses! Then at last we drove into the drive of the garage and I jumped out of the truck and ran away from it. I think someone cursed it......not really we found out it had a cracked distributor cap.
At the end of that day we laughed and laughed and were thankful again for the Lord's protection over us. Thank you if you were one who prayed for us that day.
One short story I will share is this..
Janine and I have three trucks...2 Toyota Surfs and a small white truck maybe a Nissan I can't remember right now. Anyway the little white truck was causing us some problems and it would die on us at the most inconvenient times so we decided to take it into Beria to have our mechanic look at it. Since one of our other trucks was already there and ready to be picked up this sounded like a great idea, take this one in, pick the other one up.
So we take off for Beria and about 10klm out of Dondo the truck starts acting up so I pull over and lift the hood, make a small adjustment to the carburetor and we go on. Then about another 2klm the truck starts jerking again and so I stop again and make an even larger more aggressive adjustment to the carburetor and we go on. Then pretty soon the truck starts acting up again and finally I cannot get the truck to run any more. So we are sitting along a very busy road, and I am under the hood of the truck and a beer truck pulls over and this young man comes up and asks me what the problem is and I tell him I don't speak Portuguese. He says, "What?!? You don' speak Portuguese?" I said, "No" He rolls his eyes and then Janine gets out of the truck and they start speaking Portuguese and trying to figure out a plan to get us to where we are going. Then an older gentleman with white hair gets out of his truck and he tries a few things to get it going. I might add here he did nothing more than what I did but the darn thing started! I think it needed a rest quite frankly. He said, "We will follow you into town to make sure you get to where you are going." So off I went and left him in the dust and we never saw him again. He was our first angel of the day.
On down the road another 5-7klm the truck wanted to die and Janine is telling me...we can't stop here it is too dangerous...keep going..keep going...I don't care what you have to do...keep going. I just flatly told her, "If the truck stops I can't help it." It did, but just for a moment. I was able to get it going again and off we went.
On down the road and at last we are on the outskirts of Beria about ready to make our last turn to go to our mechanics garage. And around the corner we go and you know what happened. The truck stopped and there was no way it was going to start now. It was done and we were sitting in a very busy two lane road and we are stalling traffic and cars and trucks on both sides of the street are honking at me to get a move on it. Janine is praying at this point and I am trying to figure out the next move. All of a sudden a group of about 6-8 young men in their late teens or early twenties came up and started pushing me out of the way of traffic to a safe place. They came to the window and said put the hood up we will fix your truck. At this point I was willing to have anybody fix it! I was laughing because this was funny by now. We were not in a good place and we did not know any of these people so what could I do? I had to laugh because this was a God only situation. We had a large amount of money on us because we were going to pay the mechanic for our other car's work and buy food for the next team that day. So up the hood went and they all drove into it trying their best to fix the problem. In the meantime Janine called our mechanic and he came within about a 15 minute period of time. When he pulled up got out of his truck walked over to our truck all of the young men stepped aside. There is a humbleness given to older people in this culture. Guess that makes me look good here too! Anyway he did something and the truck started again and we drove to the garage. But before we left the young guys we gave them a coin that would buy them some bottled water. They were thankful and so were we. Thankful no one knew how much money we had in our purses! Then at last we drove into the drive of the garage and I jumped out of the truck and ran away from it. I think someone cursed it......not really we found out it had a cracked distributor cap.
At the end of that day we laughed and laughed and were thankful again for the Lord's protection over us. Thank you if you were one who prayed for us that day.
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