Christmas cookie party!

We have started a little tradition: A Christmas cookie decorating party! We did it last year and now again this year. We invited the neighbor children over to join the fun. I bake the cookies the day before. This year we had 9 children, including our 3! I make popcorn to fill the tummies if they are hungry. The cookies are not for eating at my house. They are to take home! I didn't want sugar high kids in our house!

We had the party on Saturday. On Friday, almost of the children were at our house playing, so we took the opportunity to do the Christmas story as a drama. The children really enjoyed that, playing angels, shepherds, wise men. The point of the cookie party is to use the cookie shapes to explain the Christmas story to the children and remind them when they go home. The children who had done the party with us last year remembered the story quite well. The other neighbor children who had not done it last year were wide eyed and I'm not sure how much they caught. They come from a Muslim home and they also do not understand Portuguese that well. But it is a start!

Well, I wrote this almost a month ago, and didn't get it posted due to internet problems. I guess I'll post it now. Better late than never.

Raising Multi-Lingual Children

"Mo MO mo!" Joshua's worried voice carries from out of their bedroom. Upon arriving, I see the reason for his distress. A little gecko has managed to get on the inside of his mosquito net, thus almost becoming Joshua's bed partner! (Sorry, I didn't run grab the camera. If I would have, you could have seen Joshua's mo mo mo). Well, we shoo the little gecko outside and Joshua settles down to sleep.

Momomo (pronounced with all long vowel sounds for the O and the stress on the second sylable) is the baby word here for bug. I can't really say "momomo" is Portuguese or Yao, it is local baby language and Joshua has picked it up. Thus any bug is a moMOmo..... and the word is also used to scare a small child or warn him from going somewhere. All you need to say is "MoMOmo" and the child stops in his tracks (or runs to see if you are pointing at something and curiosity beats out fear!)

Joshua is speaking more words these days and it is fun to hear his little commentaries. He also takes his turn to pray at meal times. His prayers are mostly unintelligeable, but the AMEN is clear!

Our children are growing up multi-lingual. It is intentional. We had wanted them to know English and Swahili (one of Victor's languages.) And of course they have picked up Portuguese here as well as some ChiYao.Most of Joshua's words are English, but he prefers using "agua" for water and "aviao" for airplane (we live in the landing path to the airport so the airplanes fly over regularly!)

Victoria just ran in to tell me that the neighbor children who are here playing, who generally speak Yao are speaking Portuguese with them, so they are getting along together just fine. Although, I'm sure they would have figured out how to understand each other anyways.

I was reminded how much the children have learned Portuguese when we had a visitor for lunch last Friday who spoke primarily Chiyao. Victor and I managed to follow the conversation in Yao, but Clara kept asking "What did she say, Mom?" "What did she say?" That reminded me that a year ago, the girls were doing the same thing when I talked with Maria, the lady helping in our home, in Portuguese. They wanted a translation of EVERYTHING we said. But now they rarely ask for translation as they generally follow the conversation.

I insist that when the children start a sentence in one language, that they finish in the same language. But then I find myself slipping in a nice Portuguese word into an English sentence. Oops! I need to practice what I preach!

Anyways, sorry for the long delay in adding a new blog post. Our life went from the rigorous pace of DTS to a daily routine, but somehow that daily routine keeps me busy too. I'll try to steal minutes here and there to continue to give you glimpes into our life here.

DTS Graduation

The big day came. The DTS graduation took place at our training center here in Lichinga on October 22, 2011. We graduated 20 students. With gratefulness in our hearts to the Lord we sang praises and celebrated the great work He had done in and through our students.

The couple pictured above receiving their certificates are just one testimony of God's grace. The husband shared his testimony during the graduation service, explaining how before he loved women and lived in unfaithfulness to his wife. He viewed his wife as just someone at home to serve him. But he has now repented and they are planning to go back home to legalize their marriage. They came up hand in hand to receive their certificates. Just watching them makes you smile as they are obviously enjoying a new found friendship and intimacy that came from 5 months of growing in the Lord together and serving Him.
This couple has 4 children and gave testimony to God's work: The husband now understands and has stepped into his responsibilities as husband, father, and leader of the home. The wife understands how she needs to invest more in her children. Before their children would occasionally be sent off to live with different relatives but now the parents want all their children under their roof, recognizing their responsibility not only to care for them physically but also to teach them God's ways. They still have a long ways to go. but they have a good start down the right path. This family and the other family returned to a village on the lake and immediately were involved in teaching in a seminar that their pastor had organized! Their time of outreach is not finished! It has only begun as they return home to serve! Pray for strength and protection for them!


The students were so excited to receive their certificates! This is a happy picture and a sad picture as this group will probably never again be together this side of heaven. Good byes are hard after having invested so much time and energy and heart in living, learning, and serving together!

Family Time

The 3 months of the lecture phase of the DTS (Discipleship Training School) was intense for our family as we moved out to the training center and immersed ourselves in the school. The last couple weeks have been stretching, with Victor gone transporting the DTS teams to their outreach locations and spending some time with them in the different villages.

So it was high time for some family time. What do we do for family time? Well, one favorite activity has become riding bicycles at the airport. Why the airport?

Our yard looks like this:
The grass and dirt are uneven, not conducive to learning to ride a bicycle.

However, the airport has long stretches of pavement as well as a nice park section with hard packed dirt trails. Most days, only one airplane comes and goes, creating activity at the airport only a couple hours of the day. In the afternoons, it is a deserted place, a nice quiet place for family time!So we enjoyed a nice time there together.
Happy faces! All agreed that it was a good time together as a family. Well, I guess Joshua agreed too. These days, any question you ask him, you get a "Yah" as a response. What an agreeable little fellow!

So there you had a peak into one of our family times!

Going Forward

Well, time marches on. The last blog entry was about our grief over the loss of the new baby. But like I said, time marches on. The days pass. Thank you for your prayers for the parents of this baby! Not only have they lost a baby, but they are facing some stiff opposition from family members (a father!) over their recent baptism and decision to follow Christ. Their families follow traditional Islam. But this couple's faith is growing and maturing, in the midst of these trials! Thank you for your many prayers!

I would like to show some pictures of the outreach time....but we currently don't have any! When I get some, I'll post some. I'm home with the children and Victor is out with the team in a village with the camera. Maybe when he comes home, I'll have some pictures.

But here are a few verbal snapshots of highlights so far from the outreach time of our Discipleship Training School:

Hearing their voices over the air waves: One team spent 2 weeks in a Yao village where there is a Yao community Christian radio station. Our students were able to share testimonies and Bible stories on the air! One student also gathered a group of children to sing songs for the radio station. We hear from the missionaries there that the team was a blessing there!

Now that team moved on to a village far north. Victor drove them there. While there, he saw some elephants! Cool, right? Well, not for the locals whose garden the elephants were trying to invade. The elephants are protected because that land is a game reserve. But do the locals ever have a nightmare trying to shoo the big beasts out of their gardens! You thought bunnies were bothersome!

Another team stayed a couple weeks with a Christian family in a village of about 800 with only about 6 known believers! The team was a great encouragement to the few believers. Even the way the 9 of the team members lived together peaceably was a testimony!

They faced some opposition from community members who didn't want more Christians around! But overall, they had a good time. They had a "Nicodemos" friend, a young man who would come at night to learn more about God. He came in the dark because he was afraid of his father.

The team that stayed here in Lichinga is finding openness among the neighborhoods that surround the YWAM base. It is good to have their efforts focused here.

The neatest part is watching (or for me hearing second hand) the students blossom in their spiritual gifts! They began their outreach time enthusiastically but also hesitantly! Would they be able to teach, preach, evangelize, and share their testimonies? For most of them, these are new big steps they are taking! And they are finding that God is enabling them to do what He has called them to do! They are beginning to find out what their giftings are and that is exciting.

Please continue to pray for the outreach teams, and their leaders.

Grief!

We have passed through the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord has been with us, but the loss still tears us up inside. The little baby whose birth we celebrated last week, little Leonel, entered the local hospital at 2am Wednesday morning because he was having a hard time breathing. At one point, his breathing even stopped. He was diagnosed with pneumonia. We all prayed fervently. But the Lord took him home Thursday morning at 2am. How the young parents are grieving! Last year they lost their first son just after he had learned to walk. He died from malaria. Now, once again, they are childless. We are all heartbroken. The mother sing songs her grief, telling the story of what happened, recounting every detail that reminds her of her lost son and the grief she feels. Our face grow wet with tears too.

Yesterday was the funeral. We face death directly here. Our Ywam leader arranged for a local carpenter to build the tiny casket, a wooden box with a black cloth nailed to it, with a white cross on top. Our Ywam leader's wife helped dress the body in the morgue. Then as the father and relatives watch, they placed the body in the coffin.

I drove our car the 2 hours down the mountains to the village on the lake where the burial was held. For the most part, it was a silent ride. The father and mother and close family were in my car, as was the tiny casket holding the little body.

Once we arrived at the village, we had to wait 2 hours while the men dug the hole. We women, probably around 20 of us, sat outside of the grandparents' home and sang....for 2 hours. We would run out of songs, but then others would prod us on: "Sing! It is your job."

Then we had to wait another 1/2 hour as an uncle had gone to the local mosque for the 1pm prayers. Finally, all was ready. They opened the casket in the grandparents' home and people could file by to say goodbye. Then the casket was carried outside, and the family and friends gathered around. It was a mixed group of Christians and Muslims. One of our YWAM friends gave a powerful message, challenging everyone to be ready for their day of meeting the Lord. To be ready, is to be covered by the blood of Jesus.

Then I drove the car with the family members inside slowly down the road, the 1/2 mile to the cemetery. Behind me followed the crowd of villagers and friends, children running alongside the car. Then there was another message and prayers at the grave site and then the family threw clods of dirt into the hole. Then the men line up to take turns filling the hole while we all watch. The last job is to push the wooden cross into the fresh mound and put little flowers on the grace. I dissolved into tears when I went to place the wilted pink wild rose on the dirt pile on the grave. How can a mother watch her beloved child be buried? As our YWAM leader's wife led out in song, "Hallelujah, there will be a New Jerusalem." And then we could go home.

Some of the heaviness was gone now. We ate some food prepared for us.....fresh little fish the size of your fingers....you eat it head and all.....and rice. We met the family of both the father and mother of the deceased. Then by 4:15, we had to head to the car to make the climb back up to Lichinga before dark. The family stayed behind to complete the three days of mourning with their family. Traditionally, there would be more ceremonies to do, but since this young family are new Christians, they have announced that these ceremonies will not be necessary.

My children were well cared for during the day by special friends in Lichinga.

Well, I didn't plan to write so much, but maybe it is therapeutic for me to process in this way. We appreciate you prayers.

FESTA! PARTY!

Friday, August 19, was declared by our DTS leader (my husband :-) to be a day of feasting and rejoicing in the faithfulness of God during the last three months of the lecture phase of the DTS. Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had commanded his people in the Bible to have feasts and celebrations throughout the year to commemorate different things.

We had many reasons to celebrate. While finances are always a big challenge here, this DTS we had not gone hungry one day. In fact, due to God's abundant provision and the careful frugal planning of our staff, Rachel, in charge of the kitchen, we had left over finances. (She was feeding us, a team of 42 people, on just over a dollar a day per person.) We had enjoyed good health! Our hearts were made glad by the baptism and testimonies of 5 of our friends who had been baptized last week! Lives had been changed. Marriages and families had been strengthened. All of our guest speakers had been able to come and had blessed us with godly teaching. We had every reason to celebrate!

So while the students cooked almost all day, we staff decorated the lecture hall. Using tablecloths, fresh flowers, balloons, sea shells, and candles we prepared the room for the feast.
Happy faces lit up the room as staff and students gathered for the meal. The couple pictured is our YWAM leader and his wife who also staffed the school with us, pouring out their time and energy to disciple the students.

Ready for more details? The menu: Grilled chicken (the 10 chickens were purchased alive....so they had to be slaughtered, plucked, and then grilled), French fries (again...all the work of peeling, cutting and frying done by hand), rice cooked in coconut milk (coconuts bought, then cracked and the meat/pulp manually scraped out and soaked in hot water to capture the flavor), one or two prawns per plate, cooked greens (leaves of the mandioca plant), and orange Fanta (the city was out of Coca Cola or other flavors).

We ate by candlelight with classical piano music playing (that may have been a first for students from the villages!). After the meal, we put on African praise music and the students danced wholeheartedly! During the meal, we had rolling a power point of 500 photos taken during the school, reminding us of the events of the last 3 months. We had also invited the 3 volunteers who had watched the children during the classes so that the mothers could also participate in the classes. We thanked them for their labor of love. The picture below, I was handing them a thank you card.
And it was just like our God to put the icing on the cake. One of our students was expecting a baby any day and had been with labor pains for the past 24 hours. She had been having contractions on and off for the past week. We had prayed often with her for the baby to come at the right time! Friday morning around 8:30am I took her to the local clinic/birthing center. The clinic was being renovated so we were told to go to another clinic further down the road. We waited a bit more at home first and around 11:30am she wanted to go as the pain was increasing. So I went with her and stayed with her for the next three hours as she labored painfully. Meanwhile another woman arrived breathless at the clinic, having walked the whole way to the clinic (between 1 to 2 miles), and half an hour later gave birth to a little girl....right there in the bed next to where Rosa lay. The newborn struggled as it had inhaled some fluid and for several minutes I was scared that she was going to die right there. She stopped breathing a couple times and the nurse midwife was bagging it and tapping its chest. I was praying! Anyways, the baby lived.

Another staff, Rachel, came around 2:30pm to relieve me and stay with Rosa. Rachel is a midwife so I was more comfortable to have her there, although I didn't want to leave my friend. But I had my own children I needed to look after as well as decorate for the party. I went throughout the rest of the afternoon with Rosa heavy on my heart. The nurse/midwives here often verbally abuse the women, showing no compassion and shouting such things as "You stopping screaming or your baby will die!" Any Christian midwives reading this.....there is a huge mission field here for training Christian compassionate midwives! The workload here is heavy!

Anyways, like I said....the icing on the cake. At 5:40pm, about 1/2 an hour before we were ready to sit down and eat, we got the message: A little baby boy had been born! Mom and baby were well! A huge sigh of relief...... running to give the message to the father..... happy shouts, hugs of congratulations, impromptu dancing, hearts beating! Let the party begin!!! Only our God could have orchestrated the birth of this special baby to be right before our "festa" to multiply our joy!
The next day we brought Rosa and her little one home to the YWAM base. Thank you Lord that all is well!

This morning Victor left with a car load of students, bringing them to the village first on their list for their 2 months of practical outreach time. Pray with us for them as they transition into serving and ministering to the people in the villages. Pray with the DTS staff who are leading these outreach teams.

Baptism!

We wove our way through the tall grass down to the lake, with singing and happy hearts, the Son shining brightly down on us! Half of us were DTS students and staff and half were women and children from the nearby village who came to see what this happy crowd was going to do!

Five of our students had come to us at different times expressing a great desire to be baptized! One had grown up in the Jehovah's witness church but has now met Jesus personally. Another grew up in a Muslim home but married a "Christian" but now both the wife and her husband now understand who Jesus is and want to follow Him the rest of their lives, leaving their old lives behind.

So this Saturday we went to a dam nearby for the baptism. One other couple, a young Yao couple from the nearby village, also joined to be baptized. They came to know Jesus through the witness and discipleship of their brother, a YWAMer church planting in his home village!
Each baptism candidate gave such a clear beautiful testimony of God's work in their lives and their desire to leave the old life and follow Jesus! So it was with great joy that we sang as they went down into the waters! Praise God with us!
Time is short once again. Another time I will try to post a link to a short video of the celebration. For now we appreciate your prayers on this last week of class and preparation for the DTS practical outreach phase. We will move back to our house in town on Saturday, which will be a transition for our family! One team will leave on Monday the 22nd for their outreach, another team will leave on the 23rd. Please pray for wisdom for the team leaders and all the responsibilities that they have.

Until next time.....

Week Eleven

We eat our meals in this "alpendra" as we call it. Maybe you would call it a gazebo? I should clarify: we eat our lunches here with the team. Many times we eat breakfast in our little 2 room suite as it is too cold outside to enjoy eating breakfast outside. Also supper, we eat inside as well, trying to reserve a little family time together in the midst of this community living.

Well, we have two weeks to go with the lecture phase before the students divide into 3 teams to go out and minister in the different districts of our province. Please be in prayer with us for these last two weeks. Next week, a Zambian missionary couple will speak to our students about Christian relationships, Christian marriages, and godly parenting. Pray that the Spirit would show them specifically what to teach. The subject material goes way behind the time that they will have to teach, so we pray that what the students need to hear will be what is taught. We have 6 couples/families in our school and 8 singles so this topic will be very relevant to them!

I apologize for not writing the last couple weeks. Two weeks ago, we had a YWAM Niassa team meeting that went all week end long so I did not get a chance to write. Last week....well, it just didn't get done.

Every Tuesday evening we have a staff meeting. This past meeting, our staff lady who works in the kitchen had a heart warming announcement to make! There is now peace in the kitchen! Meaning that the discipleship and character building of the students has finally arrived the 100 yards from the classroom to the kitchen, from the theory into practice! We are seeing a change in the students behavior: whereas before there was arguing and fighting as students cooked together, now there is peace and kindness. Praise God! It is things like this that make all the effort put into this school worth it.

Also one of our students from a Jehovah's Witness background understood the gospel for the first time and surrendered his life to the Lord last week! The angels were dancing!

Pray for stamina and grace to finish these last two weeks well. Around the 20th of August we as a family will move back to our home in town. The students and some of the staff will travel out to villages. Victor will divide his time between being home with us and visiting the different outreach teams.

Well, I better get this posted......thank you for your prayers!

The Power of the Cross

Picture: The wooden cross at the front of our classroom.

I'm not sure that this week's teachings will be chosen by the students as their "Most Favorite Class" of the school. It is not "fun" to spend a week talking about sin and repentance. It is a somber subject and goes against our pride and independence. But could we not all be challenged to live in greater sensitivity to sin, hating it as our Heavenly Father hates it, and realizing afresh the terrible price Christ paid for our sins?

We as staff had had a special prayer time Tuesday morning for this week's teaching. We really wanted the students to meet Christ at the cross and turn away from sin in their lives. We were experiencing what could be called spiritual warfare. Our speaker for the week was stuck for two days in a town en route to teach. The road was closed due to 2 big semi trucks being stuck in the mud and blocking the road. Muddy roads? In July? It is the dry season here. Thankfully, the speaker did arrive, safely but 2 days late.

Then we had 2 students who received information this week of deaths in the family. We had our first big misunderstanding among staff. And Tuesday night the generator didn't work, which means we ate our supper and went to bed in the dark, discouraged at the prospect of not having electricity in the evenings for awhile. (The training center does not have electricity, so we are running a generator that God provided. We usually run the generator form 6-8:30pm) Praise God, Victor figured out the problem of the generator the next day.

So we were praying and expecting God to move in the school this week, but in total dependence on Him. We can talk until we are blue in the face, but unless God's Spirit moves, no lasting deep work of repentance will take place.

We are overflowing with thankfulness to be able to say that the students met Christ in a deeper way yesterday. Yesterday (we had class on Saturday to make up for 2 days of missed class while we waited for the speaker to arrive) class went on almost 2 hours past lunch time. God's Spirit was moving in their hearts as almost all of the students opened up, confessing past or present sin and/or giving something of value to them to Jesus as a symbol of giving their whole life to Christ. It was a powerful time, with lots of tears, lots of prayers, and we believe, healing and restoration in lives as people met Jesus at the cross.

Blessed be the name of the Lord God!

Extra Curricular Activities

This week as a "preschool" we had a field trip to a local dairy farm, run by YWAMers. While the children were excited about the outing, most of them sobered up seeing the animals! They were quite afraid of the animals. But it was a learning experience for them, none the less. We saw cows, a couple calves, some sheep and lambs and some puppies!
Half of our students are functionally illiterate, but not for lack of desire to learn. They have asked for literacy classes during their free time. So one of our staff has graciously offered to give up her free time as well to teach them how to read and write.

Other free time activities include a pick up game of volley ball, a new game for most of them, washing clothes (all by hand, with water drawn up by hand from a well), and sitting around the cooking fires, talking. The temperatures have dropped in the last two days and so the fire is a very inviting place!

Tomorrow a missionary has offered to take everyone down to the lake for the day. He has a big truck that will carry most of the 40 + people going. It is a 60 kilometer trip but will take us 2 hours in our car and probably 3 hours for the big truck. We'll try to post a picture or two from the day.

This past week our speaker was sick, so Victor stepped in, teaching from his heart about Community Development. It went well. More later. Time is short.

South Americans Bless our School

God brought 3 families to our school this year plus we are 3 staff families with a total of 13 children. We have four 3 year old girls, several children ages 4-9, three 1 year olds (one is almost 1) and one 8 month old baby. We wanted to bless the children while they were here, trusting that God had a purpose for each one to be here, not just as tag-alongs while their parents met with God. I had started out trying to teach the children Bible stories and do different educational activities with them, a type of preschool. But I soon found that my two youngest often demanded my attention, taking me away from the preschool at which point the children all scattered. I was quite exhausted by the end of the first week, wiped out physically and emotionally.

But then we asked a Brazilian lady, who is here teaching in the YWAM Christian school if she would be willing to come every morning to help with the preschool. She was only teaching in the afternoons at the Christian school. She agreed to help in the mornings and has been coming pretty faithfully since. She comes prepared with a Bible story, games and activities for the children. What a relief to have her help! I gladly became her assistant.

Then 2 weeks ago, a friendly lady from Chile landed in Lichinga, ready to begin her first mission term with SIM (the mission I was formerly with). Her first assignment is to convert her Spanish language into Portuguese! Her heart is to work with women and children. We invited her to join us in the mornings in taking care of the children while hearing and practicing Portuguese. (I have found that initial language learning happens best for me with children….they correct you, accept you, play with you, and in the process share their language with you). So Rosio has been coming every morning now as well! Thank you Lord for the help of the South Americans – a Brazilian and a Chilean!

So I have taken to playing with the one year olds and the 8 month old baby, so that the moms can concentrate better in class. Some of the moms are illiterate, never having had the opportunity to attend school. But that does not mean that they don’t want to learn! They are eager students, learning what they can! And by the way, God is sending a 12 year old MK (missionary kid) girl once or twice a week to help with the children and babies too! Wow! God does have a plan for the children, as well as the adults, in this Discipleship Training School.

We don’t have a proper classroom for the preschool. The children meet in the gazebo, while I play on the verandas with the babies. The children love learning new things, such as playing with play- doh! Our girls’ progress with Portuguese has soared, playing with the children every day. They are even picking up some Yao and Makua words (tribal languages here).

Our "Classroom" for the Preschool

The Brazilian and the Chilean ladies who are blessing our children. Thank you Lord!

The Fifth Week....

of class is over. The topic was Bible Overview and Inductive Bible Study. It proved to be an impossible task to cover every book of the Bible, as the time was not enough. Even briefly touching on the major Old Testament stories and general history leading up to the birth of Christ was difficult. Our teacher taught in English so I was translating for her. I know my Portuguese is not perfect. It is actually quite rusty after 3 years in America but I felt like I was managing. But one student finally came and told me “I’m not understanding you. I think it is your accent.” I was quite discouraged.



MELISSA, THE TEACHER OF THE WEEK, AND ME TRANSLATING FOR HER

After 3 days of Bible overview, the teacher switched to introducing the inductive Bible study method. At this point, we divided the class up between the literate and illiterate students. I took the illiterate students (about 9 of them) and started over from the beginning, teaching them a few Old Testament stories. It seemed as if the Bible overview had not gone well because the students were not familiar with the characters and events we were referring too. So our task was redefined from teaching Bible overview to Bible literacy – basic characters, stories, and themes.
The literate students, many of them with a high school education, treaded deep waters with the teacher, diving into the book of Titus. It was hard work, digging up information about original audience, drawing out observations from the passage and deriving application for their lives. But they stuck with it and were richly rewarded! Light bulbs starting going on and excitement grew as the Word of God came alive to them! (By the way, Victor started translated for the teaching when I left with the illiterate group, and then the students realized and commented that the problem was not my Portuguese, but that so much of the material had been new, they had not be able to process a lot of it. That made me feel a bit better.) So the week finished well.

A couple of the students’ summaries: “Before the Bible had always seemed confusing to me. But now I know how to study it and can study it for myself!” Another student was challenged by God’s Word through Titus: “I’ve realized that I need to change my life and live a more faithful righteous life so that I do not bring dishonor to the name of Christ!” Praise the Lord!


HALF THE STUDENTS (THOSE WITH DIFFICULTY READING AND WRITING) AND I WORK ON LEARNING A FEW OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

One more testimony from one of the students: “When I go home, I’m going to return as a real Christian. I’m learning so much. And I just thank God for the change in my wife. She is from a Muslim family and has been reluctant to be a Christian. We had been staying in the home of her family (I think a sister) but when we left to come here, they made it clear that we were not welcome to return. But since coming here, my wife has changed. She now will not allow us to go to sleep without praying first. And first thing in the morning, she wants to pray. What a change!” Yeah! Praise God!

Colds and Vitamin C

The end of this past week, most of the children came down with colds...coughs and runny noses. The temperatures have dropped to mid 50s at night, which has felt cold here. "Lord, we need some vitamins for these children!" Fruits are not included in our food budget for the school. I try to buy bananas or sometimes oranges but it is not every day I can get to town to buy these things.

But then Friday morning, a pick up truck pulls up and a farmer hops out. His farm is over 70 kilometers from town but today he has stopped by to visit. He goes to the back of the truck, opens it, and pulls out two gunny sacks full of ....



ORANGES! Vitamin C sent for our children from our Heavenly Father! Thank you Lord! The children are all sucking on oranges now at snack times.

The past week went well. The teacher used stories from the Old and New Testament to illustrate the character and nature of our God! The students enjoyed the practical applications she brought to our lives as well. Next week the speaker will be giving an overview of the Bible and be teaching how to study the Bible inductively.

Our brother who had epileptic fights who had come for prayer last Frday continued to struggle with fits. They were occurring around dawn, 5:00, 5:30, or 6:00. So Victor loaded the car with students and went to his house one morning at 4:30 to pray with him. That morning, the fit happened 10 minutes before they arrived! However the fits were shorter in duration. We have continued to pray and now the last three nights/mornings he has not had a single fit. We are thanking God!

Off to the training center....

Fathers' flight, Kitchen Fights, All night

Fathers’ flight -- The speaker this week taught on finding our identity in Christ vs where we try to find our identity. What a joy that God has called us to be salt and light for Him, that we are a chosen people and a royal priesthood! For the illiterate mother from the village, her identity is first of all in Christ, and she can be about His work! The students were especially challenged one morning when the teacher touched on the deep feelings that reside in our hearts if our parents, especially the fathers, have abandoned or rejected us. The teacher invited those who had been affected in this way to come forward for prayer. Of our 20 students, about 16 of them went forward, most of them with heart breaking stories of one or both parents not present as they grew up. Tears flowed. DTS staff prayed one on one with them. We trust that a deep healing has begun in their lives. Later in the school, we will have a whole week devoted to God as our Father and we hope to see God do a great work in the lives of these students.



The third week of our DTS is over. This picture shows our cooking facilities.


Kitchen fights - As Victor says, the third week is always a challenging week as the “honey moon” phase of arriving, meeting, and starting is over. So we noticed the students coming late to class and complaints arising over this or that. Disagreements, sometimes strong disagreements, dare we call them fights, came from the kitchen as students from different regions of the country hotly discussed ways of preparing food. While we have a lady coming to cook lunch for the school every day, staff and students take turns preparing breakfast and supper. So it is in these situations where the discipleship will need to happen now. In the classroom, we have 20 saints. Out of the classroom, we have 20 students whose “paint is still wet.” Perhaps we will hang a sign in the kitchen “Jesus is Lord of the Kitchen.” For now, we appreciate your prayers for this discipleship process.

All Night -- Last night, our school passed all night in prayer and worship on behalf of a young man who has suffered years of epileptic fits. Medicine from the hospital has helped some but then the hospital ran out of the medication. The last three months he has not had one night of uninterrupted sleep. The fits always happen at night. So he came in the evening with his parents and brother, brought by a missionary who has been discipling him for several years. Most of our staff and students fasted during the day. Then we divided into three groups to take turns staying up all night with him in prayer and worship. We had mattresses on the floor for him and his family to sleep. By God’s mercy, he awoke this morning after a night of uninterrupted sleep – no epileptic fights all night long! His mother is praising God. They went back home today to burn some remaining witchcraft medicine they had there. Then they will return to town for a week to see how he does. Praise God with us, for His showing Himself strong in the life of this young man! Pray for his complete healing!

Praising the Lord

I'm trying to learn this technology. Hopefully, by following this link you will be able to see a clip of our worship time at our school's opening.


At the opening of our Discipleship Training School, we had a time of praising the Lord, together with friends and neighbors. This particular song is talking about how the peoples will gather before the Throne of the Lamb, each tribe with its particular language and dance to praise the Lord. The woman going forward to dance is a Brazilian, representing Brazil in the dance of praise.

Preschool

I am watching the 7 or so children of the DTS staff and students during the class times so that the mothers can take full advantage of the class. I say 7 or so students because the number changes as neighbor children come and go as well. This picture shows the children at the Lichinga airport, waiting for the airplane bringing one of our students. This was quite the field trip for some of the children who come from villages and have never seen an airplane up close (or heard it up close!) Pray for these little hearts to be touched by God's love as well during our times together every day.

Worship Time during our Opening

 

DTS starting

Well, we are now living in a two room suite in a large community! Wow, it has been exciting to see this place fill up with people eager to learn more about the Lord! From the children’s perspective, 3 families came with three 3 yr old little girls, plus 2 neighbor girls around there age, Victoria and Clara have lots of friends to play with! Victoria is thriving on it, complaining when she has to come in for afternoon rest time and bath time/bed time. Clara enjoys it some of the time. Other times, she puts around our rooms, enjoying alone time, finding things to organize in our still disorderly – in the state of unpacking- rooms. (Today she found some little children’s books I had that all fit in a box and she nicely put them all back in.)

Dona Maria (the lady who helps us with our house work)rides her bicycle (which she got early May) all the way out here to help wash clothes and carry water from the well to buckets in our bathroom (since the water tower with the water tank fell down the day before we moved….after Victor had spent hours and hours fixing up the whole plumbing system to have running water).
A few students couldn’t come at the last minute, but it looks like we will have 19 students, a good number (plus 11 children, including ours). It is cold here….since we are situated on a hill, with the wind blowing up off a large pond below us. So we have hung grass mats around the outside gazebo where we eat and have hung transparent plastic over the windows in the classroom.

Yesterday, a man trained by other missionaries, came to show the students how to build a wood stove that conserves heat and greatly reduces the amount of firewood needed. This should help cut down our cooking and heating bathwater expenses.

So today Victor rented a huge truck for $100, got a license to haul firewood, and took over 15 guys out (mostly students) to the bush 30 kilometers from town and cut down loads of dead trees. He said the guys worked hard and with a great attitude! We should have enough firewood to last the whole school, hopefully!

Balbina, the wonderful wife of our YWAM leader Dinis, awoke at 10:30pm one night to make tea for students just arriving. Our wonderful staff ladies from England and Holland are working tirelessly making menus and figuring out budgets for the kitchen. We are feeding 40 people a day. I get up each morning to make a big pot of porridge (ground up corn, peanuts, beans, and soy) for the 11 children, 3 nursing mothers (counting myself) and one pregnant lady! Frank, our Dutch staff, bought some carpentry tools in Malawi and has spent the last two days trying to get 4 tables put together. Victor will leave at 6 am tomorrow to pick up the 20 chairs we had made that will hopefully be ready for our first day of class tomorrow.

It is always a challenge to get the schedule going and everything running smoothly, but so far things have gone pretty well. Most of the students arrived one or 2 days earlier than we had planned, so they have been sitting around a couple days now and are ready to start. What do African women do when they are away from home with very few responsibilities? They braid hair, and unbraid hair, and braid more hair….their hair, their friends hair, etc. I joined the party, having to braid both the girls’ hair. With one other lady helping me, it took half the time.
Well, hopefully this gives you a few word pictures of what is going on here………. More later. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Love,
Lori for all of us

Trip to Tanzania

Sorry for the long silence here. We were out of internet contact for almost a month, due to our last minute trip to Tanzania to visit my father in law, Victor's dad, who is terminally ill with bladder cancer. It was a long trip, about 70 hours in total with us covering 5000 kilometers! The following are a few pictures from our trip:

The girls, in their seats in our car, ready to go. Sunglasses and a piece of gum in their mouths, and they were good to go. The children did exceptionally well traveling. Clara still asks for a piece of gum now every time we get in the car. That was their "long trip treat" that they enjoyed.

We didn't have too much entertainment for our travel, other than look out the window, talking, singing, listening to music on an Ipod Grandpa set up for them, a few books, and sleep!



We had our moments of fussing and fighting but it was not too bad. The girls had to learn how to use latrines or bushes for rest stops. By the end of the trip, they were experts! God blessed our trips in so many ways, one being that our children stayed healthy the whole way, inspite of dirty latrines, food cooked in all sorts of places, and sleeping in 10 different places in 25 days!

Our road went through 50 kilometers of Game Reserve in Tanzania and we were thrilled to see a giraffe, as well as antelope, elephants in the distance and zebras!

On our second night of the trip, we had traveled all day and were quite tired. Someone had arrived a hotel for us to sleep in but the directions to the place were sketchy. We drove around the town for almost an hour trying to find the place. With everyone's nerves on edge from fatigue and frustration, Clara broke into song, singing her favorite song (from Steve Green's Children's Bible Memory Songs) "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! His love endures forever! Give thanks to the Lord for He is good!" What a timely reminder coming from little lips!

On our way to see Victor's father, we stopped at the YWAM Morogoro base where we had gone for me to do my DTS 4 years ago! It was so good to see friends there again. Victoria was born in Morogoro while we were at this base. In this picture, Victoria is standing in front of the house we lived in when she was a baby. The house was a duplex. The family in the other