7 days to go!

We are in the final count down!  We are trusting God to be God in this challenge -- we believe and know and trust that He is all powerful, that He is good, and that He is sovereign in our lives and in this Nampula challenge.


Today, pledges for $10,500 came in, bringing our total to $570,155 pledges received with $329,845 remaining.  One person shared how they had prayed about giving, had then read and felt the Lord speaking to them through Hebrews 13:16, and proceeded to send in their pledge.  We are humbled and blessed to be witnesses of the obedience, love, and sacrifice of God's people!


Thanks for your prayers.  The children are all better and our energy has picked up somewhat.  Today we meet again as a team for prayer.  There is nothing like meeting together as God's people to pray together!  Thank you for joining us in prayer -- even though miles separate us. 

One more quick update:


In the past 3 days we have received pledges for another $25,980 bringing our total to $545,215!  We have come a long ways!  All praise to our Mighty God!  That leaves the remaining pledges needed at $354,785.


We appreciate your continued prayers!  We are tired and dragging.  Last week's seminar was very good with about 35 participants (and 25 children playing outside).  But it was a busy week as well.  And 3 of our 4 kids have picked up a bug going around the seminar of a 24 hour fever.  And we are all a bit down and under the weather. 


And we are very aware that there are 12 days left to the deadline of December 15 of having all the total pledges received and ready to present to SIL, the sellers of the training center for their final proposal.  So thank you for standing with us in prayer as we wait on the Lord through these last days! 

End of another week report

We are thankful to be able to say that we have received at least one pledge per day this past week.  Our total now stands at $518,135 pledged with a remaining $381,865 to go.


The temptation to doubt and worry exists when we look at the $381,865 left.  What a big number!  But our God is bigger!


But the Lord encouraged me through Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."


One of YWAM's values is to work as a team.  We experienced the blessing of a team this past Thursday as we met again to pray for Nampula.  Victor and I had been discouraged about the amount remaining.  But as we came together in prayer again as a team, the Lord reminded us of all He has done so far!  We exchanged worry for thanksgiving, doubts about the future for remembering God's faithfulness up to now.  We left the meeting with lighter hearts. 


And remember the story about our girls wanting to give their coins for the center?  Well, when their friends, ages 8 and 10, heard about it, they were not to be outdone.  They had gone on the trip with their parents and Victor to Nampula and saw firsthand the training center.  When they got back home, they picked up the hoes and went out to hoe the family garden, working with all their hearts, to earn some money to give their very own contribution for the center as well.  The first week of December, our team will be taking up an offering again and the children will proudly bring their gifts before the Lord as well!  This has been our heart -- to see whole families with a heart for serving the Lord! 


I've tried pasting some pictures but the website is not allowing me to upload the pictures for some reason.  I'll keep trying but for today, I'll sign off.


Thanks for your continued prayers and for watching and waiting with us.....until December 15!

Quick update...

The total this evening stands at:


$515,485  pledged with a remaining $384,515 remaining!  We are getting there, bit by bit!


Keep praying with us for the full amount to come in!


Pray also for Victor and the team who will have a LONG day of traveling tomorrow as they travel back from Nampula.

More stories...

More stories of how God is working!


The most recent donors:  Victoria and Clara Selemani -- Amount: about 35 cents a piece!  It happened like this.

I just finished reading the Bible with the girls and we prayed again about Nampula together.  After Clara finished, she got all excited and said, "Mom, I want to give my spending money for the center!"  My reflex thought was, "Don't bother.  The coins won't make much of a difference." 

But as I processed the thought, Victoria, the older wiser sister blurted out the thought, "No, Clara.  It won't make a difference." 

By then, my processing had got me to the point of, "Well, what if everyone who is giving thought that way?  My gift is too small and so I won't give."   So Victoria, not to be left behind, quickly said she wanted to give as well.

But the idea was still rolling around our heads 10 minutes later as the girls climbed into bed -- into my bed.  See, Victor is gone to Nampula and the deal at our house is when Dad is gone, the kids get to take turns sleeping with Mom!  So tonight was their night!

So Victoria asked again, "Will the bank take our coins or do we have to have --what do you call it, Mom?"  "Bills."  "Yes, bills.  Don't we have to have bills to give?"  I explained that enough coins will eventually equal a bill.

Then I brought up the story of the boy who offered his lunch to Jesus.  Did he say it was too small?  What matters is the heart of giving and WHO we give it to.  God is able to multiply what we give Him and it will be enough. 

And then Clara wiggled and said with shining eyes, "I'm so excited!   Not about sleeping in bed with Mom but about giving to the center!"     Thank you, Lord, for using this to teach her the joy of giving to You!

Another donor:

A missionary friend working in Azerbaijan sent in a pledge and then added: "I just wanted to say that I have really been encouraged by your step of faith.  My small team of one local family and me are trying to buy only one house and have a payment coming up in just 3 months of only $40,000.  After I saw how much God provided for you in pledges I was so encouraged about how much God can provide.  Thanks for helping build my faith!  God will provide all you need and all that we need!" 

Amen!  Thank you, Father, for encouraging this sister and we do ask You to provide all that that team needs for Your work to continue in that country!

Update

Well, with a few more pledges sent in in the past couple days, our totals stand at $512,170 pledged with a remaining $387,830 to go!  We are making progress! 


One significant gift was a 500 meticais (equivalent to $15 USD) gift given by the Chinonyelo cha Issa (translated Love of Jesus) Yao house church here in Lichinga.  This gift is probably 2 or 3 month's worth of church offerings as most of the members (6-10 people) do not have monthly salary.  One family from their group has committed to go with us to Nampula to start this new work.  So it is significant that this home church is standing with us and that they did not feel like their gift was too small to give!  Indeed, God asks us to give what we have and He will multiply it.  This act of giving blessed us so much, coming from our Yao brothers and sisters!


Tomorrow Victor leaves with a car full of teammates for Nampula.  Pray for a safe trip and good time together as teammates.  He plans to return on Tuesday. 

Back from our Team Retreat

We just came back from our end of year YWAM Niassa team retreat.  We had a good couple of days together.


While we were gone, 8 more pledges came in for the training center in Nampula and we are now over half way there with a total of $496,970 pledged and a total of $403,030 remaining!  The Lord be praised!  Bwana Asifiwe!


During our retreat, a coworker Sergio from Chile challenged us all in a devotional, focused on Luke 19:11-27, which is the parable of the Talents.  The master went away and before He left, He gave 10 talents to 10 of his servants.  When he returned and called the servants to account for what He had given them, the first servant had earned 10 more, the second servant had earned 5 more, and another servant just returned what he had been given.  He had not invested what the Master had given him. 


Sergio asked the question: "Faithfulness to God involves what?  Is it just going to church?  Not doing bad things?"


He continued by saying that faithful service to the Master involves multiplication -- using what we have been given to invest in His Kingdom.  What has He given us?  For what purpose?  "At the very least, He has given us all a mouth to be used in talking to others about Jesus," he challenged us!


The Master will not ask an accounting for us for things He did not bless or entrust us with.  But we are responsible for what He has given us! 


His final thought was, "What does a successful business involve?  Two things:  Work -- hard work and Risk.  It is the same in the Kingdom - to be about the King's business, we will need to work hard and we will need to take risks for Him!  Sometimes, the work doesn't get done because we are relaxed (or can we be honest and say lazy?) or because we are afraid of the risk.


So our team as a whole felt the Lord speaking to our hearts again about being involved in His Kingdom, being faithful to invest what He has given us as far as talents, time, finances, gifts, etc.  May laziness and fear not hinder His work!  It was a timely word for us.  We hope it will bless you also.  And we are blessed by seeing many of God's people investing in His work here in Mozambique through the donations pledged towards this training center that will bless YWAM (the Buyer) with a center for training and discipling God's people and will bless SIL/Wycliffe (the Seller) with funds to continue Bible translation here in southern Africa!  Isn't that cool how the Lord is using this project as a double blessing for His Kingdom!  To Him be all the glory.   Until next time......