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!