We have gotten so behind on blog posts the past two months and for that we apologize. I’m not even going to attempt to “catch up” on everything that took place from April through now or else I’d have to barricade myself in a room for a few days to try and accomplish it, and I’d really rather not do that. I guess I’ll just have to save a lot of stories for sharing in person.
Writing is such a funny thing, and in recent weeks and months I guess you could say I’ve been suffering from a little “writer’s block”. Not because I have nothing to write about, but simply because I have to be in the right mood to take the time to put my thoughts into words that make sense to everyone else. Add to it the multitudes of activity, decisions, stresses, and challenges we faced every day and the fact that we had no internet for almost a month, and you can kind of understand why our blog has been a bit bare as far as recent updates.
One update I do need to share is regarding little Filomina. Much to our sorrow, she passed away—just two days before we were to travel to Zimbabwe for our second time to visit her, Pastor Salmo, and Lavimo. The original tumor in her jaw was completely gone, but the doctors believe she must have had another type of cancer as well. Her condition began to deteriorate rapidly the last two weeks of April and she died on the 27th.
Before her death Pastor Salmo and Lavimo had the opportunity to minister to many people both inside and outside of the hospital. They witnessed miracles, and saw people healed before their eyes. We can ask the Lord all day why these others were healed and not little Filomina, and even if He answered we probably still wouldn’t understand, for His ways are higher than our ways. But what I do know is many people were touched by her story, and the way total strangers were brought together over there to help Filomina, Salmo, and Lavimo was nothing short of miraculous. We’ve told them both that they need to write a book about what took place while they were over there.
We and fellow missionary, Julie, joined them in Zimbabwe to help make arrangements to transport Filomina’s body back to Mozambique and to get them back home as well. Their grief was intense and heart breaking. Pastor Salmo had been by his daughter’s bedside since he first took her to the hospital in Mozambique in November. It had been a long and emotional road for him. Lavimo had grown very close to Pastor Salmo and to Filomina and the grief was almost more than he could bear.
During their time in Zimbabwe, Pastor Salmo’s wife had a baby boy back home in Mozambique. He had not yet gotten to see his new baby, and I think the knowledge that he would soon be reunited with his wife, his other children, and his new baby boy helped to get him through his grief. While we were there he told us that he named the baby after Jason. It was such an emotional moment we couldn’t help but cry. What an honor! In fact we can think of no higher honor than to have someone name their baby after you. He said that when the baby was born, he, his wife, and Lavimo all prayed separately as to what the baby should be named. She, of course, was in Mozambique, and Lavimo and Salmo were in separate places in the hospital in Zimbabwe at the time. God answered all three of them with the name “Jason.” I’m not sure how they are spelling it though as during our time in Mozambique we saw many different attempted spellings of Jason’s name.
Jason is not a common name at all in Mozambique, neither by their native African heritage nor by their colonial Portuguese influence. It’s interesting to note that in their native Sena language, the name “Jason” sounds like the word they use for Jesus. In fact Pastor Abel once told Jason that every time he called for him it was like he was saying the name of Jesus. We don’t know why the Lord would tell them to name the baby after Jason, but Jason felt very honored and humbled by it.
On a different note, our temporary assignment as fill-in base directors in Dondo, Mozambique, ended the last week of May. Our time in Mozambique was full of both joy and sorrow, blessings, trials, and tribulations. We saw the best sides of people, and we saw the worst sides of people (ourselves included). We discovered our own strengths, and God revealed to us our weaknesses.
We saw God lift people up, and then we saw the enemy oppress, put down, and try to destroy them. We were strengthened then tested and tried; praised and then accused. We saw how the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. We saw the innocent unjustly accused through conspiracies of the wicked. But we also saw over and over how God will take a situation that seems impossibly hopeless and miraculously turn it around for His good. We learned how easily people can be swayed by lies, and the importance of standing up for the truth. We experienced the book of James firsthand and learned that to “count it all joy” is a choice that we must consciously make each and every day.
We laughed. We cried. We rejoiced, and we suffered emotionally. We made many friends and adopted new family. We fell in love with the people of Mozambique, their lifestyle, and values. We saw Mozambicans who have nothing, literally give the shirts off their backs to someone else they felt to be in greater need. At one point we had no money ourselves. We took the need to God in prayer, and witnessed God answer that prayer through total strangers back home in the states within minutes. We saw God release Jason from the military and deployment TWICE! The testimonies we have to share are too numerous to write on this blog alone.
We never dreamed we would go through so much in such a short time period. To say we went through Missionary “Boot Camp” would be quiet the understatement. Our prayer is that we learned everything God wanted us to learn, and if we haven’t learned it yet (and we’re sure we haven’t) we pray that He reveals it to us in His time.
We returned to the states on June 2nd and have been spending time with family in Louisiana and Arkansas. We are currently in Harrison, but tentatively plan to return to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, next Friday, July 2nd, passing through Texarkana along the way to spend some time with Jason’s brother, sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and niece. He has two grandmothers in Texas that we hope to visit as well. We plan to return to the Harrison area again the end of July/early August and possibly again in September before returning to Mozambique.
During our time in Mozambique, God connected us with another organization that has rather interesting roots…Sri Lankan roots. When we first began to realize that God was calling us to……something……he called us to go to India and Sri Lanka. We went there, and our lives were changed forever. The organization is called Hope4Child, and they started with a few Canadian families of Sri Lankan heritage who wanted to make a difference by helping Sri Lankan orphans.
While in Mozambique, we met and worked with a dear pastor, Pastor Abel, who eventually became our brother. It is through him that we found out about Hope4Child. One of the leaders of the organization met our Mozambican brother and found out that he and his wife were caring for over 25 orphans out of their home. This pastor had limited means and was struggling to provide for them. Hope4Child partnered with him to help him, and since that time they have decided that they want to help him with his vision to create a more formal and official “children’s center” to care for orphans in his area. He wants to not only provide for their physical and educational needs but for their spiritual needs as well, leading them to a relationship with Christ, and raising them to be a nation of intercessory prayer warriors.
There are many, many orphans in Mozambique. In fact 16% of the child population of Mozambique is orphans, and as such there are many children in need of care, a need that can only be met by many organizations working together. Hope4Child was in need of a Western missionary couple to come in alongside Pastor Abel and his wife, Judite, and help them not only to get the center established but to also teach them the various aspects of record keeping, financial accountability, etc that are required of Western non-profit organizations.
After much prayer and multiple confirmations from the Lord, we have accepted the invitation to help found this new ministry. The founders of Hope4Child and Pastor Abel are in the process of getting the new ministry registered in Mozambique. In Mozambique an organization cannot buy land until it is formally established. They (we) may or may not use the same name as was used in Sri Lanka. The families who started Hope4Child primarily want to be an outlet for funding and support, not controlling. They want to give the people on the ground (Pastor Abel, his wife, and us) the freedom to make necessary decisions, incorporate our own vision, etc, which is wonderful news to hear. This format gives God room to move! They are also in the process of securing a property with multiple buildings that will serve our purpose well.
Our tentative plan is to return to Mozambique in mid-September. How soon we return, though, is dependent on how soon God provides for us financially as not only do we have the cost of flights, but we must also have our living expenses covered (food, clothing, communications, emergency health coverage, etc).
Please pray for this new ministry and children’s center, Pastor Abel and his family, and me and Jason. We need prayer for wisdom, and we especially need prayer for finances. Jason and I have a more specific prayer request as well—that our house finally sells. It is under contract currently, and we are praying that everything goes through and that it will be gone and debts paid before we return to Mozambique.
Thanks so much for your prayer and financial support and especially your support for little Filomina. We will continue to update our blog with more information as everything unfolds. We are looking forward to this new endeavor and are looking forward to working with Pastor Abel and his family to help the children of Mozambique.
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