All Nations Mozambique

Rika and I will never call our self activists, but we do feel the need to speak out about AIDS and orphans affected by AIDS. Nicols is our latest baby and his mother died of AIDS only a few weeks ago. In the end she was mentally ill and tried to smother Nicols, so Social Welfare had to take him from her. He is only three months old and is without a mother. He tested negative on his HIV test, which is a miracle, but we will test him again in a few months. Baby Luis was not so lucky, his mother and father died of AIDS, and he is living with AIDS.

As followers of Jesus we can not just stand on the side line and watch as millions of children are orphaned, because of AIDS. The church has a leading role to play to take care of these children, and to help in the fight against AIDS. Jesus is the only answer to prevent further growth of people living with AIDS. As churches we should prayerfully consider how we could help. Training councilors to assist people living with AIDS are a huge need here in Africa, coming along side single mothers with AIDS, supplying anti retroviral etc. This is just some of the ministries we can get involve in, to help people living with AIDS or who are affected with AIDS.

God is challenging us even more to be a voice for the AIDS orphan and children affected by AIDS. Please prayerfully consider how you can be involved.

(Photo of Baby Luis when he first came to us. To see what he looks like today go to Photo’s)

The second baby house are up and running and is such a miracle to be able to take in more babies. Currently we have Daniel and Nicols living there. They are both doing really well and have visibly gained a lot of weight. They are both four months old and our educators at the new house, Zaffira and Maria is doing a great job. We visit there often and the house is always in immaculate condition. Our staff at the first house for babies trained Maria and Zaffira. They did an excellent job and we are very proud of them.

Many people have asked us if it is possible to sponsor an individual baby on a monthly basis. We have done this and up to know we were not successful in doing it. So we decided to start again with a baby sponsorship program. We have profiles of all the babies on our website, so if you are interested in doing this it will be a great blessing to us. To sponsor a baby on a monthly basis will be $40 or R250. It will also be wonderful to send the babies gifts on their birthdates etc. Please e-mail us if you want to sponsor a specific baby. To you, who are already sponsoring a baby, thank you so much for your support. With the second house we have so much more expenses and we are really stretched at the moment. We praise God for His faithfulness and provision.

We will be in Cape Town for December, spending time with our families and friends. So if you want to come and spend some time here in Mozambique at the baby house it will be a great blessing for us.

Thank you so much for your prayers and your support of our work here in Mozambique

We are back in Mozambique after almost four weeks of being away. I went to Nepal to be part of an All Nations gathering. Workers from different nations shared their stories and as they shared I were greatly encouraged. God is moving in the nations, gathering His people for His glory. He is touching Tibetan Buddhist, street children in India and our lives here in Mozambique. It is such an honor to be part of this family at this time as we look to see God glorified in all the nations.

Rika and our three boys went to Cape Town to spend some time with family and friends. On arrival in Cape Town she and Pietro were very ill. They were later diagnosed with Hepatitis A. Pietro is much better now, but Rika is still struggling with her health. Please pray for her that her liver will fully recover.

Last week while we were traveling back to Mozambique, Social Welfare came to ask our help with a three-month-old baby, Nicols. His mother is dying of AIDS in hospital and she is also mentally ill. He is extremely malnourished, literally skin and bone. Baby Daniel has grown so much while we were gone and he has gained a lot of weight, so we almost did not recognize him. All the other children are doing really well and have gained weight accept Marcelino that lost weight. Please pray for Marcelino we cannot understand why he struggles to grow and gain weight.

The baby house is almost furnished, we have trained the new educators and tomorrow we move baby Nicols and Daniel into the new house. God is so awesome and it is so amazing to see a vision and dream come into existence.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.
Photo Nicols. More photo’s in our Photo Album.

Update: Nicols mother died today in Central Hospital, Maputo (27 October 2007).

It is almost three years ago now when we started our first house for babies. In this time we learned so much about Jesus and His faithfulness. We have experienced His provision in so many different ways. Last night when I signed the contract for the second house for babies, my heart was not overflowing with faith though. In my mind I had many questions of how we are going to be able to do this. It is another small step on this journey that Jesus took us to Mozambique. We know it is His heart for us to love and care for orphans. We need your prayers in this time as we prepare the house and train new staff to open the new house.

Baby Daniel is doing really well, although he keeps us awake at night. He is gaining weight and growing visibly. He sleeps in a baby bed next to Rika and mine. We are a little sleep deprived so please pray with us for energy and strength.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support, we truly appreciate it. We have some new photos in our photo album under Macaneta.

Aida comes to call me saying that there is someone speaking English at our gate. It is early Saturday morning and we were not expecting any visitors. I opened the gate finding two friends from South Africa with their truck and trailer. Johan is from a church in South Africa who is coming to us with a team later in September. He tells me that he has a delivery of diapers for us, I call it gold. We use over a 1000 diapers a month and when the babies have diarrhea even more. We started to unload the diapers, over 4000 in total. We stand once again in awe of the God we serve, He supplies in our every need. Taking care of ten “babies”, providing for them would not have been possible without God. The miracles we experience almost daily, demonstrates the love Jesus have for the orphan, abandoned and AIDS orphan to me.

Daniel is doing well, he moved into Rika and my room, sleeping in his cot next to our bed. Last night I sat up till after twelve giving him his bottle. Life has changed for us once again with having a newborn baby in the house. He woke up almost every hour last night wanting a bottle. Please pray for us that God will daily refresh us and fill us with His Spirit.

Sunday morning early Luis, Pedro, Mimi, Timoteo, Sergio, Amy and I set out to the house of the grandmother and grandfather we help. We sat under the big Mango tree in their front yard. Woman and children came from the community came and joined us in worship, teaching and prayer. We had our African drum with us and soon we praised God in Shangaan and Portuguese. I shared the story of the prodigal son with them and afterwards we prayed for the sick. It was such an amazing time of fellowship in the dirt under a Mango tree with the poorest of the poor. Through out our time there I experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit. Afterwards some of the people wanted to know if we could do it twice a week? Africa is hungry, the harvest is ready and Jesus is calling to the Harvesters to come to the Harvest. Join us in our prayers, as we pray for people who will be willing to lay down their lives for the sake of the poor in Africa and share the love of Jesus with them.

The grandmother was dressed in black sitting on a grass mat in front of her hut. Her face tells of many years of hardship. Last week she had to bury her daughter that died because of the caesarian. The father of the child is not able to take care of him and asked our help. Today we went to fetch him from hospital; he is tiny and weighs only one and a half kilograms. His head is almost the size of a tennis ball. Please pray for baby Daniel. There is also more photos’ of him in our photo album.

Sunday night the water pipe to the toilet started leaking so we woke up Monday morning with the toilet and baby room ankle deep in water. Sergio, our next door neighbor who helps us with tasks like these were gone the whole day, leaving us without water in the bathroom. Amy thinking that there are no lights in the outside bathroom, took a bucket, because there are no water to the outside toilet, well the photo tells all…….. (The photo is after)

Amy and Britney are volunteers that are serving with us here in Mozambique. I encouraged them to reach out to young women and build relationships with them. I was really excited when they shared with me that they have invited over these two young women too our house. This is church in the simplest form and hopefully by having fellowship with these two muslim girls, they will experience the love of Jesus. Floyd McClung’s latest book, How to start a house church, which he has written with Larry Kreider are now available. I highly recommend this book to you, it is available on Amazon.

Amy McMurtrey writes,…

Yesterday Britney, another volunteer, and took a chapa (taxi van) to the central market. While we were on the chapa we noticed two young girls sitting infront of us. They were talking, and tried to talk with us…but still my portuguese is not up to par. They laughed at us, Britney and I got off the bus and we went our seperate ways. About two hours later we walked from the market up the street in busy Maputo to try and catch a chapa home. There were sooooo many people waiting in line for a chapa; pushing to squeeze as many people as they could in the tiny taxis. While we were waiting we again encountered these girls. This time we tried to carry on a conversation. They shared some small cookies with us as we waited for what seemed like hours for the right chapa to come. In the end we invited them to come to our house for coffee and exchanged phone numbers.

Fast Forward to today…..

Today Acia (A-sha) and Fatola came over for coffee. They are 18 years old and attend a boarding school here in Matola. They came over for coffee, taught us Mozambican games, and played with the kids. When it was time for them to leave I went with them to their school and they gave me a small tour. I started talking with them and invited them to our house church. They are muslim and invited me to come to church with them as well. So this Friday I am going to a Muslim mosk and on Sunday the girls are coming here for church. Please keep them in your prayers. And also pray for me as I atempt to love them as Christ would and as the language barrier is frustrating.

I find myself continuously thinking of a second house for babies. God has burdened my heart with this; it is a growing passion within me. I have been praying about, seeking council on when and how. We need your prayers, words from God and advice as we move forward in opening a new house. In the beginning of September we have a couple coming to join us for three months as volunteer workers. God has laid it on their hearts to help and setup the second house. This is an answer to prayer for us, for this is a huge amount of work. We are looking for a house that is close to the current house; please pray that we will find the right house and that the monthly rental would not be too much. We also need almost $3000 to setup a new house for babies, so please pray with us and stand with us in faith. We hope to have the second house running by the end of November and home to more babies. Please pray with us for this dream, burden Jesus has laid on our hearts.