Answered Prayer....Chico is Home!!

This picture was taken at my wedding on July 21.  It's Chico and his little brother Bruce.  Their mom was also at the wedding helping out in the kitchen.  Chico has a very special place in my heart.  He lived on the streets on and off for a couple of years but in March made the decision to return home.  You can read a little more about his story here:  My Sweet Chico

Sadly, A few days after the wedding, Chico decided to return to the streets.  His mom called right away and told us he had not returned home.  I searched for him many times around the city.  He did a good job of hiding from us.  I finally found him one Saturday afternoon playing video games with some other street kids.  We talked for about 20 minutes with Chico barely making eye contact with me.  I reminded him of how much I love him and that God has given him a beautiful family that he needed to return to.

After that day, Chico worked even harder to hide from us.  No one from my team was able to speak to him for over 2 months.  One teammate found him twice and twice Chico ran from him.  While I was in the States, I asked people at a couple of churches to pray for Chico to stop running and return to us.  A week ago, I returned to Mozambique.  When I saw all the boys again, one of my first questions was, "who knows where Chico is staying?"  I was given lots of answers and I checked most of them out....the video arcade, Maputo Shopping Center, Mimmo's restaurant, the park in Baixa....but to no avail.  I emailed some friends and churches back home and again asked them to pray.

Thursday morning, God answered those prayers.

Chico stopped running and came to Masana.

I cried as I shared with him how much God loves him....that people in America were praying for him to stop running and come back and how faithful God is to answer our prayers.

Chico spent the day with us at Masana, had one last night on the streets, and now is back home with his family.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8

Final Wedding Celebration

Saturday we had a beautiful wedding celebration in Georgia with many of my family and friends.  Bob Beckwith, the pastor of the UGA Wesley Foundation, did a beautiful job of sharing about God's faithfulness in giving me the desires of my heart and how His goodness follows us.  We had a group of pastors and leaders from the churches and organizations that support our ministry pray over us.  And then we enjoyed the spread of food my mom worked so hard to put together.

Here is the video we showed highlighting our Mozambican wedding day:

Our Civil Service

Church weddings in Mozambique are not recognized by the government so we had to schedule a civil wedding with a judge. Many people do both their civil wedding and church wedding/reception on the same day. But we knew the wedding day was going to be really full so we decided to have our civil service a few days before the actual wedding.

Guess this means we have 2 wedding anniversaries to celebrate each year....July 16 we were married in the eyes of Mozambique and July 21 we were married in the eyes of God!

The civil ceremony was held in a government building. It was all very formal. We had to enter with our godparents, Luis and Lurdes.

The judge read the Mozambican laws about marriage.

After exchanging our rings, we had to sign the official wedding registry with our godparents also signing as witnesses.

Then the judge signed making it all official!

And in the eyes of Mozambique......we were married!!!

Wedding Preparations

A wedding in Africa requires an early start. We had 60 chickens, 2 goats, and a rabbit to kill. Not to mention the garlic to peel and crush, peanuts to grind, and vegetables to buy. The feast was organized by the wonderful Mama Julia, our Masana cook with lots of helping hands. Aside from the food, there were decorations to make and boys to get outfitted with cute clothes.

Enjoy the preparations:

The amazing Mama Julia!

Athens Link sent over a suitcase full of clothes for the boys to wear to the wedding. We had a fun day of letting them each pick out their outfit.

One of 2 goats given to us for the wedding feast.

Luis, our godfather and dear friend, preparing to kill the goat.

Lots of helping hands for the chicken killing day

This is a special chicken that was given to Roberto and I for the wedding day feast.

I was not exempt from helping with the chicken kill!

Mama Julia chopping over 80 lbs of beef

We had to peel and crush TONS of garlic

mom, deanna, and the boys making heart decorations

All of this work to produce this:

And one happy couple:

First Wedding Celebration

On June 30, the wedding celebrations began with a 4 hour drive up north to the home of Roberto's grandmother, aunts, uncles, and many cousins. We were greeted by women and children singing and dancing.....well i think this part of our wedding celebration is best told in pictures:

Aunts, cousins, neighbors....all singing and dancing as we arrived. This culture is full of singing and dancing!

Mom and dad with the rabbit and chicken we were given....they were later killed and prepared for Roberto and I to eat in our new home.

Roberto with the goat we were given as a gift. (It was later killed and prepared for the wedding day feast)

The women prepared a wonderful feast for us.

Such beautiful women working so hard!

Roberto and I were given a capalana, a traditional wrap that serves as a skirt, baby sling, cloth to sit on, blanket.....countless uses!

My mom and Roberto's mom.

The family members formed small groups and presented us with gifts. Each group sang and danced and they approached us. This group of women presented us with sugar cane and lots of oranges

A few of the gifts we were given. The wooden cups were hand made and painted by one of Roberto's uncles.

The women heard we wanted some cashews to take back to Maputo with us so they picked and roasted them for us

Roberto and I choosing the "special parts" of the goat we wanted to eat....the tongue, stomach, intestines.

Packing up all of our gifts in the car as the women sang and danced some more

My new family :-)

I'm Married!!!!!!

that's why I've been mia lately. but soon i'll be back to the blogging with some posts about all of our wedding festivities!

Treasures in the Trash

One of our boys here at Masana has the best luck of finding incredibly cute but silly clothing items as he is out and about on the street. Unfortunitly, part of our boys lives is spent digging through the trash for leftovers, clothes, scraps of metal they can sale, etc. They often show up at Masana with the most random items....ski boots, a broken motorbike for toddlers, broom handles, old tires....just randomness.

Oh but Messi! Just look at how cute this kid is in in the treasures he finds in the trash:

The Sylvestor the Cat hat:

Messi showed up with this hat one day and wore it all day, everyday for a week until it disappeared. The day he couldn't find the hat was a sad day....he searched the whole center looking for his "gatinho" (little cat)

And the dinosaur costume:

This one was a great find during our winter months because it's warm! One of our workers was chasing Messi the dinosaur around and accidentally ripped off his tail so I pulled out the needle and thread and poorly attempted to sew the tail back on.

Boys like Messi are why I love Masana!!!! Such innocence trapped in a world of street life. Join me in praying for Messi...for the protection of his innocence as he is surrounded by boys who are stealing, drinking, and doing drugs. Pray for him to reach the place that he is ready to leave the streets and go back home to his family.