Despite a rough start to 2017, God is teaching us so much about the importance of taking time to reflect on Him and what He is doing in the midst of hard times.
We returned from the USA to news that 2 of the rooms we had built last year at our center had to be torn down. One of those rooms was to be a bedroom for 2 street boys that we had invited to live with us in a one year transitional phase to get them off the street. We scrambled and came up with a plan B....add a bedroom onto the house that Roberto and I have built on our personal land across the bay from the city. What should have been a 3 or 4 week building project (a bedroom, kitchen, and veranda) is now looking like 6 weeks because of the lack of water. Apparently cement work is difficult without water. But, we give thanks to the Lord because there is still a home for Jose and Arlindo to live in this year and they have settled in well.
Speaking of a lack of water, we also returned to news that the reservoir that supplies water to Maputo is almost dry. The water company has started rationing water in an attempt to stretch out what little water is left in the reservoir as we wait for rains. We now only get water every other day. We were managing fine until our day center reopened and we all of a sudden had 30+ people needing to wash clothes and bathe at our house. After a couple of weeks of running out of water most days, we were able to purchase a 5000L tank and install it at our house so that we still have water on the off days. We give thanks to the Lord for provision of water.
We started the year short staffed at Masana because of 2 staff members out on maternity leave, 1 completing an internship for his university course, and 1 stuck in the USA awaiting documents to return. One of the other street kids' centers here in our city stopped accepting children during the day because of funding issues which means the number of boys at Masana increased. 35 boys a day with only 4 staff members was not easy. But we give thanks to the Lord for the new boys that are now a part of our ministry and for the hard work of our staff members.
This past Friday was our first staff day of the year. We read Psalm 136 together. The first 9 verses are easy to ready as they talk about praising the God who created the heavens and earth. When we got to the verses that talk about praising the God who killed the first born of every family in Egypt and who killed mighty kings, I debated jumping ahead. But I didn't. Because our God is both a beautiful Creator and a just Ruler. Sometimes God's ways are harsh. But His ways lead to freedom for the people of God. Sometimes there is suffering. But joy comes in the morning. How many times have we seen God take hard situations and bring glory to His name? How many boys have chosen to leave the streets and go home because of suffering? So we give thanks to the Lord in both the hard times and the blessed times. His love endures forever.
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