Home Visits

How do you do home visits when the kids you work with don’t have homes? Well they do have homes. . . their homes just look very different from what you or I would call home. . . . even very different from what many Africans would call home. But what is home anyway? Is it so much about the house or apartment or hut that you live in? Or is it more about the place where one finds love, relationship, community, and belonging.

Today I had the privilege of visiting 2 of the places that some of my boys call “home.” The first one was an overgrown field behind some apartment buildings. Hidden back in the trees is a small community where 8 or 9 men live together. On first glance, it appeared pretty trashy but as I sat with the guys and really took time to look around I saw the individual houses built with such care. I saw the art projects one of the men, Ivan, was working on. I saw how it could be called home . . . because it is in this field that these men find the belonging that they look for.

Next we went to an abandoned house where a few teenage guys and girls lived along with 5 young boys. The boys were all involved in Masana at some point but are no longer coming. We went with the hope of convincing them to return. We walked into a large open room where the teenagers lay sprawled out on a mat. One of the young boys quickly gave up the crate he was sitting on so that I could join them. Down the hallway were a couple of rooms with sheets covering the doorways. Just past the rooms, was a large open area where the roof of the house had long ago caved-in. As I watched one of the teenage boys, Manuel, interacting with the younger boys, I saw the love that they have for one another. It’s that love that makes that dilapidated house a home.

I pray that more and more, the Lord would give me eyes to see as He sees.

Coloring Books

I have finished my first week at Masana. This past week, the word was getting out to all the kids that we had reopened so it was mostly just hang-out time and figuring out what education level each of the boys is at. On Monday, we will start with school. The boys taught me to play a card game called "cinco cartoes." We played this game for hours with an incomplete deck of cards. After two days of this, I was desperate to provide other activities for the boys so I went out and bought some coloring books, crayons, pick-up-sticks, and dominoes. The coloring books were a huge hit!!! It was so fun to watch the boys, young and old, color pictures of dancing elephants and dinosaurs. It was a great reminder that no matter how tough the streets have made them, they are still just kids.

If anyone wants to send a package to me, I would love to put together an art box and a game box for the boys to use while they are at Masana each day. That kind of stuff is pretty expensive to buy here. With games, keep them simple - for kids under 10 maybe. You can send it to my mailbox in South Africa:
Sarah Olds
Suite 337 Private Bag X11340
Nelspruit 1200
South Africa

Apartment Search

I’m living in the city! Tuesday, I moved into my friend Katie’s apartment. It’s on the top floor above a restaurant with lots of city noise. Some people warned me I might not sleep well with the cars driving by but to me it feels just like my room at mom and dad’s house with 5 lanes of traffic! There is a beautiful view of the ocean too! I am so blessed that Katie is allowing me to stay here while I look for my own place. Katie has lived in Mozambique for 12 years now so she is able to teach me a lot about life in the city.

Katie met some guy on the street yesterday wanting to know if she needed help finding an apartment….totally the Lord! So she and I spent yesterday evening and this morning driving around looking at places. We didn’t find anything that I’m crazy about yet…and actually places are quite expensive. But now that I’ve seen a couple of places, I have an idea about what I’m looking for. We did see one apartment today that would be perfect – it’s 3 bedrooms and would be in my price range if we find a 3rd roommate. It’s in the area of the city we want to be in and it’s less than a block away from my favorite Thai restaurant!!!

Please pray for the Lord’s favor in finding the perfect place at the perfect price. I am feeling a bit unsettled now and am ready to be in my own place.

On another note, I’ve already gone out to visit Zacarrius. He was so excited to tell me that he and his sister, Matilda, are both starting school next week. I want to help their mom, Lena, start a small business selling produce so I plan on going back to visit her next week to talk about that. I was out in the city with some of my friends Tuesday and ran into a bunch of the boys who go to Masana. The project starts back up Monday. I am super excited about that!!!

Prayer Requests As I Return

I am less than a week away from returning to Mozambique! Here are some things you can pray about for me as i return:

* I'll be looking for an apartment in the city with my friend Besty. I would love a 3 bedroom place so that we have an extra room for guests. Pray we find an affordable place quickly.

* Pray that I will get connected to other Christians living in the city.

* I am still lacking a little in support for the year. Pray that God will provide all that I need.

* Pray for my Portuguese!

* I will start working with Masana, the project for street kids, a week or so after I return. Pray that the Lord will give me creative ideas of how I'm to be involved with the boys.

*More and more, I'm realizing how important the childhood years are in shaping how we view God. Pray I will be a great reflection of the Father's love to these boys.

The Fatherless

I’m reading 3 different books at once right now – Wide Awake by Erwin McManus, Hope Lives, A Journey of Restoration by Amber Van Schooneveld, and Fields of the Fatherless by Tom Davis . Today, the sections that I read in each one of these books all quoted Matthew 25:31-46 in part or its entirety.

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."


God created you and I to express His goodness. “Every time you perform a loving act; every time you alleviate human suffering or bring hope and joy into a person’s life, you’ve expanded the good and increased the honor God receives for creating you in his image. God loves when his children reflect his character. (Wide Awake)

I’m a missionary in Africa. . . yet I’m challenged by this passage of scripture. How many times do I miss an opportunity to express God’s goodness to the people so close to His heart – the fatherless. Look at these statistics I read in Fields of the Fatherless:
•Today there are over 143 million orphans in the world. That’s one child in every 13!
•More than 13 million orphans were added to the total in 2006 alone, many due to HIV/AIDS.
•Every 5 seconds a child dies because he or she is hungry.
•10.9 million children under the age of 5 die in developing countries every year – malnutrition and hunger related accounting for 60% of these deaths.
•More than 1 million children are trafficked every year as sex slaves and another 8.4million children work under horrific circumstances – forced into debt bondage or other forms of slavery, prostitution, pornography, armed conflict, or other illicit activities.
•By the end of 2006, there were 2.3 million children living with HIV around the world, and over half a million children became newly infected with HIV in 2006.

These statistics break my heart. They overwhelm me. They challenge me. How many times have I passed by a hungry child begging for food without offering him something to eat? How many times have I seen a child living on the street and dressed in rags yet not given him clothes? 143 million orphans in the world. How many of them live in Maputo, Mozambique? How many of them do I pass by everyday?

I know God doesn’t expect me to help them all . . . but I sure want to.

My Heart.

Gregg Hampton, at the Vine UMC, put this video together about my ministry.

A Week of Car Problems

What a week this has been!  Last Tuesday, Brooke and I went to Matola to visit Zaccarius one last time.  It had been raining a lot the week before and it was quite muddy.  Zaccarius' house is pretty difficult to get to.  At one point we have to drive through a garbage pile.  We got stuck in it because of the mud.  As if that wasn't bad enough, the battery on my car decided to quit working at that time too.  

The people from the community all came out to help push the car out of the mud.  They ended up getting shovels and digging it out!!!  By the time we actually got the car out, there were at least 12 people pushing with a huge crowd of children watching and cheering them on.  

Then we had to deal with the dead battery.  Since there aren't an abundance of cars passing by in the middle of the village, you can't just flag someone down to jump you off.  Instead, we paid a guy with a bike to go get a battery and bring it to us.  They put the new battery in my car, got it going, took the new battery out, and put my battery back in.  On the way home, I stopped at a garage and bought a new battery.

Two days later (let me add that this was Thanksgiving and I was meant to be at home preparing our feast), I was leaving Shoprite and my car wouldn't start.  I walked over to the garage next to the grocery store to ask for help.  I even called my friend Vovote to make sure I knew what to say in Portuguese when asking for help!  The mechanic was very kind and came over to look at my car.  He said that it was definitely the battery (let's not forget that I just bought this battery 2 days ago).  Thankfully, the director of the center, Steve, was nearby so he came to jump my car off.  But that didn't work.  2 young guys who were at Shoprite came up to help us.  They ended up taking the battery out of Steve's car, putting it in mine, starting my car, then returning my battery.  They also informed me that the battery the mechanic put in my car was to small!

So back to the garage I went and got the right size battery.  The mechanic didn't argue as he quickly realized he had put the wrong one in.  So you'd hope that was in the end of my problems.  Not so.

Sunday, it was 110 degrees out so me and a couple of other missionaries went to the pool.  As we left to return home, my car wouldn't start.  So once again, I borrowed someone else's battery, put it in my car, started my car, then put my battery back in.  (I can do this myself now as I've watched it so many times this week!).  The car started just fine with the other person's battery so I'm thinking I just need to return the battery, get my money back, and buy one from another garage.  But I'm barely on the main road when the electrical system in my car goes out.  I coast to the bottom of the hill and pull over into a bus stop.  

A couple of guys from the center came and towed me back.  Now in Mozambique, we don't have tow trucks. . . you just pull the broken down car behind one that works.  This was quite an adventure as my car's breaks were not working either so we had to use the emergency break anytime we felt like we were getting to close to the car pulling us.  We made it back to the center and got some of the boys to push my car into my car park.  The key is stuck in the ignition and the windows are down. . . and it's looking like rain.  We tried the ole' swap the battery trick but it didn't work this time.  So I covered my car with a tarp, cried a little because I'm a girl and I'm frustrated with car problems in a country where you can't just call AAA.

Now I'm sitting here writing this as I wait for the mechanic to arrive . . . he's already over 2 hours late.  T.I.M. (This Is Mozambique)!

UPDATE:  Problem solved. Alternator repaired.  And it only cost me 1600 mets (thats about $65).