Family

recently, i have been asking God what it means to live as a family.  for me, family is mom and dad and brother. so what is "family" to 350 orphans?  family is no longer so much about blood relation but more about people who are important to each other and offer each other love and support.  my question is, how do i fit into this family here in zimpeto, mozambique?  

when i first arrived 2 months ago, i was easily falling into the role of "friend" because i so love 

hanging out with the kids and youth. but i feel like God is calling me to be more than just a "friend" to these kids.  they have lots of friends already.  what they lack are mothers and fathers.  proverbs says to "teach a child in the way he should go and when he is older he will not depart from it."  i want to earn a place of respect with these kids so that i am able to speak truth into their lives. . . to teach them in the way they should go.  

let me introduce you to some of my "kids":

mateus is 17 years old.  in the past year or so, he discovered that his mom lives in the city so in october he chose to go live with her.  she practices witchcraft and disappears for days at a time leaving him to care for himself and his siblings living at the house.  he's an amazing young man who really loves the Lord.  he likes to sing/rap and dreams of starting a dance team to minister to people in the city.  

pai is 11 years old.  he came to live at the iris center in march of 2007.  when i first met him last may, one of the only things he could say in english was "pai love sarah.!"  he quickly won my heart!  pai has a hard time sharing me with the other kids though and gets pretty jealous.  he really loves one-on-one time with me and has become my helper when i bake cakes or cookies . . . which i do a lot of here!

manuel and nelson both work in my garden cutting the grass and watering the plants so they have a key to my garden gate.  they are 17 and 18 years old.  many afternoons i come home to find them sitting on my patio doing their homework.  they both speak amazing english and i love sitting and talking to them.  i think i have more of a "big sister" relationship with them because they love to get my opinion on things going on with them or at the center.  

inacio is 10 years old.  he lives in my dorm.  he is full of personality!  he knocks on my door multiple times every day to see if he can come play in my garden.  everytime i walk walk out to the play ground, he quickly finds me.  inacio makes the cutest faces and the funniest noises.  i just love being around him because he always makes me laugh!

 

i look forward to introducing you to more of my family!

Weekend in Inhambane

This past weekend, I went on a should-be-7-hours-but-took-us-10-hours road-trip up the coast to a little village just outside of Inhambane called Tofo.  I went with Laura, another missionary, and 4 visitors.  As we drove up the coast, I was in awe of the beautiful creation all around. Multiple times, as i looked out the window of the car, I thought to myself, "is this really my home? Do i really live in this beautiful country?"  Our God is so creative!!!  

2 of the visitors that went with us, Dana and Jonah, are professional soccer players.  They've been looking around Mozambique for possible locations to start an orphanage focused on training kids in soccer and surfing.  While in Tofo, we met Joao, a Mozambican teen who surfs.   He became our tour guide for the weekend and showed us a couple of amazing beach spots.  It was so amazing how, even on a weekend getaway, the Lord gave us someone to lavish love on.  Dana was really able to speak truth into his life as they surfed together. 

Joao, our new friend in Tofo

Joao surfing

update on riots

the riots seem to have broken up.  there are cars on the streets again but still no chapas (buses).  late last night, an agreement was made to re-discuss the price increase on chapas and around 7:30 this morning, a couple of chapas passed the center with a police escort firing off tear gas.  throughout the morning we heard a few random gun shots but everything appears normal now.  i have not left the center yet but a couple of missionaries have and they said it was like driving though a war zone....cars burnt up, buildings vandalized, remains of burnt tires that had served as road blocks the day before.  

thank you for your prayers yesterday and please continue to cover us!!!

riots in maputo

this morning at about 7:15 (just after midnight in georgia) as i went to get breakfast from the kitchen, i was greeted by a pastor who i am friends with named solomon.  in portuguese, he began to tell me about something going on out on the streets.  i was impressed that i picked up bits and pieces of his story before i got him to talk to me in english!  he had been on a bus on the way to the center this morning and the bus was stopped because of a roadblock so he had to walk the rest of the way.  as we stood outside of the kitchen, we could hear crowds of people yelling in the distance.  

last week, owners of the public buses known as "chappas" met to discuss a price increase.  the price was 7.5 meticai, which is equivalent to about 30 cents in us dollars, and because of rising fuel costs they wanted to increase the fare to 10 meticai or 40 us cents.  in my eyes that is nothing...i think riding a bus to the city for less than half a dollar is amazing.  you'd never find that in the states!!!  but when i think about the fact that most families live off of one us dollar a day, that extra 10 cents is a big deal.  today is the day the prices increase was to go into affect.  the mozambican people are not happy and have organized riots all over the city.  in america, you would see unhappy customers boycotting the bus or protesting with signs.  but not here.  the people have blocked the roads and are refusing to let any bus or car pass.  if a car tries to drive threw, they throw rocks at it.  

i stood on the soccer field with many of our kids watching everything taking place outside the walls of the center.  outside of the main gate of our center, about 100 yards down the road, rioters rolled tires out into the street and set them on fire sending up a black cloud of smoke.  looking to the left down the street i see the same thing about a quarter of a mile down.  apparently people are rioting all over the city with larger and larger mobs the closer into the city you get.  at one point, our guards opened the front gates.  a few seconds later a car came speeding in being chased by rioters.  it was one of our kitchen workers.  he had been stopped earlier by the mobs and forced to leave his car and walk into the center but then decided to go back and get his car.  our older teenage boys go to school in the city.  this morning, not knowing about the riots going on, the minibus left the center to drive the boys into the city.  they were stopped by rioters throwing rocks at the bus.  the boys were allowed to exit the bus and the driver had to leave it there.  we are praying the bus isn't destroyed in the chaos.  all of our boys are okay and will walk back to the center later today.  multiple times, trucks full of police and soldiers drove by firing rubber bullets in an attempt to break up the crowds.  however, the people only got more riled up and began throwing rocks at the police and setting more fires.  the police eventually left and after a bit of cheering, the crowds calmed down some.  a friend in the city phoned another missionary and said she heard on the news that 2 people had been killed not far from our center.

for now, things appear a lot calmer.  we've gotten all of our kids into the church to watch a movie.  looking out the window of my house i can see lots of people walking by outside the center and they appear to be going about their normal work.  however, there are still no cars on the streets.  

here are some things you can pray for:

please pray for the people to calm down and the riots to end.  

we are safe here in the center.  pray that safety is preserved.  

pray that the boys who are out in the city will be able to safely return soon.  

pray for protection over our minibus that was left in the city.    

Street Ministry

zacarius and casper, the 2 boys we brought back from street ministry, playing at my house.

every tuesday and wednesday we have street ministry.  tonight was the first time i've gone and i loved it so much!!!!  i was so in my element surround by over 50 boys ages 6-18 that live on the streets of maputo.  i was overwhelmed by the heart of the Father for these boys who have nothing.  most of them were dressed in clothes full of holes and were covered with sores.  yet they cried out to the Father with such passion. . . perhaps because they are so desperate for the love and provision of the Father.

i have 2 amazing stories from the night:

story #1

a couple of weeks ago, selso, one of our 11 year old boys ran away from the center.  he had been living on the streets before he came to iris so we knew that was where he had gone.  the missionary over the dorm he lived in was desperate to see him return.  as we prepared to head to the city tonight, i reminded the mozambican pastor, nico, and the youth from the center that were going with us to keep an eye out for selso.  and i prayed a lot that God would let us find him tonight.  as we were driving through the city one of the girls with us saw selso walking down the street near kfc!!!  so we stopped the car and pastor nico and one of the youth got out to go talk to selso.  however, when selso saw them, he took off running.  they ran after him for a while but were not able to find him.  the missionary from his dorm happened to be in the city so i called her and she decided to stay at kfc in case he returned.  and sure enough, he did!!!!  she was able to sit and talk to him for a while but he just did not want to return to the center.  pastor nico went back to kfc and was able to convince selso to get in the car with us.  it was amazing to see the Lord answer our prayers by leading us to selso.  please continue to pray for him.  i don't understand why he would choose to live on the street rather than at the center but for some reason that is a battle for him.  i know that we can't force him to stay here but i also know that he is so much better off here.  so please pray that he wouldn't run away again and that what ever problems he was having here would be worked out.

story #2

right as we began the preaching at church with the street kids, 2 little boys came in.  they were dirtier than most and neither had on pants . . . only ragged shirts and underwear.  the smallest one, casper, came and sat with me and his brother, zacarius, sat with brooke, another missionary.  after the service, we got pastor nico to come talk to the boys and find out their story.  their mom lives in a village about 20 minutes from the city.  she had recently remarried and the new husband didn't want the boys so they were thrown out.  sadly, that happens quite often here.  so we brought the boys back to the center with us!  brooke and i gave them a shower, dressed them in clean clothes (they were so excited about the camouflage croc-like shoes!), and fed them some fruit and yogurt.  afterwards we took them up to the dorm that i am helping out with where they are spending the night.  at first they were rather shy but not 2 minutes after we left them, they came running back outside and headed to the playground where they joyfully ran around for another 30 minutes before going to bed.  pastor nico will come back and get them in the morning and take them to find their mom.  if she refuses to take them back, they will be brought back to the center.  i believe that the Father knows what is best for the boys and whether they should stay here with us or return to their family.  please pray for His will to be done.

this is what the Kingdom is about. . . caring for the least of these!

"let the little children come to Me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." 

matthew 19:14

Project Purpose

i went to visit another ministry in maputo yesterday. its called project purpose and is run by a woman named katie. she's been here in maputo for 7 or 8 years. her ministry's focus is on girls in the sex industry.  she leases the top floor/the roof of a building in the city right across the street from central market (its an incredible location with a great view of the city). the building is in the red light district on a street called "good death" (but the Lord has promised her it would become "abundant life"!!!). her heart is to provide a safe place for the girls to heal and grow holistically. she has over 50 girls that she's connected with ranging in age from 12-24. here are the things going on with project purpose:

* discipleship - walking through the healing process with the girls

* a sewing room where the girls learn to sew and then make clothing to be sold in a shop there at the center. 

*  a room that will be made into a salon and a beauty program to teach them so that they can work in the salon.  

* a preschool for the children of the girls. 

* a kitchen where meals are prepared for the girls during the day and where they are taught culinary skills

katie would love to see 24/7 prayer happening at the center/on the roof one day - just waiting for the Lord to send someone with that vision to oversee itl!!!!

she also has land in matola (a village about 15-20 minutes from the building in the city) where she is in the process of building a center for the girls to live at with their children.  currently, they have only built one hut and there is a woman with 5 children living there.  the vision is to build cement homes to house 40-60 women/children.  they have planted many crops on the property and they eat the food they grow.  the kids go to school in the village.

it's so incredible to see how the Lord is lavishing His love all over this city!!! He's desperate for His mozambican bride!!!! 

Stopping For The One

"Love the one in front of you and God will multiply that love."

-Heidi Baker

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My prayer each day here in Mozambique is that the Lord will show me one person that i am to stop for. . . one child that I am to intentionally love.  Can you imagine how powerful it would be if all of us lived that way?  If all of us began each day asking the Lord to show us one person we could love at our school or at our work or at the grocery store?  The love of the Father would multiply so rapidly!!!! 

Heidi Baker, the founder of Iris Ministries, has built this ministry upon the principal of stopping for the one in front you.  Today there are thousands and thousands of children cared for all over Mozambique and other African nations.  Its not just the missionaries caring for the children either. Mozambican pastors are taking in orphans and caring for them because they've seen the power of love!  It's an incredible thing!!!