Half a day away

After spending 12 hours away from home because of traffic and the first day of my long weekend class, I came home to the smell of homemade Japanese food. My husband had organized and cooked dinner like a pro! It was so sweet to come home from a long day and dinner was already prepared. I love being taken care of!!! I was so tired from a long day of sitting in class, and sitting in my car for the long commute.

When I finally got to see my hubby and kids it was dinner time. Everyone was sitting down to eat and loving their food, even my littlest nephew ate almost as much food as his cousins. After that I was the longest bath I’ve had in a longtime. Sometimes I feel like taking extra-long time in the bath to make up for the years of living without running water in Mozambique, but tonight was just to relax after too much time in the same space in the same little school desk with the desk top attached to the chair. What am I talking about the class again?

Oh man, I can’t get away from it even here…it must be time to just close my eyes and try to sleep before heading out at 6:30 tomorrow morning to get to class before the 8 o’clock traffic. Only a few more days until this semester is over folks. Well, I better try to sleep so I can face tomorrow.

Its great information and my classmates and teacher are great. This semester has been wonderful. I just have to push through tomorrow, and the last week before finals week. Oh my goodness. I’m almost there. One more class in the fall to finish my degree! I am happy to have come back from Mozambique to finish my BA degree and get my husband’s US green card documents. At least we can travel out of the country again. And we are already looking to book our flights for a trip to Mozambique this summer. I can’t believe summer months are basically here!!!!

So much to do in so little time. Oh my goodness….I need help Jesus!

But first sleep.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia 

Gloriously beautiful failure

I learned from my mom really early in life that a mistake has the potential to become gloriously beautiful.

Some of my earliest memories are of my mom painting. I remember her with a paintbrush in her hands, paint on her fingers, or in her hair. In the 90’s she sprinkle painted onto clothes and the paint was splattered around the garage. I as so small looking at my beautiful mom with a smile on her face as she painted on t-shirts, rocks, canvases, wood and crafts.  In fact, my mom painted on almost any paintable surface. She still paints, almost every day.

I remember when we would paint together during our summer breaks from school. She would make salt-dough for us to mold and then paint. Sometimes the figure would be a mess, and she would just tell us to use our imagination. Sometimes we painted on thick watercolor paper, and I was so meticulous that any ‘mistake’ really upset me. She would tell me not to worry, that what I thought was going to be a little flower could now be turned into something new like a tree, or a person.

My big splotches of color could change the entire image and I could just have fun with it. When I relaxed and just followed the paint across the paper it turned into something that I really enjoyed, and even felt proud of. I’ve noticed that my mom was teaching me from her own experience. Some of my favorite paintings of hers are her sketches from her journal, or a painting that was totally different from the original idea or sketch because she accidentally used the wrong color, or the wrong stroke of the paint brush.

I love it. I’ve learned to celebrate mistakes as opportunities. It might be seen as a failure from the original plan’s point of view, but so often I’ve seen these mistakes become gloriously beautiful.

Here’s to letting mistakes become gloriously beautiful failures. 

Missionary Momma Mia

Sweet Restoration

I attempted to sing a song this evening. It was a riot! I just fumbled through too many of the words and missed musical cues and intros. Yet, people’s kindness towards me is inspiring. I love when people are looking for potential and assessing skill instead of harshly criticizing faults.

I may not have presented a perfect rendition of a lovely song, but at least I enjoyed trying. I’m more timid that people may think. Just because I can bust out a tune and make listeners who are music critics think it was spot on, doesn't mean it was true to the sheet music.

I wasn’t spot on tonight! It felt like a beautiful failure though. It was very enjoyable to present a gift back to Papa God after he has blessed me with such a sweet restoration of my soul, and the sweet message of a song that had been lost for me until yesterday. I had the courage to try to sing again, my heart was so tender towards Papa God.

Music isn’t just very important to me, it’s important to my life and my relationship with God. I love to sing. I sing every day. I worship in my car, the shower, and hum while I’m getting groceries. 

When it comes to music, I am pretty picky about how I ‘feel’ while listening to a song. Music that touches my heart sticks with me from the moment is touches my heart. Sometimes my feelings are my own interpretation of the lyrics, and that is why I love when people sing for me or worship over me. The singer’s heart comes through the lyrics and their interpretation of the message is touching. Maybe you don’t get what I mean by that. But as much as I love to sing, I love to listen to someone else sing beautifully and soulfully. Today, I had the opportunity to be the person who sings to bless someone else. That was special. I wonder what will come of it. A fun evening or the start of something new?

To all of my friends who have worshipped with me. I miss your voices, your guitar strums and drum beats. I miss the flute and bass. I haven’t led worship in a small group for such a long time. I haven’t had worship practice for a while. Singing with my family makes me literally pine for more community worship.  I wonder if I could sing with a band again? It will be different from singing to my boys at night, or singing in my car on my drive to class. It is commitment. This time if God brings people into my life who are talented instrumentalists and vocalists, I never want to lose the thrill of hearing them play and sing. I don’t want the work in the music to defeat the soul of the music.

A line from a song comes to mind:

“Speak to me Lord for your child is here listening” a song I heard as a teenager. The prayer is so heartfelt. I feel that prayer tonight.

Thoughtful,

Missionary Momma Mia 

Restore unto me

Today when I realized that there was something being ‘restored’ to me, I was initially reluctant. I had been happy with my negative association to something. Well, not happy but pretty comfortable. I hadn’t even realized that there was some lingering angst towards someone whom I had worked hard to reconcile with, and had definitely forgiven.

But, when I heard the words of a song, I didn’t get absorbed in the message. I immediately went back to the day someone gave me a CD and I just kinda sighed. I remembered how I felt when they had given me the gift, ok. A little bit thankful, and a little bit disappointed. The gift came with some interesting explanations. I was internally raising my eyebrow. (Yes, I raise one eyebrow when I am a lil skeptical of something) I hope it didn’t show on my face. I really hope that I didn’t flare my nostrils when the explanation continued, and was notably weird. It was a, “I don’t know why….kinda explanation." But it just seems weird to be the recipient of a reluctant gift, or the gift giver giving what they believe is an unwanted present.

The gift was actually really cool! I was really happy to that that cd - later after I listened to it, and dismissed the explanation as ‘whatever’. Clearly, I was missing the gift giver’s communication objective. We crossed communication so many times my eyes started crossing when the gift giver started breathing towards me. I could feel the defense forming in my mind as I anticipated their next remark. It was definitely a deep sigh of relief when our communication decreased based on a change of circumstances.  

Change of circumstances doesn’t mean that all the miscommunication or hurt feelings from miscommunication had been properly addressed. I mean that was obviously one of the problems. It was hard to address lots of things, especially whatever caused hurt feelings in the first place. It took some time, but we actually addressed the most obvious matters, forgave and reconciled. Some things, uncovered today, are still left to be restored. It can be hard to recognize that something was damaged, especially if the damage was just a tiny crack, or chip in a hidden spot. Then we are actually lucky or blessed when we discover that something was damaged. That means we can uproot any tiny hair thin root of bitterness that was growing ever deeper, and would continue growing somewhat unnoticed until it caused notable damage. 

But why am I bitter? I forgave the gift giver. Why the negative association? Did I forgive myself for failing that relationship? Probably not, and I really haven’t let go of all the little hurt feelings. There was so much potential. I lost something, but today I’ve regained something else.  

With the words of a song shedding light on my negative association, I had to choose to between holding onto negative association or rediscovering the heart of the song’s message. It’s time to let go of girlish thinking that I can be everyone’s best friend. I’m not going to click with everyone. It’s ok. Their thoughts about me or perspective of me, don’t define me. It’s ok, they can think those thoughts. My thoughts about me are sometimes a little bit off too. Its perspective. Somebody has a perfect perspective. Perfect thoughts.

I that know someone who has perfect thoughts about me. Papa God’s thoughts about me created me. His thoughts about me define me. That’s life giving! Transforming cracks into artwork. So I can let go of the negative ‘side notes’ to the song and listen to the message.

It’s actually overwhelmingly powerful. I can’t believe I let that song be lost to me before today….something beautiful was restored to me today. I'm incredibly blessed, and I really haven't earned his smile, or even deserve it in my opinion. But he sees me through his son's eyes. Jesus is the perfect gift giver. His explanation of his gift is sometimes dumbfounding. I'm in awe that he receives me with open arms and carries me to Papa God's lap so that I can have whatever time I need to recognize his perfect love that wipes out every fear of someone not approving of me, or of me not approving of me. How can God love me so much? 

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude, and brimming over with Joy. These tears are not sorrow, but Joy!

Lots more love and Joy to you, (and a bit less bitterness to seep out of me)

Missionary Momma Mia 

Spontaneously Perfect Perfect Timing

We had such a lovely time away from the house. It was silly. At first we started with shopping for the boys’ spring sandals. It was interesting to say the least. We got cheered on by some of the staff who understood the joys and challenges of shopping with three boys. 

We really had no other plan that to get some shopping done, but while in line to check out I told my husband that I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day at home either. It looked so lovely outside. So we went to get some food and drink for a spur-of-the-moment picnic somewhere outside and closer to the mountains than the shop.  

We took our newly purchased sandals and sandwiches to a windy park in Longmont. It was so windy that we left before we spent an hour there.  Funny thing was that we got out of our car at 12:34. We let the kids play for a few minutes before standing near a lake trying to hide from the whipping wind. We ate our sandwiches and drank raspberry lemonade with a goose standing nearby.  Then the boys threw pine cones into the water from the dock.

When we were nearly chilled to the bone, we got back into the car at 1:23. I just thought it was too funny not to note that all the numbers were in numerical order when I looked at my car clock…

Not really special but it was 12.34 when I left the car, and 1.23 when I got back into the car…. I thought how nice our disorganized little adventure was going, even though we had gotten pretty chilly in the wind, the sun was still shining down on this side of Colorado and our boys were thrilled with the idea of a mountain drive. Instead of heading back home, we decided to get closer to the Rocky Mountains.

We took back-country winding roads through farms and ranch neighborhoods before we got to Lyons. We went a little deeper into mountain country without getting all the way to Estes Park. We stopped in a slow vehicle pull off on the side of the road like my parents did so many times when we were young. There were some perfect rocks for climbing, and surprisingly, less wind to chill us to the bone. It was glorious to see my little guys challenge their fears. Our middle son was cheering on his little brother as they climbed higher up the rocks. They had thought that heights were kinda scary, but being up on top of the rocks was AMAZING! That is their simultaneous words, not mine.

They loved it. It was perfect for the boys, but it only wet their appetite for more rock climbing. We thought about heading back, but the boys were loving their first spring drive up into the mountains this year. We drove a little while longer until we found another amazing spot to let the boys run around and climb.

We fell in love with the spot and hope to be able to call it our family mountain ‘spot’. It was our family mountain spot for today.

Driving back home my husband and I listened to the boys talk about their favorite part of today. They were all happy to have rock climbed on a mountain! We won’t tell them that it wasn’t the real thing because they didn’t have ropes and anchors – well they didn’t need them. The rocks they climbed up were less than a story high, but a kid’s perspective is great. They were on top of the world and their view from up top was spectacular!!!!

I wish I could have a kid’s perspective in life more often. After we put the boys to bed I realized this week is going to be a doozy- that’s southern for complicated and busy! I was just trying to breathe through my double-booked schedule for the up-coming week. I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. But, I will go to the highest place that I can climb too and look at the scenery from there.

It’s that place where I’m certain that the beauty around me will inspire me to look for God’s perfect order and trust Holy Spirit is with me in each moment, helping everything to come into his perfect order in his Perfect Timing.

And now it’s 11:23…It’s so funny to look at the clock and notice weird minutes - order, multiples, count downs.

Wow, childish right? That doesn’t have to mean a thing, But it can. It can be a simple reminder to trust in Papa God that your day has been blessed with many beautiful moments that shined on you today! Even if it doesn’t feel that way, you might want to crawl up in Papa God’s lap and ask if you can see from his perspective. Papa God has an awesome vantage point, and he is the perfect Father. If you ask for a minute in his lap, all of heaven will be still to prefer you. No one is worried about time with Papa God. Those who see him know that he is always willing to have a cuddle or wipe a tear. For me tonight, he helped me breath. It’s all going to be ok.

It’s all going to be just fine. Breath, have a cuddle and a giggle with Papa God. The view from here is GREAT!  Trust Jesus to order your steps, I have no idea how we found our family spot today there was no GPS! Holy Spirit lit our path today. We did a double take, hooked a u-turn where it might have been illegal and found the best tall and safe rock to let the kids climb on. God is so practical, and he cares about the details!  

You are full of precious details! There is no one like you!

Lots of love and Joy,

Missionary Momma Mia 

PayPal Donate button, Adsense Ads,or both, or neither

So I found that some bloggers are adding donate buttons just for their awesome blog readers to donate to their writing career/hobby or buy them a drink! What do you think about that?

I looked into setting up Paypal on our ROG blog. It was easy to set it up (not sure if it is up and working 100% yet. Seems there is a bit of a delay in opening a PayPal account and getting the banking information verified. That’s ok. I just wanted to make giving for the roof a bunch easier.

I’m pretty sure with PayPal friends from anywhere can use their credit or bank card to give to River of God. This donate button on the ROG blog right now is specifically for people who are interested in giving funds to help re-roof half of the boys’ house in Chimoio Mozambique, after the terrible wind storm cause heaps of damage last month.

While I was looking at web pages that taught me how to put a PayPal donate button on my blog page, I read that lots of people are putting a PayPal donate button on their private blogs for happy readers who want to read more of their stuff to be able to give them $5 or so….some say for a beer, or a drink…

I thought about it. I’m not big into lots of ‘drinks’ except coffee . What would you think if I put a PayPal donate button on my blog that would support my coffee drinking habits??? Hum.. Or my next International airfare? Next International phone call? Meal or movie with our missionary kids while on furlough. Starbucks with my sister...

I write for many reasons. The least of which is to ask you to buy me a coffee, although I’m curious could it hurt? We LOVE sharing a cup of coffee with our friends and guests to sit and listen to each other’s latest stories. Isn’t that what a PayPal button could be for, in a sense? Or is it silliness?

Maybe it would make sense to have a little donate button for the things we spend money on as an International Family? We fly, we study, we eat, we drive and so on….all these things cost money. A big chunk of our financial support for that comes through generous hearted people who love the kids at River of God Children’s Center and the surrounding Iris Churches. Some give because they love our family and our passion to go and spend so much of our lives to advance the Kingdom of heaven here on earth. Many of these people give through a church or mission that supports our missionary calling by sending the offerings on to us. In that way, they can have a tax deductible receipt.

This button wouldn’t be for tax deductible receipts, it would be more like a button to cheer me on in writing, or to give a financial gift in gratitude for good reading material….or like saying, ‘It was a nice Invitation to eaves drop into this window of your life, so I’d like to buy you a coffee.’ Its reminiscent of the old days when authors needed to find a sponsor/sponsor who let them live in a cabin in the woods with a food and expense allowance while they created fantasy worlds for their readers…

Oh I ramble…

Would it just be better to put Adsense in my blog and let the advert company pay me a few pennies here and there? Or both? Or none. Like why bother?

Well if it is really a bother for you who are intrigued by my silly ramblings then do comment! Please give me your thoughts.

Or should I let Adsense give me a penny for your thoughts?

If there are no comments on this blog after a week or two, don’t be to upset if you see a Donate button, Adsense ads, or both. If you are really bothered by the thought, please comment ‘neither.’

Thank you!

Missionary Momma Mia

  

                                                                                                                                                           

Introducing ROG Blog - River of God Blog

Hello dear friends, family and readers,
I've had a lovely time this month posting about our International Family. Sometimes our stories have more of a ministry focus. So I'm introducing a new blog to kinda streamline our ministry updates, and get ministry information available in one place.


http://irischimoioriverofgod.blogspot.com/2016/04/good-friends-care-about-things-that-we.html


This is what the posts looks like:

Good friends care about the things that we care about

I know it’s important to talk about because one of my dearest missionary friends was chatting with me and asking for updates about our roof in Chimoio. I looked on-line to see when I posted about the beautiful new roof being bent over and stripped off of half of one of our buildings.

I’m not excited to post about sad things, however sometimes the truth is sad. I’m not afraid to weep with those who weep. That said, it not easy to ask for friends and family to weep with me, but it isn’t fair to pretend that all is well with my heart when it’s still pretty broken. We have had beautiful friends and family rally around giving, praying, working and encouraging us to keep going! Rebuild! More precisely –Re-roof. We still have needs. If your heart is moved to be generous than shoot me an email. The link to email us is on both our Ministry webpages :

http://www.irisglobal.org/chimoio/contact-us

www.facebook.com/IrisChimoioRiverOfGodChildrensCenter/

So here it is the link to my Journal post in the Iris Chimoio Journal.

http://www.irisglobal.org/chimoio/journal/fresh-bread-from-heaven

It talks a little bit about how I faced this tragic destruction at the chidlren’s center sitting with Jesus, and even rejoicing! None of our kids were hurt when a terrible wind and rain storm ripped half of the roof up, off and over the building. I was seriously overcome with gratitude, and at the same time a tenacity to see the boys home repaired!

Our team is ‘gung ho’ to go forward. We need to purchase new heavier material. We have some of the funding in, we have a ways to go for the heavier material and new wood for the carpentry.

We’re so blessed by the sacrifices friends and family are making. We love reading the emails telling how people are moved to get involved, get connected, and give!

We are so blessed by our really big, really International family!

Lots of love from,

Missionary Momma Mia….It's still me, just more about ministry and maybe less ramblings....

The other highlight of my day….

That was seeing all four of my guys cuddled on our bed watching one of their favorite tv shows. It was really special because they were all reminded of our favorite family show that we used to watch together in our living room in Mozambique. I didn’t even have time to let the full load of memories roll in during my busy day last week. But that moment of seeing my boys tucked in with their dad, and hearing them exclaim, “Hey! This is what we used to watch at our old home in Africa!” Time Kinda froze for a few seconds. I saw them sitting on our silly little couch with our kids all around. We tuned into a few English channels with a second hand dish that I bought as a gift for my husband to celebrate his ten year anniversary of living in Mozambique. It was a special treat to have a few English TV channels along with local Mozambican TV in Portuguese.

Everybody seemed to really enjoy renovation shows. Our big international family gathered in the living room. We had a lot more than four guys sitting together in front of our little TV though! One of my Mozambican sons is so quiet that sometimes he would lean behind the sofa and pull up a chair without saying a word. At first, I wouldn’t notice that he was there for all the noise our other boys were making. Most of our boys had a bunch of opinions about how the renovations would turn out on the newly purchased, yet unattractive homes.  

Tista is so thoughtful. He’s a tender soul. At one point our staff kinda gave up on helping him because he hated going to school. Finally, I asked my husband if another one of our ‘kids’ could move into our house with us. I wasn’t ready to let him go.

My husband looked into my eyes and said, “You really love him, and so do I. We can’t give up on him. He needs more love and tender care.” Our staff were skeptical at first. Then, his attendance at school improved, and his grades improved. We realized that his challenges were deep buried hurt, not simply a nervous stutter. Of course we spent time raising his confidence with speech exercises, but we spent time cooking together, talking, listening, chilling as a family for TV time, and games. These simple moments created a bond that couldn’t be easily broken.

My husband and I began to unbury more of Tista’s story.  Each of our kids who come to live at the children’s center have ‘initial interviews’; and come with some information about their family and closest kin. It’s not to in-depth. It helps, but it is really just a foundation for asking the kids more questions as time goes on.

My husband and I already knew his older brothers, and they had made the same observations as our staff of caregivers. He wasn’t interested in school, and he was a caught sneaking off to ‘get into trouble’. He would go to the market and watch some 5 cent movie instead of going to school.

Those nights of family TV were pretty informative for me. I noticed how intently he watched the shows. He was focused, and very thoughtful. I heard him translating the English show into the local Matewe dialect with one of our other teenagers who had interjected his opinion without fully understanding the details.

He understood more of the show than our talkative sons, but he was still lacking confidence. We would laugh and joke around as all of us fumbled around learning new words and phrases in different languages. We did that with a purpose. It had to be lighthearted, or little mistakes would cause embarrassment. We didn’t want our teenagers to feel the slightest bit of shame – especially not Tista. I grabbed ahold of that moment and encouraged him in his English. He could be an official translator! He just smiled and laughed, while shaking his head 'no'.

So, the next best thing was becoming my Matewe teacher.  The Matewe dialect is different from MaSena or Shona. I didn’t really know a lot of words or phrases because I could get by with saying greetings in Portuguese, or even MaSena. So I learned a few words from Tista. And realize he was more touched by my attempt to learn than by being my teacher. His challenge with speech was gradually going away as he stayed in our home, attended school, and sang worship songs. He was really losing any sign of a stutter, but was used to being the quiet one. So, I asked one of our house moms to teach me a few key phrases before I left for this furlough.

One of the hardest things about this break from the mission field, is that our return date is uncertain. We haven’t been away for such a long time before. I knew that we didn’t have a return date. We have school and uncertain time-frame for documents. I wanted to make sure to do something special for one of my favorite sons. I learned how to tell him that I love him in the Matewe dialect.

It would sound something like reading this phonetically: En doe na quda Mwuani yango

The tears that rolled down his cheeks as I said those words to him were worth every moment of being a baby communicator. My house mom helped me through every sound until it was just right. I wanted to be understood by my Mozambican children whose native dialect was Matewe. His tears were a clear indicator of understanding. He spoke very softly and swallowed back tears as he told me that he had waited all his life for his mom to tell him that she loved him. I said it again and again before we left our last home in Chimoio. “I love you my son.” Sometimes I just tell him I love him in Matewe when we talk on Skype or chat. He's one of our best big brothers for the younger children because he knows he is loved.  

Tista invested his evenings in hanging out with our family watching TV in English not just to have fun, but to better learn my mother language. Learning more of his local dialect was the least I could do for such a thoughtful loving son.

To all of our Mozambican sons and daughters, we love and miss you more than you can imagine. You are always in our hearts, thoughts and prayers!

Missionary Momma Mia

Technology Rules! Part II

We usually have a little routine with the boys doing some homework on the computer every weekday evening after dinner. One of our little guys lucked out of doing homework because the H key on our laptop keyboard pooped out on him.

The H key just stopped working. It wasn’t really stuck, but it wasn’t making contact. So the technological problems changed our normal routine. We had to stop working on computer homework, and goof around. Some people would say that my husband and I encourage horse-play, but we feel like it is healthy ‘wrestling’. I grew up watching, and playing WWF with my big brothers. It’s just a normal part of growing up – well I thought so anyway. Our boys love to wrestle, and we do too.

It was the perfect thing to replace a calm learning environment, plus we got our sillies out. Sometimes technology changes the rules of our nights or evenings, and I’ve learned to just roll with it.

Missionary Momma Mia  

p.s. now the H key is 'fixed' but definitely stuck 

Let the sun shine through friends and family

I love knowing my children are building fun and happy memories.  It is a lot of work to host a child's birthday party. It's all worth it when they can't remember a better day because it was spent having fun with their dearest friends.

My thoughts are so full that writing doesn’t seem like it will be cathartic for me. This has been a blessed weekend, but my Sabbath was much more intense than a typical Sabbath. I think that taking this evening to rest will be better therapy than attempting to write a creative blog.

Because…

This party took days of planning, logistics, and food preparation. Thankfully, so many friends and family did whatever was needed to help me and my hubby give our boys happy memories. We didn’t --and couldn’t have pulled off such a fun filled afternoon without a troop of parents sticking around to help with kids’ activities, and friends and family helping with set up and tear down of decorations.

We are thrilled that each of our boys had at least one friend from their class come over.  Our oldest son told his aunty that this was the most perfect party ever! And -  We know that it went nothing like we had planned! 

Surprisingly, the weather is not dependent on mine and my husband's party planning.  I can however, write ‘when it rains it pours’ with a depth of sincerity that I may not have felt before this weekend. 

Our lives have been blessed with rain and sunshine! It didn’t even rain or snow during the boys’ birthday party! We actually had lovely weather. We did move the party indoors because the ground was still soggy from a winter storm this Friday and Saturday. It was nearly a blizzard down south, but in northern Colorado the rain barely froze or stuck to the ground.  It did continue to rain up until a half hour or so before the party started. Then the sun came out!

It was a lot of fun and the kids were delighted! I’m a bit overstimulated from the energy that a group of 10 or 11 boys can throw into the atmosphere. They were AMAZING! All such good friends and so well behaved! However, I have no idea how teachers do it!!! I’m thrilled that there are education professionals who invest their lives in the instruction and care of young students. 

Thank God that everyone has different skill sets and abilities! My skill set doesn’t actually involve spending multiple hours entertaining and feeding a large group of boys under the age of eleven on a regular basis. I’m a bit more chill with one-on-one, or teenagers. 

God knows what I can handle though. I’m very happy to have a day off class tomorrow. It will give me time to re-group. Since today was full – tomorrow will be more of a down day with Jesus and Hubby. Typically if our Sunday is busy or we are doing ministry, then we often take Monday as our Sabbath. Today was very busy though because we headed to the Department of Motor Vehicles to take care of Driver’s License stuff. Whooeeeeph – that’s my spelling for a deep sigh of relief.

Wow, I did end up writing a lot more than I thought I would. It just really settles me to think things through via my fingertips. It’s quite relaxing once I realize that I can take a breath and celebrate a huge accomplishment. I couldn’t have done it alone. This weekend rained down help and so much love from family. I’m so full of gratitude for my friends and family who made sacrifices to love on our three boys.

It is the greatest gift when a child knows they are secure in their families’ love. They are unafraid of grandparents, aunties, uncles, and Dad and mom. Thank you to my friends and family who really did bring 'sunshine' to our weekend. You know who you are. We love you!!!!

I’m full of deep gratitude to Jesus for such a lovely weekend, and so secure in Papa God’s love for me! Praying you can feel that big big bear hug as you sit in Papa's lap and tell him all about your weekend adventures!

Missionary Momma Mia      

Technology Rules!

Technology rules…my evening

It takes such a really long time to clear pictures from my phone and think about what I’m going to do with them. I can’t really spend time thinking about which pictures should actually be printed up for a photo album, or to hand on our wall. I have to be as focused as possible so I can get to sleep ASAP!

At the same time it is important to clear off old pictures from my phone so that I can take pictures tomorrow when we sing happy birthday to my two birthday boys. I just have to make sure that I really did save those photos on the external harddrive. Then, I do kinda un-check a few pictures to make sure they are saved on both my phone and my external harddrive. In case I want to look at them on my phone, or share them with someone or post on some social media.

I have one more picture file to go through on my phone before I can hit the sack.

The life of mommies!

Missionary Momma Mia 

WooWhoo! Say What? You don’t say!

"Say What?"  "You don't say!"

A friend said that to me on Facebook and that was my response. It was so much fun. I thought, “Why not give an entire blog such a fun silly name.”

“WooWhoo!!!! could be the name, but I was also laughing, clapping, and making lots of noise the day before yesterday.

That was such a highlight of my day on April 13 that I needed to tell the story tonight.

I feel so silly story telling. Like I'm telling kids to pick a spot on the rug for story time- story telling. But, it’s more like grab a nice cold drink and guzzle it down on a hot summer evening kind of story.

That’s exactly what we were doing at the time that this whole back story for the day before yesterday’s ‘Woowhoo’ story.

So let me start by telling you what happened the day before yesterday.

My mom just finished telling me about her recent trip to Texas. She spent time with my oldest brother’s In laws who came for a visit from Belarus. (Our extended family is pretty International too!)  My mom also spent time with her sister. While she was there she reconnected with some of my aunts family members who we had hung out with last September. My mom told me how she made sure to connect with her friends on Facebook. She was so blessed when her friend was touched and encouraged by one of my Mom’s re-posts on Facebook that was a prayer for healing - healing in peoples’ body, mind, heart, or relationships. My mom was so excited that the little thing that she felt was important to do, was a big important thing because one person she know was blessed at just the right time.

That’s when mom told me that she and her friend and my aunt are still so excited that his knees are still healed since September!

So, I got really loud and yelled a bit. Because he is her husband. She is mom's friend in Texas. It’s kinda hard to follow. Sorry. The point is that by faith God healed a friend of ours, an extended family member. By faith, his knees are still better seven months later. It wasn’t some emotional high that caused a flood of endorphins to make him feel like there was less pain in his knees.

We were out on my Aunt and Uncle's front porch in a little town in Texas. We were getting together for a family reunion on my uncle’s side of the family. So his cousins were hanging out with him. My mom and Aunt had decided to go to bed, but I wasn’t tired yet. We were still chatting about life in Alaska, Texas, Colorado and Africa.

My Uncle’s cousin asked me what were some of my favorite experiences in Mozambique. He was keenly interested. He finished his drink and offered me another. He was thrilled that I didn’t mind chatting with the guys while they enjoyed a nice cold beer on a hot summer night. They were all happy when I tasted their homemade brew. Something about being a down to earth girl opened the door for our conversation to go from surface experiences to life changing stories of risk and faith for God. So I told him about one of my favorite healing stories. The three ladies who were supernaturally healed of irreversible health conditions. It was AMAZING to see the love of God open blind eyes, heal a cripple, and uncurl a paralyzed arm all in one afternoon in a little village in northern Mozambique.

At the end of the story my uncle’s cousin was wondering if that kind of thing could happen in Texas. So I said lets see. I can pray for your knees if you want me to. So I said a simple prayer like, “Jesus you love to heal your kiddos, we ask you to make his knees like new. You love to make all things new.”

That was it. A simple prayer, and he told me that they genuinely felt better. Everyday at the family reunion I would ask him, “How are your knees?” He would say, “Oh their fine.”

I had to ask his wife if she noticed her husband was in less pain. His wife told me that he was feeling so good, that she couldn’t get him to stop helping with all the hard work of setting up and tearing down camp. Those were some renewed knees.

Its so much fun for me to hear that those knees are still like new after so many months. Jesus is really into showing his power so that people can walk, set up camp, hang out with their family, and love more.

We never know exactly what God is going to do when we give him room to do what he wants. I could have prayed a big pretty prayer, but it was just natural to bring Jesus into our conversation and remind him that he is the best healer in the world – so we trust him to do what he loves to do!

Like my mom posted on Facebook, Jesus is ready to heal you. If you need healing in your heart, mind, body, spirit, or relationships, Jesus is happy to make old broken things like new. I pray that you are touched by God and experience a lasting exchange of old for renewed.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Growing a family on the mission field

Today is our oldest son's 11^th birthday. I’m amazed at how that boy has grown. Right that is something that almost every mother says. It’s because we know how true that statement really is!!!

We know exactly how many times their life was flashing before our eyes. We know exactly how many times those scrapes and bruises healed so much faster than we imagined. We know how many colds turned into an ugly flu or sinus infection.

It’s not just some common thing to sum up motherhood, it’s an open ended statement that can be applied or interpreted to mean many things. It can be almost always understood as some level of astonishment. We are astonished. Our oldest son has faced so many challenges and life threatening situations and illness that no mother wants her child to face.    

He’s had malaria more times that his little brothers. He’s been closer to black mambas than I want to admit. He’s been too close to open electricity in a construction site. He’s survived a missionary birth in Mozambique.

I can still hear the words in my memory. “Of course you can have your baby in Mozambique. Thousands of women do that every day!” Heidi was so encouraging and loving. We could come back to Mozambique and have our first baby on the mission field. She wasn’t worried, so why should we be? 

His birth didn’t go as planned (not sure how many natural births do follow a birth plan) but nothing could stop our first little guy from showing up right on his due date. I know that his birth was a miracle. That is a story worth fourteen blogs. He was the first Iris Ministries Missionary baby born in Mozambique. Are we proud of that? I don’t think so. I’m thankful to God for protecting us. I’m thankful that sometimes ignorance is bliss, and sometimes God send’s you to Africa with a couple midwifery books, and send a lady missionary who thinks it will be an honor to learn about midwifery and help out at the private clinic.

He was the first. Now that is a loaded statement. It means so much. It means we as parents were brave, maybe a little naïve, but definitely not afraid. It means that we were willing to do something that no one in our tribe had ever done before. Was it seamless without any problems or unknown territory? Um NO. It was brand new. We were pioneers for growing families on the mission field. It works! Kids are alive and growing. Our three boys are doing well in life. Guess what other Iris Missionary families have grown their families on the mission field, and their kids are growing just fine.

Our oldest son is a testament to the faithfulness of God, and to miracles. He was so squishy and a little blue that my husband was worried. We just prayed as he took a moment to draw his first breath. Then there is was, a little tiny cry and a big newborn breath. We look at him now and know that the goodness of God on his life is a rich American, Brazilian and Mozambican inheritance. Our beautiful Mozambican friends told us that Jonathan belongs to Mozambique. We can go back to our countries when we need to, but he is African. He is Mozambican. We would all laugh when our friend Aida said, that he is much lighter than most other Mozambican’s, like cream in coffee! We would laugh. All of our friends know how much we love to drink coffee with cream.

Happy birthday to our firstborn son! We love you forever our little Mozambican, Brazilian, American!!!

Missionary Momma Mia

My day….

My morning started slow with my hubby bringing me coffee and toast in bed. Then I was occupied with supervising kid chores until their bus came late today. One Wednesday a month the children have a ‘late start day at school’ That was today. So some parents spend lots of time cleaning up after their kids, the other parents spend all of their time cleaning up after their kids. In an effort to clean up ‘less’ I supervised my three boys cleaning efforts until their bus came. 

My husband asked me to watch the computer screen as he practiced an online Colorado Drivers test. Some of the answers literally changed every practice test. So we laughed at the results that are skewed to make you think you failed, and understood why the website has a link that says “noticed any errors on the test” We noticed….We spent some time on international communication with our kids in Mozambique. 

After that, I ate some left over pizza with him, and headed to Downtown Denver where my school campus is located. My drive is usually under an hour. My Wednesday class is only once a week, so it is extended. When my class was over, I talked with one of the moms who is coming to our boys’ birthday party this weekend as I walked from the center of my campus to my car parked in the cheap car lot. Saving dollars and cents, and getting a little bit of cardio. (I will keep telling myself that)

The party call was nice. We discussed a back-up plan if the weather doesn’t permit an outside celebration. Spring in this part of Colorado can be full of surprises. I’m hoping and praying that we are surprised with sunshine! ;-)

I got home around 5:20 had dinner. Helped my boys with homework. Wrote some important emails, and tried to ignore that fact that I still have homework of my own to finish. My loving husband asked me if I was working on my homework a few minutes after I got out of the shower.

I spent some time studying and working on homework. Then decided that sleep will help me more than crunching in this sleepy state. So I’m off to bed.

In my efforts to make you sleepy I have written about my day. I would like to include a yawn here to help you take a nap or get some sleep. 

I chuckle….well, this is me. This is what I left Africa for. To further my education and that of our entire family. So that's kinda what we do, or something like that almost every weekday.

Missionary Momma Mia

So much power

I do not envy the spiritual leaders who follow the call of God on their lives and obey to the best of their ability to serve the body of Christ as Pastors, teachers, evangelist, missionaries, and counselors. When they submit to God and go to teach what they understand, correct, instruct, comfort and counsel where they can, and have a handful of 'fans' who criticize their every move. "The sermon could have been better; the scripture reading should have been a different text; the joke was inappropriate; I should be a lay-leader already, so why can't they see my anointing? ; They skwelched the spirit, and on and on. Folks, leaders are people too. They do make mistakes. Most of them are not mind readers, or able to discern that criticisms comes as 'tough love'- instead of kindness. 

I can think about real tight situations on the mission field where I've misjudge a co-missionary or even misunderstood a leader in the field. I consider the weight and responsibility that comes over a minister or a famous preacher or teacher, and I am humbled. 

I think, “Whoa, I better pray for them and forgive them instead of judging what they just said or did and holding a grudge.” What if my perspective isn't the big picture? What would happen if Heidi spent all of her time listening to 'well meaning criticism' instead of taking another abandoned vulnerable child off of the streets and into the Iris family? What would happen if Bill Johnson spent his time focused on refuting arguments against revelation instead of teaching, preaching and 'doing' as Holy Spirit leads him? Would anyone's time be better spent listening to negative feedback?  I don't think so. It's far better for us to recognize internal offense and give it to Jesus. Pray for leaders. Trust God to gently correct whomever needs correcting. They're not our children, we can correct and discipline the children he'said put in our care because we see their big picture better than they do. He sees his children and knows the big picture better than we do. Let things go. Lay down offense. Forgive. 

Why?
When I forgive, I'm trusting God to guide someone who I feel has done me wrong by lovingly correcting them. I know that he will lead his children to repentance through loving-kindness. I don't have to try to correct people who aren't my children or students. Why attempt to parent someone who is not my responsibility? What if I am the one who needs to repent and change? This is always a possibility, it's just to hard to see clearly with junk in our eyes.

  

When I want to hold someone accountable for their mistakes or failures, or cruelty towards me, I am choosing to take God’s place in their lives. I don't want to try to do God's job. God is so kind that he doesn’t overstep our free will if we want to try. He's pretty chill and permissive. When we want to judge and condemn, we can. It's stupid to do that, but that is one of the realities of free will. We can make choices, even if they aren't the best choices.

Isn’t that wonderful? We can choose to let go of the responsibility to administer discipline to everyone in our life, and trust God to correct a rebellious or ignorant person through whatever means he knows is necessary and best. 

That seems kinda scary to control freaks who want to help God along in his plan. I mean it isn’t practical to think that the all – knowing intelligent creator is waiting on his creation to give him advice, and help him along. As impractical as it is – lots of us think we know what we would do if we had that kind of power.

No really, creative power, power outside of time, power to convict the hearts of men, power to create, power to love, power to truly be unconditional love – to love creation without manipulating the will of his creation. 

Mercy triumphs & Sometimes Medicine Wins

Two of My boy’s Birthdays - two years ago.

My middle son was turning 6 years old, and my oldest was turning 9. They were so cute and we planned to bake a cake and celebrate their birthdays with all the children at the center.

Unfortunately, I had been feeling a little achy in my joints and muscles. I thought it was still left over from my International Travels a few weeks earlier.  So I took some long salt baths, and drank juice and water. I wasn’t feeling hungry, in my mind it was because of all the excitement about traveling back from the states to Mozambique. I got to reconnect with my boys and hubby. We spent a bunch of time with the children and staff at the children’s center. We had guests arriving at the local bus station. The weekend was full of fun plans and a shared birthday party.

I imagined that the sore muscles were from playing with the children. But on the third day of aching joints and muscles, my head started to ache while I was taking a mineral salt bath. I just started praying in the spirit because I hadn’t had a head ache like that ever before. My eyes were burning and my head was exploding. I couldn’t think. I just prayed.

I called for my husband to help me to my bed. That was the afternoon before my middle son’s birthday. Something was really off inside my body. I had just taken a hot salt bath, but I was on the bed shivering and shaking from cold. All I could do was pray in the Spirit and call out to Jesus to calm my mind and help me know what to do. We prayed for healing, and God directed our actions that followed.

Joao covered me with blankets, and I realized that I shouldn’t be cold, something was seriously wrong. I felt like God reminded me of some medical information that I had read on the flight back home from Colorado. So I asked him to look at my eyes to see if they were dilated even though I was looking towards a bright light. I remembered that the cold, and dilated Irises in my eyes were signs of severe dehydration. I needed fluids.

I asked my husband to make re-hydration drink and I sat at the table drinking sweet and salty water for the next four hours – instead of going to the clinic 2 minutes away and getting an IV.

It never even entered into my head to go straight to the clinic. We felt peace and comfort as the Holy Spirit stopped my chills, and the pain literally stopped. Jesus healing washed over my body and the pain was gone. I felt like the Holy Spirit said to stay awake and get hydrated. So I kept sipping away at the homemade rehydration drink. It was saving my life. Thank you Jesus for your mercy! An IV could have saved my life too, but I wanted to be with my kids for their birthdays. I didn’t want to believe that I had anything wrong with my body other than dehydration. I thought the salt baths must be to blame for the dehydration. I didn’t really ask Jesus if I should stay in my house or go to the clinic. God said, “You need fluids.” I found a way, But it was risky and stubborn wat to get fluids.

When you live in a high risk zone for Malaria, it’s good to get Malaria tests for almost any weird body symptom. People don’t think it’s Malaria, or don’t ever feel very different at all. Sorry this is a downer, but that’s how people die of Malaria who have had it before. Someone who has never had Malaria might think they have the flu or a bad case of the runs.

I didn’t have flu symptoms or the runs, no stomach trouble at all -but I remembered that I hadn’t felt hungry or thirsty for a couple days….I started running through the less common Malaria symptoms. I begged my husband to take me to the clinic in the morning after I was re-hydrated because I didn’t want to have to stay at the clinic or be separated from my boys for their birthdays. I thought that it could be Malaria, could be something worse. Maybe since the pain was gone after we prayed, I could go to the clinic and get evidence that Jesus had healed me of something…

After hours of sipping rehydration drink, we loaded into the truck. We knew it was time to see what the doctor had to say. God had reduced my pain supernaturally when no amount of Ibuprofen or  Acetaminophen had helped earlier in the day- after my bath. That was proof pudding that God had healed my muscles and joints and headache. I hoped nothing was wrong and it was just a case of severe dehydration. I looked at my husband with very tired eyes. We hadn’t slept much that night. I didn’t tell him that I thought the illness might be Malaria, but he was already thinking that as well.

He had had mercy on me, and let me sit in our home near my boys bedroom until early in the morning. 

We went to the private clinic when we knew our doctor would be there. He did shake his head when I described how terribly achy and dehydrated I had been that night. ‘You should have come in, I wouldn’t have made you stay here, but let you go home after the IV and first treatment for Malaria.” That’s right, the Malaria test was positive, and a very bad case. Lots of parasites in my blood. I needed treatment right away. The treatment he prescribed was for seven days. He was surprised that I wasn’t feeling worse and showing other signs of the parasite. I’m pretty stubborn. Part of my stubbornness in staying at home had been that I didn't want to believe I had contracted Malaria again - for more than the 30^th time in 10 years on the mission field. I sighed so deeply. It was Malaria again.

I wondered if I was just ignoring symptoms, but I really felt much better after we prayed together and was still fine by the time we showed up in the clinic. I just really didn’t want to face what my doctor was saying because I hated having Malaria. I felt like Malaria kept stealing my days and nights. I didn’t want Malaria to steal another day from me, my husband, or my children. How many times had our kids been treated for Malaria. This pesky parasite is a killer, I didn’t want to face it again. Sometimes the treatment knocked me down worse than the bug. ….I just grit my teeth and thought, ‘It can’t kill me Jesus!’

I looked up at the ceiling as if to glance at Jesus and ask, “Really?” Why relieve me of the symptoms, and not heal me from the cause of the symptoms. Holy Spirit whispered in my spirit, “I am using this doctor and the medicine he proscribes to heal you. Bless your body to be healed through your medical treatment with this medicine.”

I had injections with anti-malaria meds for one week. That got the job done. That was the last case of Malaria that I have had to date. 

Jesus loves to heal his children, and he will show his power how he chooses.

I'm in love with him for knowing what is best for me. I know how to love my children better when they have to take their treatment. I celebrate their healing via medicine or through the supernatural touch of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus is the source of all good things, he can turn medical treatment into a blessing for the body that he created. There is a mystery. I love supernatural healing testimonies. They are splendid to celebrate. Treatment via medicine doesn't mean that Jesus somehow looses the victory. He wins when we are well and we grow in faith. Jesus knows how to love us, and help us love others with a pure heart. 

He sometimes woos us to a different level of trust. Because I obeyed the leading of the Holy Spirit, and took the medical treatment I am here to celebrate my sons' birthdays two years later. 

Missionary Momma Mia

We are called to carry the message of Azusa Now

It has been a day full of Azusa now, I didn’t attend though. I was able to plug into what the God was doing because they had live streaming of the entire event. It’s just now closing. I am over full. I’m so thrilled. The face of Revival is changing.

I’m remembering how it was sometimes very difficult to attend revival meetings or conferences and organize child care. Today, I was able to tune into revival meetings, and take care of my three sons, and youngest nephew this morning. While I was watching the live streaming of Azusa Now, I chatted with my sister-in-law and my brother. I prayed over the phone, and with other’s on facebook. Revival meetings are great, carrying a revival message and living with a revived spirit is Amazing! We can respond wherever we are. We can follow the lead of the Holy Spirit right where we are.

Now is the time to take the essence of Azusa Now and carry it to our everyday lives. Pray with our children, pray with our neighbors. Forgive one another, and be a united church – the bride of Christ!

That’s it for today,

Missionary Momma Mia

Joy of Repentance

I know, you probably think I’m joking. Right?

How can there be any joy in repentance?

Let me tell you what I’m thinking and you can decide if you agree or not. You might actually go with me on this one, or even have an ‘ah hah’ moment. It’s possible because this is not as crazy as it sounds the first time you hear/read it. I have said this outload to people before. I usually get the squinty eyes and tilted head to one side, sometimes even a silent mouthed “whaaaat?” But it isn’t that ridiculous really, and it isn’t that difficult when you think about the similarities of crying and laughter. Crying is basically the same as laughter.

I’m not a scientist or doctor, but there are lots of different articles that people can look up about these things. This is not some professionally crafted article, so I’m not going to look up loads of articles and quote them. I don’t even know how to do the proper references in a blog. I’ll figure it out in the future when I need to quote someone more precisely. At this point I would rather indicate that there are people who study these things and write about it. I just remember enough from what those smart people said to look at my kids and say, “Are those happy tears or sad tears? Is that a happy laugh or a nervous laugh, love?”

Ok, so now you might be following me. A laugh doesn’t equal JOY, and a tear doesn’t equal Sorrow. Can be both and a lot more.

What other people may think of as ‘only true’ if it is contrite, I think of as an opportunity for complete transformation! It hit me one day when someone corrected me. She can do that. In fact I pay her to, she is a University professor. I was thrilled and overjoyed to be corrected. I had literally NO idea of my previous mistake- I knew I was making some mistakes, some colossal failures, but no idea why. Her experience and authority in the subject gave her much better discernment than me, and she was able to point out some of my problem areas and definite areas of weakness.

The spirit of truth came in such gentleness and clarity that I was literally OVERJOYED! How could I not be? The thing that had evaded me for YEARS was finally exposed. It was my own doing. My failure was pretty consistent because I had a blind spot. What a thrill to learn! What a thrill to be corrected and to see immediate results! That was a great time of repentance for me. I took the lesson and applied it to my life, my family, and my ministry. Relationships were mended, and I got to see something dead be totally renewed!

I laughed and I cried as one person let me open my heart to them. I never imagined that they cared. I was wrong. I had preconceived ideas about some people in my life that were my jilted perspective.

What happens when we lay down our pain, trust in Jesus ability to perfect us, and love people that he’s brought into our lives?

Our world changes.

Maybe only one person at a time—so! That’s one whole entire person! One person at a time, is actually the gist of the Iris Global motto: ‘Stop for the One’ It might not seem like a revival to someone interested in numbers, but it will be a revival in that one person’s spirit. Love someone you have judged. Forgive someone you have held accountable for their offense, and embrace someone you couldn’t see before you repented. Your life will change. Well that was a lot of advice. You can throw it out if you want. I’m also writing this for me. So I won’t mind one bit what you do with my words. I’m not going to forget. I’m not going to go back to hours of crying for God to show me what is wrong in my heart, I’m going to trust him to show me in the most loving way possible that will change me forever. I might be contrite, but when I truly get the point. I’m gonna celebrate!

I’ve heard people say, many times, that repentance is only heartfelt when there are tears. As a parent we do often see that our tender-hearted children do cry when they are corrected, and when they realize that their actions of violence, outbursts of hatred, or unfettered selfishness doesn’t only hurt the person who was on the receiving end of their tantrums, but that any time we hurt another person, we also hurt ourselves….It’s funny though how my boys look at their brother, friend or cousin and say ‘sorry’ then smile and give each other a big bear hug. Can you imagine doing that as an adult?

I can.  I did, and I started laughing just like my little boys. I can love better, more deeply and more freely knowing that if I need to repent it isn’t a terrible thing, but an amazing opportunity. I can see something I’ve never seen before. Can you imagine what we are missing by being stubborn?

I pray that I’m not missing the important things. I pray that you get to see something new after you read this. That is the beginning of change. And Repentance is a total transformation life change.

Lots of love to my friends who take the time to read these silly ramblings, I'm sorry to those annoyed. It's just kinda journaling too. Not flawless. I know, and well..rambling

love,

Missionary Momma Mia

PS. I want to put a plug for Azusa Now. I’m wondering why my schedule couldn’t be arranged in anyway for me to attend, but I’m not too to sad. Some of my greatest friends will be there, and I know they are going to share amazing testimonies!

I comfort myself with the fact that Azusa now will be live streaming on-line at http://www.thecall.com/azusa?mc_cid=750b1e74c8&mc_eid=43305fa082 and on God-tv.

Not only will the even be in a packed arena, it will be in a packed outdoor arena. I pray for a gentle breeze and soft scattered cloud coverage. For those of you who haven’t heard, this is going to be a blessed event.

I heard of a lady named Maria Woodworth-Etter when I was 15 years old. I listened to my mom read her book of testimonies aloud. It is full of firsthand accounts of healings and revival that swept our country at the turn of the 20^th century. ‘A Diary of Signs and Wonders’ was published in 1916. One hundred years later there is a massive event happening in Los Angeles, California – Azusa Now starts tomorrow morning at 7 in the Los Angeles Coliseum. For anyone in the LA area, this will be a great gathering of many love-minded followers of Jesus Christ. This is the perfect day to put down denominational, theological, and apologetics arguments and gather together for the sake of harmoniously expanding God’s kingdom hear on earth. It’s a perfect time to bubble up with JOY in God’s Holy Spirit and let God pour out his heart in and through his church – Jesus Bride. Let the walls fall down, let people humbly and joyfully look to heaven with repentant hearts. It’s time to fix our eyes on Jesus and love our neighbor.

Azusa Now is an event inspired not only by the historic significance of a revival that began in 1906, but also recognizing proclamations that were spoken by Maria Woodworth-Etter in  1913. She prophesied that there would be another great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in one hundred years.  I’m incredibly interested in being exactly where God wants me to be to see the outpouring of Holy Spirit simultaneously happening around the globe tomorrow and the days that follow. I do not believe that the movement of God’s Holy Sprit being poured out will be an isolated event in one location. I believe that an incredible moment is happening in the history of the church, and we get to be a part of it.

Azusa Now is already happening. Sign up, tune in, and Pray. (sorry I'm bossy. I have three small boys, have helped raise over 33 of our Mozambican children, and I'm an older sister) but it is a good idea to do these things....

A couple of good bits From the Azusa Now web site:

AZUSA THEN

What made the 1906 Azusa Street Revival so special? Three key factors at Azusa mirrored the reality of the formation of the church in Acts 2. Firstly, there was a multi-ethnic gathering of unity in Christ (Acts 2:1-11). Secondly, the miraculous, attesting ministry of the Holy Spirit was enjoyed in a unique way (Acts 2:2-4).  Finally, there was a clear presentation of the Gospel leading many to salvation (Acts 2:37-41).

AZUSA NOW

“We need a true jubilee of love and mercy to sweep our land. A dark question looms over our children's future: riots or revival? The only answer is to be found in Christ. Prayer, love and unity remain the Acts 2 template for breakthrough. On April 9, 2016, join a great multi-ethnic, multi-denominational, multi-generational assembly as we strike a match for awakening in our day. It's not just Azusa then. It's Azusa Now.” 

Fluff and stuff

Fluff and stuff comes to mind…

On a day like today, I’d rather just think about soft fluffy things and drift off to sleep to make up for the lack of sleep last night. Not sure why I’m even writing tonight, except I want to write  something every day to make it a habit. But all I can think of now is fluff and stuff, not really any thought provoking story, or image inducing rhetoric. I’m not even sure I have anything very ‘on topic’ to write about. Except what this mom is thinking about after an exhausting night of being mommy -parenting, nursing, and nurturing with a little bit of sleep here and there.

Why does fluff and stuff come to mind? Aren’t there days we just want to look at soft puppies, and sweet smelling baby pictures? Sometimes fluff is so comforting. It doesn’t seem important, but then why do we enjoy cotton candy?

 There’s lots of things about being a mom that are very fluffy and fun. Lots of stuff that doesn’t really signify much, but in the end it is the fluff and stuff that makes days bearable and full of meaning. I’m a bit of a jumbled writer tonight. Probably because this was a sleepy day for me. 

After writing last night, I woke up plenty of times to help my son breath. We cuddled in our big bed with a fluffy blanket. In the early morning he woke up and asked me for the machine to help him breath.  His shallow breath caused mine to halt. My heart ached for him. This is the kind of thing that takes a few moments in a 24 hour period, yet fills the entire day. I don't have much to write this evening, but I do feel like a productive mommy.

I will go to sleep in a fluffy blanket, with less stuff on my mind since he is breathing better tonight.

Thank you Jesus.

Missionary Momma Mia 

Missionary momma’s prayer

Oh Jesus,

I was so excited to write something today. I woke up just full of words and thoughts, but know I’m finding myself at a loss for words.

The thing is that this day has been very nice. I’ve been upbeat and happy, but I’m concerned about Benaiah now. I love the spring, the spring isn’t loving my littlest guy to much though… or it could be that the weather here changes sooo often! Our boys are on spring break, but the wind was so crazy yesterday that they didn’t even play outside. Colorado weather is so very different from the weather in Chimoio. There are basically two seasons in Chimoio, and four in this corner of Colorado – and we did have a freak blizzard two weeks ago followed by sunshine. So seasons change every other day here…. 

It normally isn’t so bad for our littlest guy, but this week he’s been hit with a cough. Jesus, please sooth his throat, and strengthen his immune system.   

He’s been coughing today, and it is like the cough that he had when the seasons changed in Chimoio. He had such difficult time breathing with the irritation in his throat that we ending up driving him to the private clinic in the middle of the night so he could use a nebulizer. The private clinic was only a few minutes drive away from our house. But with our youngest son fighting to catch a breath, it felt like half an hour away.

When we arrived at the clinic in the middle of the night, everyone was kind and helpful. The staff was great. They led us into their urgent care, and set him up on a bed next to a gurgling machine with menthol smelling mist to soothe his airways. After a little while it helped his breathing slow down and become less shallow.

I remember holding him while he tried to breathe the medicated air in through the face mask. It took a bit over fifteen minutes to open up his breathing, but when we got home he was finally able to sleep. I think I held him all night that night. 

The evening was memorable for many reasons, but one of the most memorable was the compassion and concern in the nursing staff’s eyes as we waited for my youngest son to be able to breathe freely. I never imagined that the problem would persist, but we knew he was in good hands. We ended up having to drive him to the clinic three nights in a row.

When we talked with our doctor, he pointed out that there was more than just the change of the season, there was also a lot of soot and ash in the air because many local farmers burn their fields to clear them for planting. We kept our windows and doors closed as much as possible until the air cleared. We hoped he wouldn’t need an inhaler. The problem passed after a few days. He didn’t seem to have a long-term breathing problem.  

Tonight Benaiah’s throat is still irritated, we’re thinking it’s from a lot of dust in the air that the wind whipped up yesterday. My poor little guy….so we gave him some cough and cold medicine and dabbed some Thieves oil to help open up his breathing. I was a little concerned that he might need a nebulizer, but with a deep sigh of relief I remembered that we wouldn’t have to drive anywhere. It’s nice when your needs are met. We were given a brand new nebulizer so we can help our little guy right away if he needs help breathing. Thank you Jesus for the little things, and the big things….

Missionary Momma Mia

At 7 in the morning, he woke up just now, taking painful shallow rapid breaths. Thankfully the machine was humming in a matter of minutes.....

To be or not to be…. A brief blurg

To be or not to be….

Is that really the question? How many times do we start our day thinking should I be mean, or nice today? Should I be productive or destructive today? Do I want to be a loving person today, or maybe just be hateful? Do people ask themselves these kind of questions? I don’t. I don’t even wake up thinking should I be a mom today, Or not? Should I be a wife today, or a single mother? Maybe I should just abandon being a mommy today and go for single with no procreated responsibilities.

This isn’t usually what people think of when they ponder Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy – Hamlet’s monologue. They know it is about life, and contemplating living or dying. But what is life when there is nothing worth dying for?

To be or not to be isn’t connected to the breath in our lungs and blood in our veins, it’s about knowing our destiny as sons and daughters of the creator of the universe. Do you know that Papa God loves you and wants you to live with an eternal perspective?  It’s about living our everyday lives as mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers with our eternal reality. It is about the question of knowing our deepest needs are met in Christ Jesus. As we love Jesus, he leads us through life’s greatest questions, and everyday decisions.  

Why write about my International Family? Because my life’s goal is to love Jesus, myself and others, Being a missionary is one part of that goal – applying the rich experiences of our family life extends from any work or ministry goal, to my most intimate time with Jesus Christ. Family is worth living or dying for.    

There may have been days when I looked to heaven and asked, “Seriously, to be or not to be a Missionary?”

The answer was usually a question: Would you die for your husband? Your sons? Your Mozambican children? Will you live to love them? Will you live for me?  

my answer:
Missionary Momma that's a Mia

As it is in Heaven

Why do I choose to write about an international family over the awesome victories of the missionary life, or the rugged realities of using an outdoor toilet? What is so valuable to me that I choose to spend more energy telling my family story?

It’s just that my family is my gift from Jesus to learn how to intimately love people who think differently than me, or acts in a way that I would have never imagined, and love in a manner that softens my soul.

I’m an awkward girl. Really I am. Sometimes I wish I could rewind time because I find myself being caught up in the moment and saying something silly that can’t be unsaid…. Oh well. My family gets me, and in gentleness they correct my thoughtlessness. It’s amazing to be loved in kindness.  My sweet sons, Today I’m gushing over mostly about my romantic, committed Brazilian husband.

My husband loves me more than any man in my life has ever attempted to imagine loving me. I had one really sweet offer from a young man with a crush. He knew that my calling in life was to be a missionary, but his calling was to be a successful business man in Colorado. He said that he would buy an entire African village and move them to Colorado if I married him. It was really not a missionary plan, more like forced refugees, but he didn’t know….

My husband knows about villages and refugee camps. He has walked in desperate places. Through refugee camps, distant bush villages, and remote areas of Mozambique that truly were hungry and thirsty for Jesus. He is a cool man, and a really resilient missionary. He went to the villages, and stepped out of the comfort of his own community in Brazil to spend what part of his life that Holy Spirit required of him.

My husband knows his ministry calling is to be a missionary. Yet when faced with the approval or acceptance of peers or leaders to pour himself out entirely for the ministry, or minister to his family and protect us –he chose to protect us. He has loved me and our sons at the cost of being absent for a mission’s project, or a church visit when we were sick or suddenly needed him. His love is sooo committed. He will lay everything down to be a loving father. Now that is something worth writing about!

You see, I write about my International family because it is my first ministry priority and priority in Life: as a loving mom and wife, I am compelled to be a better missionary, minister, and leader. We believe that Papa God loves family. We are committed to being a loving family that really does invite people to draw closer to Jesus. By people we mean us, observers, participants, people our lives may touch.

Our International Family’s desire is to always love God, and family and pour out our lives in obedience to increase Papa God’s kingdom here on earth so that we can really say, “on earth as it is in Heaven.” In heaven no body is sad. So I like to spread the love, and celebrate that I am loved! You are love too!!Better believe it.

Missionary Momma Mia