Back to our roots.

My hubby and I are pretty overwhelmed when we come here. It’s a place of our beginnings. We worked hard here, we literally poured out blood, sweat and tears for this vision to be build up in Dondo.

We didn’t know how to face all of the challenges that we faced being missionaries here, but we learned soooooo much!!

It’s been an incredible day with lots of flooding emotions. We are going to be apart for a month. We are going to move into a huge transition on this side of the ocean while I attend a summer class, and our kids have their summer break from school in Colorado.

We are in so deep that it’s hard to just take ten minutes to breath Jesus in for the sake of being near him and chilling. But that is what I have to do when it least seems possible. I need to just stop and breath in Holy Spirit. Lean into Papa God’s heart and trust that his plan is awesome because that’s his promise to us!

Please pray for us. I’m traveling over the next few days, and my hubby is heading back to Chimoio after I fly out tomorrow from Beira. We’re not used to being apart or happy about it, but we know how to trust Papa God and obey. This time will be a treasure for us, in many ways it already is. I can look forward to our reunion in Colorado!

Oh my goodness we are sappy. But we really do love each other that much….

Praying you all are really blessed as you breathe in sweat Holy Spirit and rest trusting in his word for your lives.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Overfull to Overflowing

Today started with a fun church service at Iris Chimoio River of God Children’s Center. We danced and laughed and sang in so many dialects that I only understood half of the songs. The mamas, grandmas, and girls were dancing in the center of the room. The guys played instruments and danced in a line behind the girls. All the voices were loud and clear. We worshipped and prayed together then listened as one of our older sons shared a message about being salt and light. He also talked about forgiveness and brought tears to my eyes. My hubby and I love this young man so much…. We are so proud of him and our other kiddos!!!! Then they surrounded me and prayed over me as I said goodbye. Oh my goodness, they are precious… Their hugs are priceless. Their prayers are powerful and full of faith. 

“Surround Mae with angels on her journey. Protect her and bring her back safely….” They continued for a while, all praying at the same time. Then our pastor prayed over me and our family as we are in this huge transition that God will bless us in our Goodbyes and keep us connected in spirit. My heart was just smushed….Its an incredible people we get to spend time with! They are a huge blessing in our lives. How can we say goodbye one more time? But we are a family stretched across the globe with our own three sons in the US. We miss them so much. It’s time for me to get back to them.   

But I’m not sure if I can say goodbye one more time today. My hubby so kindly reminded me that I need to say goodbye to our Mozambican son Ngenie. I’m pretty sure he’s heading to bed already though. And I’m not sure if I can get through more hugs. I’m over full, but I’m not sure if I’ve made it to overflowing. I’m full like a sack that is about to burst.

I need to take a deep breath and allow God to pour through me, then I can go hug my son….

Ok…hug time before he goes to bed, and then heads to school early in the morning.

Now I’m overflowing…..I got a hug and a big surprise!

I went to hug Ngenie goodbye, and he barely could hug me. Then he asked me if it was ok for him to come with us to Beira tomorrow. He told me that he doesn’t have class tomorrow or Tuesday. I told him that of course he can come. We will work out the details in the morning. I told him that it’s perfect that I don’t have to say goodbye tonight because I can’t handle one more goodbye today. Ngenie couldn’t handle another goodbye either, he was swallowing back the tears. I totally understand the emotion.

Now I’m just to overfull and overflowing with real soppy gratitude to Papa God. He just knows me so perfectly and understands what I can and cannot handle right now. I just needed to be able to wait to say goodbye.

I’m so amazed! We serve an awesome God feels like an understatement!!!! Can you fathom how perfect that detail is for me right now? It’s just so much more than any kindness I’ve experienced from a person in my life.  Papa God is by far the kindest person I know.

I’m literally crying now, and it’s because of amazement. How he loves us!!!! There is no other God who wants to show us his power by arranging a perfect ending to a perfect evening setting up the details that will best bless me!

I feel so loved and so blessed to be right here right now with hubby beside me. Yesterday and today we celebrated our 12^th wedding anniversary with wonderful meals out with friends, and a tremendously sweet lunch date with our beautiful Mozambican daughters! We all got dressed up in fancy dress clothes to celebrate!

We’ve said goodbye to many dear friends here, and we can’t wait to stay connected via various forms social media. Thank you to everyone who has blessed us on our special day!!!!!

We are over full and stuffed with love and friendship, we are overflowing with such tender JOY for being sons and daughters of the best, kindest and perfect Papa God!

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Yummy Groupo Familiar

Tonight my hubby and I made it to the missionary home group by-weekly fellowship. We walked in about a half an hour late. When we went through the door into their living room the crowd of our friends (basically our adopted extended family in Chimoio) started to hoot, holler and whistle for us. They’re so kind!, Cheering for us at our unexpected arrival at the groupo familiar was a huge surprise for me. We love them so much. It’s such a great feeling to be warmly welcomed back into our circle of friends and co-laborers in the field! Its such a great group of people living by faith, following their calling and loving our God and loving His people!  

We heard stories from a missionary family who have been in Mozambique since 1987 and 1992. It was an honor to meet their family. It was also our great joy to see so many of our friends at once. This was the only way for me to meet up with so many other missionaries during my short time here in Chimoio.

We found that friendship isn’t forgotten in our absence, not only among our staff and children who are on some level dependent on our missionary calling and commitment to Mozambique. These friends are other men and women who love Mozambicans. They are our neighbors and friends. Its such a blessing to see so many nations represented in one home group meeting.

I was so touched by acapella voices singing in Portuguese. Familiar voices in soprano, base, and alto. It’s a gift to be touched and receive from God in any place of worship, to go into any setting and seek God. Here God is easily found. It seems that everyone is touched in worship, prayer and listening to testimonies. This is the taste of eternity that grabs our hearts and reminds us how much Jesus loves the NATIONS! We get a taste of the nations too! Lots of good food follows a brief message. So we left the home group meeting with full spirits and full tummies.

Yay!!! for real people thinking about real stuff. We all know that when you get a group of thirty missionaries together every other week, we need both kinds of food!

Here’s to good fellowship, food, and friends and family!!! Thank you for being friends!

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

S'not soup

Snot soup….that was the title of a book I read in 3^rd grade…nothing to do with my day, except for the way my head feels. Sorry folks. I’m not so poetic, romantic, or writing that great today. I know it’s kinda yucky. Sometimes I might just be a little to frank. The truth is, I’m feeling kinda tired and have a stuffy head. There is a little bit of snot in my head, or maybe a lot of snot. So I can’t smell much and I can’t think very well either.

So here it is: We are in Mozambique at the start of the winter season, but we just left the beginning of summer. I’m finding out that even though the temperatures are pretty close, my body is responding like its winter! I needed a jacket the other evening, and even had a cold when I woke up yesterday morning. Well, I’m kinda laughing because I feel warm, but at night my body is telling me that we are winter. Even after such a long time away, my body seems to want to acclimate pretty quickly.  

Tonight I’m going to sleep under another blanket with my socks and pjs on to see if I wake up less stuffy. Now I’m going to sip on some lemon tea, try to write some more for school or emails, pay some bills online, and listen to the local nightly news in the background.

Sorry to post a blurg….but this is as good as it gets tonight…

Thanks for patience and thanks for reading!

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Flickering undying flame for Mozambique

Flickering flame

Perfect reason to give away leftovers from our dinner. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t finish my meal this evening. We had set up a dinner date at a great place in Chimoio with great friends. We had the best conversation possible, and I might have just talked to much. I couldn’t finish my meal. My hubby asked for a take away box for the other half of my meal.

Then on our way our way home we found the perfect reason for having neglected such a yummy meal, and the right person to give our leftovers too.

My hubby and I don’t usually take that road home back from the restaurant, but tonight we happened to take the road because we knew that the other street that we used to take would be more crowded with drunks from the bars. I usually prefer the other road because it has a little bit more light from streetlamps, but tonight we went on that bumpy bumpy dirt road behind the school that is a short cut to our rental house. As soon as we turned the corner we noticed that there was a light flickering out of place up ahead of us. It was a little fire lit right next to the dumpster, and someone was getting warm. 

That dumpster often has a mad man rummaging around through the garbage for food, but Joao noticed that is wasn’t a mad man or even a grown up. He was a kid. When we realized that is wasn’t the normal mad man who stays by that dumpster, we stopped the truck, backed up and found out that this youngster was on the street for only a brief time. Our hearts desire is to scoop him up in our truck and let him sleep at our home just two blocks away. Tonight the temperature will drop pretty low. That’s why he had lit a fire to try to get warm. We looked at each other and knew that we needed to give him time to get to know us and our big family. We struck up a conversation.

He looked out of place wearing summer clothes instead of a winter jacket. His tank top and shorts didn’t look to be too ripped -  from what I could tell in the dim light. He appeared a little to clean to have been surviving on the street any length of time. He was kind and spoke very clear Portuguese. Sometimes street children speak more of the local dialect because they are not in school studying the national language. His name is Jose, and he answered our questions very clearly in Portuguese. We asked him if he was hungry and would like to eat my left overs? “Sim….Obrigado”(Yes, thank you) my hubby asks him in unison with me “Jose,  where is his home? “Nao tenho” (I don’t have one), Why? “Both of my parents died a year ago” Do you have any other family? He looked at me then at the ground contemplating an answer. So I asked if he had any aunties or uncles to care for him? “Nao” Rephrasing the question gave him an opportunity to answer without lying. My hubby asked him how long he has been on the street, but I’m not sure we got a straight answer. We know time passes differently when you don’t have a home. Then he asked him, where is your blanket? He told us that he is using a sack.

A vehicle was coming up behind us, so we said our goodbyes. We knew that if we talked longer we would be tempted to just take him home, but knowing the best path is to build a relationship and take things slowly we drove away knowing that he's going to be warmer tonight and well fed. He’s not a small child, but a teenager. My hubby lets him know that we will send our son with a blanket and we will talk with him more and give him as much help that we can give.

Our sweet Mozambican son took a sleeping bag to him and prayed with him. He is so tender towards Jesus and to the lost. They talked for a little bit and Ngenie came up with a lot of similar info. He agrees that this guy isn’t a street kid, and he said he’s only been there a month because his auntie was beating him and hasn’t come to look for him since he left her house. Our Mozambican son Ngenie knows what its like to loose both parents and then loose a home with an family member. It’s not easy to be alone. Ngenie asked him if he would want to live with our other kids or if he knew any of the Iris Chimoio missionaries. He is interested. He told Ngenie he stays by that dump, so Ngenie will bring him breakfast on the way to school. Our pastor and his wife are already praying with us for Jose to be safe and warm tonight, and to find a new home, or reconcile with his aunty. God knows exactly what this youngster needs. His heart is broken without his parents and he needs warmth, food, and to continue his education.

My hubby and I are ready to help him find his family again, or have a bed at River of God Children’s center. It doesn’t take us to long to decide these things. When he is ready our team will do whatever we can to help him get safe and warm for these cold winter months.

This is why we give our hearts to this people, this nation. Papa God doesn’t let these vulnerable children be hidden from his watchful eyes, and at just the right time this evening near 10pm we spotted one of his kids who might be getting ready to come home, or return to his family with help and love from ours.

Oh we have such a good loving Papa God!!! Its an honor to have eyes to see the hurting, and be able to love on them. It’s the best way to spend the last moments of our day.

So much love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Stretched, twisted, Rung out

Stretched, twisted, rung out and then hung on the line….

Washing a load of laundry, with help from our dear Mozambican Mae scrubbing our clothes by hand in laundry detergent, took an hour and a half. She did the scrubbing in the detergent because my hands are to sleek and smooth. The detergent cracks my skin right away. She laughs as I explain how weak my muscles are compared to hers, and how soft my skin is from doing office work and studying at University. She let me see if I was strong enough to pull the water up from the well with a fraying rope tied to a five liter jug with slots in the side to fill up as the jug plunks into the water that is about nine meters below our feet. We laughed when I could fill up the 20 liter bucket, but I couldn’t carry it with ease like she can.

We talked about how strong Mozambican women are. I told her that I’m always amazed at the strength and perseverance of Mozambican Mamas.  She humbly inquired with a simple phrase that requires body language along with clear facial expression, “ah e’? “ meaning “for real?” Its meaningless to try to flatter minha Mae Mozambicana. She wants to hear why I’m saying they are so strong. So we talk for a while and she begins to conceptualize that our comfy lifestyles in the western developed countries doesn’t keep our arm muscles strength up to par for hand washing laundry by directing my attention, with the subtle motion of her chin, to the broken washing machine on the back veranda of our rental house in Chimoio. We chuckle together and she teaches me more words in Matewe as we change the water two more times. Then I wrung out one item at time and hung our dripping wet laundry on the clothes line. Mae lets me know that the sun is strong enough to dry them while they drip. We started the wash early enough for the sun to dry our clothes before sunset.

She was absolutely correct. She knows her stuff. We finished the wash at 11:30, and the clothes were nice and dry at four in the afternoon after my hubby and I returned from an interesting afternoon in the city. We managed to get a lot of paper work (my hubby and our accountant got tons of stuff taken care of this morning) We attempted to sort out our foreign residence here in Mozambique. There are some bumps in our path, so tomorrow morning we will sit with the director of Immigration to find out what is our next step with this process. So many things to do, and details to look into….now it’s time to finish catching up on the national news with our dear friends before heading to bed. Its interesting the filmography of the news….a witness to a crime is interviewed and the camera is tightly zoomed in on his chest, their microphones and a reporters hands…..some serious news to be praying for this country. We are all praying for peace to reign. Ok, that’s all for now.

Off I go,  not to be to too brief when there is so much story to tell, but after this I’m going to head to bead instead of writing late into the night because we have a bit of an early morning tomorrow.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia 

dreams on hold

A few times today my head was spinning from thinking to hard….I know that never happens to anyone else, but oh my goodness. How many things need to be considered, discussed and attempted to resolve in such a short time!

Well, it’s a lot to take in. We sat with a few of our trusted friends who are part of the Iris Chimoio team and discussed current and future plans for the children’s center. It was a lot of hopes and a few certainties. Everything that is certain is what we have to consider when making any important decisions. We are framing all the conversation around vision and the facts like time limits for Joao’s greencard, various different government regulations, children’s ages, and grade levels, current assets, fixed expenses, team members, family, volunteers and staff. All of this helps us flesh out who we talk to next, what steps we take to go forward with certain documents and plans. There are so many provincial and city office officials that we or our leading pastor has to meet with in order to continue caring for our kiddos here.

We have to consider what to do with the old rental house in the city. We have had dreams and ideas before that we felt like God put in our hearts. We have followed his vision for these children to the best of our faith, ability and skills. They are well, so beautiful and growing up in so many aspects. We are very proud of them. We hadn’t really planned on taking care of children without a fully developed center with nice finished buildings, fences, water and electricity, but that was never our reality. Since September 2008 we have been taking care of the children that Papa God gave to us. We have slowly seen how God has changed our ideas of ‘proper’ order for developing and running a children’s center here. Seven and a half years later, we are still developing and building at the center. Some of our first children have grown up and moved on. Most of our children are now adolescents. They are full of spice and spunk. Our kiddos are growing, and they are loved by lots of mammas and papas now. In the beginning my hubby and I had our little family of five in Chimoio : two of our own children, and one Mozambican son. Then, we had four beautiful kids left at our door. The guard at our property let us know that someone dropped four children that they could no longer take care of. Today, two of our first Iris Chimoio kids are attending University….we are so amazed because when we met them that was one of their dreams for their future. Today it is a reality. They dreamed of having a good job and a house. Today that is a reality.

Sometimes our dreams feel like they are on hold. We have a vision and dream that we believe is from God for Iris Chimoio. We dream of a loving home for the boys and girls with plenty of hugs, help, food, and running water and electricity, and lots of adoptive parents. We dream of having a place for the leaders of the Iris churches in this province to gather together in prayer and communion to seek God together and share their testimonies, to have spirit-filled preachers and teachers encourage them, and to have important meetings to take care of the churches administrative business needs.

For years we have felt like so much of that dream has been on hold. But just like these two kiddos of ours, we believe that God’s dream for us isn’t on hold. He’s growing us down, shaking out the old-man thinking in us and the church, and according to his perfect timing, giving us land, sending children, pastors, missionaries, and funds to build buildings. Sometimes the hardest thing in our faith walk with Jesus is knowing the time and season. This time or season is definitely a transition. It feels like spring, summer, winter and fall at the same time. Its pretty possible that we are experiencing different seasons in different aspects because the dream is so robust.

At first we wanted other people to come help us make everthing happen right away. We were so pushy and motivated by lots of strong emotions like pity and pain. We felt like making things better quickly would lessen the pain. We’ve learned through the years that pain is not our enemy. Pain isn’t intended to tear us down. The pain that so many of us who absolutely love Jesus are passing through is often to sift us, and purify us. Somewhere in our fiery passionate love for Jesus we said, “YES!!! I want to be a part of your pure spotless bride!!!! I want to learn how to love you and be presented as a pure perfectly spotless bride.”

It has taken a few tough times and trial for us to see how silly our whining and straining must have looked to Papa God. He couldn’t love us any more or less for all of our efforts to please him and serve him. He loves us perfectly, and he loves his beautiful Mozambican bride perfectly. These churches that were birthed in the beginning of a powerful show of supernatural miracles and fiery revival have continued to pass through fire, for many in this region there has been pain along with the refining fire. This area has seen power, miracles and wonders. The churches have responded to Jesus in a mighty way, and these churches that are continuing to worship Jesus, and meet together are not sustained by visits from missionaries, food and offerings from the outside; they are sustained in spite of our weakness. They sustained by Holy Spirit. These humble pastors are loving their beautiful savior without having a nice place to meet at Iris Chimoio. This is because their lives are constantly being transformed by their faith. They hold onto Jesus, and we get to hear their testimonies as we sit with them, eat with them, and worship with them. Revival isn’t dependent on missionaries being here, missionaries get to testify to what God is doing. God is doing stuff where the missionaries haven’t arrived. God is loving his children weather it is his beautiful kids that he sent to our door, or his beautiful children in the bush. God is sustaining them, and loving them. Missionaries don’t come here to save the poor dying children. They come here to let Jesus save the poor dying children through them and at the same time learn the truth about ourselves. I was such a poor dying child without the spiritual life that I have gained from depending moment by moment on a kind loving Papa God. I have learned so much about myself and my weaknesses that I am amazed that Holy Spirit flows through me, Papa God adopts me, and Jesus chooses me.

I’m just a little more undone by Jesus love for me than I have been in a while…..It good to breath him in and just see through his perspective. We aren’t late, or any more messed up than he thought we would be by this stage in life. We are failures. We are dreamers, radical laid down lovers, children of Papa God who he delights in giving good gifts too.

So are you!!!! Don’t try to deny it. The truth will come around and smack you right between the eyes at some point. He loves you more than you can think or imagine. No princess fairy tale can define the measure of his compassion and passionate love. Its just far too romantic for us to grasp. With that it is easier to face the realities and dreams that Papa God has for us, and trust that he will work everything out in amazing ways.

We are trusting Papa God for his plans to work….that simple. And we aren’t lost sheep. Since he knows is plans, he is actually going to keep telling us or showing us what we need to know to go forward.

I love that!

I love yall!!!! Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia