48 hours

Anna (me!) and Cara in Mozambique the day they arrived in May

A very small part of my beloved family (the 4 youngest sibs and mom)

Joel-13, Christina-15 (aka Bobo), Andrea-11, Sam-9, and mom

This was when they were leaving dad and Cara at the airport, which is why mom

and Joel don't look particularly happy.

But on Thursday we will ALL be happy because that is the day they are picking me up!

in 48 hours I will be leaving for the Maputo Airport to go home to America, and I am so

excited!! Please pray for safe travels, and for me to be healed of this nasty sinus crud trying

to attack my body. 

For those of you in Ohio, see you this week!!!!!!

God's so awesome!!

Priscilla from Brazil performing a dance with the little girls.

The Lovely Tias! Tia Safira, Tia Sidalia, Tia Inez, and Tia Sonia

One of our two teams of dorm mothers, who daily pour into the lives of each girl, mothering them and loving them.

The Lord their God will save them on that day

as the flock of His people.

They will sparkle in His land like jewels in a crown.

How attractive and beautiful they will be!

Zechariah 9:16-17a

I had discipleship with the older girls today. Only four of them came. We discussed the benefits of being Christians, how are we different to the world. What is our gain. What do each of the girls desire to see God do in their life time. We talked about how life is short in comparison with eternity, and this is preparation for Heaven--God is even storing up treasures in Heaven for us! 

The girls opened their mouths and spilled out their hearts. It was lovely. We read a few scriptures together, then I suggested we pray for each other. If they had anything specific they wanted prayer for, we would pray for those things too. Well, as we laid hands on each girl, the girls prayed for one another and some cried a little. The Lord is really capturing their hearts for Him. I know these girls are going to be the women that bring transformation to the lives of many people, they will be the ones to be leaders with a voice, they will be the ones who bring the captives to Jesus, and bring freedom to the lost. They are willing for God to work through them, and I can't wait to see what He does! 

As of right now, it will be 4 days and 15 hours till I leave to go be with my family

for 10 weeks!! I am getting so excited. I started packing today, and putting things away to 

make room for Rachel, who will be moving in while I am away.

Yay! Brimfield, here I come!

I can't wait to see you mom and dad, Bonnie and Braden and Audrey and Brady, Greg and Bethany, Daniel and Julie (looking forward to meeting you too!:-)), Seth, Cara, Bobo, Joel, Andrea, and Sammy bean! I love you all so much, and have really missed you. I am so looking forward to being with you again.

!!!

After having a nice evening with 5 friends watching Anne of Green Gables (yes, that is a must-bring-with-you-on-the-mission-field movie!), we thought we heard a mouse. So when there were just 3 of us left we went on a search, and after shaking a little metal shelf where I keep my food, a mouse came scurrying out!! AHHH!!! The 3 of us all let out a scream and ran out of my house.

THERE'S A MOUSE IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and I HATE mice. I don't know how I will sleep tonight. Lord help me! Make that horrible little mouse die.

P.s. Oh, and this is Post 100. Not exactly what I had planned for a 100th post, but I don't have anything more exciting at the moment. I am just hoping I can get to sleep before he starts making his rounds again. I have my bedroom door shut with a piece of foam stuffed under it to keep him away from me. YUCK YUCK YUCK! I HATE mice!!

99th Post and 15 days...

(Sometimes this is what clothing swap day looks like... )

 

This is my 99th post!! That is pretty cool...

Well, I haven't been updating for awhile. But I thought I would let you all know what I am up to these days. 

Last week on Monday and Tuesday we did a children's conference in a near by village called Maracuene. We had about 150 children the first day, and 200 the second. We kept the format from the children's conference we did in 2007 at the center. Day one we teach on Jesus' death and resurrection, and Salvation. Day 2 we teach on the Holy Spirit, and Hearing God's Voice. The kids love it and God really captivates their hearts, praise the Lord!

This week we are going to another village, about 45 minutes away called Babole. We will do 2 mornings of children's conference. I am not sure how many children will show up. Pray God brings in a harvest into His Kingdom! How awesome to have the opportunity to introduce these kids meet Jesus, and what a difference they will make! 

Monday of this week we had a big games day for all the children at the center. Out of about 350 children living here, about 100 of them have relatives or family they can visit. So now we are on 2 weeks of school holidays, and those children with family have gone home. We had a fun filled day for the rest of the kids, to help them enjoy the only home and family they know--each other and us! They kids had so much fun, walking in groups with their dorm to each station. We had egg and spoon relays, water balloon toss, sack races, wheel barrow races, 3-legged races, a game where you crawl and push a marshmallow along the ground to the finish line, and a game where you had cups and you had to fill them with water, by carrying the water in a spoon across to where the cups were set up. In the end we gave out prizes to all the winners in the church, and special prizes for each dorm for the one child in that dorm that had the best attitude. And all the children got oranges for participating.

I am forever shocked at how cheap some things are here in Mozambique. For example, I bought 300 oranges last week at the market, and it cost me only 13 dollars and 40 cents! 

I will be going home in 2 weeks, and I am so excited. Inbetween children's conference and daily routine activities, I am trying to wrap up a few things that need doing before I go. Today I made 15 pureed meals to put in the freezer for one of the girls who has a special pureed diet. I will make 15 more over the weekend. Also updating lists and files in the girls dorm, sorting out new mattresses and blankets for all the girls, cleaning my house for the missionary who will stay here when I leave, and packing! I can't wait to see my family. I have been talking to them on the phone and e-mailing, but there is NOTHING like family, and to be with them for real is so wonderful. And I will be home for the FAIR this year! And my brother's wedding, and the wedding of 2 friends! Good timing, eh?!

Praise God He has sent Rachel, a sweet missionary my age from California. She will stay in my house and help Ellie look after the girls. I know everything is in God's hands and it will all be great. It's nice to go away and not have to worry about leaving things behind. It's all God's doing, and I am just the vessel He has chosen to do through for such a time as this!

Well, I will get to bed now. Hopefully I will have a Post #100 before I go home!

A trip to the zoo!!

Checking out the monkeys

            15 little girls visiting the zoo!

               Ooh, that crocodile is close! Don't stick your fingers in the cage, girls!

Snack time

On Tuesday afternoon me, Tia Inez, and our newest missionary, Rachel (she is my age!) loaded up 15 little girls in the flat bed truck, and drove to the zoo. Yes, Maputo has a zoo. A very run down zoo, that had exactly 4 different types of animals. A hippo that would hang its head over the fence for people to pet him (stand back girls, if you value your hands), lots of crocodiles, some monkeys, and a little snake. And an animal graveyard, where the lion went years ago. The big snake, and the gorilla that did tricks were moved to South Africa, so they were not there. And there were many, many empty cages, that once held all sorts of fun animals! 

I think it was worth every bit of the one metical (that is about 4 cents) it cost per person!:o)

The girls had such a great afternoon, seeing the animals, eating tangerines and peanut butter on crackers, playing on the broken down play ground (well, the slide and monkey bars were still standing. The swings and everything else was falling down). They talked all about the trip on the way home, and some slept from their exciting and exhausting afternoon at the zoo! 

Celebrate Life!

Thabo with Tia Judite, when he was staying in the clinic, regaining his strength.

Thabo, Vella, and Paulito on Children's day, waiting for their chicken dinner.

Vella is a very dear friend of mine, and the missionary over a dorm of little boys, where Thabo lived.

Vella praying for Thabo.

He received so much love in this family. He learned what it's like to be loved instead of rejected. He got to know Jesus while he was here. He felt God's love through the missionaries and tias who looked after him. Sometimes He would be mumbling and they would say, "Who are you talking to Thabo?" "I am praying to Jesus." He would say.

Sometimes he would be singing in his quiet voice, and they would ask what he was doing. "I am singing to God because Jesus told me to." Was his reply.

Thabo came to us about 2 years ago, battling HIV, TB, and malnutrition and rejection. 

But though his body was weak, His spirit was quite alive and full of Joy. Thabo means "Joy", and we know him by the joy he brought to so many. 

He spent a few months in the hospital, then stayed in the clinic here at the center for a few months. And finally, he spent the last 4 months in Vella's house, where she, and 2 tias, care for 5 little guys ages 5-6.

On Friday morning, while the rest of the boys were at school, Thabo was alone with the tia and Vella. In the last week he had gotten much weaker, and now he was asking for Tia Judite to hold him. She did for a little while, and then he asked for Vella to hold him. Tia Judite passed him off to Vella, who held him for a while. Then he said, "I want to go to sleep." 

Vella laid him on his bed, and said, "Go to sleep Thabo, and be free." As she pulled her hands out from under him, and took his last breath, closed his eyes, and went to sleep from this world. He woke up in Jesus's arms, with a whole new body, and able to run and play and dance with Tino and others!

Today was the funeral. It was sad, but sweet. Because we know where He is now.

Some of the young boys who were friends with Thabo came to the funeral, and with tears streaming down their faces, they said their final good byes.

Please keep lifting up Vella, and Tia Judite and Tia Victoria, who poured out love unconditionally into Thabo. They miss him terribly, and he has left such a sweet legacy.

We celebrate his life!

The Reading Program

Aidinha and Mira writing the alphabet.

About 15 months ago we started the reading program. Many of the girls, and the boys, even up to fifth grade, cannot read. They did not catch on in first grade, so they were passed to second and third and so on without any extra attention. Or they started school late, but because of their age, were put straight into a class without assessing their abilities. Then in school, it is allot of repeating what the teacher says back to him, or copying off the chalk board. But not so much mental work, so it is easy to slide along, without ever learning. And this is the problem we discovered. 

It started with Ellie and one of the tias and I testing all the girls to see where they were at. If they could read 4th grade or better, or read a few easy words, or if they didn't even know their vowels, let alone the whole alphabet.

After that, the tias worked with the girls in the afternoons with chalk boards and paper and books and flash cards. Some of them still struggle, but many of them have improved so much! I started working last year in September in the school (we have a school for the children here, and the community--preschool through 7th grade), and now I am working with 40 fourth graders on Thursday and Friday mornings, learning to read. 

God has really given me some strategies. Some times I will be praying, and an idea pops into my head. Or I'll be laying in bed and God starts giving me creative plans how to teach these kids. Last week I was playing "Memory" with some of the girls. And then I thought, "I should make a memory game with the letters of the alphabet!" I did on the computer, printed them out on pink paper, cut it out, and laminated the cards. The kids in the school love it. They get to play a game, and don't even realize how much they are learning. It was great, because so many of them don't know the alphabet, and I have been struggling how to teach it to them so they would get it. This was such a great idea! They are learning the letters, and matching them. They are learning to memorize--by remembering where the cards are placed. They are learning to see small differences--like the difference between b and d and p. It's so good for them.

It's so exciting when you are teaching a child, and suddenly something "clicks" in their mind, and they get it! They are so thrilled and proud of themselves. God's doing some great teaching here, and it's a privilege to be a part of it.

P.s. 42 days---yes, just 6 weeks, and I will be going HOME!!:o)

The fair!

Today I was checking out randolphfair.com

You should check it out if you live anywhere near Portage county Ohio!

And the best thing is, I WILL BE THERE THIS YEAR!! I am so excited.

After 3 years of not being at the fair, I am so excited I can hardly stand it!

My younger brothers and sisters will be showing their rabbits and market

ducks. Looking at the schedule just thrills me:-) When I was in 4-H, every 

year you can't wait for the fair to come. Then you have a week of amazing FUN,

and then when the fair is over, you just can hardly wait a whole year for the next

one to come around. That is how we mark our Summers. All year you are saying 

"Can you believe it's already been 3 months since the fair?!" Or "Can you believe

there is only 7 months and the fair will be here?!" And now, I will just inform you

that in exactly 6 weeks and 1 day I will be leaving to go home for a visit. And about 1 1/2

weeks after I arrive home, we will be loading up the camper, and heading off to the fair!

I can't wait...!:-)

What's cookin'??

Mmm...dinner! Hope your hungry!

::And God is our answer::

"It is important to remember that for every person,

there is a problem. Even more importantly,

for every problem our God has a prescription!"

--Woman, thou are loosed!

Sometimes things seem to be caving in all around. Sometimes I wonder if anything more could possibly go wrong? Sometimes I have trouble quieting down my mind to listen to God, and just rest in Him. To live out of a place of rest, instead of being distracted by all that is happening around me. But I have learned, and must constantly remind myself, God is the answer. And if He is the answer, I would do well to leave the middle of the problems, and come to Him.

Many people this week have been hit by cars and died, here in Maputo. 

Filipe (who lives here at the center), his brother was hit by a car up North and died. That was His only family member he has contact with.

A little girl was violated. 

Another girl who is in a wheel chair has come down with a very large and horrible bed sore. She has also lost allot of weight and has a bad chest infection that won't clear up. She is having her wound cleaned twice daily, and I have made her some nutritious pureed meals to help her regain the weight she has lost, and to fight the infections.

An elderly man we look after in the community, who is bed ridden, kicked his son out of the house. I was called upon to 'resolve the situation'. I don't know what I said, but apparently it worked because he has let his son move back in.

15 little girls had no undies this morning because it didn't dry yesterday from the rain. I didn't find out until this afternoon, and I quickly passed out new undies to all the girls!

A couple of the girls have been telling allot of lies to get things they want, and being very manipulative. 

I cut 3 of the girls hair today, because they have nasty infections on their scalp that needs treated. 

These are some of the things that happen in a week here. And for all of these things, I know that God is the answer. And when I bring these needs to Him, He will resolve them. I don't need to get stressed out, worked up, or drained from all these situations. I have to remind myself to bring them to Jesus. 

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit, unless you remain in me...apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:4,5