The Gardener

Emilia explains growing up as the daughter
of witch doctors and the pressure from friends
and family in the African culture to rely on
the medicine and spirits of witchcraft.

What a blessing it is for the women in Project Life
to have their own Bibles.  They are learning to
find chapter and verse in the books of the Bible.

Melita reading her Bible.  Her mother and
sister are witch doctors but she faithfully
attends the Bible study.

And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain,

growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and

sixtyfold and a hundredfold. Mark 4: 8

We walked into the gathering room in the children's building at the hospital. I sensed the climate of the mothers' concentration hardening like its cement walls. It is easy to bring soup to nourish the children's bodies, yet another challenge altogether to nourish the mothers' souls. The mothers quickly received their allotted soup for their child and left without a word.  A thousand thoughts rushed into my head. Could we have said it better? Did we talk too fast? Did we all speak a different language? What had we missed?

The next room the patients were polite.  There was no hardness, yet in their eyes we could see the evidence of other worries.  We left a Portugese version of John and Romans and then we politely left. By this time I was beginning to wonder what we were doing there.

The last room in the last bed lay one man with his wife dutifully by his side.  He looked at us quizzically for a moment then smiled,  painfully attempting to rise from his supine posture to greet us. We quickly assured him that his role as a patient was just to lie there, we had no expectations.  My translator started to speak, sharing our story, our hearts, and our mission.  His response was startling. He explained that he had been invited to church by a gardener in Lusalite that worked for an American.  He didn't know this person's name, only that he had promised to take him to church. He had eagerly waited for this person to take him but for some reason, the gardener never returned.  He was so sad. Days passed, he became very sick and had to go to the hospital. We all recognized God's hand in preparing this soil. He listened attentively as we introduced him to the real Gardener that never leaves nor forsakes us. He eagerly prayed a prayer to receive Christ.

The seed fell on fertile soil, we were blessed to water it, and the Gardener welcomed another thriving plant into His garden.

It has been amazing to see the work of the Holy Spirit moving in the hearts of so many.  In the Bible studies out in the bairros and in the hospital, over 30 people this week have asked Jesus into their hearts. Thank you dear friends and family for your support in this ministry. It has been a blessing to report such a fruitful week.

Three Dedications....Three Houses....Three Happy Women!

Today we celebrated three Green Door houses with a dedication
for three families who needed a home!

We always take the most of every opportunity to share the gospel.
Jeronimo is preaching, Fernando, one of our activistas is translating,
and Manuel, our Green Door national leader is standing by to speak.

We have built, and are building houses in the bairro of Macharote.
This is the government bairro leader who is also "preaching" to the
people!  He is telling them to recognize God's hand in these gifts of
houses to this bairro.  He is telling them to go to church and learn
how to live a better life!  He is also encouraging them to care for their
new houses.  He is very happy for the people in his bairro.

The people of the bairro, our activistas, and church friends
gather around the house to pray over it. This is Dorica's new home.

The children listen intently to what is being said.

Dorica is a widow with six children.  She was about to
lose the little mud home she was renting.  Now she will
have a safe place for her family because a family stepped
forward and donated this house for her!

This is Chica.  She is the recipient of our
second house we are dedicating today.
At one time she had a husband and
seven children.  They all passed away.
Though she is older and without work,
she now has a secure place to live without
the worry of being kicked out of her house
because she has no money.  Thank you to
our donors who demonstrated Christ's love
to Chica.  She was singing today!

Chica is receiving her key to her house and
a letter and picture from her donor family.  What
a great way to show that she is loved and
still has family. 

The children always show up for our dedications.  Here they
are learning to pray over a house.  I am sure God is listening!

I baked 25 dozen cookies for these dedications
today.  Truthfully, I do it for the children.  It is the
grandma in me that loves to see happy smiles
because they get a homemade, grandma-treat.

Children are always caring for children.

What an opportunity to share the gospel
with all the children that come to the
dedications.

Sharing cookies.....peanut butter, I believe.

When I look at these children, I can't
help but stop and wonder what their
future holds and what responsibility
we have in helping shape their futures.

The activistas are having fun leading worship in song.

When I am painting a Green Door house, I sometimes pay
the boys that hang around a few coins to fetch water
from a distant well. They are always eager to do that!

Sometimes the children wait patiently
for their cookies. Sometimes they can't
wait a second longer and crowd around
Noemia like ants to sugar.  

Rita is our third recipient.  She has been
an empregada (house-maid) for CRI staff
for a number of years.  Her baby son passed
away this last year so we are happy to bring
some joy back into her life!

We are so thankful that we have the opportunity to build
these Green Door houses.  We have one more completed
and being painted and two more in the process of construction.
We could not do this without donors!  If you would like
to donate a house, $1500 will pay for a house and you
can choose your recipient by going on to the CRI website:
http://childrensrelief.org/greendoor/

Facing Poverty

The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor. Proverbs 10:15

A terrible truth has been brewing in me over the last two days.  Most days in Mozambique I meditate on the mystery of deep and stubborn poverty. Finding a cure for poverty of this nature is as complicated as finding a cure for cancer.  It is as troubling and terrifying as cancer too. I saw it in Lucia's eyes.

Lucia is in Project Life.  She has no husband, no home, no job, and no food. What she does have is AIDS and TB. Her breasts are shriveled and her stomach grossly distended. Her contorted face each time she moves reveals her immutable misery. It squeezes my heart like a python and I try to avoid its suffocating grasp. How did she get here? What footpath of poverty brought her this far?

Lidia also is in Project Life.  She has had two husbands, both are dead.  An AIDS patient, she has six children that are HIV+ to nurture and feed.  She doesn't have a secure job and she is too sick to have a machamba.  How does she get her food? That is what haunts me. The terrible truth is this.....the rich have everything...food, houses, jobs...and the luxury to not steal or lie. Stealing and lying are rampant here and more common than a cold. It is their expressway to exist. And if you aren't looking both ways while maneuvering this thoroughfare, you will be run over. Where is the hope?

I was teaching the Bible study this afternoon to the activistas to be taught in PL.  It was appropriately on lying but the lesson felt as productive as applying scotch tape to a hole in a hot air balloon. Then one of the activistas spoke up.  Normally she is shy and doesn't talk, and her revelation comforted me.

"I have to confess that I lied last week. I took a little bit of dried fish from a man in the market and told him I would pay him right back. I didn't have any money to pay him.  So I sold some charcoal.  When I saw him later he asked me for the money. I told him I didn't have it and went home. Then I remembered our lesson and I felt very convicted.  The next day when I saw him I paid him back."

It was a flicker of hope and a ray on the right path. She just might walk right out of her poverty.

There are two things, Lord, I want you to do for me before I die:
Make me absolutely honest

 and don't let me be too poor or too rich. 
Give me just what I need. If I have too much to eat,

I might forget about you; if I don't have enough,
I might steal and disgrace your name.

Proverbs 30: 7-9

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
II Corinthians 8:9