The Joys and Sorrows of Ministry

Though in the sorrow of losing one of our activistas, we were
reminded of how much we have been blessed in the project.
  We were able to dedicate three more houses this weekend
in the name of Jesus. We are now building house #14 & #15.

This is Luis receiving his key from the bairro leader. Luis is blind.
At his house dedication he gave a very moving speech. First, he spoke
 in Portuguese, and then surprised us by speaking in English
that he had obviously been practicing.  He said his grandmother had told
 him that God would one day provide a house for him...and He did! At the end
of his speech, He gave God the glory and shouted out with great gusto:
"I am no longer homeless...I have a house!"

This little one was stuffing the whole cookie in her mouth.
Like any girl, she was delighted to have discovered chocolate. :-)

Chica came to us because she had no where else to look for
help.  She moved to Dondo from Matemeu when her husband
passed away. She came because she had a sister in Dondo
 that could help her care for her five children. Then tragedy
struck again. Her sister passed away leaving her with her sister's
child. Homeless, six children and one that suffers from epilepsy,
what was the chance of survival in Mozambique?
   

But God had a plan for Chica.  A donor
in the United States read about her story
at the Children's Relief International website
and intervened on her behalf.  On Saturday,
she was presented with her own home. She
will have other difficulties in her life to face
as a widow, but having a safe home for her
family will not be one of them. Thank you
from the bottom of all of our hearts!

All of Chica's children weren't able to be at the dedication,
but it was fun interacting with the ones that were there.

These are the children in Mafarinha.  We are thankful that
we have been able to build homes in the different bairros.
The bairro leaders are great at coming to the dedications
and expressing their thankfulness for the help the Green
Door ministry has been for the people in their bairro.

I am thankful that Cindy and one of our interns,
Sandy, helped bake cookies for these 3
dedications...we baked over 500 cookies!

Braids and beads.

Francisca is our cook at El Shaddai. She
was blessed with a cement block home.
Her grin tells it all.

This week we lost another friend in the Ray of Light project. Toalha, a Project Life patient, was active in the Bible studies in the Consito bairro and also a builder with one of the two crews building the Green Door houses this year.  He personally helped build 5 of these houses. It was another sadness in the wake of Fernando's death.

On a very happy note...our team arrived from Wyoming!!  They are very tired after two days of travel and no sleep, but what a joy to have them here with us. We are looking forward to two weeks full of ministry and blessings.