 |
| This has been one very busy week! You will see in the pictures just how busy... We started out with a food distribution. |
 |
| The women are always dancing - the activistas (in their purple uniforms) are joining the people in Project Life at the food distribution as they sing and dance praises to God! Note Em is in the middle of it dancing right along! |
 |
| I can't say enough thanks to our supporters who send money to us so we can use it for food distributions. |
 |
| Everything goes up in a capalana on their heads! |
 |
| This has to hurt their necks. |
 |
| My daughters use to get mad at me for braiding THEIR hair tight. Wow. |
 |
| All of these women are so thankful. The majority of them have a chronic illness and they are widows. |
 |
| Standing in the oil line. |
 |
| I love the colorful clothes they always choose to wear. |
 |
| They laugh a lot because I am constantly taking their pictures. Lately, they have a standing joke that they are going to pretend to pose like models and movie stars because I pretend to be the paparazzi. |
 |
| It was our 41st anniversary and Phil's 63rd birthday this week (among the busyness) so we took Wednesday off and went to Rio Savane. On the way, we met some monkeys and baboons in the road. This baby started to jump in my window and scared me. Not because he was heading for the window but because his mama was right there behind him! |
 |
| Mama. And she meant business. |
 |
| So much to appreciate in Mozambique. If it weren't for the extreme poverty - this could be a paradise. |
 |
| We dedicated 4 houses today! This is Celestino, an orphan and his grandparents. What a blessing to bless an orphan with his own house. |
 |
| The builders show up first at the celebrations and hang with us all day - they get to eat a TON of pop and American cookies. |
 |
| So many children hang out at our celebrations. Everyone with a story. Everyone with a need. |
 |
| Celestino listens very carefully to Pastor Jeronimo preach at his house celebration. The bairro leader and family in the background. |
 |
| She is eating some fruit off of a tree. Often times the children don't wait until the fruit is ripe because they are too hungry to wait. I was hoping to pay for some passion fruit from a man in PL who had a beautiful tree. He told me this week that the children ate all his fruit. |
 |
| I am checking them out while they are checking me out. |
 |
| Jeronimo preaching - we always share God's Word at each celebration of a house dedication. |
 |
| Regina was blessed to have a home of her own. Noemia is handing her the key. |
 |
| What is exciting is that an entire Sunday School class from Cody, WY donated four houses to be built with the GD this year. Regina has a letter from them and their picture. |
 |
| Maria de Fatima is an activista and one of her sponsors chose to build her a home. She is so excited that we dedicated it today. What is really a great story is that her sponsors couldn't sell their home in another state that they had moved from for several years. After they sent the money for Maria de Fatima's home, their house sold! God is good to both the giver and receiver. :-) |
 |
| Candida - Maria de Fatima's daughter. She is a beauty. Maria de Fatima is a widow. Her husband lost his life trying to save their son from an electric wire in a puddle during the rainy season. |
 |
| The widows are singing and rejoicing that Catarina is getting a home. Catarina has five children but no husband. |
 |
| Noemia is giving Catarina key to her new house in the Macharote bairro. |
 |
| Nhale, a widow in Macharote, called me over to come see her Green Door house we built a year or two before. She was so proud of how she has been taking care of it. She planted some grass, a plant, and put seashells in front of the porch for both decoration and to keep the mud down. Pride of ownership.....nice Nhale! |
 |
| After the house dedications I went to El Shaddai. It is children's day there today and they are having a party! |
 |
| How healthy these children are looking. What a blessing it is to see how the Ray of Light and Children's Relief International have made a difference in the lives of these beautiful children. Child sponsorships make a difference. |
 |
| They pose naturally - I never ask them to pose but they just naturally want to show off for the camera! |
 |
| How funny. This boy came up with a very clever hat. I had to take his pic. |
 |
| Today was a day of celebrations. Maria de Fatima decorated her new house to match the celebrational spirit of the day. It isn't that these houses will last forever... but the love of one Christian to another will.
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God;
believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms;
if that were not so, would I have told you that
I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me
that you also may be where I am. John 14: 1-3
|
