FBC Missions

There is a little girl at Premier de Maio (the government-run orphanage) named Louisa. She is not your average five-year-old. She is confined to her hands and knees, scooting and crawling everywhere she wants or needs to go. Oftentimes she will tread through mud, spilt food, water or dirt this way — on her hands and knees. However, sometimes she will sit upright and use her knees as feet to scoot across the ground. Despite her disability (her feet are mangled), she is a beautiful little girl. She desires so badly to be just like the other kids — free to run and play — but, she is so content just being with them, as well. Yet, I have never seen anyone’s eyes light up the way hers do when you take her hands in yours and begin to lift her up and help her stand. When Louisa is standing, she is ecstatic. She jumps and dances immediately! What pleasure it brings me to give her this freedom, if only for a moment.

I thought today about the freedom we have through Christ. This is a dark country — they have been oppressed for years in war and under communism; oppressed even longer by beliefs in animism and spiritism. The people live in fear and have learned to shelter themselves from other people, even from their own ancestors, because of this fear. Yet, here I am…a branca (what they call us white people here)…who has been completely blessed with the freedom to dance. God has given me His hands as I fumble on the ground so that I may stand upright and dance with Him. Can I be more fortunate than that?

That does not mean that it is always easy here. We discovered today that one of the infants, Ruthe, died last week. She was born three months premature and was about five months old, but still weighed only about six pounds. We affectionately referred to her as the “little old woman” because she had a wrinkled face of an elderly woman. I’m sure she suffered from malnutrition among other things. Regardless, I don’t think I will ever get used to the sudden good-byes here. I try to give myself fully to every child, but it is hard to not want to protect yourself. Death is a difficult reality and one I don’t think we as humans ever get used to.

The second short-term team arrives in about a week (from FBC). Please remember us (and the Thorps) in your prayers as we plan and prepare to host them. Especially for the Thorps, it can be a HUGE task to undertake. We will be preparing all of their food, working in orphanages and painting rooms in an orphanage among other (yet-to-be-decided) ministries.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. This week has been an especially hard week for all three of us with homesickness. You will never know how much the little notes and contacts mean!

Love to all from Maputo!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 3:20 am and is filed under Mozambique 2006 - Ashley & Brooke. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.