FBC Missions

I think this is very true… and I saw it in the faces of many little kids today. At one of the orphanages that we’ve been working at, it brings me great joy to see recognition in the faces of the little kids when we walk through the gates again, another day that we’ve come. You see their faces light up as they start to know they’re loved… deeply.

I read a quote by CS Lewis in The Four Loves that describes quite nicely the way I feel about this issue:

There is a worship song called “All Who Are Thirsty” that really spoke to me today:

All who are thirsty, All who are weak

Come to the fountain, dip you heart in the stream of life.

Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away

In the waves of His mercy, as deep cries out to deep.

(We sing) Come Lord Jesus, Come. Come Lord Jesus, Come

I have had plenty of “I love Africa” days, but today I mourned and grieved for Africa. Never before have I been so deeply touched and hurt by what I’ve seen. Poverty stares us in the face each and every day. Morning after morning we get up to go to the orphanages to divide our attention 100 different ways. We pass dozens of beggars, some still small children, whenever we walk anywhere. Trash and rank smells are strewn across the city. So, why today? Why was I so touched today? Sometimes the Lord has to touch our hearts deeply for us to be moved…and He did that today. Pedro, one of the twins and the Mother Theresa orphanage, was not there today, yet he is one of the few infants who has not tested positive for HIV/AIDS. Still, he was taken Home on Sunday. From the time he arrived at the orphanage just five or six weeks ago, we had bonded. Just last week as I laid him down after a bottle, he just stared at me and started to cry. I found a mobile and began to play in for him and he was entranced by the little birds that turned and the music that softly played. My little Pedro now gets to sit entranced before the throne of God and worship Him with music. Yet, selfishly I wish he were still here, to bring a smile to my face.

Daneto, my other sick little friend, is not doing so well, either. The nurse believes he has less than one week to live. I spent some time with him today just praying and crying and releasing his spirit to the Lord. I have prayed for healing, but he is in so much pain…and I reluctantly asked God to take him Home quickly. Our Lord is a jealous God and I have been blessed to spend these last weeks with Daneto. I asked Daneto to say “Hi” to Jesus for me and to worship Him with all of his heart. Continue to pray for Daneto, please. Selfishly, I desire Daneto to live and for his life to be a testimony to the power of God. But, I know that God has a great plan in all of this, too, and I don’t know what it is. Maybe He wants Daneto to be here, but maybe He needs him in heaven. Regardless, please pray for Daneto’s pain to subside, however that may be.

My spirit is troubled and my emotions are shaken. Yet, our God is good. Even in my despair, in my mourning and in my confusion He brings peace and joy. Isaiah 35:10 says, “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and singing will flee alway.” Pedro has entered Zion…perhaps Daneto will follow close behind. But, I can tell you one thing, they will be crowned with everlasting joy and know no more pain, suffering or sorrow.

As the song says “dip your heart in the stream of life” I am reminded that sometimes freedom is found in death to ourselves (spiritually), but for Pedro this was a physical death. His physical death has freed him and allowed him to swim full force in the stream of life where all of his pain and sorrow has been washed away.

My prayer for myself is that in my weakness and sadness the Lord can be more present…that He will take my weary soul and rekindle my joy, my passion and my love!

Well, today was definately an I love Africa day. Some days… not so much. I woke up this morning realizing (almost like a lightbulb went on) that God has given me the amazing gift of being here… so that might have helped : ) We spent half the day cleaning, organizing, baking, doing laundry, and making beds to get our house ready for the team and the other half we adventured!

Today was the 2nd year anniversary of the Baptist church that Jim and Corinne work with- Igreja Baptista. They work with the church in an area called Alto Mae (the area where we also visit families and teach a VBS to the kids) but there are other branches that have begun over different regions of the city also. Today they all came together to celebrate two years of fellowshipping as a church.

After a quick clean up and lunch- Brooke, Corinne and I along with our Mozambican friend Ortencia and her two neices made the drive outside of town to an area called Juba. As we drove I was struck by the slow but steady change of scenery from city life to country life and by the strange sensation that it’s become a normal sight to my eyes; to see the women walking along the street in their traditional kapulanas and headscarfs carrying absolutely anything and everything on top of their heads…. to see the makeshift kiosks that are set up along the road where many people make barely enough to live selling their goods…and to see the beautiful dusty Mozambican landscape made up of little barebones huts, the vast Indian ocean, and littered with a lot of lisheu (trash)- yet the land speaks for itself… it’s still beautiful. After awhile we turned off onto a dusty road, rounded the bend and arrived at a large, newly built building…. with everything but the roof : ) They held the celebration out back in a huge tent. It was really cool to be there and see people that I knew from all the different churches that we’ve visited and worked with- in the same place- altogether- united as the body of Christ. After a bunch of singing, sitting, and a little more singing we all dispersed out of the tent to eat cake and just hang out. There were little kids running around everywhere, jovenes (youth) playing futbol of course, and then Brooke and I trying to have a conversation in Portuguese with two Mozambican girls. They rode back in our car with us to the city and we had a great time teaching them english and learning more portuguese along the way. It was really special because one of the girls, Berta, is 16- the mother of a newborn- and one of the people we’ve been visitng in Alto Mae. She lives in a tiny shack made of tin and is struggling to be a mom, had to dropout of school, and I just feel like God is really trying to love her and get through to her. So it was cool to spend more time with her and make a connection.

So in conclusion; today we loved Africa. Today it was easy to love… tommorrow who knows. But I hope for many more ‘I love Africa’ days, because those are the days that I feel the Lord reveals so much more to me about his heart for these beautiful people of whose lives He wants to… and does touch.

Hello friends and family! I would just like to make a correction on our postal address. We originally posted it as CP 1882 but that is incorrect our address is actually CP 1822 Maputo, Mozambique 0100. Hopefully we’ll still be able to track down any other mail that was sent. We were tipped off by the fact that we received something that was sent a week ago but haven’t yet received some of the first letters sent a month ago. We are currently busy cooking and shopping and baking, cleaning and working at Primier de Maio (one orphanage that we work at the most that we will take a break from in the coming 2 weeks) this week, getting ready for our own team to come and live with us and serve with us. We’re so excited… please pray for our preparation, energy levels, and encouragement for the Thorps! Many thanks….Our love, Ashley and Brooke

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!