July 25th, 2010

A goal that I have doing ministry work in Mozambique is to become so invisible so that when I am gone things go on as usual. The bottom line to my greatest desire is to leave them stronger because they were loved and heard words of life from the scripture.

I am home for a month. I received a phone call just a short week ago that my Mom was failing fast and she wasn't expected to make it through this illness. She was on a vent, a feeding tube and her vitals were grave. I immediately started the process to get home and 3 days later I landed in the states having prayed all the way home that God would grant my prayer of letting me see Mom before He took her to be with Him. Psalm 62 kept going over in my mind, "my soul finds rest in God alone, my Rock and my Salvation." I read through Psalm 23, that is Mom's favorite and then 139 because it tells me that God knows it all about me. The Word was my comfort and exactly where I needed to be for 3 days. I never peeped a word to anyone the entire trip, oops except for, "coffee, black please."

So for now I am here and yet able to receive word from Centro Emissor about what is going on and what their prayer requests are for this week. There were 7 women, 12 men and 25 children today in church with some visitors from YWAM, the orphanage located near to where Val and I live in Dondo. Zito spoke this morning from Genesis 22 on walking in faith. I guess that could be somewhat along the same line of what we heard this morning about obedience. They pretty much have to go hand in hand.

This week's prayer requests are:
Luisa - has pain in her shoulder
Venisa - has stomach pain
Antonia - stomach pain
Adelino - back pain
Marta - her teeth are bothering her
Inez - headache
As simple as these requests are, none of these people have simple Tylenol to help relieve the pain. Hard to believe isn't it? No Tylenol?

Another request is for Deborah Zito's daughter. Since her mother died last November she has been spending more time with her Aunt Anna. Now Anna is moving to the states to attend a private Christian school in Tennessee and this is effecting Deborah's behavior. She is very confused and has been acting out. Pray for Deborah and also Zito as he deals with her behavior.

One more important message I received from Val this morning was that our staff member and field pastor, Pastor Todd's, his son Adain who is 4 years old has malaria. This is his first case of malaria after spending the weekend in the bush last weekend with the guys. He is a very sick little guy and his parents are very worried. He is on medication for malaria and is improving but this still is very unsettling for his parents. And Val too being the field nurse.

I am sending along a short video that I took a few weeks back of the young adult choir one sunny Sunday morning.
Click and Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWQPoF008U

Thanks for loving these fine folks. I know that God is gloried by our obedience to love our neighbor.