Bright New Season

Iris Chimoio is in a bright new season of growth. The children are learning about fruitfulness, and the fruit of the Spirit. We are all seeing how faithfully Papa God answers prayers as the center is bustling with construction projects, fresh paint, new vegetable gardens, new transport, and new team members! We’re praising God for the beautiful new tia Renia who is helping care for the children; and an on fire for God family serving the center by managing construction projects, loving the staff and kids, and bringing fresh spiritual ministry. 

We’re so thankful for the construction projects in the boy’s and girl’s bathrooms moving forward. The new roof is looking great and staying sturdy. The kids smaller soccer field is filled with brand new blocks for construction, but that’s not dimming the children’s brilliant smiles. They are excited and encouraged as practical love is poured out on their beautiful hearts. Every block, every soccer ball, new pair of shoes, hug, and moment of quality time with parental care is changing their world by demonstrating the very tangible power of God in their lives. Love is practical and pouring in and through each one of them as they see how much Papa God delights in blessing us! 

Thank you for your heart to love each one of these children and their surrounding community!

lots of love, 
Missionary Momma Mia

When God Unites

My hubby and I had an incredible conversation with our finance manager two days ago. He was so thrilled to share how much God touched him on a routine drive for materials.

We love to celebrate family because Papa God loves family. This is a wonderful story about a reunion with extended family written by Pine Pienaar, and shared with permission.   

Pine Pienaar

July 26 at 9:30pm · Chimoio, Mozambique ·

Today was a phenomenal day, and I just have to share my experience with you. A lot of you know that I grew up in colonial Mozambique, in the years 1966 through 1975, but you may also know that I've been back here since 1992. Today I was driving to pick up some firewood for a Chimoio based orphanage that I'm helping out by handling their financial management. Augusto, a Mozambican who works at the orphanage, accompanied me to the place where we normally buy firewood. Along the way, we got talking about the situation in Mozambique. Somehow the conversation got around to me describing my early days in Mozambique, including the fact that I spent the happiest days of my childhood on a farm well known in this area, as "Chitundo." Augusto looked at me in astonishment and said: "I was born there!" Well, one thing lead to another and I told him about some of my friends I grew up with on Chitundo. Eventually I mentioned to him the name of one of our tractor drivers, Companhia Razao, who mentored me in many ways, not the least of which was in Mozambican bush craft and hunting. Augusto looked at me incredulously and said: "Companhia Razao? He was my uncle!" At that point I nearly overturned the Ford Ranger in which we were traveling!

Upon our return to the Chimoio area in 1996, I managed to track down Companhia Razao in his old age, and what a reunion it was! There is much more to the story, but suffice it to say that Companhia was one of my boyhood heroes. He sadly passed away in 2005, but meeting up with his nephew today, under such unexpected circumstances, brought back the precious memories of an old African who had an indelible impression on an "umzungu" boy growing up in the wild African bush at the tail end of its romantic era.

In the photo, Companhia is second from the right. His son, Araujo on the right.

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We are so grateful to Papa God for how he is loving us so well. He is blessing the children at ROG and the team of staff and volunteers. Truly whom God brings together is blessed. We are very very thankful to God for each and every person who he draws into the Iris Chimoio ROG family.
God loves to show how he is delighted in our love for Jesus! These special moments are treasures and gifts from a Papa God who loves each one of us soooo much!

lots of love,
Missionary Momma Mia

Love with a little bit of good 'Mama Bear' grrrrr in it...

Third times the charm is what a lot of people have chimed in when we have said how many times the roof on the boys house has been repaired and replaced.

Oh the roof...it is back up again!!!! here's some gritty images of our roof because I haven't learned all the computer blogging snazzy stuff, and my pictures don't want to upload from my phone. Someone will help me to figure this out soon, or I will learn from some program. But...for now:

It has had some wind damage that could be patched about two times, since we "cut the ribbon" in 2010. Well we had a special dedication service to honor the memory of some amazing soldiers who loved children and their parents help to raise funds for this amazing home!

Now, literally three times in six years, a wind storm that we would call a small tornado, tore through our neighborhood in Chimoio. To some, it seemed like a lost cause. In fact, some officials were keeping a close eye on us to see if we would keep going, or just give up. They don't know our examples of tenacity. We are not saying that we haven't lacked stick-to-it-iveness sometimes, but we aren't really going to throw in the towel to our boys having a secure watertight home. Where would our kids move to? There home is 'Iris Chimoio - River of God Children's Center'. A little wind can't change that fact.

To the children's delight, we did not give up!!! We pressed through and the roof has been repaired and improved. The carpenters are working on a better system to secure the roof. The Iris Chimoio family is tenaciously sticking together. We are loving these beautiful kiddos with building repairs and construction projects!

It’s a joy to share that the beautiful new roof, for a third time, is 'proof pudding' to officials that we are determined to care for these beautiful children Papa God has trusted to our care. We won't back down in the face of natural disasters, and that really encouraged the local officials. We have favor. They love the repairs, fresh paint, new electrical wires and construction progress that is happening right now! (We had to paint, repair electricity, and get the water up and running after the last storm took out the roof along with electricity and water).We bought all new electrical material since the March storm completely peeled the roof off like a can of sardines being rolled over the top which left the electrical wires hanging, split, and exposed. Now, there is electricity at the center again; and, that means we have electricity to pump water from our well!

We are definitely planting more trees and bamboo as a wind breaker while we continue to thank God that we are like a lighthouse on that windy hill.

We are so delighted to have the boys home restored, the meeting room and office is re-roofed, the electricity is on, and the water is running!!!We feel almost as elated as we did three years ago when the water gushed up out of the borehole as the machine was digging at 55 meters. God is faithful!!!
Look at this cuteness from three years ago when Iris Chimoio kids celebrate their new source of water:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilmDXkUiagc

This video shows the successful drilling of our borehole water well, and how excited we all are with good clean water! The splash of water is a promise of new life. We love that promise! That promise is intrinsic to our vision and ministry name. God showed us a vision of a ministry base where the River of God was flowing through parched land, bringing new life every where that it was flowing. (Ezekiel 47 v 8&9) That's where Iris Chimoio's Children's Center got the name 'River of God Children's Center' from. The Visions and Bible verses Holy Spirit showed us were the beginning, the fruit today is awesome confirmation that Papa God knows what he is doing - and He loves his kiddos!

We pray that you feel just how loved you are! There is new life invigorating our spirits and flowing through our veins in Christ Jesus! It might seem kinda cheesy folks, but seriously, "This is the day that the Lord has made!" Its incredible to rejoice, lets do it together and celebrate this huge victory again!!!!

So much love,
Missionary Momma Mia

The Perfect Twirl

There was a day that we found this long sleeve t-shirt on sale in a big department store. My hubby and I then found other winter clothes that were also on sale. We started to load up our shopping buggy with sweaters, jackets, and long sleeve shirts for our boys and workers. Then we headed over to the girl’s department where we found all kinds of pretty, shiny, sparkly, lacy, and fluffy girl clothes.

It was the first time I bought a ballerina style dress for two of my girls, and fancy shiny dresses for three of my girls with lace crochet cardigans to match. We even bought them gloves. My hubby and I actually bought two dresses with multiple layers of tulle skirts. We all loved it so much! The moment our two youngest girls twirled in their brand new dresses was perfect. 

I had shopped many times for t-shirts and girl clothes in Pep or at the outside market, but never for fancy dresses. The minute I saw a fluffy skirted dress, I knew I could buy that dress for one of my girls. It was a moment I had been waiting for all my life.  I had always dreamed of the moment that I would buy a fancy dress for my little girl, and I  would see her twirl in her first ballerina skirt. I had imagined a tinier tulle skirt – maybe for a baby girl. For some reason, probably the sparse shopping available in Chimoio, I had never seen these type of fluffy dresses our girls size until that day in the department store in Colorado. There are more shops in Colorado, and that was the first day I had noticed a pretty, fluffy dress just Julieta’s size, and Margarida’s size.  There were three more fancy, shiny dresses that matched perfectly with these sweet little cardigans.

All five of our beautiful girls sparkled and shined in their fancy dresses. They curtsied, and danced. They sat so politely at our friend’s restaurant. It was such a beautiful day. We loved spending special time with the girls. There was something magical about being dressed up in fancy clothes and going on an unforgettable lunch date. We spent the afternoon with the girls. They used our phone to take a bunch of pictures and videos dancing, singing, and twirling in their dresses.  

It was the perfect lunch date with our daughters, and the perfect dresses, and the perfect twirls.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

a little jetlag and a lot of love

I was thrilled when Joao and I realized that we could sleep in a bit longer. Our dear missionary friend and great helper was knocking at our door early. We checked the time on our American phone. The time had changed when we were in South Africa when it connected to some cell phone service through roaming. So, when our friend arrived and knocked to see if we were ready to head to the center for a special time with the children to pass out gifts and then celebrate Children’s day with a special chicken and refrescos meal, we noticed she had arrived early. We knew she would make herself at home with some coffee or water while she waited. So we happily rolled over to catch a little more shuteye.

We waited about twenty minutes after our phone alarm went off at what we thought was 8 am, then we finally got dressed for the day, washed up and brushed our teeth before heading to the breakfast table where our lovely friend sat waiting patiently for us. My hubby said ….7:40 isn’t 9. You told us you would be here at 9. She chuckled kindly and said ,“But it wasn’t 9. Sorry I was a little bit late getting here at 9:15. You must have been tired….” she went on talking while my husband and I exclaimed, “How could you have gotten here at 9:15? Our phone said 7:40?” Our Mozambican pastor said, “Look Baba,” pointing to the battery powered clock in our living room, “it is ten to 11. I think the time on your phone is wrong.” He is so kind and gentle not wanting to embarrass us by telling us ‘I think’ and maybe our phone is telling us the wrong time. It’s pretty obvious that we were wrong as our phone had lost track of time since it couldn’t connect to any roaming cell phone service in Mozambique.  

“Ohhhhh Sorry!!!!” we said in unison. We all had a chuckle after we said our robust apologies for having our friends and pastor wait for us while we continued to sleep. They all said not to worry, that we must have needed the rest because of our jet lag. They are all so generous. Our hearts are melty at how great a godly connection we have with our International Mozambican family. They graciously moved the time to give the children presents to after lunch and everything worked out fabulously!

We greeted each one of the children with hugs and more hugs. There’re so sweet. Oh my goodness, how I had missed them. There is nothing like that big bear hug from our girls, and shy sweet hugs from our adolescent boys. Their culture doesn’t normally allow big boys to have hugs, but I tell them it’s great to get hugs from your parents at any age. They’ve seen my parents hugging me and Joao, so they accept it as our show of parental affection as they hug us in return.

We all sang songs and danced vibrantly to African praise songs in dialect and Portuguese. Then my hubby and I shared about our time overseas and how the green card process for Baba is going to take a lot longer time than we thought, and Mae (that’s me) is in University, but we will keep coming back during the process and trust Papa God to keep sending mommas and Pappas to oversee their care while we are away. Then we all prayed together before a special extra Children’s Day lunch.  The children had already celebrated a special meal and received gifts of new flip-flops and long pants on June 1 for Children’s Day. On Saturday, because my hubby and I couldn’t celebrate with them until the Saturday after we arrived on June 4^th, the children had a second special meal and had a precious time of giving out brand new clothes from America.

They had an abundantly blessed week with TWO children’s day celebrations!

We love to show them Papa God’s lavish love, so we told them that sometimes in Papa God’s family we have abundant love and gifts and food!!!! They laughed and laughed as they ate their mountain of rice with potatoes and chicken, and drank as much coke as they wanted.

It’s such a special meal because the children hadn’t had a chicken meal since Christmas. It’s one of their favorites, and we love to celebrate by giving them their favorite!!!

Thank you to everyone who is giving and praying so that we can be here! Your generous love that you lavish on us and the kids is such a fragrant offering to Papa God!!!!!We are blessed to see our Mozambican family after such a long time away. We definitely miss our three sons by birth, who are staying with their grandparents while we travel, but we believe they will be able to come with us next time. It’s so hard for them to wait to see their Mozambican brothers who have grown up and two of them are in university, and have built houses on their own property. Their other Mozambican brothers are finishing up high school and working on plans to build houses on the land that we purchased for them. We are so proud of them!!!! Everyone here is growing up, and they are so mature!!!! They spent their energy this morning in dance as we all worship together. They pray such heart felt prayers for their South African grandparents who are going on a trip to visit family in South Africa. They are so sincere in their love for Jesus and his kids! Oh it’s wonderful to be back in praise and worship, and prayer and fellowship with our beautiful children and friends! The presence of Holy Spirit during our little church service was sooooo sweet! We love you God!!!

We are so thankful to sweet Jesus for such a gift of this time with our Mozambican family. Please keep praying for us to have favor, blessings, heavenly wisdom and open doors, as we have a short time to get a lot of work accomplished and catch up on as many hugs as possible!

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Bright colors and happy faces

I love the kids happy faces as they show their fantastic bright art for the camera! It's beautiful art for my refrigerator door….

Awe, but there isn’t a refrigerator door big enough to display all of our Kids’ Art. So this little blurg will have to do.

This kids have had a great time with some model clay. They spent their afternoon arts and crafts time making colorful little figurines of animals, people, flowers and shapes.

Like any proud parents our kiddos’ art needs to be proudly displayed.

We love how the kids are so happy with their colorful creations! 

Brand Spankin' New

I think that tonight's blog should expound on the blurb that I posted on Facebook with the receipt and the mountain of brand spanking new clothes from Kohl’s today.

It was truly epic. I didn’t really want to go shopping today, but our other plans had to be postponed. That’s ok. We were also heading to Kohl’s to spend our 10 Kohl’s bucks from the last time we went shopping there to get some things for our trip to Cali. That was before we purchased our tickets for our trip to Moz. So I convinced my hubby that we couldn’t take a trip half way around the world, It is literally half a world away if you just run your finger from the somewhere near the center of Colorado to the middle of Mozambique you will find that it is half over and on the opposite hemisphere. That makes it pretty perfect for shopping for winter clothes for low low prices. Great! I want to write that like Tony the Tiger on a box of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. But that would be just a little too cheesy.

Well, if you don’t know what Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes are, I’m sorry for the impossible image reference. He was my favorite box to read during breakfast as a kid. Tony the Tiger is so cool.

Oh my goodness. What does that have to do with getting new clothes for kids? Well everything makes sense. I will tell you why this makes sense.

I was remembering some of the things that just made me happy as a kid. One of them was getting brand new clothes from a department store, shoe shopping with my mom, making cookies, and eating the brand name cereal because their boxes were awesome to look at. I don’t think that it tasted much different from the store brand cereal, but I loved to read all the words on the boxes. Seriously, that’s where the correlation comes from.

Not too much of a story there. But then again there isn’t always something grand to write about.

We are just so thrilled to go shopping for our boys and girls, young men, and even mama’s and papa’s who care for the children. Once we get started we don’t stop though! We think that the suitcases will be determining the limit! It’s so great to get brand new, high quality clothes as presents. It’s  great for frugal parents to purchase brand new, high quality clothes for 90 percent off on clearance because they are out of season in America, but perfect for Southern African Winter.

So that’s way G-R-E-A-T.

Sorry I did it. It’s even cheesier on the box. So fun!!!

Maybe this is why I love kids. They don’t judge me too harshly for my sillies.

Ok that’s enough for tonight, because if I keep writing like this I’m gonna sound way to giddy.

It happens sometimes. Maybe it’s because my hubby and I feel like we hit the jackpot with a savings of nearly 2200 bucks! Thank you Jesus!

 

Oh my goodness, if that doesn't sound like a goofy commercial!

But it’s absolutely real, and our kids are going to be super happy. The girls’ dresses and sweaters are so sweet, the boys will look handsome in their new sweaters, and long sleeve T’s. Most of all, they will be reminded of just how special they are. We want them to know that they are GREAT Kids, and we love them.

Thank you to everyone who cheers us on as missionaries. Your love and support is so important. Each thought, prayer, dime and nickel, present and visit helps us know when to be lavishly loving by spending four hours picking out clothes for our big international family!

You Rock! (as my lovely missionary friend Andrea says)

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia