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

Facing the Shadows with Confidence

If I could turn back time.....

If I could rewind time I would try to rewind to specific events of conflict, pain and trauma to undo some of the deeds I’ve done, replace the untrue thoughts I believed, and take back some of the words I’ve said. But as we all so sorrowfully understand, just rewinding life in our minds isn’t enough to relive and redo moments of regret, pain, or failure.

Our memory provides that amazing chance to revisit and reconsider if it was only poorly chosen words and actions, or lack of deeds that might be appropriate if we could only have a second chance to try again.

I faced my history through the eyes of a survivor of trauma, pain and neglect. My parents are wonderful, not perfect, but also not abusers. I did feel neglect from my birth father, and his family though. The early abandonment may have caused some trauma to me as a baby. I don’t know much. There is only so much I can actually remember. But other events in my life did leave me with trauma. In some random times in my life, the trauma was triggered and I didn’t even realize. For years the trauma and pain caused my life to be jilted through the eyes of pain and victimization.

It was a difficult thing to face the fact that so many times my point of view was tainted with catastrophizing events, and demonizing most of the people in my life who caused me any additional pain. I definitely ran from people who started to hurt me before confronting them because I couldn’t bear the pain any longer. I learned at an early age that my perspective was the only one I could trust because some figures of authority were what I understood as ‘wrong’.

As a teenager, I saw Jesus eyes as big as clouds during an altar call at a revival event at the church our family attended. I had been in visions and seen angels and demons before, but this was different. It was the first time I saw the eyes of Jesus looking down at me as big as clouds, and as close as breath.

I could hear his voice whispering in my heart while I looked into his beautiful reflective eyes. They were full of life and compassion. That was my first encounter with Jesus where I could see his eyes. Then I felt Jesus’ comforting embrace as he told me that I needed to forgive my father. I hadn’t ever considered that the pain and anger I had harbored in my heart towards my birth father had been growing into bitterness and un-forgiveness.  For most of my entire childhood I had been pretty free and happy, but when someone caused me pain I was talented at causing them to feel totally guilty. I could have provoked an incident, but I wouldn’t apologize or let them think that I even needed to. I felt that I had done nothing to apologize for, and I learned to dramatize any event where I felt jilted. I would cause the other person to feel 100% to blame, and I was the innocent victim. I became practiced at shifting blame, and presenting myself as the good and pure child.

This vision of Jesus was the first turn of events in my life were I realized that not only did I need to forgive birth father, but I needed to change my heart attitude towards other people.  I learned to forgive, and begin to consider if I needed to forgive someone who hadn’t done almost anything to me at all. My thoughts about forgiveness had been rudimental and childish before I saw the vision of Jesus' eyes.

It took a long time and some wonderful mentors to help me develop more mature thinking about guilt and forgiveness. But at the time, I didn’t have anyone to talk to about my deeper thoughts. I’m not sure that I told anyone about my experience on the floor during the altar call because I had been taught that no one can see the face of God and live. I didn’t realize that there was so much more to learn from that experience with Jesus. I was more afraid of being told that I was seeing visions from the Devil, so I kept pretty quiet about it. I may have told mom that God spoke to me telling me that I need to forgive my father. But that was all I remember mentioning. She did ask me what I needed to forgive him for, and if I was able to forgive him. I answered, and that was basically the end of that. It was a one-time thing, not a life lesson to explore and study. I never thought to ask the men in my life who preached and taught about their shared application and understanding of certain scriptures if it was ok to see Jesus eyes. I definitely didn't ask them if it was ok that I saw his face as he came so close to me and held me when I was frozen to the floor during an altar call.

I felt that I knew what they would say, so I may have mentioned in loose terms questions about people physically seeing God’s face. I got the answers that I expected. They were consistent with their previous teaching, “No one can see the face of God and live”.

I couldn’t possibly try to explain to them that when I was in a trance at the church altar, or that I had seen the roof fade away and the clouds roll back to reveal Jesus eyes. Then I saw his face as he drew me closer to him. I didn’t know the words ‘trance’ or ‘spiritual eyes’. In my thoughts and understanding at the time seeing with my physical eyes and spiritual eyes was the same thing.

It took me years to understand the difference between seeing with my eyes, and seeing with my spiritual eyes. I had seen such a tangible vision of Jesus that I couldn’t explain or differentiate between real or spiritual. The struggle that remains now is what is more real? We in the Western cultures see the physical world as real and concrete – while the spiritual world or spiritual realm can be overlooked as mere imagination or fanatical thinking.  Or is this question just a tangent to keep us from facing the lessons that we learn while in a vision or trance?

It’s really hard to grab a hold of the solid facts of the kingdom of heaven when they are attained by faith if we want them to be found in a book or teaching. It was by faith I looked into Jesus eyes and learned to forgive my birth father. By faith I learned to recognize God’s voice when even elders in my church couldn’t lead me into deeper understanding of spiritual things but denied that my ‘visions’ were from God. Right there I had to forgive them, because I knew that Jesus had spoken to me, and shown me his face.

I have sought after God in his word, through prayer in the Holy Spirit, and fellowship with like minded believers. I still have more lessons of faith to learn! I have learned some amazing lessons up to now. These lessons have shaped my life and in some ways I have been able to rewind and redo some mistakes or failures in my life. I can’t go back in time and confront a father and mother who separated for important reasons. I can’t go back in time and ask spiritual leaders why they did or didn’t respond in what I perceived as more helpful ways to my questions, or why I didn’t feel safe asking them more questions. But I can go back to the person or people who I still need to talk too and ask questions now.

I’ve learned the power of forgiveness is liberating, and life changing. I’ve also learned that the power of God can lead us to reconcile and restore things or relationships that were broken. In an attempt to restore old things I am going to talk with people that I felt were the ‘bad guys’ in my life. Through the pain I heard everything they said as if from a position of authority that they might use to abuse me.

I am going to face my history with an open heart, open eyes, and open ears to hear, see and feel what really was lurking in the shadows. I might even go back and revisit some places of pain to rebuild my confidence. At the time of some conflicts, pain or places of trauma in my story I was unable to verbalize the experience. Well, now I’m ready to verbalize, write, talk or paint or draw. I will commit to do whatever it takes to be able to confront the shadows with confidence.

My life will go on as I confidently confront the shadows, and in the meantime I’m finishing a semester of Uni going to a wedding end of May and planning a trip back to Mozambique.

So my blog will literally be all over the place next month and the months of June. I hope to be able to write something and not worry too much about internet when I am in Africa.   

Friends who pray, please do pray for us. I know that we missionaries don’t like to talk about the pain of being missionaries. But sometimes the pain is to deep to share, almost like a war wound. When we go back to our old home, and our children and team in Iris Chimoio, we will be full of love and Joy for seeing them. We also have such a pang of sadness that our own three boys are going to be in Colorado while we travel. Please pray for us as we go forward with Jesus to love on his beautiful bride in our corner of Mozambique. Please pray that I can confront some of my shadows from being a missionary mom. Please now that I am a terribly normal person that was pretty broken, and in some areas still am broken, yet just because we say “Yes” to Papa God when he says, “Will you go?”

He can do something amazing with our little lives poured out as a living sacrifice. I’m so excited to see our kiddos. I’m so looking forward to hugging our mammas and the big Iris Chimoio family!

I pray that when you think about saying "no, I’m too much of a mess", you can remember to face the shadows with confidence while still living, and saying Yes to Papa God!!!

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Worship in the House

Iris Chimoio children have worshiped God, studied the Bible and prayed together for years in their home. Now the local and Provincial pastor in Manica is starting to lead church services for young and old in study room.

We had planned on opening up the meeting room to start church for a special Resurrection Service, but the wind storm last month changed that plan.

Still a group of kids and adults came together this Sunday to worship the Lord!

They understand how weather can affect lives because many of them are asking God to help them through a season that didn’t produce a harvest. I’m talking about food. Lots of people near the children’s center plant corn or maize for their family’s food stores. Unfortunately the rains coming too late have dried up the last season harvest. The wind storm has damaged lots of houses, and caused people to lose what little food they had stored.

We know how much we need to trust God for everything! In these moments we can look to our sad circumstances, or look to heaven and trust God for his promise in our lives! It’s amazing to see what God is doing and run towards him!

Beautiful smiling, dancing, laughing friends of ours came together to worship God for what he has done! He saved many lives when the storm was very dangerous. We are so grateful for a loving God. For now there is worship in a small room. It’s great because this room was kept safe and sound. We will be tenacious. We will rebuild. We will re-roof the boys house, and keep worshiping our good God who knows who loves to love us. We trust God for his provision. We trust God for miracles and faith and courage!

Good friends care about the things that we care about

I know it’s important to talk about because one of my dearest missionary friends was chatting with me and asking for updates about our roof in Chimoio. I looked on-line to see when I posted about the beautiful new roof being bent over and stripped off of half of one of our buildings.

I’m not excited to post about sad things, however sometimes the truth is sad. I’m not afraid to weep with those who weep. That said, it not easy to ask for friends and family to weep with me, but it isn’t fair to pretend that all is well with my heart when it’s still pretty broken. We have had beautiful friends and family rally around giving, praying, working and encouraging us to keep going! Rebuild! More precisely –Re-roof. We still have needs. If your heart is moved to be generous than shoot me an email. The link to email us is on both our Ministry webpages :

http://www.irisglobal.org/chimoio/contact-us

www.facebook.com/IrisChimoioRiverOfGodChildrensCenter/

So here it is the link to my Journal post in the Iris Chimoio Journal.

http://www.irisglobal.org/chimoio/journal/fresh-bread-from-heaven

It talks a little bit about how I faced this tragic destruction at the chidlren’s center by sitting with Jesus, and even rejoicing! None of our kids were hurt when a terrible wind and rain storm ripped half of the roof up, off and over the building. I was seriously overcome with gratitude, and at the same time a tenacity to see the boys home repaired!

Our team is ‘gung ho’ to go forward. We need to purchase new heavier material. We have some of the funding in, we have a ways to go for the heavier material and new wood for the carpentry.

We’re so blessed by the sacrifices friends and family are making. We love reading the emails telling how people are moved to get involved, get connected, and give!

We are so blessed by our really big, really International family!

Lots of love from,

Missionary Momma Mia….