Closure - 2010

Human beings need seasons. Seasons that mark beginnings and ends.

Moments to consider, moments to meditate and remember what has been and what is to come.

All that seems to be God-ordained.

Today I look back, as the last day of the year and consider what has gone, and what is to come. I look back and see what a tough year it has been, the hardships, the disappointments from beginning to the end.

Maybe my main lesson through it all has been: blessed is the man who put his trust in God and cursed is he who trusts men.

So with eyes fixed on Him, and on HIM ALONE, I go on, knowing He is faithful. In Him I can have FAITH, for He never changes!

Oh God, how I love you!

Art, by Eliana Walker

Art is when your eyes are opened to behold the infinite. It happens during just a few seconds when that humanly invisible gate between this world and reality is unlocked and we`re able to grasp the true meaning of beauty. That`s where light comes from, where sounds are clearly heard and where feelings are fully understood. Once you`ve been there, life is not the same.

Colors look pale, musical notes are not enough, words become powerless, yet necessary and full of purpose.

Once you've been there, you are bestowed with a burden, a restless and increasingly tiresome voice, which is not decipherable until it is so overwhelming that it becomes unbearable to a point where you can't see, hear or feel anything but the voice itself.

Any true artist knows and sometimes admits that a particular expression of art -- whether it be good music, a beautiful painting, a lovely poem or even a warm smile, a tight hug or a tear drop -- doesn't really belong to him. He is just the means, the way between here and there, between that which seems to be and that which really is. And then, if he's really been faithful and successful in revealing what he touched in those fleeting moments of amazement and awe, then he'll offer a chance for everyone else to break free from the surrounding shadows of this world and see reality, gaze into its existence and hope that one day we'll no longer have shadows blinding our eyes. The gate will be forever open and we'll be able to call that reality!

A quote from DL, so true for me too!

“People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay?

Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice.

Say rather a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, when foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waiver, the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I have never made a sacrifice!”

- David Livingstone, missionary in Africa

Today x Eternal

One thing I am sure about God and that is that He is too interested in eternal real things to give in to any manipulation in temporary matters! Not that He does not care or see little things, because He does and even more than we can imagine! But He has a more priviledged sight of things and takes more in consideration than our momentary situation and what we can see and expect.

An Answer to Prayer

"The old man who wanted to married Deta left to Chimoio. The whole thing is canceled!"

This one was Simo telling me after coming from Massandza one Sunday.
Deta is a fourteen year old girl who is part of the youth group in Massandza and had always been very participative at the church until her family decided she was old enough to marry and accepted "lobolo" from the guy who own the store where her uncle often got drunk. He already had a wife but that is the least of things in that area.
Simo had tried to convince him in every possible way to not take such a small child and actually not take a second wife at all. He had finally decided he would send the first one away and keep only Deta. Not a good solution for us.
And so we prayed. We wrote in our newsletters last month about it and I heard from a few people who were also praying about it.
And guess what? God answered. All of the sudden, the guy changed his mind, moved to Chimoio and the whole deal was canceled!

How can we doubt the power of prayer!? Simo and I were very happy and encouraged by that.

Youth Seminars - by Simo Caba

Last year in December, a vision was born - while rejoicing and reaping the harvest during the last conference we had, after investing in the lives of many youth from Inhaminga and around.

We believe that it is the time to see God’s promises fulfilled here were we are. He promised that these children will have visions and they will prophesy full with the Holy Spirit.

We know that is not enough to have only one conference at the end of the year. We need to continue imparting in their lives, helping and teaching them how to build a character like Jesus. So we decided to have regional seminars once a month if it is possible. That set us on a run to fulfill this vision.

It has been amazing! Until now we had 3 seminars: Massandza, Cicuziri and Inhaminga. Especially the ones out of Inhaminga had been super special! God is so faithful.

I remember since I came in Mozambique in 2004 my dream, my deepest desire before God was to see this young generation full of the Holy Spirit, worshiping God, separated and sanctified.

Even it started already to happen few years ago, when the teens here in Inhaminga were baptized in the Holy Spirit I really received these precious gift from God during these last 3 seminars.

The gift is His promise and my heart desire fulfilled: to see children and youth speaking in tongues and crying before God, hungry for more, worshiping without shame and fear. It is a miracle!

Thinking back when we started to work with children here in Inhaminga the only one crying during worship was me. I could see sometimes their eyes wide open looking at me thinking: What was wrong with “missionaria”?

A few months after we'd started I printed some pictures with kids from all over the world in prayer, worshiping with tears and hands lifted up. When I posted them on the wall at “Anapiana Wa Yesu” where we held the meetings in that time – they were exposed for the first time to this amazing reality knowing that God is calling them also to true worship, to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, to pray for the sick and to prophesy.

Since then passed almost 6 years, but it is happening! We live a year of promises fulfilled! The harvest is ready! Praise God! He is so faithful!
To see their little hands lifted up, tears on their chin and their mouth full with songs of praise in heavenly languages. What a reward!

I want to especially thank Susana for being such a blessing for me, carrying together the same vision, helping and being always at the right time and right place where we needed so much. I don’t know how she could do everything here at the base and still come always at the youth meetings or church services. I miss you Su already a lot!

We cannot wait for Jansen, Daena, Diogo and Leidi to come. It has been a long time since they left….





Note from Su: It was a great privilege for me to be at Inhaminga during two months learning so much from Simo and her heart for people in general, but especially for youth and children. We have always been great friends, but I feel this as a God appointed time for our hearts to be connected in this one vision to see something new happening amongst the youth of Mozambique. It was not hard at all to flow with what was going on at Inhaminga and I felt I received more than I gave while I was there.
As an overflow of what I received there we are starting a youth group at the church at Muzuane. Rito, who has worked for some years with Simo had the same vision, so we are running together with it!

Rain, a blessing and a curse - by Jeff Reetz

How can something be a blessing and a curse at the same time?
For the people here in Mozambique when the rains come it is truly a blessing.
Although you don’t hear it you very much sense a breath of relief coming from the people. There seems to be an air of lightness, even joy as you talk with them. You see them heading for their fields early in the morning, women with their children in tow, hoes ready and balanced on their heads along with some water for their daily needs. As you look around you see them all over the land, all hunched over their hoes, working, some singing, the children that are old enough doing the same. The little babies balancing on the backs of their moms, swaying and swinging to the rhythm of their work. They don’t stop to feed them, they just swing them around in front so the baby can breast feed while she continues to work.
We are already seeing the fruits of their labors coming up, the peanuts, corn, millet, cassava growing in the fields. Just this week we started seeing the melons coming in from the fields for sale on the side of the road as you travel.
When you see this you know there is an abundance, they can feed themselves and sell the excess so they can buy the salt, oil, soaps, the basic living stuffs they need in their homes. Life is good during this time.

So what’s the curse?
Here in this part of Mozambique when it rains it really rains. For about a five day period last week for example we must have received at least 10” (25 cm) of rain, coming in huge torrents with a lot of wind driving it. That’s when their houses start to crumble and collapse. With the driving winds it pushes the rain directly against the mud sides of their homes, quickly eating away at the mud plaster they have used to secure the mud bricks inside. When this happens it does not take long for the rain to cause whole walls on the windward side to collapse.
Every day I would ask the workers – “how is your home”? For the first few days of this last episode of rain I would hear “no problem”. And I would rejoice with them. Then towards the end of this period I began to hear “my home collapsed last night”. I would ask them what they were going to do, knowing that they could not affect any repairs during the rainy season, too much rain destroying any mud blocks they would try to make. Mostly they would respond that they would try to find some plastic and cover up the holes, trying to secure the remaining walls so they at least have a place to stay.

Our hearts go out to them, ready to help them if they say they need help. But, that’s the interesting thing about it, this year none of the workers have asked for help. In reality this is the first time since we have lived here in the North (more than five years now) that there has been an abundance of rain, at just the right times and also the right amounts. It seems that they are so happy to have fields producing food, food on their tables and food in excess to sell that the problem with their house is a small price to pay.

The parable of Jesus where He describes the wise man and the foolish man (Mathew 7: 24-27), in regards to how they construct their houses is so applicable here. While we don’t have rock to put our foundations on, we can build with a good foundation, even on the sand, a foundation that will stand strong. So, to build here you need to make a very large and sturdy and deep foundation (of mud, sand and stone), then start building your house. People don’t have problems with their foundations, usually, they have problems with their walls, what they put on the foundation. How true this can be for us as well, we may have good training, good understanding, good background in our knowledge of God, Jesus and the Word, but if we don’t finish the story, put what we know into effective and aggressive action what we do will surly fall. We have all heard it – faith without action is dead. A good foundation without a good finish will fall.

What can we learn from this? Finish the race! Do it right and whatever storm comes at you will fail, but you will succeed. Thank you Lord!

Rain Down!

Like diamonds falling on the Earth rain poured over us last night! It started as a few drops, then a fine drill and finally a big outpouring.

How many times I have seen rained and haven’t cared about it! How many times I have even complained when it rained during a time I wanted to do something out side.

This time it was different! We had been praying for rain for days, weeks, almost months.

We looked to the sky many, many times a day, hoping to see clouds. When we saw clouds, we hoped it would become drops. But everything was dry. The grass was dry, during a season it should be the greenest! The trees looked sad! Every afternoon we would see the leaves curling up. In the morning they would look better, and the same way God’s mercies are new every morning, our hopes were renewed that today would be the day for rain to fall!

People’s moods started to be affected. Not only because of the heat, that was terrible, but the perspective of a year without rain. In a community where food comes from primitive agriculture irrigated only by rain, when there isn’t enough rain during a “supposedly rainy season”, that means a year of hunger, suffering, and even death to many.

Today it was a different day. Workers came in with a big smile and every ones’ mood was better. It had rained! Rain means hope! Means life!

We had promised we would go out to dance in the rain, but I was fast asleep when it was really pouring. Christa tried waking me up, but I didn’t hear! L Jeosafá was up and took some pictures! When I woke up in the morning though, there was fog, which means humidity, something very different from the past very dry weeks! And I knew it had rained a lot, even though I didn’t see it!

We continue praying for more rain. Now the people can plant sweet potatoes and cassava. That will at least help them survive the year ahead.

Thank you God for your faithfulness!

Thank you for your prayers!