2011 Mozambique arrival update
Wednesday 2 February 2011 | 4:18 pm | Laura -Here I am once again in Dondo, Mozambique. I arrived on Sunday Jan 30th, at around 1:10 pm local time. I had an unplanned overnight in Washington as priority was given to passengers whose flight had been canceled the night before due to a winter storm. It took me 67 hours to make it to the Beira airport from the time I arrived at the St. Louis airport! I was happy to finally get here, unfortunately my luggage did not. I am most thankful to report it showed up the next day, fully intact!
I have been welcomed most wonderfully by the children and others I got to know while I was here last year.
I am settling in and for the most part have not had much jet-lag to deal with. I am grateful to be here in my little house with an oscillating fan where the temperature is 96 degrees Fahrenheit as opposed to St. Louis with blizzard like conditions.
Yesterday morning I met with the leader of the Bible School. I will be teaching two classes. One is “Old Testament Survey”, an overview of the Old Testament with first year students, and the other is “The Church”, a look at God’s definition and purposes for the church, with second year students.
My first teaching session was this morning with my first year students. There are thirty. I studied the curriculum last night and this morning and was very eager to begin. My translator is Lavimo’. He is the young man who was such an important part of caring for Filomena last year. The class went wonderful and concluded with the entire class wanting to wait and pray after they had been dismissed!
I have had multiple people express desire to take part in the art classes when I get them going. The requests have come from the children, former students, other workers from our center and even friends of our children. Please pray for me to know how to best approach this.
In all my love for this place and my joy in being back may I also be honest about the reality of the adversities?
When I was in St Louis there was a song on Joy FM with a couple of lines that would provoke me to contemplation each time I heard them. The song is titled “Only You Can Save” and it is by Chris Sligh. In one part he sings …
“I have to wonder, if I really want to know,
the struggle and the pain that others feel,
do I want to hear the stories I see echoed in their eyes,
or is this love I say that I’m reflecting even real?”
I think if I am honest there are times I really do not want to know because what may be required of me feels too difficult or too great a sacrifice, other times the greater issue is wanting to help but feeling so inadequate for the situation.
The words of that song seem to probe deeper here where needs are great. You see, yesterday I also went to the hospital in Dondo to pray. We ended up spending all of our time in the rooms with the babies and very small children.
The praise – is that many of the mothers gave up their reliance on witchcraft and cut off cords given to them or their children by the witch doctors. Many of the mothers also prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior!
The adversity – is that by going to the hospital I came to know the struggle and the pain that they felt. I looked at these little ones with beautiful brown eyes, some peering out of skeletons, draped with brown skin. There was one little girl named Gilda who was 16 months old. She could have easily passed for a very malnourished one or two month old if it were not for all of the teeth in her mouth. Her mother died in September and her father fled, leaving her behind. Her mother’s sister is now attempting to care for her. What do I now do having seen?
There are others all around me with stories of heartache and despair but I know you also are faced with heartache and pain there.
Another song, titled “Follow You” by Leeland speaks to and from my heart.
“I’ll follow you into the homes of the broken, follow you into the world. I’ll meet the needs of the poor and the needy God. I’ll follow you into the world”
Here I am, having followed the Lord once again to Mozambique.
My prayer and my commitment is to continue following Him into the homes and lives of the broken, following Him into the world. I desire to really want to know the struggle and the pain that others feel. I want to trust Him to equip me to help the poor and the needy and to accurately reflect that this love of His is real.
To all of you who prayed, encouraged, supplied and blessed, my thank you’s feel so insufficient – but thank you! I pray for you as you follow Him in your part of the world.
Thank you for prayers and partnership in this “Labor of Love”.
A grateful laborer,
Laura