| Greetings!
I hope that this email finds you well and enjoying life. The past weeks here have been very nice. We welcomed back Julie who was home in Canada on a break. She has been living and serving here in Dondo for 4 years but this will be her final 6 months before moving on to something else. It is wonderful to have her back!
Art News
Thank you for your prayers! The mural that I have been working on is very nearly complete. I have a few last details on the picture and need to put finishing colors on the painted frame. I did a sponge painting effect over the deep blue base color and did the name on the front. I am so encouraged!
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| The “line” that shows in the picture is a reflection on the corner where there is a 2″ difference in the surface of the wall. |
A couple of weeks ago as I worked one of the many people who stopped to comment was a man who I do not know at all yet I have the utmost respect for. You see, here in Dondo our center is on the highway that runs between the port in Beira all the way through to Zimbabwe. It is a two lane road with considerable potholes and a constant flow of tractor-trailers and petroleum tankers. Additionally, at all hours of the day and even some at night, men ride their simple and often rickety bicycles along the edges of this road, traveling many miles from their homes out in the bush to the markets in Dondo or Beira with bags of charcoal strapped to their bikes to sell and provide for their families. These bags are 4ft long and about 16 inches in diameter and they usually carry at least two. This person I want to tell you about was one of those men. He said that as he rode the long distance he was talking to God and asking Him “where is the evidence of You in this land?” With great joy he went on to tell me that a little later he looked up and ahead in the distance was my mural and that it brought such great encouragement to his heart! His face was beaming as he spoke. It meant so much to me to experience directly how my obedience to come to Mozambique and paint would be used by the Lord. He stopped to talk again on his way back home and I was able to give him a Bible.
Last weekend after stopping to ask about the picture and then spending time talking, 4 people prayed to repent of their sins and ask Jesus to be their Savior! (3 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday) The man on Sunday had been on his way to the bar to drink. He began to share how miserable he was but that he could not stop. He had been wasting all his money on alcohol and fooling around with other women. He said his wife often cried and he worried that he would not live long enough to see his children grow up. After Julie and I prayed with him he was heading home instead of the bar and we connected him with one of the young men from our church.
“More Lord, touch and transform many more lives!”
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| Agua da Vida (Water of Life) Storefront |
Visitors
We had a team of 10 visitors for just a few days headed by David & Amy Lancaster and their 3 teenage children. They travel to Mozambique regularly to serve but had not been to Dondo for many years. I originally met them in 2008 when I lived in Pemba. They live in the inner city in Jackson, Mississippi with a small community of other believers, being light and bringing love to a very harsh environment. I highly recommend checking out what they do! www.wewillgo.org
The YWAM Audio-Visual team just returned for another 2 weeks and we have a new World Race team who will stay for a month. They were delayed a day in their arrival because of snow in Johannesburg!
Visa Adventures
I was not able to extend my Visa locally as I was told so I needed to make a trip across the border into Mutare, Zimbabwe. Thankfully Isla, another missionary, was 2 weeks from needing to go out and so she decided to travel with me. She was a huge help and bringer of peace because she is much more fluent in Portuguese then I and has made the journey once before. We left on Thursday 6am and arrived at the border around 3pm. The public transport certainly cannot be called convenient by American standards or comfortable but honestly it was convienent if the attribute is based solely on being able to accomplish what needed to be accomplished and that we did and arrived safely back yesterday afternoon. Thanks God!
Future Plans
Next art project – to paint the faces on the mural from last year!
Connecting with Lee Trueblood about work in Manga.
Attend a conference at Peniel Church in Beira August 10th -14th.
August 15th travel with the Wilcox family to Lichinga. |
