Birthdays

Christmas Eve Birthdays

My colleagues, Melvin and Sharon Kelly, have twins, Joshua and Abigail, who turned 1 on December 24th.

They had a lovely birthday party with their Mozambican family.

Here's my new friend, Joel :)

Christmas Birthday

On December 25, I celebrated Christ's birthday with the Miambo and Fernando family. 

Elina Fernando, the sister of Ana, presented the women with Christmas capulanas.

Left to right - Aimee, Herglencia, Elina, Mama Fernando, Ana

I hope you had a blessed Christmas!

Ana's last trip and Mom's last week

Merry Christmas!

The lovely..."Ana Wreath"

We found a wreath at a place where we stayed in Gaza on our last trip, and thought Ana looked nice in it!

It was the same place where we discovered the world's cutest puppy.

My mom and Ana with the world's cutest puppy.

Aimee and Ana

The last of five wonderful trips with my fun partner, Ana Miambo.

Ana won't be able to travel with me for the ministry trips up north in the new year because she will start her studies in January. I'm very happy she will be furthering her education, but I'm also sad to lose such a lovely partner in ministry.

Mom
It's been wonderful to have my mom here these past three weeks...

Meeting my friends...

Praying for my Mozambican family...

Sharing God's Word with Mozambican church leaders...

Spending time with sisters.


My mom and I invited Fatima, Vania, and Ana to take part in a family Christmas tradition...decorating gingerbread men!

My mom worked hard to bake the delicious men (and women), and she had brought frosting and decorations from home.

She told about our Christmas tradition.

The women loved the decorating...and the eating.

One of the finished products...before it was devoured.

It was wonderful to have my mom here to share first-hand in the work that God has called me to do.

Mom Visiting and 8th Trip to Gaza and Inhambane

My Mom is visiting, and she joined pastor Abel, Ana, and I on our ministry trip north to the provinces of Gaza and Inhambane!

Here she is with Hortencia showing her some love :)

On Saturday, we did our discipleship training for the local church planters/trainers. I taught a session on prayer, and pastor Abel taught a session on serving God.

The church trainers have now begun to practice teaching in our group sessions. Papa Tomas taught the lesson on church planting.

Then we visited the growing church group of Papa Tomas in Cala.

Kids from the church in Cala.

When we had some free time on one of the afternoons, Ana suggested we visit the beach we had discovered on a previous trip.

It turns out Pastor Abel is an expert crab hunter...

...ten crabs later, we were ready to leave the beach...with dinner in hand!

When we got back, Ana began cleaning the crabs.

I stirred the pot of critters with tomatoes, onion, garlic, and salt.

With some leftover beans and rice from lunch, we topped our plates with fresh Quissico crabs.

Pastor Abel thoroughly enjoyed his catch of the day...and so did we!

The next day we went to Bartolomeo's church group in Maciene, where 8 people wanted to be baptized. We drove down the dirt road, and stopped by a reed filled inlet. As we stood under the trees, I shared about the important African man who was reading the Scriptures when Philip approached his chariot.

Following Philip's example, I explained who Jesus was. Then I asked, like Philip, "Do you believe with all your heart, as this Ethiopian man did, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" They all responded in the native Txitxopi language, "Yes, we do."

So we climbed down to the water and each one was baptized!

As a side note - we were in a stagnant pond there, and I detached several fat leeches from my skin after getting out. I had heard that there was a fresh water river farther down that road, so I asked Pastor Abel why we didn't have the baptism there. He gave a one word answer that was very satisfactory - crocodiles. 

After the baptisms, we had a celebration lunch together at Bartolomeu's home.

The wonderful cooks.

At the smell of food, a hungry cat came crying to my feet.

After gorging himself on goat bones and chicken skins, he lay satisfied at my feet.

On the way back to Maputo, we stopped at Pastor Abel's wife's field. My mom was able to taste the newly harvested peanuts...

...and enjoy some fresh coconut water :)

It was great to have my mom join us on our ministry trip to see and participate in the work first-hand. We all praise God for the work He is doing, and the privilege of being a part of it.