Past and Present Blessings

In 2015, Anabela, from the church in Kongoloti, had a baby and named her Aimee. 

Aimee - 2015

Aimee - 2016

Aimee - 2017

Aimee - 2018

What a joy to see little Aimee, with her mom and grandma, this last week!  

In 2015, Tina and Carlos gave me the gift of naming their new baby - Josue Nydango.

Josue -2016

Josue - 2018
What a special visit with my beloved Nydango family this last week!

In 2006, I spent a summer learning about culture and language through cooking and conversation with Candida, and her son Paulito.

At the end of that summer, 11 year-old Paulito, made me a special hook rug from a rice sack inscribed with Philippians 4:13 in Portuguese (below).

"Posso todas as coisas naquele que me fortalece."

(I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.)

This last week, I shared a word of encouragement with the Palavra Viva church in the area of T-3. 

After the service, a young man approached me and asked if I remembered him...it was Paulito!

Paulito (now 23 and looking very serious here) is a part of this church, and he serves on the worship team playing the keyboard. To see him after 12 years, and hear that he's walking with God, made me smile.

The Snowden family (here with Luana and me), who visited us in California last year, is now in Mozambique!

This family would appreciate prayer as they work on language and culture learning here. 

Together, we attended the wedding reception of Plionasmo.

Mats are put down to honor the newly married couple as they enter the tent. 

It's customary to sing a song when giving a gift. Here we are singing and presenting our gifts!

Thank you for praying for me during this time in Mozambique! 

God allowed me to renew my visa, as well as visit, encourage and pray with many people from my Mozambican and missionary family. 

~

I so appreciate your continued prayer for my health and my return to Mozambique in God's time.

Quissico, Cala, Nyamajeho

So thankful to visit my house in Inhambane.

I traveled from Maputo with my colleagues, Paulo and Fernanda.

Fernanda helped so much in the house cleaning, preparing meals, and helping me to process through everything.  

Besides killing countless cockroaches, Paulo fixed many things, and he spent special time with Jaime, who has been watching over the house. 

The front garden, where Jaime has planted tomatoes, pumpkin leaves, cabbage, and lettuce. 

In Quissico, it was special to visit with many of my dear neighbors, like grandma Lila, to hear how they're doing and let them know how I'm doing. 

It was good to pray for each of my neighbors. 

With Cidalia and her precious family. 

While Fernanda made tasty Brazilian beans and rice, Cidalia pounded out peanuts and I shaved coconuts for the sauce for the wild chicken we'd been given by another neighbor.

Using my coconut shaving muscles again!

Jaime picked some lettuce from the house garden for our salad. 

We drove to Cala to visit the women from the church.

I prayed for them and shared about God's faithfulness and the great works He wants to do in and around us in the midst of our suffering. 

We also went to visit the women in Nyamajeho.

One of the women,whom Ermelinda and I had be discipling and who was baptized in 2016, passed away this year. We sang and prayed, and I encouraged and reminded them about the hope of eternity that God offers us in Jesus.  

Since I spoke only in Portuguese, they teased me about how many words in the Txitxopi language I had forgotten.

On our way back from Cala to Quissico, we spotted a hippo in the lake. It was fun to see...from the safety of the car...but of course the hippos cause a lot of problems for the people here because they eat and trample the crops from the family fields during the night.

It's a bit far, but right at the beginning of this video, you can hear the hippo opening his big mouth.