This past month, our first month in Africa, our team, along with another team from our squad, spent time at a ministry site called Beacon of Hope (Farol de Esperança) in Matola, Maputo, Mozambique, Africa.
Beacon of Hope is a transition home for teenage boys to empower them to break free from the bondage of poverty through a sound education, life skills training, and the love of Christ. They leave the home with an education and the knowledge of who they are in Christ. It’s like a boarding school for boys without the best home lives or people to look out for them and their futures.
the Hope House — where the boys and Chico, Alima and their 3 kids live
This isn’t a government-funded home nor even an African based organization. Rather many years ago, one Texan woman had a calling, which evolved into a desire to help and moved her to claim Mozambique as her new home.
Angie Wheeler was a registered nurse in the USA but the Lord began changing her heart and giving her a desire to use her knowledge and skills for His purpose and benefit. She began going on missions around the world with different organizations until she finally heard God’s plan for her life while on a short mission trip to Florida.
She began her time in Mozambique in 2000 as a nurse helping in a pre-established missions organization in Maputo (the capital); she learned the culture and taught herself to communicate in Portuguese by living with four local women in an apartment downtown. She spent her days working in a children’s clinic, and discovered her true longing – to help the youth of Mozambique. As stated in her biography on her ministry site,
“God gave her the vision of a house with a garden, a place where teenagers could gain life skills through loving relationships and continued discipleship. In September of 2002, Angie officially launched Beacon of Hope – Africa.”
The Internet portrayed a great idea of who Angie was, and everyone on the squad that had interacted with Angie was already in love with her! She saved our entire squad from some travel problems we were having on our way to and in Africa, making her a superhero before we even met!
What I didn’t know about Angie was what made ME fall in love with her.
As storytellers for the squad, Allie and I had a lot of extra time to sit, talk, and really get to know the Angie Wheeler that the Internet didn’t tell us about.
Alima, myself and Angie
Allie felt that our personal ministry that month should be focused on Angie (in addition to teaching classes and hanging out with the boys), and that we should make a short video about her and the ministry that she could use for future marketing and fundraising. So, we started talking to her – asking her questions about her personal life, her work life, her past, her desires for the future, etc. We found out her fears, her desires, her challenges, and all of the many successful positive moments of her ministry. Let me introduce you to MY Angie.
Angie is hilarious. She is a spunky southern woman that speaks her mind and loves to make people laugh and feel welcomed. She has an excellent singing voice and is very wise. She is quite possibly one of the best hosts I’ve ever met in my years of traveling and living abroad. In her words, “My ministry to you is getting to spoil you and I love doing it!” and spoil us she did!
Angie went out of her way to make us comfortable, even though we were there to serve HER! She made sure we had fans at night, even if it meant that someone else in the house had to go without theirs; she and the ladies that help her with house chores would make sure that we had the most delicious and filling meals, including special nights dedicated to America and Mexican food (enchiladas and hamburgers! mmmmm); she planned a movie night and served us popcorn and coke (WITH ICE) so that we could have a relaxing girls’ night with her; and so much more!
My favorite part of Angie was her willingness to talk with us. I found out quickly that she is a very busy woman and is constantly working – all ministry related – but she never turned down an opportunity to talk and answer any questions we had for her. Out of all of her success stories, funny stories, loving moments, the most encouraging and impactful story to me is when she suffered and was so broken that she came close to packing everything up and moving home… Why? It is when she showed her true reliance on God and depended on him to show her how strong and brave she really could be!
Beacon of Hope is a large lot of land with two housing buildings, an outside kitchen and eating area, and two large storage buildings that are used for various things, including old furniture and animals. Angie and her three (almost) adopted children live in the main house in the center of the lot, and the 10 boys, her two business helpers Chico and Almena, and their three children live in the other house at the front of the lot. Currently, there is a gate and a cement brick fence being built around the property but it wasn’t always there.
A view of the whole compound — the Hope House in the foreground and Angie’s house, the two storage houses, and the outside kitchen in the background
One night Angie awoke to a group of aggressive, large men entering her home. They came for money, wanting to rob her of whatever valuables they could find. They didn’t just come to take things though; they intended to take her life as well. As she recounted the story, I couldn’t help but notice that her eyes became a bit distant and her beautiful smile faded. “Tonight’s the night you’re going to die,” she recalls them saying as they beat her repeatedly. All Angie could do was say, “Jesus… Jesus…. Jesus….”
If not for Enia – Angie’s 16 year old daughter – yelling out of the window for Chico, Angie says she probably would be dead today. The men were scared of being caught so they grabbed her computer and a few other things, and then ran off into the night.
That was two years ago and Angie is still there, though the thieves were never caught. Is she over it? No, and she still wakes up with night terrors sometimes. She says, “Who knows if they will come back. I don’t think they will but I’m not going to say it won’t happen.”
Did I mention that she is a single woman and is in this foreign place all by herself? Imagine being the only American, the only English speaker, going through something like this… and just wanting to be comforted. She had her children, Chico, Almena, and the boys, but she doesn’t have a partner to share these things with, to talk to comfortably in her native language, and to cry on. This, I later realized made her dependence on God THAT much stronger
We asked her why she stayed in such a dangerous place after something that radical and she simply said, “It took me two weeks. At first I wanted to leave, I wanted to go home and be safe, but two weeks later I woke up and knew that I had to stay and see my mission through.”
The next part of what she said will stick with me forever.
“I realized it’s not about me… it’s not about who… it’s not about where… it’s just about Jesus and that makes it all worth it. If it’s all about obedience and sacrifice, what am I going to do if I run away and go home?”
Angie could have left the dangers and left Mozambique completely! She could have found her safety and security back home in Texas with family, non-corrupt police systems, locks, and alarm systems… but what kind of life would that have been? She would have been running and letting the devil win. God has her where He wants her and she was smart enough, BRAVE enough, to realize this.
“Forgetting what is behind and straiging toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 3:13
“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” — James 1:12
Angie has been in Mozambique for 15 years now and has touched and changed numerous lives through this wonderful ministry God called her to. She has had many ups and downs; struggles and successes; tears and laughter. She has seen and experienced tremendous hurt, but has also provided so much love and shown HOW to love and how to dream as God desires us to do. She’s an angel with the heart of a saint but the strength and bravery of the strongest of soldiers. The Angie that the Internet doesn’t portray is the Angie that marches with the fiercest of God’s armies. THAT is the Angie that I was so fortunate to get to know.
