We arrived in Mozambique Saturday night after an 18 plus hour bus ride through the country. I think the bus broke down at least once and stopped many more times. Needless to say it stretched us to be in a bus for so long. When we arrived at almost midnight a very friendly woman from Iris Ministries in Dondo named Julie picked us up and delivered us to a place to sleep for the night. Then at 8am the next morning Peter, our contact who is blind, came to get us and led us to a mini bus and we headed to our new home at Mama Rita’s. When we got off the bus some boys came to direct us to Mama Rita’s house. They wanted greatly to assist us with our bags, they ended up carrying all of Nate’s things, Peter carrying his big back pack.
As we arrived at Mama Rita’s the welcome was as if we were old friends and it didn’t take long to realize we will be friends forever. It made me wonder what the greeting was like for Jesus, Paul or any other disciples, we got such a great greeting it’s hard to even imagine theirs. Later in the day we attended church in Mama Rita’s home. We danced, smiled and sang a lot. It is very evident that the Lord’s joy is all up in that place and all over those people.
The crazy thing is that they had to go through a lot this past year and still they are choosing JOY. (James 1) The father of this family, Ezekiel, Mama Rita’s husband was killed this past year. In pursuit of Christ he was martyred and he left behind his wife, 7 biological children and a total of 20 young children who live in his home. Ezekiel and Peter have been housing 32 orphans total for a while now, 12 of the older ones living with Peter and 20 living at Mama Rita’s. I woke up many times last night to cries of small children, all of whom sleep on newly purchased mattresses (thanks to Team Isaac and supporters) in the living room. There are so many mattresses you can’t see the floor. No one seemed to care that they are practically living on top of each other, they all just seemed joyful.
I really am amazed at the simplicity of Mama Rita and Peter and of their devotion to the Lord, and we have only been here a day. Please pray for us as we begin our journey here, this week we are going to purchase the land for a new orphanage/ home for Mama Rita and the kids. All in all they need to raise around $19,000 in order to complete the project. I have faith God will provide for this JOYFUL family!
I pray blessings over everyone who reads this. May God bring you new revelations for your life and the BOLDNESS to follow through with them! I love you all!
Check out the my photos link for some pictures of last month!
