Blog

Since arriving home in Mozambique a month ago, a compelling paradox has almost daily played before our eyes. Being back in the place where God has called us, our hearts are full and yet broken. Our hands are filled one moment and vacant the next. Just as one need is met, a thousand wait hopeful that they might be next…How can a promise land be both a land of amazing abundance and at the same time be tragically barren?
Hunger presents an interesting paradox…

Only in hunger do we find ourselves both satisfied and unfulfilled. The more we hunger for God and the more desperate we become, and the more we realize how greatly famished we are. And yet because of the marvelous love of God, in our hunger, we are always filled! “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men, for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (Ps 107:8-9). Glory! These “good things” vary from His sweet presence, His amazing healing, His soft or thunderous voice- and these are just a few! What about the physical things like miraculous provisions that we have all seen time and time again.

Returning back to our paradox, many of you have heard there is a global food crisis. Overpopulation, fuel prices, global warming…experts have lots reasons, but we know the main one (1 Pet. 5:8). We see the devil busy at work in Mozambique. The price of rice has tripled in 2 years. Most families are struggling to eat. Many in the bush are starving. Our ministries widow’s list (1 Tim. 5) has also tripled. More and more children come from the villages each day to our Village Children’s feeding….many of them taking their precious portion of rice and beans home to share with the rest of their family.

Friends, we do not share this to arise pity or that familiar helpless feeling many get when we hear such news…no indeed…we do however want to awaken the church to pray. And more so, to provoke us all to hunger!!!! If people are physically hungry
around the world, they are also spiritually hungry! Therefore, what is our response? The Bible says, “Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied” (Luke 6:21). It is time to get hungry for more of God NOW! If we are globally hungry for
physical food- think of the hunger in the spirit!!! We are seeing this by way of the inter- net/ God TV as the Florida Outpouring is being broadcasted globally. Friends, NOW is the time! Make us hungrier Lord! We want all of you Jesus!!! We want your Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven! More, more, more!!!

Many of you know about our beloved Mozambican holiday “Children’s Day.” It is a day looked forward to by our kids for months. Chicken, cokes, games, presents—its like Christmas in July…or in this case, June 1.

Jean and I were quickly recruited to head up Children’s Day (CD) for the village children- this means we would prayerfully plan for the feeding, games, and gifts for the 2000 or so kids which would attend our church on CD. I (Teisa) was the one who said “Yes” without really thinking about it…. But the more I did think about it, the more impossible it seemed. Memories from 2006 Christmas feeding filled my mind: tiny children being trampled by the mob of kids fighting to get in the door, chaos in the kitchen where we had to hold the plates high in the air to keep kids from grabbing the chicken, and the riots between the adults for who would eat first….I confess thinking many times, “Dear Jesus, what did we just get ourselves into?”

With the help of another missionary, we prayed (“Help, God!”) and planned. From the beginning, things miraculously came together. For example, we were able to buy 80% of the gift items (assorted candy and cookies) in one hour and a half- something that normally would have taken all day! We also had tons of help due to our incoming mission school students and visiting team from Global Awakening (same team Jean led 2 years ago!) We had meetings with our Makua youth who would lead in various areas -especially in the games. We have never attempted to play games with 2000 kids before. But more and more ideas flowed and soon we had almost 10 different game stations. Our awesome mission school students helped us for hours as we assembled our gift bags —2000 of them! Each bag having a full packet of cookies, 2 bubble gums, 1 small lollypop, 1 large lollypop with gum, 2 toffees, 2 sour candies….a true dream gift for any kid…at least in our neck of the woods!

WOW! God blew our minds with His goodness on CD! We enjoyed an amazing time of worship and Heidi preached her heart out with many people being healed and saved. After church, we kept all the kids in the church and started to dismiss them in groups of twenty to form a line outside of the kitchen….and guess whatthey formed a beautiful precious line!!!! Friends, this was a miracle!!! Everything from the feeding to the games
went reasonably smooth! But the best part was when the village kids were leaving, we had all our visitors and students form a prayer tunnel for them and when we came out the end, they received their gift! Many of the kids started jumping up and down in glee as they discovered the contents. After all the village kids had received their gifts, it was time for our Iris kids to receive theirs. Heidi went house by house giving the gifts. This year we started with the girls, so our warriors were anxiously waiting by the gate of the girls’ center. Soon enough, it was their turn. Each of our boys – we have 11 now- sang their special CD song before getting their gifts and gave us hugs with a hearty “Obrigado” after.

Once again, we were in awe of how God took the impossible and showed His possibilities! People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:13-15