Who's taking the picture?

I just thought this was a cute picture. The kids are so amazed when they can see themselves in the camera. Its fun to show them and to use the zoom feature on them.

The latest....

Several people have written and said where did you go? It has been a busy few weeks since I lasted posted a blog. I had friends come visit for a ministry vacation. I'm not sure how much rest time they actually had but it was a good time of ministry and fellowship. We were able to travel and do alot in a short amount of time.

Now this week I am sorting, packing, cleaning and doing all that fun stuff in preparation for my departure on December 26. Then I should be in the states on December 28. As I sit here with sweat pouring off my face because it is so hot I think I'll be glad to be cold for a while. It will be interesting to go from the 30C temp to the 30F temp.

I'll look forward to seeing alot of you soon. I hope to update my blog again before I leave but tonight I"m not making any promises!

A friends 30th Birthday

The other week a New Tribes missionary friend of mine celebrated her 30th birthday. To help her celebrate we had a progressive dinner for the ladies.

We went to 3 different houses and enjoyed some really good Mexican food ending with a dessert buffet at the last house.

At each house she received 30 of something whether it was 30 m&m's or 30 recipes or 30 Scripture verses.

There was a good group of ladies who were able to participate. We laughed as we thought about the sight we must have been 20 ladies piling in and out of cars going into the houses and coming out a little later. It was a good time.

The anticipation of it all...

People have been asking me what I'm most looking forward to when I get to the states....I said I'm looking forward to going to a convenience store and getting a large cup of soda with ice! The other week when I was traveling it was so hot. I said where is the 7 Eleven so I can just stop and pick up a cold drink?!



But you know something I'm not looking forward to is having to pump my own gas when I fill up the gas tank. I admit it I've gotten spoiled here by just pulling up to the gas station and saying fill it up. They do it, I pay and I'm on my way.



Just a few things I've thought of as I look towards heading to the states in a month.



However today I am looking forward to receiving my guests who will be arriving from Florida!

Mozambican Wedding

On Saturday November 10th, I had the opportunity to attend my first wedding here in Mozambique. Victor, a Mozambican was marrying Cristina an American young lady. They met through Teen Missions program.

The day started at 10 am at the government office in Nampula. It was the official civil ceremony for the wedding and mainly involved the signing of the wedding document. Everyone arrived on foot or in the back of trucks or however they could.

From there we went to different locations in the city to make pictures of the bride and groom. It was a neat idea because everyone who wanted to could then have their picture made with the bride and groom as well.

It was a really hot day but I guess this is the really hot time of the year for Mozambique.

After the pictures we went to the church for a church wedding. To add a part of the American ceremony to the wedding there were bridesmaids and groomsmen which is not usual for a Mozambican wedding to have.

The church finished and we left for the reception around 4 pm. At the reception there was a lot of good food including goat, chicken, potatoes, rice, eggs, and lots of cake. It was really nice.

I'm sure Victor and Cristina would appreciate your prayers as they begin their life together in Mozambique. Victor runs as orphanage in Nampula and Cristina will be a big part of that ministry. In a way she has "inherited" 58 children in this marriage. Thankfully God knows all this and He wasn't surprised by any of it!

You watched ESPN?

I saw the most interesting tshirt when I was on one of my travels. I saw this little boy with a shirt on which says I watch ESPN with my daddy. I had to laugh because I know he doesn't know what ESPN is. Plus they didn't have electricity where I was at so I know he hasn't seen a TV. He was cute though with a cute shirt on!

Someone was praying...

Have you had a time when God has changed your attitude as a result of prayer? I had that experience last Sunday when I was out on a day trip to one of the churches who wanted the missionary to visit. I admit I didn’t have a good attitude towards the trip for different reasons.

I arrived at the church and we started the service. I was sitting at the front of the church where the guests sit and I admit that my attitude wasn’t the best as I was sitting there listening to the Makhuwa words and songs. Then all of a sudden I had a complete attitude change. I was sitting there and my bad attitude changed to one of a peace and enjoyment about being there. I looked at my cellphone to see the exact time because I knew at that moment that God had lead someone to pray for me. It was at 9:58 am Africa time on Sunday November 11 which 7 hours ahead of Eastern Standard time.

So if you were praying for me at that time I just want to say thank you. And I want to say thank you for the many times that you have prayed for me whether it was middle of the night or middle of the day. Your prayers do make a difference!

Carol and the kids

I was at a village the other week and I had a crowd of followers with me. It is fun to watch the children as they imitate what you do. For instance if you jump on one foot then they will do it too. Or if you skip down the road they will do it too. I guess that is a good lesson to be learned to do the things that you don't mind other people copying in your daily living.

A girls trip

This past weekend I had the opportunity to take a "girl's trip" to visit a New Tribes missionary friend. It was a fun time. There were 5 of us who traveled from Nampula to a small village about 8 hours away. It was so good to see our friend, Debi, using her newly acquired language skills to communicate in the heart language of the Lolo people. Above is a photo of the group. Debi is the one holding her 1 year old daughter, Melody.

The quiet little girl

As I've been cleaning out I have found many cards which people have sent to me during my time here in Mozambique. A continuing theme for the people who have known me since I was child is that I was a shy quiet little girl. One person said that I wouldn't look at her when she talked to me because I was so quiet. I said that just shows how much of a God thing all of this is. I found a picture from my first mission trip as I was a little girl. I'm the one with the curly hair in the red shirt.

The story of the Bible

Recently I had the opportunity to do an evangelism teaching. I along with one of the pastors taught the participants the Creation to Christ story of the Bible. This gives the story of the Bible from beginning to end, ending with an opportunity for the person to make the decision to accept Christ as their personal Saviour. Thankfully each one of the participants were able to tell me when they made the decision to accept Christ as their Saviour. Pray that the participants will go back to their churches and share with others about this method of evangelism. But more than that pray that they would have the desire to share this story with their neighbors and family.

Carol and the fish guy

As I was at one of the churches which was literally at the end of the road, a man came by selling fish. He had just caught the fish in the river. The fish smelt bad, more than the normal fish smell so I'm not sure how long ago he had caught them. But everyone was excited about them, the insides had already been cleaned out. He was so excited that I had my picture made with him that he gave me a fish for free.

Carol and Whitey

Remember Teddy E Bear who was here with me for a while? Well he inspired a missionary friend to have Whitey come and visit her. Whitey is a white squirrel from the mountains of NC. He has had quite an adventure. I was with him a while on Sunday. We had a really good service at church. Then we went to one of the nice hotel restaurants for an enjoyable lunch. Plus you get a good view of the city from this hotel.

An American moment

The other day I was helping to transport a body to a neighborhood area in Nampula. I was following the car in front of me because I didn't know where we were going. We got a road where I have passed hundreds of times. As we went to the left of the building I had a truly American moment. I started thinking he is going on the wrong side of the road and this is through a military area, we are going to be in trouble. I was so convinced that he was going the wrong way!

After a few minutes I realized Carol there was nothing wrong with the side of the road he went on, he did it the correct way. I thought wow what an American moment.

Then after we transported the body we were leaving the house. It ended up that I was leaving at the same time as the other car. I thought good I can follow them out of this neighborhood. I started following the guy. Eventually he stopped and got my attention. I said are you going back to the hospital. He smiled and said not until I visit my friend who lives up this road, he said you need to go back and turn on the other road. I laughed and said thanks. I followed the road he told me and I found my way out of the neighborhood and made it back to my house.

A new home for Coconut

A prayer has been answered...At the end of the year Coconut will have a new home in Cuamba. I'll tell you how it happened. A friend of mine from Cuamba called and asked if another girl from there could spend the night at my house. She was arriving in Nampula from a trip home to Korea on her way to Cuamba. So I said she could spend the night. Iwasn't even thinking about her being interested in having a dog. Then she asked what are you going to do with Coconut when you leave? I told her that I wasn't sure, I told her about Boots being with her new family. By the way Boots seems to be doing good and adjusting fairly well, if she will just stop howling when she is by herself. She said she would like to have Coconut when I leave. What a great answer to prayer.

Another visit to Pedro's mom

As I look back on these few days I can see how God is answering my prayer and giving me a heart to share with the people here. I was able to go visit Pedro’s mom again and I was able to have a conversation with her through Pedro translating into Makhuwa. I asked her if she had accepted Christ. She said she had. She doesn’t go to church anymore, she stopped going after her husband was kicked out for having more than one wife. It was such a good visit with her. I asked her several times about her accepting Christ because I wanted to make sure. Then it came to the point that I had to just trust her and what she was saying because God knows the condition of the heart.

She said that she was sad when she heard that I was leaving because she is always happy when I go to visit her.

On my way home from that trip I was reminded of how my connection when that area really started. I had gone to the area but then the day that I transported the dead body, the day that I didn’t want to do that, but it worked out so that I did. God used that day to help me build more relationships in that area of Murrupula.

During the trip on Wednesday I went with Pastor M to visit some of his family. As we were sitting there I saw a lady and my heart really broke for her. I prayed for her. I asked Pastor if she was a Christian and he said no. That gave me the opportunity to say next week can we come back and do evangelism training for the church here and then we can come back and visit her? So we set up a time to do the training and we’ll go back and visit her and talk with her.

I stopped again at Pedro’s mom house and invited her to go to the training. She agreed to go to the training. It will be a good time for her to hear the story of the Bible from beginning to end.

As I got back to Nampula that evening I went to a restaurant with some other people. If I would have let myself I could have cried for the people as I thought of the ones I had seen during the day.

The Pastor told me that he had had his time playing with his friends and now I could go play with my friends when it was my turn to go visit with Pedro’s mom. I thought that was cute.

We also dropped off the Pastor’s wife at her family’s house. The mom wasn’t there when we dropped off the wife. We went and did some other visits and then came back and the mom was there this time. She said I was at a neighbor’s house and I saw the car and I knew that was Carol’s truck. I thought that was neat that she recognized the truck and knew it was mine.

Hat Man

I took a picture of this man and he was determined that I would leave it with him. Someone finally got him to understand that the picture was inside the camera and that I couldn't leave it with him.

Baptism

First we started on nice paved road. Then, too quickly, we were off the nice paved smooth road to the pothole filled dirt road. After about 30 minutes on that road we turned off through the grass weeds continuing to the mission church where we were going. Finally we arrived after the path through the weeds had gotten smaller and smaller. We arrived to a location where once again I was the third missionary and first female to arrive at that area. We were there for baptisms.

After a few minutes we entered the church building and the pastor asked questions of the 6 baptism candidates. Questions such as what is your testimony? Then after successfully answering these questions we began the walk to the watering hole. It wasn't too far of a walk however the sun was hot and there was not any shade on the path or once we arrived at the water. We walked through gardens of cabbage and carrots. One of the nationals even gave me a cucumber to eat as we walked.

We arrived at the water and it was so interesting because the ladies all stood on one side and the men on the other side. Then the pastor shared some words before baptizing the people. After the baptism some of the people stayed at the watering hole to take a bath. After all you don't want to miss an opportunity for that since water can be scarce for the Africans.

After returning to the church we had a church service. One of the groups even sang a song in English called I love you Jesus. They really did good.

Lunch was eventually served at about 2:30 pm, afterwhich we returned to Nampula.

Clean your faces

After a river baptism, the most interesting thing happened. All at once the kids immediately leaned over and began washing their faces. It was the girls on one side and the boys on the other all lined up. It was in unison even though it wasn't meant to be. It was a cute sight to see.

Random thoughts on singleness

A topic which has come up alot recently in different conversations is the issue of singleness. How does/should the church relate to singles? How are singles treated? What do singles need? How do people perceive singles? Being a single myself many of the conversations really hit home with me. After hearing some different ideas about it I wrote some of my thoughts. I hope you will read it and take to heart whatever God may lead you to. Don't feel like just because you aren't single you can't read it. These are thoughts which can apply to all people.

Almost 40 and not married whats wrong with you? 20 years old and you only want to get married whats wrong with being single? 50 years old and happily single? No Sunday School class at your church which you feel a part of because you aren’t married or you don't have children? Do any of these sound familiar? Tired of hearing the clichés like God has the right one just waiting for you? Or stop looking and it will happen.

Singleness is meant to be a gift not a time when you feel like a lesser person because you don’t have a spouse or children. The single life can be fulfilling but it can also be frustrating. I challenge you to think about one question is your church single friendly? Are you single friendly? Not to be a matchmaking service for singles but to be a place where singles can join together for support and encouragement. Did you notice the person who quietly walked into to the church service last Sunday and sat by himself? Did you go talk to him? Did you reach out to him? Or were you in such a hurry to get out that you didn’t acknowledge him?

Being single doesn’t always mean that we have more money because it is only one person to care for and it doesn’t mean we have more time for God’s work. We are still people who have needs and wants. I challenge you have you said before he’s not married he has time to do such and such? Maybe singles do have more flexible time than what married people with children have but maybe you are expecting them to do things they don’t want to do just because they are single.

If you’ve been married for 10 or 20 years do you remember what it was like to be single? Or have you ever known? Were you married straight out of high school or college? Do you remember how sometimes it would just be nice to have a family dinner time? Yes even with the 3 year old who throws his food all over the place or the 6 year old who wants to tell you about his pet turtle or the 10 year old who doesn’t want to practice the piano like you are asking him to do.

In God's eyes we each have a gift which we can bring to His service and that is what we are called to do. For some people that may mean having 6 children, for others that may mean never having children of their own. But the one thing that He calls us to do is to love Him first and foremost and to love others, whether it is the single, the married, the widowed, the divorced, or whoever it might be.