Isaac and Carol

The work here is a huge blessing, but sometimes little things stand out to me and I am encouraged by them. Saturday was youth service. We had a great time together. We did four weeks of games, bible trivia, verse search, etc. Yesterday was the last day and the day to give out the prizes. One of the things that encouraged me was a young lady that memorized 30 verses. She quoted all the verses in front of everyone. She also memorized all the books of the Bible. Simple task but a huge accomplishment. There were others that memorized verses and the books of the Bible, which just put the cherry on top for me.

The other awesome moment for me was this morning in service. A man in the church brought his offering in a peculiar way. He grows vegetables so an offering he brought a bag full of vegetables and placed it on stage. He was giving the first fruits of his labor.

We all have something to give. We just need to make it available for God.

I was in the picture taking mood the other day and wanted to share some moments with you. Sometimes i need to take a step back and see the great things that God is doing. Here are some random pictures of different things in the church.

Two years ago our lives changed. We became one and began this great journey together. It has been an adventure that I could have never imagined; full of new experiences, joy, and happiness. Sure there are it's ups and downs, but life together with my wonderful wife has been a huge gift from God to me. I always hear people say that their wives are their better halves. Well, now I know what they mean. My wife is definitely my better half and don't know how she puts up with me.

We also received some wonderful news the other day. We found out that she is pregnant. Talk about an anniversary gift.

It has been an amazing two years. God has blessed us beyond measure and I'm excited to see what else He has for us.

I'm a few days late in posting this but I need to show this awesome day we had at church. June 1st was Children's Day. I don't know the story behind it but it's a day they celebrate here in Mozambique and I know they do it in Brazil but on October 12th. We had over 300 kids at service that morning. The kids know we always do something special for them whenever we can so they once again figured us out and invited everybody they knew. Carol taught them about the greatest gift they could ever receive, Jesus. The thing that encourages me so much is that all the hard work that goes into working with kids is worth it, because God is planting in them an eternal seed that will one day grow and produce fruit that will fill this nation with the Gospel of Jesus.

One of the parts of a Children's Cup program is to offer pre-school to the young children. We have had a rough time trying to get it started, but we have finally done it. We have been going for about a month now. It is so exciting to see the little kids coloring, and learning the letters. Most kids don't have the opportunity to attend a pre-school so they go into first grade without knowing anything. We are grateful for the opportunity to offer at least a few kids the a good pre-school education. Who knows, maybe in the future God will let us build and start a K - 12 school. We currently have 60 kids in school.

This past week we celebrated the one year anniversary of the church. It's been a year full of blessings. God has done great things in the one year we have been worshiping together. Part of the HPSM students came to celebrate this time with us. They did an awesome job in everything. Our Sunday service was packed with over 5oo people. The team did a great job serving and loving the people. Then throughout the week, we had leadership training, water station, and mural painting. We also gave away shirts and flip-flops. I want to thank HPC for training such great leaders and a huge thank you to the team the poured their hearts out into the work here. You guys are awesome.
Na semana passada, nós celebramos o aniversário de um ano da igreja. Foi um ano repleto de bênçãos. Deus fez grandes coisas neste um ano em que temos adorado juntos. Parte dos estudantes do HPSM vieram participar da celebração conosco. Eles fizeram um ótimo trabalho em tudo. Nosso culto de domingo estava lotado, mais de 500 pessoas. A equipe foi tremenda em servindo e amando as pessoas. E durante a semana, tivemos treinamento de líderes, construção de bebedouros, e pintura da salinha das crianças. Também demos camisas e chinelos. Quero agradecer HPC (Igreja Healing Place) por treinar grandes líderes e também a equipe por derramarem dos seus corações no trabalho aqui. Vocês são D +

Rodrigo is Carol's brother. He came back with us after our short visit to Brazil. It has been great having him with us not only to have family nearby but he has been a huge help to us at the church. He is teaching guitar to some of the leaders in the church. It will give a major boost to our worship. Rodrigo will be staying with us till the end of this month. When these guys learn everything they can, they will teach the others how to play the guitar. Developing leaders....
Rodrigo é irmão da Carol. Ele voltou com a gente, depois da nossa rápida visita ao Brasil. Tem sido muito bom te-lo aqui conosco, não somente porque é bom ter família por perto, mas porque ele também tem sido uma grande ajuda pra nós na igreja. Ele está dando aula de violão para alguns dos líderes da igreja. Vai ajudar muito no ministério de louvor. O Rodrigo vai ficar conosco até o final deste mês. Quando esses caras aprenderem tudo que eles puderem, então eles irão ensinar outros como tocar violão também. Desenvolvendo líderes...

I wish I had a before and after picture, but I will try to describe to you the living condition this family was in. This lady is one of the cooks at the care point and a major help in the church. The window they are standing in front of is a room they were not using because it had no roof. So her whole family was living in the other room. The roof of the other room (where the door is) was flat. it had no incline to it. So when it rained the water would go straight into the house. To make things worse, she had so many blocks on the roof that it was alsmost caving in. They use the blocks to hold the roof down because they can't afford nails. They also had no floor. Healing Place Church Mozambique was able to build up the walls to make, put a roof on her whole house and put in a concrete floor.

Queria monstrar uma foto do antes e depois, mas não tenho, então vou tentar descrever para vocês as condições em que esta família estava. Esta senhora é uma das cozinheiras do nosso centro e uma grande ajuda para nós na igreja. A janela que está atrás deles era de um quarto que eles não estavam usando porque não tinha telhado. Por causa disso, a família inteira estava morando no outro quartinho. O telhado desse outro quartinho( onde vemos a porta) era reto, sem nenhuma inclinação. Então quando chovia a água ia direto pra dentro da casa. Para piorar a situação ela tinha tantos tijolos em cima do telhado que já estava pretes a cair de vez. Eles usam tijolos para segurar o telhado quando não conseguem comprar pregos. E também a casa não tinha chão. A Igreja Healing Place em Moçambique pode construir as paredes, colocar teto na casa toda e colocar um chão de cimento.