These past couple of weeks have been very sad and sobering for us, which has led us to write what we are going to write. On August 1, Corey found out that his friend, Chris Mitchell died. It’s hard to describe the feeling you have in your soul after hearing that someone you love has died. So many thoughts and feelings go through your heart after this happens. There is sorrow that hurts to your core, yet there is also a peace and comfort if that person is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Death is such a sobering reality. Whether we think about it or not, the truth is that we are all ordained to die. This is where the reality sets in: where will we spend our eternity? The purpose of this is not to scare people or to frighten people, but so that we might search our hearts and seek the face of God. Are we reconciled to God? (2 Corinthians 5:20) Are we storing up treasures on earth or are we storing them up in heaven? Are we living as if earth is our home? Are we loving people like we love ourselves? Are we making the most of every opportunity that God gives us? (Ephesians 5:15)
God has burdened our hearts to share with you and the people in Africa of his saving grace. We can know without a doubt where we will spend eternity! (1 John 5:13) Heaven is a wonderful thing to think about and yet God gives us a chance to have a little bit of heaven here on Earth. We can enter into His presence daily through prayer and by reading His Word, and we can be witnesses of His glory through the sunsets, beautiful mountains…everything declares the glory of God! (Psalm 19:1) We can live an abundant life and have freedom in God and no longer live for the things of this world. This abundant and free life can only come from Jesus! (John 10:10) Every person on this Earth is a sinner and has a desperate need for a Savior. Because we all have an appointment with death, we must truly search our hearts. The Bible says in Romans 3:10-12 “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:23 “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Have you received this precious gift in Jesus? Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 10:8-10 “...the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Romans 5:20 “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
These verses are good news (Gospel)! But, they are only good news to those who repent of their sins and trust only in Christ to save them from their sins. For those who do not repent and believe, they will experience the torment of hell for all of eternity. Hell is a very real place. (2 Peter 2:4-10, Revelation 21:8) The fact is that we all deserve hell. Praise the Lord that He loves us so much that He would be gracious and merciful to us by providing His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins! May we live every day of our life seeing what the Lord has saved us from…our eternal separation from Him.
Our prayer is that any of our friends and family that have not seen their need for a Savior, they will do so now! Our time is short here on Earth and we never know when God will choose to take us, which is why there are warnings given throughout the Bible. “Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). These words in Hebrews chapters 3 & 4 are repeated 3 times: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”
We will never be able to do enough, say enough, be “a good enough person”, or live forever in happiness in heaven without the saving grace of Jesus to wash us “white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18) Our sins separate us from God (Isaiah 59:2), but when we receive the gift of His grace in our lives, we can live not only eternally with God, but every minute of everyday! This sweet fellowship (1 John 1:3) is something worth living for! In Jesus you always have a Redeemer, Provider, Friend, Father, Calmer of Storms, Great Physician, Healer, Sustainer, Peace Giver, the list could go on and on and on! Everyday you search for these things in the world and the world will never provide them… “Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6) May Jesus be in all of our hearts and the only reason to live for now and for eternity!!!!
Recently, we had our first goat eating experience and to our surprise, it was really good! It didn’t “taste like chicken,” but it was a mix between beef and pork. Anyway, one of our night guards (Filipe) invited us to a party celebrating the dedication of their baby to the Lord. It was really cool because Filipe’s wife wasn’t able to bear a child, yet they fervently prayed that God would give them a child. God answered their prayer and gave them a beautiful baby girl, and they named her Precious Grace. After the baby dedication they had a party and this is where we ate the goat. We had a great time at the party and we were so 
humbled by their hospitality. His family spent over a month’s wages to provide food for us and the 20 or so people that attended. Even afterwards they asked us if we wanted to take home the leftovers. Filipe and his family truly have giving hearts! This is a apicture of the goat before we ate it. Filipe brought it to our house on the back of his bike. It made us laugh so hard! We still shake our heads in unbelief that people put live animals on the back of their bikes, on the handle bars…really any free space will be taken by something alive!
We also had a date night recently which was a lot of fun. We went to a nice restaurant and had a great time (This picture is of us outside of the restaurant). However, we have found out that there really isn’t much to do here in Nampula. You can’t really do dinner/movie here or dinner/bowling or anything like that. We can do dinner and then a movie on the laptop! We’ll take it though. We also have been playing a lot of games. We have found that we are both bad losers! We have really enjoyed all of the time that we get to spend together, and we feel so blessed to be together every day!
