Memorable experiences

This past week was very encouraging to us as God put us into complete awe of Him and His works! We had the chance to visit a Christian orphanage where we witnessed the hand of God. It was such a neat experience! God totally has His hand on this orphanage! The director told us many stories of how God has delivered these orphans from the power of Satan. It was so refreshing and encouraging to hear these incredible acts of God. He has blessed this orphanage with a leader (Victor) who is passionate about Christ. Victor wants to see these children know and love God with all of their hearts. It was also so wonderful to talk with him about the opportunities of being able to help there one day a week. It was such a “God thing” as he asked Corey about teaching the kids how to play the drums (they actually had an American style drum set there). Then (without him even knowing Corey is here to start a sports ministry), he asked if he could play sports with the kids as well. He also loved the idea of Jenni helping to be a nurse there and to care for the kids when they are sick. We are so excited to help out at this orphanage (even though it’s only once a week) and we know that God has blessed us with this opportunity! We look forward to sharing more about this in the future.

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!

Here are some prayer requests for this week: 1) Grace to learn the language. It’s coming along slowly but surely. 2) God’s direction and clarity with the ministries He has placed us in. 3) Wisdom and discernment with our giving. Everyone has “a need” and a request for us to fill that need and we need God’s help to know who to give to and when! 4) We are revising some of the True Love Waits material and we will be meeting with the team next Wednesday to do this. Please pray that God would help us know what to revise so that we can minister more effectively to the school aged children here in Nampula!