Currently, our monthly support target is at 97%, so we believe that God will be sending us back to Mozambique in early July as originally planned.  Our residence visas expire on July 16th, and we must all be back in Nampula by then.  Praise God!!! We need about $150 more per month to put us at the 100% that AIM will release us at.  Meanwhile, we are looking at tickets and hope to book soon.

Cami had her back surgery April 26th and the neurosurgeon found the situation more serious than we originally thought, and was amazed that she was still so active (like being able to jog 4 miles) despite her back pain.  Now she has been in flat-out recovery quite a bit, doing therapy and trying to heal from this surgery, which takes a while to heal from.  We appreciate your prayer as she tries not to do too much, even while there is so much to be done!  This week, she flies to Oklahoma to see a sick relative while Kevin and the kids go to his parents for 2 days of visiting.  On Sunday, we’ll have our last sunday at our “home” church here, then start a road trip which includes visiting MD, DC, NC, SC, OH and a trip thrown in there to Canada for Cami to see her sisters (who are flying in from Hawaii and LA, and have paid for her ticket for their first sister get-together in 5 years).  Then, we’ll drive back from Ohio and have about a week in CT before hopefully flying off to Moz!

Meanwhile, we are packing up all of our belonging here in Fairfield and there are massive piles all over the house which must somehow be packed and organized by tomorrow night.  Cami’s mom is here to help and is keeping the boys very happy while cleaning like mad.  She is a Godsend, as is the airline friend who has provided the free tickets for this trip and the Oklahoma trip.  God has provided us with the digital projector we needed, the cameras, and various other items, and even a container being shipped out to Moz so we can ship all the books we want to take back.  We hope to include a mattress (can’t get a good one in Moz) and a treadmill for Cami’s health and healing.  We appreciate your prayers as we try to organize this (the container is in Missouri) and try to book our tickets back to Moz at a price that isn’t appalling.

Meanwhile, Toby is so excited to return to Moz.  I think the goodbyes will be terribly sad for him, though.  It is rough being a missionary kid sometimes, and we try to talk through all of it with him.  His last soccer game (with the local league) will be next Saturday, then we’ll be on the road seeing people he doesn’t really know until we have 2 1/2 weeks at the farm in Ohio where his neighbor friend Joe will keep him very happy indeed.  And Ben just graduated from preschool (in the cutest ceremony ever!!) and pretty much goes with the flow.  He just learned to ride his bike with no training wheels!

Kevin is hanging in there with his invalid wife and trying to keep her from doing too much, which is not an easy feat.  Some days we feel like we are going to lose it and the smoke is going to start coming out of our ears, but we are also trying to enjoy all the WONDERFULNESS of the green Connecticut summer and the great things about America.   We appreciate your prayers as we say many very sad goodbyes and try to arrange all the details of our departure. – C

There is an organization called Firstfruits which analyzes global trends in religion and submits a report each year.  I found it very interesting and wanted to share what they think will be happening over the next years:

1.  Growth in Christianity and Islam.  Christianity, through indigenous missions movements in the Global South.  Islam, through high birth rates and expansion in new regions.

2.  Prominence of the Global South Church.  The rapidly-growing Global South Church will increasingly critique the way Westerners do Christianity and develop their own theology.

3.  Destabilizing Youth Cohorts.  As youth who are faced with lack of education and employment opportunities become more aware of the world outside, they will seek out alternative ways to live their lives.

4.  Increase in Women and Children-at-risk.  Because of poverty, war, migrations and environmental strains, these populations continue to be vulnerable to trafficking, HIV and other diseases, and economic disruptions.

5.  Renewed Vision for Societal Relevance by Evangelicals and Pentecostals.  These Christians are becoming more aware that they need to be involved in their communities, not to simply separate themselves from the world.  Issues of social justice, government partnerships, and societal relevance are becoming more important.

6.  Rise of Radicalism and Grassroots Religious Persecution.  Persecution in predominantly Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim areas will be more locally sanctioned and at times tolerated by the government.  Radical Islam will intensify, though as parts of the Muslim world liberalize and securlarize, their message may lose support.

7.  Changing Philanthropy.  Giving is increasingly bypassing conventional aid infrastructure and is moving toward direct involvement with indigenous institutions.  Western philanthrophy will become increasingly results-oriented, focusing on evidence-based methods and outcomes.

8.  Technology moves power to the “Edges”.  Technology will inform the masses and give more power to people movements that can threaten centralized authority.

9.  Cultural Hybridization, Trend toward Religious Nominalism.    Growing materialism and religious nominalism as modernization leads peple to lose a living sense of the supernatural.

 

10.  Non-readers on the Rise.  The internet generation will approach learning in different ways and challenge conventional ways of education.  Meanwhile, populations of illiterate peoples will increase due to high birth rates and better medical care.

All of these were taken from the First Fruit publication “Global Trends Analysis” and none of the material is my own.  Their website is firstfruit.org.

– C

Well, actually that is bad news.  What I mean by the title is that Mozambique is in the top 10 poorest countries in the world.  We knew that it had been in years previous, but assumed that it was out of this particular unhappy list by now.  It was number one for a few years there.  Unfortunately, we are still in that list.  Poverty in Mozambique is something we are faced with every day, and something we dread returning to.  We feel so overwhelmed sometimes with it, and wonder how we can help without creating a dependence which is actually damaging.  If you’ve never read the book “When Helping Hurts”, please google it and get yourself a copy. It talks about the different kinds of poverty and how some of those can be addressed.

Did you know that those of us in the first world (USA and Europe) are the richest, healthiest people who have ever lived in the history of the whole world?  Our standard of living is the highest ever.  I guess that fact shouldn’t have come as such a shock to me when I read it in the above-mentioned book, but it was shocking.  To me, the life that I see around me in America is just normal.  I never understood that it was so different than anything that was going on in the rest of the world, the world that is now called “the majority world” instead of “the third world”.

Well, I won’t go on and on about poverty.  But do give some thought to what you can do in your life to reduce your pull on the world’s resources:  reduce what you buy, re-use items (including buying used), recycling and sorting your trash.  Eating less beef, buying a more fuel-efficient car, living in a smaller house, using less air-conditioning.  If every American strove to reduce their pull on the world’s resources and supported fair trade, I think we would see some differences in some ways.  There are bigger things that need to be done to change the rich/poor balance in the world, but I would like to see America have less of a drain on the world (we consume 40% of the world’s resources, last I heard). – C

Kevin has done a lot of preaching this year, and finally we can share a sermon with you online.  Here is the link to the sermon he preached at Black Rock Church (our current home church) a few weeks ago:

http://www.brcc.org/sanctuary/podcast.html

Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see Kevin’s name.  It’s worth a listen – I’m his toughest critic and I enjoyed it a lot.  🙂 – C

 

During this year, we’ve always planned to return to Mozambique in early July.  And that is still the plan.  However, we can’t return until our monthly support pledges total 100% of what we need.  At this point, we are around $600 short of pledges per month.  SO, what do we do?  We wait.

We’ve been here before, in years past, and haven’t handled it so well.  We’ve written letters to every church in the local phone book, sent pleading newsletters, felt stressed and upset.  Those things don’t help.  God provides when HE is ready for us to go.

In each of those situations where we were delayed for lack of funds, there was a reason for it, and we saw that reason clearly as time went by.  So, we’ll wait to see what God’s plan is for us this time.  Will he bring in the support we need and send us out in mid-July (to return in time before our visas expire), or does He have some reasons to keep us here in the USA a little longer?  We just don’t know.

Of course, by the beginning of June we need to know whether we are buying tickets or not, so a decision will have to be made by then.  We’ll keep you posted and meanwhile we continue to make preparations.  There will be a lot of visiting going on in June, in various locales, and we’ll get to see some of you in person!  We appreciate your prayers for us, for peace while we wait, and trust in God’s perfect plan. – C

Well, many of you have read repeatedly in our newsletters that “Cami is having back pain” and asking for prayer.  This has been going on for 3 1/2 years and I’ve tried so many things to alleviate it.  The pain has ranged from soreness to being almost unable to move, but it has been pretty constant the whole time.  Being in northern Mozambique, no real help was to be found and when I finally flew out to South Africa in February of 2010 to see a doctor I was told I just needed to strengthen my core muscles.  I worked assiduously at this, and on our return to the USA in July, began physiotherapy and a strenuous program of exercise to strengthen.  Nothing really helped, and after seeing a chiropractor in March and April, was finally sent for an MRI in mid-April.  The neurosurgeon I saw told me that I had a very badly herniated disc, and surgery was done the next week.  He found that it was an “old” injury and that this has been the problem the entire 3 1/2 years with surgery the only option to fix it.

So, to make a long story long, I had a laminectomy 2 weeks ago and there is every expectation that things will heal up fine.  They had to remove a lot of disc, and I have been warned that it will take some months, even up to a year, for the scar tissue to completely cover the hole and prevent more disc material from protruding.  Driving on rough roads is forbidden for 3 months at least.  I would appreciate your prayers as we travel during much of June, and then plan to return to Moz in mid-July.  Once we fly into Nampula, I’ll have to stay put for awhile, and then be careful.  A physiotherapist is helping me to address some disc issues so that we can prevent a reoccurance.  I am SO thankful for the hope of returning to Moz pain-free!  God provided a wonderful surgeon and physical therapist.  Now, we pray for wisdom for me as it is hard for me to “not do” when there are things to do.  I appreciate your prayers. – C

Well, since I haven’t posted anything since Ben’s birthday in the beginning of March, we’ve had quite a lot going on.  Those of you who receive our newsletter know most of it, but as I look back over the past few months it is hard even for me to remember it all.  We’ve been ensconced here at the Black Rock missions house since mid-February, and what a blessing it has been.  We brought all the big boxes we had in storage, and I’ve been sorting through them.  Literally 6 feet of paper pile has been pitched out, and another two feet set aside to scan in digitally and then pitch.  We’ve decided that we need to downsize and have been assiduously ridding ourselves of unneeded things.  What is the point of leaving things in storage for years at a time?  That being said, we have saved some things.  We ripped pages out of high school yearbooks that we wanted to save, put aside a box of our dating love notes, and have saved a box of special baby clothes that the kids wore.  Wedding dress and suit have also been saved, and our photo albums.  Dear friends have put aside space for these things, as well as some furniture that is important to us.

Homeschooling continues, every morning, and that has seemed to dominate my life and Toby’s.  Spelling, times tables, Portuguese, handwriting.  It gets boring, both of us agree.  He’ll be glad to go back to school in September with the other kids, but works at his tasks responsibly.  Ben’s preschool experience has been beyond wonderful.  His teachers are helping us learn how to deal with his personality, and tell us he is extremely intelligent.

Kevin shuts himself up in his “office” most mornings to study Portuguese, work on TEE materials, and write sermons.

And then there are the visits – there have been weeks where we have folks for dinner, or are invited for dinner, four or five times!  We are trying to get to know as many people as possible here at this wonderful church.  We have Toby’s boys program at Church monday nights, Community group tuesday night, Portuguese tutoring Wednesday night, and visits with people every weekend.

I began in March to see a chiropractor who was an hour away, so spent several weeks driving twice a week to those appointments (more on that in another post), plus a tuesday morning bible study which I enjoyed a lot but have not been able to go as much as I’d like.

So, that’s how we passed most of March and April.  Good times, peaceful times, yet full of wondering as to how God would provide for our support, our needed travels to see people, scheduling, resolving my back pain, and providing the items we want/need to take back with us.  And now, in May, we can say he is providing like crazy!!!  More on that in other posts.

Spring has sprung here now  and there are such lovely flowers everywhere, including in the trees, and the green grass and leaves are especially sweet to us since we know that soon we’ll be back in dusty, dirty Nampula.  Where God calls, He provides what we need.   – Cami