Pastoring

This past Sunday was awesome for me. It was a great service. The "I have a friend" series has been very impacting on the people here. People go through many things in life that are the same no matter where you live in the world. After service a man came to talk to me. He took me aside and began to express what was in his heart and what he was going through. This man is 61 years old and he said to me, "Pastor Isaac, what should I do?" This is very rare in this culture. An older man, asking the advice of a younger person. Even the fact that he's coming to me telling me about his personal life... it was an awesome moment for me. It was humbling. I hear myself preach every week and the only reason I don't leave the room is because I'm attached to myself (if that makes any sense). I was humbled and encouraged at what God is doing in these people's lives. The man went on to tell me how he was praying for me, that God would give me strength to keep helping people. Again, it's not very often we get thanked in such a sincere way. I don't know if the rest of the church went home with anything I said that morning, but I was encouraged that at least one left changed. I have to admit, it is not easy to be here. The battle is hard, but it's moments like these that God sends our way to strengthen and encourage us.

Xai Xai Construction

We as Children's Cup have been working with about 200 kids in Xai Xai for a little over a year now. The work there is going great. We are working on the second phase of the carepoint which is to build the facilities. We are excited about this because we have been trying to build for quite some time but found that Xai Xai is a little different than where we are now. Doubly exciting is that this facility will also be a church. Reaching the people through physical help and healing them spiritually through the church. As Children's Cup we reach out to kids, but the parents need to see and feel God's love also. Having a church and carepoint at the same location is the perfect partnership; a lot of work, but a great way to reach kids and adults spiritually and physically.

The 3 Challenge

Pastor Ben Rodgers from HPC Swaziland brought a group of young people across the border to spend some time with us. We enjoyed having them over here and they taught us so much and I believe they impacted the young people here to keep going and not give up. Despite the language barrier, they connected by showing love and serving in every way possible.

Pastor Ben brought an awesome message Sunday morning and challenged all of us to serve, put others first, and not to say one thing and do another. He challenged us to reach out to 3 people this week. Do something for some one outside your family. Serve in whatever way possible. Here are some stories I'm being told.

Miro (15): I went to an old lady's house and ask her if I could clean her yard. Then I told her that I was from the church and she explained to me that her leg was hurting. So I prayed for her and invited her to church. She offered me money for the work I did but I refused because I just wanted to help.

Rosalina (55): Helped elderly ladies clean their yards and took care of other things around the house. Funny story because she sent word to Carol that she would not be able to go to the women's group because she was helping people. :)

Leonardo (14): Helped an old man clean his yard. Invited him to church but the old man cannot walk too far so I told him we could pick him up with the new van the church has. He was excited about that.

So many stories coming in of people simply serving. People serving people with what they have. Poverty does not exclude people from following Christ's example.

House

We've been waiting for this a long time and I'm so excited about building our new home.  We still have a ways to go to be living in it but it's still exciting to see how much we've done.  The building materials we use here are a little different than what's usually used in the U.S.  for housing. This week, we should be finished with the walls. The roofing is next.  After putting in electrical conduits and water pipes we plaster the walls and get them ready for paint.  We look forward to living closer to the church and in a place with a yard and some piece and quiet.  I'll be loving the fact that I will not have to drive so much every week.  

VBS Super Saturday

Great team of 12 people came from Healing Place to do a Super Saturday here.  It's always fun to have teams visit and get to know people.  I'm always encouraged by the stories they tell of their experiences here and how God is speaking to their hearts in so many ways.  We had over 600 kids come to the Super Saturday.  There were kids coming from all over the place.  They had a blast with the worship, craft, fun jumps, and a great Bible story.  I'm always amazed at how God gives us such great opportunities to reach so many.  I'll never forget what a very wise lady once told me, "Throw out the biggest net you can, and let God do the rest."  Never turn away kids; always do more to reach more.  God only give us opportunities to allow Him to work through us.  The team did an awesome job.  Thank you all that gave and prayed.  

HIV Series

Today was the last weekend on the HIV Series we've been going through at Healing Place Church Mozambique Swaziland.  Swaziland will go on through the middle of August.  We really felt it was an issue that could not go without mention.  The whole world speaks about it and advertises it yet the church stays silent while people die daily.  Just about every week we hear of death of a loved one in the church primarily from HIV/AIDS even though the people may not know that as the true cause.  We showed them the truth.  We expressed the danger.  We warned of the actions people take against those that are positive.  We showed what HPC's stand is and how we need to reach out and love those living with such a horrible illness.  But most of all, God's love endures forever. God wants to give them hope, God wants to reach out to them, God wants them as their own.  Jesus forgave all sins.  Jesus wants all to come to Him.  

HUB Team

The Hub team was the first team to come to mozambique this year.  We had such an awesome time together. The people in the group were great.  They just poured out everything they had into whatever needed to be done to get the job done.  I was really looking forward to having them here because they did a major face lift on the facilities.  the church looks great and they did an awesome job mixing concrete and building the sidewalks around the church.  They also did leadership training that has also changed the dynamics of our services. A huge thank you to them.  Great team, great people, great service for the Kingdom.  

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was awesome.  It was so great to see so many families at service and be together to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.  He Lives!!! We have hope, we have life, we have life in abundance because He Lives.  After service we took pictures of all the families.  It's very rare to see families together here.  Even in church families usually don't sit together so it's really hard to know who's actually related.  So it was good to see the families taking pictures together.  After all was over I just felt like God was glorified and His Kingdom expanded.  

Servolution Day 7

We had never done this before and did not know what to expect.  We filled a 500 gallon tank of water and just drove around the community just filling their water tanks with good clean water.  Some people did not want it and others were just confused about what we were doing.  It's not every day you see a bunch of people driving around giving away water.  We had a lot of fun and I think the volunteers were able to see what it means to just give.  

Servolution Day 6

I don't have any pictures of Day 6 but I can sure talk about it.  We gave away small gift bags.  It had in it a pound of sure, tea, kool-aid powder, and a bar of soap.  I used it as an illustration for the Wednesday night service.  All these things are good but none are good without water.  (sugar is good without water but on it's own it not good for much) I went on to say that we are nothing with the Living Water. We had a full house at Wednesday service and used the opportunity to speak the truth and share the Gospel to all.  Each person went home with a small bag of the illustration items.  

Servolution Day 5

This was one of my favorite days.  I'm not a woman but I thought it was really cool.  We have been having women's Bible study for about 8 months now. We have been averaging about 25 women on Tuesdays.  So for servolution we kicked it up a notch and did a chick night flow.  We were expecting more women but not 150.  They played musical chairs, painted fingernails, and heard a great Word.  The food wasn't enough but we were able to divide it up so everyone could have something.  Huge blessing to see so many women and had the chance to reach out to them.

Servolution Day 4

Monday night we rented two busses and bussed about 100 people to an event in the city.  The church is located outside the city so going into the city is a treat.  The Iris Ministries orphanage close to the church puts on a youth event every monday night.  So we decided to once again join up with them and bless those that could come with great worship and a great message. They really enjoyed their time at Sound of Heaven youth event.

Servolution Day 3

got a little excited with the charcoal...

Charcoal is a precious fuel in this community.  It's much better than normal firewood so it's only used by those that can afford it.  So we thought it would be a good idea to give some away.  The place where we bought the charcoal from was really excited because it's not everyday that some one buys 1500 lbs of it.  So before service as the people were arriving at church we started separating it into small bags.  I was so encouraged by all that helped.  They were in their Sunday clothes messing with charcoal.  Then we divided into four groups and went in four directions just giving away charcoal.  One cool story was a house that a group went to.  A young girl was splitting wood with an ax to be able to make a fire to cook lunch.  We arrived just in time and the girl got excited that she didn't have to split anymore wood.  The father came out and hugged the man that brought the charcoal and asked them what church it was that was doing this.  We had a full house and everyone helped distribute the charcoal.  Over 150 volunteers.  At Wednesday night service there were about 20 people that came to church because of the charcoal drive.

Servolution Day 2

We joined up with a great church on saturday to do a youth outreach.  All the youth and visitors from HPC Mozambique went over to the Iris Ministries orphanage church and just had a great time together. We got competitive and played against them in soccer.  We got beat pretty badly.  But I loved the fact that we were able to get together as a body of believers and show everyone that we can have fun as Christians in a world where sin seems to be the only "fun" they know.  We had an awesome service.  Great time of worship.  After everything, we ate together.  Eating is becoming our trend.  Building relationships, building lives, building God's kingdom.