One Week – What a Difference

We’ve been dreaming about this orphanage for so long, picturing a playground, kids running everywhere, the house a complete mess, but a joyful, happy mess. Honestly, we can't stop dreaming about how and what God will do to accomplish this project. While it can be overwhelming at times, it is so amazing to watch how God puts all of the pieces together. From the very beginning of all of this, almost 7 years ago, He has been preparing a way. 

I am always blown away when I look at this picture:

 

Orphanage site in 2009!

This is the VERY first photo we ever took of our land, in 2009, when we purchased additional land knowing we wanted to build the orphanage here. A few weeks after we bought it, we had the land cleared and cleaned up, making a perfect soccer field for the local community’s youth.

For 6 years we left this piece of land under the watchful eye of the previous owner, who carefully looked after it for little to no reward. When we came back to get started, the land look like this:

 The community told us the youth in the area like to play soccer on the land, so they have also kept a watchful eye on it, and continued to remove debris and trash through out the years. While I know they are a little sad they won’t be playing soccer on it much longer, I’m so grateful for the years they enjoyed it, because it continues to remind me that this project has already become a community project. Between the youth, the former owners of the land and our close neighbors on the north side of the land, our 8 plots has stayed secure and safe for the future of this great community.

However, apparently someone in the area “sold” 2 plots of our land to another foreigner. Fortunately, God helped us obtain the building and occupancy permits quickly, and we are able to show the land was sold to us first.

These are the things we continue to see from God. The ways He has lovingly knitted every detail to work together in our favor, kept everything in order so that we wouldn’t have to fight for ourselves. When you allow God to fight for you, it always works out better!

We decided that prior to building, we need to get a temporary fence in place to help protect our land from unwanted attention, and especially from individuals hoping to steal cement. The temporary fence began about a week ago and is now complete on 2 sides that we needed enclosed right away. The progress was so much fun to watch, and as the foundation planning begins this week, we can't wait to see the landscape change again. 

 Here's the fence in various stages:

 The fence went up quickly, and gave us an opportunity to hire some of our neighbors. Everyone was excited about having this project in the community, and our neighbors directly in front of us offered us anything we need - water, storage for any supplies we have, and they would be willing to help keep an eye on things, just in case. Many people made excellent suggestions about how to lay out the compound and asked questions about the different stages of the project.

 This only took about a week – 4 days of gathering supplies and 3 days of work. We hired the former owners of our land to facilitate the construction of the temporary fence, and they did an excellent job.

We are now awaiting the arrival of our small truck so we can finish hauling rocks, cement and sand to our land. A borehole is also in the pipeline for next week, but we are still awaiting pricing and how much time it will take.

The finished product of the fence looks beautiful and well put together. The team did an excellent job!

For the next week, will you please pray for us? Please pray our borehole won’t cost an arm & a leg, and the beginning of the foundation won’t encounter too many issues. Please pray for funding to continue to come in, as we are still about $12,000 away from our goal for this building.

We thank God for this new year, and we know 2016 will be another life changing year for this community in Mozambique. If you haven’t already, consider partnering with us. All of your donations are tax deductible, and ALL funds go towards our project, not to our personal needs.

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We're praying for a bless year for you and your families, and we can't wait to show you what God does here in Mozambique!

Many blessings, 

Phil, Laura & Jadon, too