30 to 10

Cement, bad roads, several thousand 20cm blocks, 6mm, 10mm & 12mm iron rods, truck loads of rocks and truck loads of sand later, we are running towards the finish line of completing the first children's home!

The frustrations, challenges, and emotional days have been many, with easy days mixed in between. We wouldn't have it any other way. The amount of encouragement and support and love from people near & far has rekindled a place in my faith that I had no idea needed to be rekindled. 

These 2 are always laughing & smiling!

 This project is meant to change the lives of the children & families we will be ministering to, but I think it will end up changing us more than we ever imagined. I have been challenged on a daily basis to trust God, lean on His understanding and not my own. I have been knocked off my feet a few times by some of the most unbelievable miracles, and this is only 8 months in! I can't even begin to think about what we will see God do in a year, two or ten!

We can't wait to open our doors. We are bursting at the seems everyday, just praying that we can take a deep breath and hang on a few more months while the house is completed. But obviously, we MUST finish the house first before we can get started, so clearly we are going to have to cool our jets and give this patience-thing a try. 

Speaking of finishing - this building is going to cost us about $10,000 more, of which we have yet to raise. So, we're launching our "30 in 10" campaign, starting on May 9th. We are going to raise $10,000 in just 30 days. That is only $333.33 a day. TOTALLY doable! Especially with your help. Dig up a little extra cash and jump in with us. I promise you will not regret partnering with us.

They love to play with the camera & see the photos

There were so many times in my life that I mindlessly spent at least $50-$100 on eBay or Amazon, in just a few clicks! Instead of mindlessly browsing, send us your extra cash. This is a meaningful, life giving, world changing thing that we are getting to do. We can't do it alone. Help "30 in 10" get this building finished so we can be fully operational. 

We'll be posting some fun videos, interviews and personal stories about the people who have made this project possible, and the people who God has used to move mountains here in this community. We'll be sharing photos & videos about some of the families & children we are working with, and you'll hear first hand from the little ones themselves! Watch for daily emails and links starting on the day we kick off - May 9th! 

Let's get this thing done once and for all - it will only take 30 days to secure a future for children who have been severely mistreated or abandoned. YOU can change the future for that small, precious child. Together, we can do far more than we ever imagined! Like Nike says - JUST DO IT!

Here we go - 30 to 10!

Peace,

Phil and Laura, & Jadon, too

What Vacation?!

I had BIG plans for this week off from school. Like sleeping past 5am, reading a new book, and possibly taking a few hours to relax at the beach. Well, my week of vacation is over, and I can honestly say I only did one of those things! I did get to sleep past 5am every day, which was a blessing in itself. But between lesson planning for my next term at school, hauling cement, running to the EDM - electric office every day, and coordinating with the companies that deliver trucks of sand & rocks to our job site, I feel like I need a mini-vacation from this "vacation."

It was a great week with a lot of great obstacles but God saw us through each one. We've had 20 ton trucks stuck in the creek leading up to our land, which delayed sand & rocks for a few days. The truck also did a fabulous job of destroying our already delicate road. Ugh. We worked a little bit on the road today and it looks better. The trucks have been able to pass again and it doesn't seem to be giving us too much trouble. Praise the Lord!

Our road, if you can call it that...

We now have a concrete slab to work with and our bricklayer will be starting on the walls on Monday! Only a few weeks and we'll see something that looks like a house. Everyday it looks more and more real, more and more like the drawings we've been staring at for so long. Watching it come to life is beautiful. 

Celebratory sugar cane eating!

We've also been waiting for the final electrical install to take place. We've waited & waited & waited some more, in typical Moz style! Everything takes an act of God to get people to move to action. It is not easy but today we saw the fruit of our semi-patience. There is now LIGHT inside our storage area and guard's house. It was a beautiful sight to see those light bulbs come on! We clapped and shouted with joy, and then we prayed with all our little groupies to thank God for being so faithful, even when we weren't so patient. We should have a pump next week for water!

And then, there was light!

These are the groupies. I call them groupies because they follow Phil around (they call him Uncle Phil - Tio File) and won't leave his side whenever he is working at the construction site. He loves them each and we've finally learned everyone's name! That is a big deal for us. We don't learn names easily. I constantly forget so seeing them everyday has made a big difference, too. 

The groupies with Tio File

They are great kids with big personalities. They are smart and sweet and sassy and loud and fun. I love spending time with them. The groupies make the hard days easier, and the easy days feel like the best days of our ministry. They make all the stress worth it. I pray they will be our game changers in this country - that they will each have a sense of confidence like no generation before. Like a new generation that has not been oppressed and taken advantage of. I pray for these sweet faces daily & I know our mighty God hears. 

As we close out our 8th month here, yes - it has been almost 8 months - we are amazed at what God has done for us. Speechless, really. There are no words. We can't wait to see how He finishes this building. 

Foundation - solid & strong! Finished!

Speaking of finishing - we are lacking about $10,000 for the 2nd floor of the building. We have raised enough to complete the first floor, but we'll have to stop when we get to the second floor & roof. We need YOU. Yes, YOU!! It would only take 100 people to give $100 and boom - we'd be done! Or, 10 people to donate $1,000! Help us meet this goal so we don't have to stop. 

We serve a faithful God. If you don't know God, message me. Let's talk. He has been so faithful to me that I can't wait to tell you about Him. His love will transform your life. 

Blessings,

Phil, Laura and Jadon, too

The End of a Messy, Beautiful Month

The month of March was a month full of steep, steep inclines that felt never ending. Some days I felt like we were sliding back more than we were gaining by trying to go forward. I have never seen these kinds of lows and lowers in a month. H.O.N.E.S.T.L.Y.

By the 3^rd week of the month, I was ready to get to April. I was ready to move on. I was ready to let go of March and start over with a new, shiny, better month that wasn’t going to try and kill us. But yesterday, the 31^st of March, changed how I see this entire year.

The 31^st of March is typically the day we enjoy a delicious meal and some kind of amazing chocolate dessert, as it’s my dad’s birthday. Along with getting to celebrate with him from the other side of the world, we celebrated major miracles that we now see God has been working on, just for us.

There were so many things that came together yesterday that I am still having a difficult time trying to wrap my head around everything. First off, we’ve been trying to send some money to China to purchase some much-needed construction supplies that we are unable to get here.  The process to send money out of the country has been a nightmare and we’ve been trying since Monday to do so. Finally, Thursday came, and we were able to send the money, no problem.

Despite the challenges, the building continues!

Then, the only vehicle we have, our van, suddenly healed itself! The van is used as not only our work truck (since our truck was stolen in January – more on that later) but as our only means of transportation. We noticed a few weeks ago the van was idling when in park, and we started to worry a little bit. We consulted with a mechanic friend, we did the suggested repair, and it still didn’t stop. We changed filters, and did a few other small things, but nothing. Suddenly, it stopped this weird idling yesterday, on the 31^st. I was so thrilled! We sent money that needed to go, and then the car fixed itself. But the day kept getting better and better.

We’ve been feeling overwhelmed by how much we have on our plate, and we’ve been trying to figure out a way to cut out the unnecessary. As of yesterday, a long, stressful drive each morning (on a terrible road) has been cut down to a short and sweet drive, just taking minutes for me to get to school each day. Then, a student I’ve been tutoring decided to stop lessons after yesterday, so I definitely took this as a sign that God is lightening our load for us – we didn’t even have to make any hard decisions!

Another miracle is that we’ve been waiting on a check from a previous employer, and we were starting to think it wasn’t ever coming. But miraculously, on the 31^st of March, we received news that the check arrived and was deposited for us. Seriously, after all the wonderful news and the miracles, I was starting to think that the last day of March is the best day EVER. And then God just blew us out of the water with more…

We purchased a small truck back in November, and when it arrived in Nampula, we decided it wasn’t something we really needed, so we decided to sell it. To make a long story short, it was stolen during the process of selling it. Ouch. It was heart breaking. This happened the middle of January, so by now, we had just accepted the truck was gone, and we gave it over to God.

We had kept in touch with the detective helping us with the case, and they had given us hopeful news last week that they knew where the guy was that stole the truck. So, yesterday, March 31^st, we received a phone call that the thief had been caught. We went today to the police station to confirm it was him, and sure enough, it was the guy.

I promise there is an electric post back there!

 And lastly, God topped March off with one more huge miracle. Many of you know we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for electricity to be installed for the orphanage. We have gone to the electric company and asked for help, begged for assistance, gone from the top to the bottom and back up again, and then had to ask for more help!

God amazingly helped us to raise the necessary $1,000 needed to do the installation in less than one week. Seriously?! How amazing is that!!! God is so good. And after we had been waiting to hear from the engineer for over a WEEK on when it would be installed, the workers suddenly showed up, YES – MARCH 31^st – and made it happen. We now have power!

After all of the amazing things that came together yesterday, I was thinking back on all the crazy, frustrating battles from the other 30 days. And the truth is this: God never left us. When everything felt like it was falling apart, and we were asking God to gives us strength to keep going & not give up, He was sustaining us. BUT – He was also working on our behalf, breathing life into the dark places, and setting fire to the things that He wanted to use to show us that He is God.

You blew us away, God, with your goodness and careful attention to each detail yesterday! The fact that God’s very character, LOVE, can be seen in each miracle, the big and the small, in the mundane and the miraculous, makes me appreciate the mess that was the month of March. We walked through some hard stuff, but God never took a break. If anything, our faith and trust has been refreshed, renewed, and built up, because God never fails.