6 little words...

I have been waiting for this day to come since we moved to Mozambique. The 6 words would come at some point – I knew it was a matter of WHEN, not IF. I think Phil & I both knew that moving to a 3^rd world country with a 5-year-old wasn’t exactly going to be easy for either of us who had become accustomed to our life in the U.S., let alone our little man who has never known any other place than the U.S. And, even if it was because he was in trouble, it still cut right to my heart when he said it last weekend: “I just want to go home.” This phrase came out of J’s mouth followed by about 30 minutes of crying and asking me why we can’t “go back.”

I had rehearsed what I would say in my head a few times before this happened. I thought I would say something like: “Why? Doesn’t this place feel like home?” Or, “Don’t you want us to stay so you can go to your awesome school and be with your cousins?”

Despite being well rehearsed, I couldn’t say much. I knew deep inside that he didn’t choose this monumental change: WE chose it. Phil & I know God has brought us here, called us here, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to make living here work so we can meet the needs of the vulnerable children in this area. We talked with Jadon a lot about moving, about leaving our house and our dog and most of our possessions behind. We talked with Jadon about the WHYs of moving, and what we wanted to accomplish by moving to Mozambique. The reality, though, was Jadon had no say in this move; he had not control & no choice in the matter. Period.

Another part of me wanted to tell him how blessed we are to have this opportunity. I wanted to explain to him that the majority of people in this world don’t have their own bedroom, a pile of toys and 2 parents who can provide for him. I wanted to explain to him he is privileged and spoiled. But I knew that wasn’t going to do any good either. After all, I thought to myself, he’s only 5, MOM! So, I did my best to explain as lovingly as I could.

Waiting at the airport in Ethiopia - August 2015

At first, I struggled to convey the message to J why we can’t just “go home.” Thankfully, we had been on an outing earlier in the day and he had experienced (probably for the first time) people begging on the street, and we saw 2 street boys sleeping under a bench. He was really bothered by what he saw, so we talked to a few to show him not to be afraid, and when we got home we talked about how we could help people who don’t have a home. I think he was beginning to understand WHY we are here.

When he said he wanted to go home, I asked him a lot of questions. After talking and crying for a little while he said he wants us to stay and help kids like the 2 boys we saw earlier in the day, and we talked about what Phil & I can do to make him feel like this place is his home. Overall, he seems to need a little space and a little alone time with Mom & Dad, which I think we can arrange without a problem. He also said he can’t wait for us to live in our own house (ME TOO!!). I know it hasn’t been easy to go from being an only child to having 4 siblings all of a sudden, but it has only been a few months verses his 5 years alone.

Jadon has also been memorizing Psalm 23, so after we talked and I explained to him why we can’t leave, he said his memory verses. I explained to him that God will lead us through anything in life, and He will be everything to us when we feel sad or worried or scared, or even when we feel like we want to go back to our “home.” I have no idea if any of our conversation sunk in, but I really hope it did. If nothing else, it was a good way for us to spend a quiet minute together.

I know “I just want to go home,” may rear its head again, and next time it may not be Jadon. But God is bigger than “I want to go home,” bigger than fear, bigger than any amount of money, bigger than any obstacle. We knew this wouldn’t be easy. We knew there would be an adjustment period for us, for Jadon, for our family here. We knew moving across the world, away from family and friends, would have its struggles, joys and frustrations. But the best part about God is He can be EVERYTHING to us in each of those seasons. In times when we feel lonely, we know God will comfort us. When there is a season of frustration or sadness, God will be there. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. We never have to fear. We find great comfort in knowing that we will never be alone.

Encouragement in the Frustration

I have no idea what’s wrong with me, but I feel totally defeated today. I don’t know if it’s because of what happened at immigration yesterday, but I’m going to be totally honest – I wanted to run. I wanted to get on a plane, fly to another country, and start over somewhere else in Africa. Surely there is another country nearby that could use an orphanage, right?! I couldn’t believe how we were treated at the immigration office. I felt like I was a criminal, and we were basically treated as such. I think yesterday was a slap in the face by the reality of how life can be here.

Here’s the problem – when you apply for a Residential Visa at the Embassy of Mozambique in Washington, D.C., they give you a Visa that says you can stay in the country for 90 days. But we know that processing documents here is difficult and can take time, so we got on the paperwork right away. We consulted an immigration officer we knew from years ago, and she stated what we thought was true – we have 90 days to get our residency processed and we’ll be fine. However, the information was wrong. We only had 30 DAYS to process our residency or renew the Visa.

I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how many times we have been to the immigration office in the last 7 weeks. A minimum of once per week, asking for explanation of which documents we need, where to get the documents, and showing our passports AND our VISA to every person we talked to. Unfortunately, everyone who saw our Visa neglected to explain that yes, we have 90 days to be in the country, but every 30 DAYS we must get a stamp from the immigration office and pay a small fee. REALLY?! Sharing information is clearly not a strong point for some people. We asked a lot of questions and I’m still kicking myself for not asking more and more and more questions until we got what we needed. The experience was extremely defeating, and EXPENSIVE.

We were able to solve the problem, but it cost us. A LOT. Not a little. We are basically paying DOUBLE for our residency. Nearly $3,000. My stomach feels sick writing that number and as tears stream down my face as I type, I want to stay angry and frustrated and wonder how anyone could be treated this way. I want justice and I want the woman who attended to us first to take responsibility for not even understanding the basics of her job. I ALSO want someone to understand that by taking our money they are literally taking food out of someone’s mouth, money away from a project that is for a community of people in need, children who have nothing, who may be starving this VERY instant. BUT……………………………………………... that’s not me. That’s not the woman God created me to be. I am not someone to hold a grudge and seek revenge. It’s not worth it and it’s not Biblical if we’re being honest. I know that someday I will have to answer for how I treated others, and I want to be a woman who loves well, not a women who hates many.

Despite the frustration, we feel encouraged by good news as well. We are moving forward with God’s help! Our project folder has been submitted to the local government for legalization and building permits. Our land was measured last week and we are awaiting the calculation of fees, as well as the signatures for approval. Things have really worked out well over the last 7 weeks. With the exception of yesterday, a lot has been accomplished. I can’t even explain how hard it can be to obtain all the required documents. Everyday we run all over town without a car, have one office sign a letter, another office request that we write a letter and come back, and then the other signature we need from another office can’t be done because the director is out of town for 2 weeks. So having our project file submitted is a miracle in itself, especially after such a short amount of time.

Measuring our land!

My spirits are lifting as I write and understand that things are not always going to be easy. Not everyone sees our vision and our dream as a good thing. Not everyone truly believes that we don’t want anything from anyone and all we want to do is help. Many people in Mozambique are skeptical of why we would leave a comfortable life in the States to come here and only “help” & not gain anything in return. But God sees our hearts and the desire that we have to help make a difference. We don’t know everything, we don’t pretend to, and we value the input of the local people who are working hard to make a difference in their country, too. We’re praying that together we can help make a lasting impact.

Establishing the northern boundary of our land

A few people have been asking what we need, how they can help from afar, and what we could use prayers for. In all honesty, we are doing fine, but we would appreciate prayers for continued favor. We are praying that we can begin building before the end of the year, so please pray that the paperwork and funds come through. You can always give donations online at our website: heartfortheneedy.org, or you can mail a check donation to: 35 E Animas Village Lane, Durango, CO, 81301.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support, and thank you for letting us be open and honest about how this process can be difficult. But with GOD, EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

5am?!

Waking up daily at 5am has serious benefits! For example, I get up, have some coffee, eat breakfast, and read a book or read my Bible or pray. By the time I'm finished with my morning routine, it's not even 6:30. But there are some disadvantages to our new routine. Like last night - I'm a night owl by nature but I couldn't keep my eyes open past 8pm. I was literally in bed and asleep before 8:30. I guess you could say we are adjusting well. We go to bed early and get up early. It's very different from life in the States, but we are putting the pieces of our new life together.

Jadon on his first day of school 

We have started all of the routine matters for our little family, including school for Jadon. Thankfully God knew our plans to move here and get started on this project, and we arrived just in time for the new school year to commence on Wednesday, Sept. 9th. Jadon will be attending Rapale Christian School, run by a fabulous team of Zimbabwean teachers. He has also been approved to enter 1st grade rather than kindergarten! It was not cheap to get him enrolled but God is providing and I'm thankful for my husband who harped on saving, saving, saving before we left the States. And, if we were paying for private school in the States we would probably be paying per month what we paid for a whole term. Due to us not having a vehicle yet, we have been able to pay for the "school bus" to take Jadon to and from school each day.

My nieces (Grace & Mary) & nephews
(Emmanuel & Gabriel) 

We are now searching for a car as well. We can get around fairly easily with local transports called Chappas, which are basically large vans with 80 people packed inside. Sometimes the sliding door hangs open because there are too many people to close the door! I'm going to go off on a quick tangent here - if you're like me and you have had your cute little Lexus with leather seats in the past (before totaling it, ehemm), the good Lord will humble you when riding Chappas and trying to get around here. It's fairly easy to get around but everything comes at a price. For example, I've held other people's kids, sat next to chickens and even had a goat strapped to the roof of one. And the roads are so bad, it feels like going four wheeling for the first 10 minutes of the 15 minute ride to town. All this to say that EVENTUALLY we will need a 4 wheel drive vehicle with some clearance from the ungodly pot holes that may or may not swallow a small truck.

Riding in the back of a chappa with about
 15 other people

We are still living with family and we are trying to make a plan for our next move. We have a friend we were going to be living with but she was very sick. She will be home soon so we will need to decide if we should move in with her or stay with our family. At least with family, we feel comfortable and know what we can do to be helpful in the house. We will likely stay with family until we are able to move into our own place, on our land. We will continue to pray about it and would appreciate your prayers, too!

We have already submitted our building plans to be made into accurate and official plans for construction, and we should see the first draft either today or tomorrow. Once we have the final draft, we will submit copies of our passports, a letter from the secretary where we purchased our land, and the building plans, and the rest will be God's hands. The government officials will be the ones to determine the cost of the leglaization, and the length of time before the governor signs off with his apprival. Some individuals have waited months for this process to be completed and others have waited years. Some have paid heavy, heavy fees and others have paid next to nothing. We are praying that God will see our efforts and He will multiply them by moving things along in His timing. We know we were prepared for this exact moment by the Lord, and we are trusting Him to bring us into the next phase. Please pray alongside us for God's hands to do what is needed.

Other than the basic adjustments, we are all doing extremely well. Jadon enjoys his cousins, loves all of his new aunties & uncles, and none of us have been sick yet. Thank you for taking the time to read this - we are humbled daily by your support and love. Please done forget us in your prayers!

With love from Moz ~ The Olaniyi's

Back in Moz...

Touching down on the tarmac with the orange sun hanging in the afternoon sky, I opened my eyes and felt excitement mixed with extreme fatigue. Jadon didn't sleep more than 1-2 hours on our longest flight, about 14 hours, and he slept only about an hour on our last flight of about 6 hours. We practically crawled off the plane, and I begged the hostess to help me get my carry on bags off the plane while I carried Jadon. Walking down the steps onto the tarmac, I felt like I was home.

We walked inside the airport and filled out customs forms. The first thing out of the gate keeper's mouth was "Tem Yellow Card?" Basically, he was asking to see our vaccination for Yellow Fever. We have never been to a country where yellow fever was a problem, so we never received the vaccinations. We somehow communicated in broken Portuguese and English, and he was trying gives us trouble because we landed for about an hour in Ethiopia. He finally let Jadon & I through, into the capital city, Maputo. We collected our bags and headed for the security scanning where we could finally get out. Philemon had flown to Maputo a day earlier than us, with a member from our board of directors so he was waiting for us at the gate. I have never been so glad to have a husband.

One of the ways I knew for sure that I was in Mozambique again was when we were trying to leave the airport. Phil had tipped the "officers" so he could enter the area where they were scanning our bags and getting us through customs. As soon as he showed his face, the problems started. Everyone knew immediately Phil is from Nigeria and they believe that he has come to Mozambique to take what he wants from their land. Phil explained why we are in Mozambique and no one wanted to hear it. Because we didn't pull out our money right away, they went through every single bag we brought, asking questions and asking why we brought so many clothes. People here are so skeptical of foreigners here and I can't say that I blame them. Foreigners have taken advantage of the Mozambicans for many, many years, and I believe it breeds this attitude of skepticism. And, unfortunately, everyone wants something from us when they see we are from the States. Bribery is nearly impossible to avoid here. I pray every day that when we give a bribe it's for something good.

We stayed one night in Maputo, with amazing friends we have known for many years. Our friends, the Manvicks, are truly family. Jadon calls their 3 children (David, Victoria, and Divine) his cousins. We enjoyed spending some time with them and they really helped us IMMENSELY. They have always been there for us when we can't get flights to Nampula or we have too many bags or we just need to rest. We had so many pounds of luggage this time that we would have been forced to pay nearly $400 just to get all of our bags to Nampula. But Mr. Manvick knows how to ship items by bus, so we shipped almost all of our bags for about $80.

After staying 2 days in Maputo, we flew to Nampula, and we were welcomed with open arms. We were supposed to move in with our friend, Mama Chade, but she was having an emergency surgery in the northern part of the country. We decided to stay with our family, Phil's cousins, until she comes home. Jadon has immediately inherited 4 siblings, 2 boys (Immanuel - age 11; Gabriel - 5) and 2 girls (Grace - 10; Mary - 8). We are settling in well, and we are so thankful for family!

On Monday, 8/31, we received all of our luggage 2 days after arriving in Nampula, and God really watched over our bags. We weren't missing even a single sock or pair of shoes. We started putting everything in it's place, shuffling things around in our room, and trying to make everything work.

We have also started meeting with the officials who have to write up the documents for the land we purchased, and the secretary over the community where our land is located, has been very fair and helpful to us. He has agreed that the community needs this project and we need to get started as soon as possible. We also gave our building plans to another official today, who has to make the plans into official documents, and then we can submit the paperwork for approval. Once the paperwork is submitted, we will wait. This is when I believe God will do His thing. He will get everything done in His time, and it feels that now may be that time.

Please continue to pray for us we move forward, and please don't forget that you can always give monthly! You can set up auto giving or one time gifts through Paypal on our website: heartfortheneedy.org. Thank you all for the support and love. We are so grateful!

6 more days……...

We've unpacked and repacked very large, heavy suit cases many times. Infact, it seems like we've packed and unpacked at least 8,000,000 times. Okay, maybe I'm over exaggerating a little. I am a bit dramatic at times. Not like full on drama queen or bridezilla, but dramatic. Mildly dramatic. Anyway, I FEEL like I've packed and unpacked and repacked many more times than I actually have.

If you know me well, I like packing. It is the "UN" part of anything that I don't like. For example, un-pack, or un-answered or un-announced. I don't even like the word underwear because it starts with UN, which usually means there is more work or discomfort. Either way, I simply enjoy the packing phase. However, after getting rid of so many THINGS I thought we would be better off when it came down to the actual jump-across-the-giant-pond-packing-marathon. But, alas, it really didn't change the 6 suit case, 70 pounds per bag, limit.

When I think about packing my short 28 years into 6 large suit cases, I KNOW it's not a problem. But, I have a child who loves books and cars, and an awesome husband who is WAY more into fashion than I could ever be, sooooo....he has great shoes!! He has a lot of, uh.....great shoes, and clothes. He's a bargain shopper but he likes nice shoes and he'll hunt & hunt until he gets a cheap deal. I love my husband, and I'm not putting this out here for all of you wonderful people to see me shaming my husband, but the man has a shoe problem!! Okay, again...maybe adding in some drama, but we had to have a talk - I call it a shoe-ter-vention.

So finally I said today, "You have got to do something about the shoes, I mean come on. For the LOVE!!!" (I am a HUGE fan, by the way, of Jen Hatmaker, and her new book, For the Love, which is totally rocking my night time readings and giving me some serious encouragement all at the same time.) After some talking, he agreed to cut back on some of the things he packed, but not the shoes. He said to me, exactly in his own words, "The clothes will go before the shoes. I've had most of those shoes for at least 8 years." Honestly, I appreciated his honesty. And now I know if I throw anything out of his bag, the clothes go first!

While we are pretty much ready, minus the juggling of bags and weight and shoes and what not, we ARE ready. I think emotionally ready. Thankfully, a lot of the heavy lift and difficulty in this process was finished long ago - back in June. We rented our house, sold our car, totaled out the car I wrecked in May, and then we gave our dog, Ozzie, to a sweet, loving home. I have no idea how all of the pieces of the puzzle came together so quickly, or so perfectly, and the only way it all happened is this - God's timing. EVERY last detail has been put together - not by me, or Phil, or our board of directors, but God, all by Himself. He knew it was time, He knows it is time, and He is making it happen.

People have been saying a lot lately, "Wow!! That's so great!! Aren't you scared, though? Worried? Nervous?" Honestly, yes, to all of the above! I know for myself, I have been running through about 800 emotions (sorry, exaggerating again) every day. I get SO excited about going back to the culture, people, and country that God created & knit together, and has given us the opportunity to return to. Then, I stress over packing too much or too little, or I worry that we haven't said goodbye to someone who we might really hurt, and then I go back to being excited to see family & friends. It's kind of like riding the tea cup ride at Disney Land - at first it's really fun, and then you get a little dizzy, and then it's fun again, and then you're finally ready for the stinkin' ride to just STOP!! I feel like the planning has been coming for so many year, for so long, and now that it's here, let's GO!! But there is so much to do in just the next 6 short days. I mean, Durango, hello?! There is so much I'll miss about my hometown. We'll try to pack as much fun & time with family & friends over the next 6 days, and then, just as quickly as the dream started, we'll be off to begin again.

I think we'll be fine. The flights are long, and the schedule of flights is a little weird, but I am so thankful for a wonderful God who has taken a dream and turned it into reality. That's not to say there hasn't been hard work, and often times many tears of frustration or disappointment, but God has always had this dream in the palm of His hand. He knew the best time, the best place and the best way to begin this journey. I'm praying that we'll fix our eyes on Him during the journey and enjoy the ride. After all, life is meant to be lived - it is a gift, and we intend to chase our dreams until God calls us home.

Fun-draiser

Watermelon Carving by Chef Safari

This last week has felt like one long, crazy day that won't end! But it's that good feeling of crazy, where you go to bed so tired it doesn't matter how much sleep you get, it will never be enough! And your body and feet hurt so bad you just want to take a bath, or at least sit down for longer than 30 seconds. All that said, it was so much fun. I still don't know how God did it but the fundraiser was a huge success and we added more money to our building fund. I think we can now safely say we can build about 1/3 of our first building. YAY!!!

If you missed the fundraiser, seriously - WHAT were you THINKING?!!! Okay, maybe all the caps were a little harsh, but lets be honest, in the little town of Durango, Colorado, where can you have an ethnically diverse meal? I don't think I have ever had African food in town anywhere, and the meal was a deal! Chef Safari is an amazing chef, and he works full time at the Strater Hotel. Between working his regular hours at the hotel, Chef put in another 12 hours putting together amazing spice combinations and flavors that made the roasted goat and the oxtail stew mind blowing!! I'm not even kidding - I've had several dishes Chef Safari has made, but these kept my brain wondering what in the world he was putting on the meat and the veggies and the rice and the dessert. Everything was amazing, and the fellowship was fabulous. Phil and I were able to share our hearts about this project and why we sold everything, rented out our home, sold our cars, and why we are moving our family to Mozambique in 2 weeks!!

Sharing our dream always inspires me. If you have a dream that you haven't spoken to anyone about, I would encourage you.......LET IT OUT!! Of course, find someone you can trust, someone who will encourage you and pray for that journey with you. But there is power to letting it out of your brain and even just putting it on paper. I believe God created us to be more successful and fulfill our dreams when we partner with others who will work along side us. After all, we were CREATED for community!  

As we prepare to leave in the next 2 weeks, there is one thing I would like to ask of anyone reading this - prayer. We would appreciate every prayer lifted up on our behalf. The transition into life in Mozambique will be quite a challenge at first, and now we have a 5 year old kindergartner to think of as well, so please pray that Jadon will adjust & grow to love the country and people we love! Please also pray for provisions - we have put all our "eggs" into opening the orphanage and we are trusting God to provide, so please pray for us to also trust Him. 

And one last thing - if you missed out on the fundraiser, Chef Safari's culinary creations can be tasted at the Mahogany Grill & the Strater Hotel any night of the week. He has become such a wonderful part of the Durango community in the short time he has been here. He is not only a kind man, who volunteered many hours working with us to make 2 fundraisers happen in the last 3 months, but he has a spirit about him. Anytime I am near him, or his sweet wife, Lucy, I feel inspired. I remember that every struggle comes to an end, and God fulfills his promises. I will forever be grateful to the Strater for bringing Chef here, and to God for uniting us all together for His greater purpose. 

We'll keep you posted, right here, about any needs, stories of success and I'm sure at some point, stories of struggles and failures while in Mozambique. If you would like to help make this orphanage a reality, you can donate on a monthly basis or send one time donations to: 35 E Animas Village Lane, Durango, CO, 81301. All donations are tax deductible.

The countdown will surely get away from us. We are down to days now, not months or weeks. We can't wait to update you on our progress. Until then, God bless you! 

African Feast!

With only 4 - yes, FOUR - short weeks left, we are coming down to the wire on this new adventure we are about to embark upon. Before we leave, we are hosting an African Flavors dinner at the River Church in Durango, CO, on Sunday, August 9th at 5pm. Tickets are a suggested donation of $25 per adult, and children under 10 are free.

But here's the kicker.....................the chef for our event is World Renowned!! Have you heard of Zanzibar?  Ahh yes, a beautiful island off the coast of Tanzania.....truly breath taking!

     Courtesy Middle East Magazine


Our friend, board member and chef for our African Flavors Dinner, nick named "Chef Safari," worked in world famous resorts in Zanzibar, putting his culinary skills to use on this tropical island. He is now the head chef at the Mahogany Grill in Durango, CO, and our community is so blessed to have him!

Chef Safari is a BIG DEAL. If his culinary skills can't woo you, his personality alone will make you fall in love with his mission to help children in need. He is larger than life, and he makes a mean oxtail stew!

So friends - don't wait to get your tickets until the day of the event!! Reserve your seats NOW! Call Laura Olaniyi at 970-946-4809 to reserve your tickets, or email us at heartfortheneedy@gmail.com. You'll have the opportunity to hear more about what will be happening in Mozambique, and how to stay connected as the orphanage progresses. And, you can sample the oxtail stew for yourself! See you on August 9th!