The Secret to Getting Up Early...

The house is cool, and quiet. Both are rare finds, but I’ve come to enjoy 4:30am wakeups because I get a few minutes of each. A steaming mug of coffee, a to-do list a mile long, a few minutes with Jesus, and boom – the day has started.

First Day of School

I’ve never been much of a morning person. After high school, I took an incredible job in Alaska and I had to be up at 4am….EVERY.DAY. We also went to bed at like 7pm so it wasn’t THAT hard, but I never would’ve made it through a morning with out at least 2 strong cups of coffee.

Since my stint in Alaska over 13 years ago – oh LAWD! I’m getting old – I’ve never been able to keep up with the early a.m. routine.

Marieta's 11th birthday

I’m married to a SUPER early riser, an almost non-sleeper, really. He basically doesn’t need sleep. His super power would be “no sleep required.”

But I’m just not wired for mornings…until I had to be. Many people don’t know, but Phil is actually back in the U.S. right now. With him being Stateside, I’m the lone ranger doing his usual morning routine duties, and I have to admit: I’m actually enjoying being a morning person. I know – I said it. 

For the last 2 ½ months, I’ve been up BEFORE 5am…yes, ME, up before 5am. I’ve been making breakfast for the kids before school, making lunches, mapping out my day, praying, meal planning, and handling the daily junk before the sun comes blazing in my windows. 

Then I walk the kids to the bus stop & have a nice little morning run before I come home and get the rest of the day started. This all happens before 7am...so the secret to getting up early is...I HAD TO! 

Swim Outing

Some days have been a little rough, like this morning. I woke up with an incredible bought of: Am I gonna throw up or did I just eat something weird?

I’ve been feeling a little wonky in the mornings for a few days now, probably due to lack of sleep & a recent round of malaria for me. Jojo just finished up chicken pox and she’s been mostly quiet and cool about the whole debacle, but as her mama, I can’t help but check on her a million different times and make sure she’s not scratching anything. (They’re pretty much gone, except for one spot on her leg.)

Monday Morning Bible study

Even with the lack of sleep, the unexpected bouts of chicken pox & malaria, and the hot weather, I’m still digging the early mornings. I can actually say I can run 2 MILES without stopping every 5 seconds. It took me 8 weeks to work up to it, but I can run 2 miles. I’m as slow as a turtle but hey, it beats where I was.

And the ENERGY I have the rest of the day, as well as patience, is amazing. I can’t miss a run or I just feel off. I think my kids like it, too. We walk to their bus stop together at the local YWAM base, and then I run and they go to school.

When they come home, I have more energy to help break up fights (insert laughing/crying emoji here), help with homework and baths, and make a hearty dinner. I think the kids are enjoying it as much as I am.

Since the beginning of the year, the early mornings have been a great source of peace and calm for me. We’ve had a lot of little challenges health wise – Marieta had a nasty worm in her hands that caused a terrible infection, Fatima had some kind of infection as well, JoJo has been teething off and on & now has chicken pox – and some other small injuries & accidents have come up.

Even JoJo was listening!

But we’ve also celebrated 4 out of 9 birthdays since the beginning of the year! So we’re doing our fair share of doctor’s visits and cake eating. A good balance, I’d say…

I’m also trying to manage a few projects around the house & center in general. Our backyard area has needed some TLC for a long time and we’re finally doing it. Our bricklayer, Abdul, is a super awesome guy who was recommended by a friend I would trust with my life. He’s a great man of God AND a hard worker.

We’ve spent the first few days removing some big rocks and now they’re leveling and setting up the boundaries of where they will lay rocks and then cement. Abdul is also adding a table for us so we can eat outside AND it doubles as a ping-pong table. Best idea EVER.

So while we’re praying for less time at the doctor and more time enjoying the soon-to-come cool weather, I could use your prayers that we all stay healthy & safe. I’m determined not to call the pediatrician or the grown up doctor any time soon!

Thanks for your continued support and love. I can feel it and so can the kiddos. We love you all and miss so many of you!

More updates to come and maybe a snake story or two…

Lots of love,

Laura & the littles   

Sometimes a Good Cry is All You Need

Dory got it right in Finding Nemo - "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming..."

Don't stop moving and you won't have to think, feel or reason. So keep moving, keep trucking along, and refuse to slow down.

As soon as I'm forced to slow down, it happens. E.V.E.R.Y. S.I.N.G.L.E. T.I.M.E. I start thinking and overthinking. 

It happened just last week. I actually had time to reflect at my favorite place on earth: the beach. The sand and sun and salt are all this girl needs. (Can I getta Amen?!)

But it turns out, I start thinking too much. And then feeling, ugh. It's so much easier to stuff emotions & feelings away for another day, another time.

Despite my best efforts to force the feelings back in the closet, I couldn't do it. Maybe it's been too long and I had some stuff to deal with. 

Either way, all the emotions from what feels like the entire year of 2018 came flooding at me. I cried and laughed and smiled when the whole year rushed over me in a 5-minute video reel through my mind. 

This year Last year was the hardest year I've had in a long time and definitely in my time in Moz. 

So many things made 2018 the year that almost killed me - a new baby alone is hard. Having a human being come outta your body and depend on your boobs for their total sustenance is freaking ridiculous. Hands down the hardest of all hard in the world. 

And let's not even talk about lack of sleep. Just (yawn) don't.

Pile on top of that growing an organization, growing kids, growing needs, and overall growing pains. And then there's a marriage, too, somewhere in-between all of that. Oh, and Jesus.

Add in a bout of near liver failure thanks to my least favorite friend of the year - malaria - and you may feel like I felt as the emotions rushed out: Beat. Tired. Crushed. Shaken. Relieved. 

I cried. I walked as far as I reasonably could away from my running, swimming, screaming, happy kids, and I cried. 

I cried for the lost opportunities, the lost time, the things I wish I would've done differently. I cried with relief and thanks that my liver didn't fail and I didn't die. 

I cried for the moments that I felt defeated, like I wasn't enough. I cried for the days I wished I was a better mom, a better wife, a better boss, a better follower of Christ. 

I cried for myself - how I'm my own worst critic and should be full of grace for myself first. 

I cried for the moments I missed with my niece who'll be 3 before I get to hold her.

I cried for the family gatherings we missed out on and the grandchild my dad has yet to meet. 

I cried for all the triumphs and joys and lessons and grace and love that God gave us last year. 

And you know what? It felt so good to (ugly) cry. It felt so good to let the tears go, along with all the feelings I'd untidily shoved into a tiny corner of my heart during the busiest, most challenging year of my life so far.

After a good 10-15 minutes, I felt cleansed and refreshed. Can you imagine how good 2018 would've been had I done that a few times - 15 minutes to take care of myself before anyone else?

That's what 2019 is all about for us around here. Wisdom.

Let me take what I've learned over the last 32+ years on this planet and put it to use. I'm going to take better care of myself so I can take better care of my little loves. 

I think resolutions are hard and overrated, but more wisdom is what 2019 is all about for me. 

"Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold."

Proverbs 3: 13 & 14

I hope you find your own silver for the year, too.

Cheers,

Laura 

Merry Christmas!

These are seriously the best we could do...

Christmas Eve is always a SUPER busy day for us as we have a huge party with the kids in our neighborhood! We typically we have over 100 kids and we cook all day, and then party all afternoon. It's pure organized chaos and it hurts the small part of my type A self that's still trapped somewhere inside my brain. The rest of me that's become some kind of type X loves it. I think I like type X.

Games with the neighborhood kids before dinner

We had a great time playing games, singing, dancing, praying and just enjoying this beautiful country and its beautiful children. All of the kids come dressed up, ready to have fun and excited for a hearty dinner. We tend to sugar them up a bit, too!

Seriously.........

 Our attempt at Christmas photos is pretty dodgy at best, but we tried! In true Moz fashion, the boys' capulana shirts weren't ready as the tailor just couldn't get it all done, but the girls and I loved our new dresses! 

More games and singing

I think it's safe to say we're all exhausted, with bellies full of goat meat, and heads filled with another year of awesome memories. This is year 3 of our Christmas Eve tradition, and I can't imagine spending the day doing anything else as we celebrate our Savior.

JoJo wasn't haven' it

Merry Christmas to all our loved ones, near and far, close in love & truth. 

Lots of love, 

Laura, Phil and our tribe 

Teaching, Traveling & Cows?!

My eyes are heavy. I close them for a brief minute. I doze for just a split second. And BAM!

I smack my head on the edge of the desk. I'm tired but I really feel I need to share with the world how our weekend went.

Yet, I'm so exhausted from the beautiful time we experienced that it's becoming a hazard to my health. Or maybe just a hazard to my head...

Either way, I'll make it brief. Our YWAM guests taught a 2-day Bible overview to our community in Namale. While it seems like 2 days wouldn't be enough, they did an excellent job of giving everyone the main ideas and really explaining what the Bible is all about: REDEMPTION.

We heard story after story of how people in the village used to worship idols like trees, statues or animals. They explained how coming to know Christ and learning about God has changed everything.

They elaborated and told us how God continues to bless them and heal their friends & family. Their animals continue to grow and their crops are healthy. When things are hard, they pray and have hope.

We also experienced some sad cultural ways of dealing with 4 children who were abandoned. The church paraded them around and tried to convince us to take them home. The 3 boys were dressed in rags, and probably hadn't bathed in 3-4 days. The little girl was in dirty, torn clothes and hadn't washed her hands in face in at least a week.

We've seen these kids before and they didn't look like this. We believe the community was trying to manipulate the situation and pull at our heart strings to the the kids. The saddest part is the kids have an aunt, an uncle and a grandmother who are able to care for them, but none want to assume the responsibility.

The kids were made to feel rejected over and over again, as we aren't able to takes kids who have ABLE family to care for them, and it also goes against our mission to keep kids in their communities whenever possible. My heart still aches for them and it's prompted us to have some serious conversations & training with the church leaders about how to handle these situations.

The root of the issue seems to be that the children's mother ran off and abandoned the kids, so if anyone tries to care for them, the mother may come back and become angry. I think there is a cultural piece at play here that maybe we don't understand, but this seemed like the general consensus as to why the family members wouldn't care for the child.

Either way, we can't publicly reject kids while everyone watches. It's a disgusting form of abuse and it won't ever happen again. We'll contact the social action office to find out what we ARE allowed to do to help, especially if the children aren't actually being care for

We experience other highs and lows of the weekend - hearing about Estonio and how his mom wouldn't allow him to come see us. Or how we pray for several people who were sick and were later much better by the end of the day.

We also had a major first: We were driving along and saw a small herd of cows walking and eating. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my right eye, a huge cow came charging out of the right field at the car! He was on a serious mission so Phil drove as fast as he could and we narrowly avoided being impaled by an irate cow.

As awesome as the weekend was, we had to come home to the other kiddos. I always feel like crying when we leave the communities in the village because my heart truly wishes to be closer to them. I would love to spend a few months in one village and live with the people we have come to know & value. I'm praying we can do this as Jojo gets older and we find reliable staff members to be with our kids.

Well, this wasn't short or sweet, but I hope it helped give you an idea of how we're doing here in Moz. We'd love your prayers as our YWAM team has 2 more weeks of teaching here and many hours of fellowship with pastors, leaders and youth in the churches around us. We'll get some extremely useful and effective training as well, and we couldn't be more grateful to this team for coming all the way here!

If you like what you hear, feel free to support us tomorrow on Giving Tuesday. It's a global day of giving that encourages everyone around the world to give their time & money to worthy organizations like ours. You can head to our website to make a donation today: www.heartfortheneedy.org.

We're thankful for you and your support. We'd love to hear from you!


Happy Monday,



Laura & Phil

Weekend Away

The team meeting Rabia, a very close Mama to us

Having a TEAM is something we've always longed for. We enjoy our life here in Moz but at times it would be so amazing to have another family, or another person, to talk to and walk through some of the hard stuff with. While this may not be a reality for now, we pray that God will give us an incredible TEAM in the coming years. 

For now, we have a group of YWAM folks from Mexico (one from Ireland!) and we are loving having a team around. There is something so different about collaboration, especially with people who have lived outside of their home country for quite some time. 

The church is building a community center!

I find that working with others who challenge you, point you back to God, and renew your faith in humanity, are the best kind of people. This team has been all that, and more. 

They've taught us so much, and the knowledge & grace they bring wherever they teach has been so fun to see. Our communities are excited for more in-depth Bible teachings, and it also gives us an opportunity to step back and enjoy being with the people we have come to know & love. 

Leaders & Pastors in the area churches

Last weekend, we traveled to a small village about 3 hours away. This village is one of my favorite places to be. The people are simple, welcoming, and so eager to learn. They also have creative ways of caring for the many orphaned kiddos in their area. They work together, and they work HARD. This community is one of the hardest working I've ever seen.

We spent two beautiful days dancing, laughing, listening to our team teach an awesome overview of the Bible (in just 2 days!), and of course, enjoying some of the village cuisine we've come to love.

The people truly welcomed our visitors as if they were just an extension of their own family. I hope I can learn to someday love as unconditionally, freely and openly as these people do. Their spirit of hospitality is like no other.

While it was hot, tiring, and the drive was dusty, massive cashew trees provided us with shade for our team to teach. The trees made for a great picnic area, too, as long as you remembered to dodge the falling cashew fruit when the wind blew!

And, Phil & I are finally getting to try interpreting. It's not easy - but I've learned so much more in the last 2 weeks than I have in months. Portuguese isn't difficult, but it takes practice & study time. I'll definitely be adding study time back into my schedule in 2019!

JoJo's first time NOT crying with Mama Rabia

We had a few great adventures. Well, going to the bathroom outside is always an adventure! But there were a few others, too.

We saw a huge black mamba in the middle of the road as we were driving out of the village. We scared it and it literally JUMPED about a foot & a half off the ground. I'd never seen a snake do that before!

We also pulled over on the side of the road to ask a family for one of their beautiful mangoes. When we pulled over and the family saw all the white people in the car, they took off running. We waited a few minutes, and their neighbor came out laughing!

Because of past unrest and civil war that really wasn't that long ago, many people still have fear of anything that doesn't look normal in their part of the world. And we white folks were not an every day sight.

In the end, the family came back out of hiding, laughed, shook Phil's hand, offered us a sack of mangoes, and we traded for a few loaves of sweet bread & sweets we had in the car. We all laughed and drove off feeling grateful that things in Mozambique have truly changed.

Our first weekend out of town went beautifully. We travel again tomorrow, and though we're tired, I know I'm excited to see our other church families, too. (We MIGHT get to see Estonio, TOO!)

Please pray for us as we head out EARLY tomorrow morning, to try and beat the sun & heat.

And if you like what you see & you enjoy our updates, don't forget that Giving Tuesday is only 4 days away! This global day of giving encourages everyone around the world to GIVE to NGOs and nonprofits, just like us.

So, mark your calendar, or if you're like me and you forget everything, do it now. You can give on our website: www.heartfortheneedy.org

Too hot to teach in the sun, so we used the car to hang the props

If you get your donation in BEFORE Tuesday, you'll be entered TWICE to win a beautiful gift basket from my home-town coffee shop, Durango Joes!

Thanks for listening, well - reading, I guess. As always, we love you and appreciate you more than you know.

Hugs,

Laura

Hope Slowly Restored

Sunday morning. 4am. Still dark. Cool. Baby’s snoring. Kids sleeping. Creeping quietly around the house. Checking off my mental to-do list: 

Coffee - check 

Baby’s bag - check 

Water - check

Extra (extra) water - double check 

Snacks - check

Candy for kids - I knew I forgot something! We’ll buy some on the way. 

Gifts - check

Offering - check 

Pastor Armando & his wife leading church worship

Finally ready. The clock glows in the kitchen - it’s only 4:50am. Phil’s English students, Gildo & Chale, silently come in the gate. The dogs know them so well by now, they don’t even bother getting up to greet them.

They quietly tap on the front door. As I try to open the door without any noise, I see little brown eyes peering out of a tiny crack behind the boys' door. Jadon must be up. 

Phil praying

We start the car, get organized, and scoop JoJo up out of bed. It’s time to get on the road. 

We pick up Pastor Antonio & Pastor Sitoe (si-toy). The sun is lazily coming out from behind the morning clouds. The road is clear with almost no traffic. 

The landscape changes from green and burnt orange to a hilly, lush jungle. Soon large mountains appear, various shapes and sizes. Steep inclines, more rolling hills. 

After only a short 2 hour drive, we pull into Ribaue, a small but beautiful town known for its fresh water. As we make a quick pitstop at the Mayor’s house (he happens to be Gildo’s uncle) for some gargantuan mangoes, we head another 30km outside of town. 

When we turn off the main road,  we meet an easy to navigate dirt road that feels like a highway. Within a few kilometers, we arrive at the church we are visiting for the first time. And a familiar sound filters through the open car windows:

‘Anda com Jesus

Anda com Jesus é bom.

Waytana Yesu

Pastor Armando leading prayer time with the guest pastors

Waytana Yesu orrera.’

(Walk with Jesus, It’s good to walk with Jesus) 

We are welcomed with warm handshakes and double kisses, and plenty of curious kiddos who have likely only heard stories about white people. 

As the church service begins, everything is perfect. The sounds of all the beautiful voices mixing together with the beating of the drum (an empty jerry can) bring small tears of thanks and joy to my eyes. 

After service we meet with the church family, and individual families. We talk at length about our vision and ask questions - some seem silly or redundant but each question and comment is met by thoughtful & patient responses that are invaluable. 

We learn about the struggles the families in this area face. We learn how the pastor of the church cares for 4 children who aren’t even his. We learn how divorce causes many families to completely abandon children. 

We learn about a girl who’s mother died just a few months ago and her father traveled to another province. He told the pastor that he’s already remarried and he doesn’t want her. 

We learn about a set of twins who are less than 2 months old. Their mother died a few weeks after child birth. 

They’re father wants  them but can’t provide a way to feed them so their aunt is trying to care for them. She can’t keep up with their feeding and needs help.

We learn that the community struggles to keep their children in school. The parents must farm land that is 8-10km from home (or farther) just to provide food for their families. 

They can’t leave their kids alone in the village and they don’t have schools near their farms. Parents express concern of how to solve this and ask for ideas. 

After we talk, we eat. We are always fed well but I can hardly get anything down. My mind races and I continue to mull over the conversations we just had. The solutions are never easy - trying to be creative & meet the needs of all the kiddos. 

Phil's English students, Gildo & Chale, traveled with us.

As we finish up, we pray and it’s time to get back on the road. How the sun is about to go down is beside me. We spent the whole day here? It felt like a few minutes. 

My heart aches for the kids we shake hands with and kiss goodbye. We make plans for future visits and arrange times to meet again regarding the twin babies. We discuss the other children the pastor is caring for and decide that though it’s difficult, the pastor is making it work.

Sunday school kiddos

We agree to provide support to the pastor - help with documents for school, school supplies & clothes. The pastor agrees to let us know if they can’t feed the kids at any time. 

We wave goodbye as our new family sends us off. The leaving part is always the hardest. We often want to stay and be with those who are doing the hard stuff. 

The day in and day out work of attending to the poorest of the poor in their community - this pastor and his wife get it. They truly understand real love. 

We arrive to the highway and start the journey home. So often, this is a great time of reflection and peace. But my heart was so touched by this community; it’s impossible to feel anything but sadness. My heart swells knowing the church is in excellent hands - a pastoral team that loves & shows it in action. 

As we climb into bed after an 18 hour day, I’m so fulfilled. I silently pray for the sweet kids we met and pray for God to keep the twins healthy until the family makes a decision about who can care for them. 

These are my favorite days for a reason. A little hope is restored for Mozambique and her future. 

Hugs,

Laura