Miracles of Provision

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The look on these childrens faces says it all!
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They wake up one morning to find themselves on their own, both parents have died being HIV positive.
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It's moving to see the children respond so quickly to love, and genuine compassion, as they come into our care.
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Zacharius at 5 years old makes a huge improvement in his health after receiving prayer, he was so poorly only a month ago. We did not take any photos, certain that he had only weeks to live!
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I have been coming to Mozambique on and off for five years. This visit has been my longest stay so far, I`ve been here for four and a half months now. Reflecting on my time here, I find myself having been stretched in many different ways. My biggest challenge is seeing and experiencing human suffering, it touches me deeply.
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God is amazing. He carefully knits us together whilst we are in our mother's womb, and gives us the life skills and gifting necessary to fulfill the call, which He places on each of our lives (Psalm 139).
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I thank God He has broken me in slowly. If I saw what I`ve seen in the past few months, on my first arrival in Moz in 2003, I doubt whether I would have managed to cope.
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As a compassionate person, I am easily touched by what I see and feel, and I find that I have to manage that gift carefully, using wisdom together with that compassion. Unfortunately you cannot help every one.... yet all of Africa cries for our help.
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There is a loud cry that goes out from the heart of this beautiful country, especially from the widowed and the orphaned. Gods heart is especially touched by this cry, as He tells us in (James 1:27). "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress......"
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Some weeks ago, I found my self walking away from a very tough situation, feeling gutted to the core. Martha and Regina, the local social worker, and myself had been to visit a lady who was looking after 17 children. Her own family members, brothers and sisters, had died, leaving their children behind. She was cooking a small pot of beans to share between them all, she had no food to feed them with!
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She was at her wits end trying to feed them and look after them. I noticed a young boy on his own, sitting quietly near a hedge. He was very sick, covered in sores and extremely weak. The lady broke into tears as she lifted the boy up and told us the story. He is HIV positive and too weak to do much now. He is five years old, can we help??
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Our bank balance rudely replied NO! We were already stretched, with a very low exchange rate against the pound. Food prices had increased, and we have taken more children into the orphanage. Should we be taking a very sick HIV positive child in? Martha still works full time, and we have nowhere to separate very sick children, and no one to give them full time care.
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Not sure what we should do, we decided to give ourselves some time to make a good decision. If we started giving out food now, we would have to continue with that choice, and we are already stretched to the maximum, with two feeding programs running.
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What did wisdom say? We need wisdom now!
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The exciting thing about being a Christian is that we have the life giving power of the Holy Spirit living within each of us, who is able to do so much more than we can. It's when we are really up against it that we see God move!
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We got on our knees and prayed fervently with tears for this little boy, and his situation, somehow believing God was going to do something.
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Back up north, busy with our church plants, I was haunted by the picture of this helpless child. We were about to start our last church plant, when our money ran out. The bank statement announced that was enough! Just then we had another blow. I had my wallet stolen.
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I had been financing much of what we had been doing, using my personal support money, which generous friends had given me from back home. What to do now? Human wisdom said it was time to draw a line under everything.
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But God's wisdom was singing a different song!!
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A long time ago I learned not to allow my bank balance to determine what I did or did not do for God! We prayed again fervently, the church in Maxixe fasting for our needs. We decided God still wanted us to go ahead with our last church plant in Jocarne, even though we had to buy the land as well.We scraped together some money, to buy the poles, to start building the frame for the church.
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Then it happened. All at once our prayers were answered. A call from the UK said that we had just received a sizeable gift of money, and we were suddenly free again to carry on. At that point we could no longer fuel the Land Rover, and were running around on an empty tank! Everyone was thrilled. The church was completed and opened in time.
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Returning to the Orphanage, we went back out to the lady looking after the 17 children, really not knowing what to expect. Martha and I were surprised to see the lady and the very sick boy looking so well. She told us that since we prayed there had been a big change.
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God had lifted the personal burden she was carrying, other people had helped feed the children and the biggest surprise was in the boy whom we had left so poorly. There was no sign of his sores, he looked well and strong again. In our inability to do something, God had answered our prayers again.
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The three children pictured above are now in our care back at the Orphanage. Marta (14) who has been washing and cooking for the last three years, her sister Leopoldina (8), and Zacharias (5) are settling in well. Thanks so much for praying for us. We so much need your prayers, and they work!
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Maybe you are reading these blogs, and hearing stories about how we invited God into situations beyond our control. Maybe you have never really prayed, or know how to. The bible says that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. It says His ear is attentive to our cry.
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Why not open your heart, and let Him who created you and loves you more than anyone else, carry your load and help with the difficult things you may be facing. He loves to answer prayer, and as He does we are drawn deeper into that beautiful relationship with Him, that we were really created for!
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