We have arrived! Fruit Happens!

Hey Everyone! Dira and I are here! We arrived safe and sound on Friday. The flights went really well and all of our things made it as well! Saturday we went to town and shopped for the essential things that we need. We have a water filter so that is a huge check off of the list. After we got back to our house we spent the rest of the day working on making our house a home. During the afternoon we went to our storage room and found all of our things thrown about the room and we then realized that we had been robbed. Most of Dira's things were stolen and some of my things were. Thankfully it wasn't anything too expensive, but a lot of sentimental things of Dira's were stolen and that hurt the most. That is the only bad news I have to tell you, but we are ok ... It's just a little frustrating. However, the house looks great now (thanks to my lovely wife) haha! I was really hoping to get a video to you guys, but it didn't work out because the internet is really really slow. I really wanted to inform you guys about everything as soon as possible so I decided to just type everything instead... I hope that is ok (cause I really wanted and still do prefer making a video for you all). We rested all day Sunday just to prepare to jump in to things today (Monday). God did a lot in our hearts yesterday as we sat with Him and really put our focus in the right place (on Him). He is the reason why we are here... He is all we want. A lot of the day yesterday my heart was really anxious about starting up my work here, but as we entered into His presence all of the lies and anxieties washed away... As they always do. We woke up this morning feeling great about everything. We prayer walked to base (because we live on the base 20 minutes walk away) which was really fun. Dira went to the church with the women and I walked up to the boys compound seeing so many people on the way and then being ambushed by all my boys with hugs all around. Being reunited with them felt more than amazing. I am finally here again. I finally get to be with my boys. No more talking about what I do in Mozambique, but actually doing what I do in Mozambique haha! I sat with the boys for hours just talking and catching up. So many things have changed! A lot of the Casa Jimmy boys that were there last year moved out and a lot of the Casa Chover boys moved to Jimmy. Also, the boys that are younger moved up and into Casa Chover. The houses are different, but I love the changes. The boys that moved out have jobs and are really doing well in the program we have set up for them after they move out, which made me really happy to see. Those were the boys that I spent so much time with last year talking with them and helping them prepare for the future and to see them doing what we talked about last year is an indescribable feeling. After all the questions that I have asked myself "Did I really change anything?" "Did I really make a difference in their life?" "Have they really allowed God to transform them?" "Do they really love God, or is it just words they tell me?" PRAISE BE TO GOD! THEY GOT IT! All glory be to Jesus Christ! Hahahaha! Another amazing thing is ... It is your fruit too!!!!! Because you all made the choice to support me and pray for me you are also reaping the rewards in heaven! Because of you there are lives being changed in Pemba, Mozambique! Dira and I are so grateful for your love, prayers, and support. It means more than you will ever know. We are praying for you! I humbly ask for you to keep praying for us. May all glory, honor, and power be to our Lord, Jesus. May the grace of God be with your spirit.

It's Time

Africa to America

Enjoy!

SUPRISE SUPRISE!

Well, i know i haven’t updated in a long long time, and i do apologize for that. I pray this update finds everyone well! I don’t think i could possibly tell you of all the highlights in this one post for the months that i haven’t updated! God has been doing amazing things! Breakthrough and challenges... and both lead to the glory of the Lord. 

All of the boys are doing great! There are a handful that are struggling with stealing things, but we are working on that. I am really starting to see them acting more like a family in the past few months. That means so much to my heart. Where revival is .. love and family will be found. Jesus is doing so much. In the small groups that i help lead... there has been great breakthrough in worship. The kids are really stepping in. 

On a daily basis i am there just building relationship. That has been my goal this whole time. To love them and become family with them. Day after day i see them open up to me and open their hearts more and more... even if it is just a little bit. To them it is amazing progress. I believe fear will fall when perfect love crashes in... and i get to see that everyday in these boys. I also am crazy enough to believe that by the end of my time here there will not be anymore stealing in the midst of the boys. 

I am overwhelmed with joy to have this opportunity to serve, to lay down my life for love, and lift these young world changers up. 

SO! are you ready for the surprise!!! 

So i told you in previous posts that Dira and I are in need of huge financial miracles. 

WELL! God gave me His word that never fails. DIRA AND I WILL BE IN KNOXVILLE ON THE 25th OF NOVEMBER!!! 2 AND A HALF WEEKS!!!!!! HAHAHA!!!! Thank you all so much for praying! Thank you so much to the ones that leaned in to the Lord and supported me and my future wife. HAHA! It all happened so fast! Thank you Jesus for being so faithful! HAHA!! To be honest, this was completely difficult for me.. the Lord stretched my faith like never before. However, the Lord said to me when Dira and I first got engaged that He will supply everything that we want and need to make this wedding happen. The visa for Dira, the plane tickets, and all the things for the wedding. I have believed Him from the start. I have no reason to doubt Him. He has never failed me and never will. Even though i didn’t know how it would come to be... I just knew it would, because my God is that good. He is the best Dad in the whole world. He cares about what we care about. 

I just want to make myself clear... i don’t see God as a vending machine, and i will never treat Him as such. However, when His children care more about intimacy and relationship with Him more than anything or anyone else, and delight in Him with all that you are. He WILL give you the desires of your heart.

Faith is refined by risk, and by the willingness to trust in the Lord.

He is the God of the impossible. If He leads you somewhere... He doesn’t lead you in to be slaughtered and left out to dry. He loves making the impossible possible... and it is my joy to give him all the glory, honor, and praise. 

Needless to say.. I AM SO EXCITED!!! Dira and I are about to journey to the United States for her to meet my family and friends. Ultimately to get married!!! HAHA!! The date is officially Feb. 2nd! We are so excited to see you! Pray for us as we make a speedy transition. 

My boys are not at all happy about how long i will be gone, but their request is that i bring back wedding photos and videos haha! So, pray for their hearts.

Dira and I plan on coming back to Pemba around May 2013. 

Thank you all so much for your prayers, love, and support. I could not do this without you.You all are a blessing and an encouragement to my life. Words can not express my gratitude. I love you all.

Blessing and Increase, 

Andrew

Victory, Freedom, and Love

I’m really sorry that it has been awhile since I have updated you all, but I am still alive and well! haha!

(Some of the things you are going to read I know I have said before, but I am just sharing my heart; However, it is a little more detailed.)

When I was living in Redding, California, in 2010, I was pouring my heart out to the Lord one night. I told him with a face covered in tears, “God I don’t want to be a missionary without a partner. I am asking you as a son that you would give me a woman, and not just any woman. I want a woman who loves you more than life itself, who lives a life of purity, who is full of peace, who will love me and want to be with me, and who will minister with me and not just sit an watch (I did go on, but I will keep the rest to myself for the sake of the length of this blog post, because I could right a book). Then I told Him, but God I want your will... so have your way.” 

In 2011 I went to the Harvest School of Missions in Pemba in obedience, and days before I flew out to Africa the Lord spoke to me when I was just sitting reading the Bible, “Andrew, by the end of this year you will meet the woman i have prepared for you to marry.” I responded “WHAT!? ... That sounds way to much like my heart.” So I proceeded to ask the Lord for the next 10 minutes “God... was that you? was that you?” haha! Then He said, “Andrew, do you trust me?” and I said, “Yes, Lord I trust you.” then He replied, “Well, Trust me.” I laughed and pondered what He said in my heart. I have the best Daddy in the whole world! And He always keeps His promises!! So by the end of 2011 I was dating Dira, and 8 months later we are engaged and planning a wedding for 2013 in America!!! She is everything I have ever wanted in a woman and more.

As christians, we therefore are co-reigning with him. Sometimes we can get in this pattern of asking God “What’s your will, what’s your will?”, and we don’t listen to Him asking us, “What do you want? What do you want?” 

When our delight is in the Lord, He wants to give us our hearts desires (I am not just talking about finding a spouse). When we obey His commands we move out of being slaves and position ourselves as friends of God.

Dira and I are aiming to get married on February 2nd in Knoxville, Tennessee. We want to leave Pemba and go to Knoxville on December 10th of this year, then get married in Feb., then go on our honeymoon (we want to go to Hawaii), then we want to spend a few months in the states to just be with each other before we rush back to Africa, and then we need to get back to Pemba.

The funny thing is we don’t have any money to do any of this haha! However, Our Daddy in heaven does, and we believe He wants this to happen more than we do. We will see what He does. If you would like to pray for us and for all if this please please do. Our immediate needs are two plane tickets to the states, but before that Dira needs to get her visa to the states in Maputo (the capital of Mozambique). This whole thing together is a perfect recipe for God to work the biggest financial miracle Dira and I have ever experienced. Feel free to jump on board and be apart of this wild ride.

Moving on to current life in Pemba.

I have recently transitioned to work more with Casa Chover (the boys ages 12-15), but i am still helping out with Jimmy. I am just emphasizing on Chover. (Chover means rain in portuguese). That transition has been quite difficult, so i am trying to do it as slow and as smooth as possible. At the same time relationships with all of the boys in general are growing stronger. Some people might agree with the approach of coming in with rules, rules, and more rules. I however, am taking the approach of building relationships and then out of a place of love and understanding for each other we will see the practical things get dealt with. The problem isn’t a messy room, dirty clothes, or lazyness. The problems are heart problems, and those are dealt with by love, attention, and relationship. If I make rules because of the physical symptoms (I.E, A dirty room) than I am only medicating the issues and prolonging real healing from happening, and I believe real healing comes through love. God is love. God is the healer. 

I am going to be honest and tell you that it is ridiculously challenging, and it is easy to get discouraged. However, I have the Author of all things going before me and backing me up, so that is encouraging haha! 

Now, I want to tell some stories!

One of the Mozambican staff here at Iris Ministries has a daughter that is very sick with AIDS. One week 3 others and I went into the village to pray for her. We arrived at the house and met all the family. We went in the house to the room where the daughter, whose name is Victoria, was laying on a bed. She is so skinny, I won’t go into detail, but it is a heart wrenching sight. Her veins have shrunk so small that she can’t receive the medical drip that was given to her, so that is why she was extra weak and sick. We began with praising Jesus in the local tribal language, Makua. It was beautiful. Then we started to pray furiously over Victoria, furious at the disease that has afflicted her too long. (I want to pause and just say... her name means Victory. I believe she will have victory over AIDS.) I was overwhelmed with compassion for this girl. I was kneeling in a puddle of tears by the end. After we finished we sat down, and that is when the mom had told us about her veins being too small to receive the drip. After she said that I said out loud not really giving to much thought to it, “Well, I command her veins to get bigger in the name of Jesus.” Then we left. A week later I was informed that the next morning she received the drip!!! That means HER VEINS GOT BIGGER! HAHA! JESUS!!!

We went back to past week to pray again. After we prayed and left... we were told that her dad took her outside and she was able to sit up in a chair by herself!!! haha!! We will see AIDS dealt with, and we will see Victoria healed!!!

One more! 

Yesterday, 3 others and I went to eat with a lady and her family in a village next to the base, this lady works and provides for 9 people... she is the only one who works. It is a sad story. We came in and had lunch together, talked, and laughed. Then we prayed over a boy who had asthma. I am believing he is healed. (I have seen God heal 2 people with asthma in the past.) Then I noticed that the baby there had something on his wrist that looked like witchcraft (A black chord with a stone attatched). We asked the mom about it and she said it was from the witch doctor to make sure the baby doesn’t get asthma. We explained why needed to cut it off the baby, and why we as christians don’t need to go to the witch doctor. She agreed that we should cut it off, so we did. Then I had them burn it, just like the people in Acts 19:19 did! HAHA! It was so fun!!!! Lunch and freedom is always good!

Thank you all so much for your continuing prayers and support!!! You all are amazing and none of this could happen without you. Words cannot describe my deep gratitude.

I pray that you all experience the love of the Father in news ways, and grow to deeper levels of intimacy with the King. Blessing and Increase.

Love,

Andrew

Qualified

These past 2 months have been very humbling. It is a process to learn
how to do life here, and the past 2 months have been full of learning.

Learning how to rest and learning how to work and do life out of a
position of rest.

Learning when to say yes to something and when to say no.

Learning how to do family with everyone here and keep unity even when
there are disagreements.

Ultimately learning how to LOVE in every situation.

Even to do the daily tasks I am having to completely lean on the Lord,
because honestly a lot of the time I have no idea what I am doing,
so my aim is to do only what i see my Daddy in heaven doing, just like
Jesus did... and I think it is safe to say He turned out alright haha!

Colossians 1:12 says that my Father in heaven has QUALIFIED me to
share in the heavenly inheritance of the saints in light.

So no matter if I feel like i know or i don’t know what i am doing...
I am qualified.

SO many things have been happening in these 2 months!!

First of all... I AM ENGAGED!! WOOHOO!! I am engaged and completely in
love with Dira Karo Karo. Maybe if I say it enough times it will seem
real. I am engaged ... I am engaged .. I am engaged ... nope it still
feels like I am dreaming! We are going to have the wedding in the
states!!! haha! I am so excited about that! and the hilarious thing is
.. we have no money to do so.. HA!! We will see what God does, because
I believe that he wants us to have an amazing wedding!

I will give you some more amazing stories.

On Friday nights I am leading a home group with just Casa Jimmy boys.
I set them up in prayer groups with 3 people in one group. I explained
that at some time every day they need to get together and pray. Two
out of the three groups are actually doing it!!! (they are doing this
on their own... with out me initiating it) 2/3 groups for the first
couple of weeks isn’t bad at all haha!! I believe as the time goes by
more and more groups will be formed!

One morning one of my boys, Daudo, brought bread to my house so that I
could have breakfast without me asking him or even mentioning that I
needed more bread. When he brought it I was still sleeping, so he gave
it to my housemate. When he gave it to my house mate he said, “When i
lived with my father I used to bring him bread every morning, so I
want to do this for André now.” ... When I heard this .. I was
speechless. I am truly humbled by this story.
You all might have noticed that I had successfully filled up my days
to the point where I was literally working from the moment I woke up
to the moment I went to sleep. Well, during my 3 month evaluation here
the base director realized this and she told me that I am doing way
too much. She said that I would not last a year here if I continued
doing as much as I was doing. She said that she wanted to see a change
in my schedule in the next 3 weeks.
The meeting was hard, but very good. I have recently cut out some
things that i have been doing. I have stopped helping lead the small group on Monday nights and I am still keeping an eye on the computer lab from time to time during the day, but I am just letting the two of my boys who work in there run it (they know more about MacBooks than I do anyway haha!); Therefore, I have more time for my boys. Since then I have been able to rest a
bit more. Just being honest... when ever I do rest I sometimes
struggle with feeling guilty (which I know should I not feel guilty).
I am just being honest so you all know how to pray for me.
Other than that things are going absolutely amazing!!!

Thank you all so much for praying for me because it truly makes a
difference. I could not do what I am doing here without you all
backing me up.
Also pray that all of the provisions for the wedding to come in, and
that all the papers that need to be sorted out get sorted smoothly
with no complications.

Thank you so much for all of you who support me financially. You are
bringing the Kingdom in such amazing ways to so many people. Your
generosity amazes me all the time. I learn so much from you.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Bacar

I met him on the streets of Pemba, Mozambique. Selling sweets, masking
his problems with a fake smile, and hopefully making a dollar a day.
“What goes on in his mind everyday?”...“What troubles him?”... “Does
he get to be a kid?”... “Does he get to have fun?”... “Does he go to
school?”... “Has he eaten?”... “What is his name?”... “How old is
he?”... These are questions I kept asking myself when I first met him.
His name is Bacar, and he is 14 years old. He goes to school in the
morning until 1 o’ clock in the afternoon, and he works from 3 o’
clock to 8 o’ clock everyday after school. He frequents the local
arcade (like any young boy would do) which is in a restaurant by day
and a night club by night. He lives in a hut made of mud, rocks,
bamboo, and a little cement with his mother, brother, and sister. He
doesn’t know his father. He works for his uncle. In Bacar's eyes his uncle
is a good boss, but when Bacar comes home with one of his sweets
stolen he gets smacked across the face. He doesn't have a choice, so he takes it and try's again the next day. He rejoices every time the
mission school is in session because that means he gets to sell more
and receive more money (we like to joke about how white people eat a lot of chocolate haha!!!) On a December day in 2011 Jesus came for
Bacar, and Bacar received Jesus into his life. I got to be there to
pray over and watch a lost boy become a son of God. I left to the
U.S soon after, and Bacar went on doing his daily routine; However, he
doesn’t fake his smile anymore, because he can’t contain the joy and
the life that he has been given from Jesus.
I arrived in Pemba on April 10, 2012. I walked the streets praying I
see him. The first day went by and then the second, still no Bacar.
Then the 3rd night I unexpectedly heard a familiar yell “André!” In
that moment my mind was flooded with past memories, as I was reunited
with Bacar. We laughed and leaped for joy together. Jesus provides
opportunity after opportunity for us to divinely cross each other’s
paths almost every day. Bacar and I had the opportunity to lead one of
his best friends to accept Jesus into his life, it was so beautiful.
Bacar has since then led his mother and brother to receive Jesus. One
day soon I will baptize him in the Indian Ocean. Bacar is enthralled
with reading the bible and learning more about his Savior. We often
talk about and share scriptures over a plate of rice and fish. I make
sure he has eaten when ever I see him, and if he hasn’t had anything
to eat that day I go buy him a meal. He has saved up his money on his
own to help me buy him a phone, so we can stay in touch. He doesn’t
want me to buy it without his help. Bacar never ceases to amaze me.
His smile and laughter brings so much life to my soul. His eyes are
full of wonder and excitement. His life is full of the glory of Jesus.
Bacar is my friend and my brother. Thank you Jesus for the privilege
and the honor to know Bacar, and may his voice be heard.
Now I can’t help but to think about all the street vendors in this
world who slave a way day in and day out selling sweets and souvenirs.
Each vendor has a name and a story to tell. Each waiter and waitress
has a name and a story to tell. Who will listen? Who will love?