Greetings from Lichinga!

Two weeks ago I arrived in Lichinga and am slowly adjusting to life here. Sometimes it seems as if I’m living in the late 1800’s. I like the laid back pace of life, but it requires a little more energy for doing everyday tasks. We have no running water or electricity, so we draw water from our hand dug well for everything from drinking to bathing to washing laundry and cleaning. We use kerosene lamps for light when the sun goes down and have a solar panel and battery for charging things like cell phones, computers and rechargeable batteries. The solar panel also supplies just enough power to run a sewing machine, so I have already been busy sewing capulanas for the girl’s beds and laundry bags for them as well. We are hoping to hire a tractor sometime this week to plow up two acres of land for planting potatoes. How exciting it will be in 3 months when the girls are here and we can dig up our first harvest together!


We have picked up some of the forms for the orphan girls that were distributed in surrounding villages and will soon take them to social services to verify each family situation. Then we will be able to choose an initial twelve girls between 5 and 10 years of age who will come to live in “ Village of Joy ”. Hopefully we will be welcoming them home by sometime in March if all goes well. Eventually this first house will be full with twenty four little “treasures” joyfully running around and enjoying their new home.

Thank you for all who have been praying and supporting me financially. I am trying to get together a more concrete team of intercessors to pray for me as well as for things that are happening in the bigger IRIS Lichinga family. If you would like to pray for us on a regular basis and receive more frequent prayer requests and updates please email me in response to this email and I will put you on the list. Otherwise I will just keep you on the regular update list about what the Lord is doing in and through us here. That one should be about every two months or so, depending on internet availability.

Blessings to you all and have an amazing day filled with the presence of the Lord and joy!!!!
Love,
Tanya

Back Alive From Lichinga!

Our outreach team to Lichinga arrived back in Pemba very early Monday morning after two long days of travel. As some of you heard, I had gotten very sick on the second and third day of our three-day journey to get there. I was running from both ends, so to speak, and had to ask our driver to stop every hour or so to let everything come spilling out. We think it may have been food poisoning, as we had eaten chicken the day before in a local restaurant. Thankfully the family that oversees the IRIS center in Lichinga had already planned for me to stay in their home, so I was able to rest comfortably and get my strength back during the first few days there. Jesus really held me in his hands on this journey, and I learned a great lesson through it all… Never eat chicken on a long trip in Mozambique! ☺

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to participate in most of the events that the team did, except for the feast we had Christmas day for the lame, blind, deaf, etc. We took the scripture literal where Jesus says when you have a feast to invite those who cannot repay you. It was beautiful! Some of the local village children also came and we had enough food to feed them as well. Many of the crippled gave their hearts to Jesus and were so touched. They said that no one had ever done anything for them like that. We serve such an awesome, loving God!!

The team was also able to share the Jesus film with two local communities and in the local prison, and many of those who heard the Good News also received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Another day they hosted a fun day for the kids of the community where the local IRIS church is located. Many seeds were sown in the hearts of the people of Lichinga through all that the Lord had us do there.

As for my seeing what the Lord might have for me longer term in Lichinga…. I feel that it is a wonderful place to walk out some of the dreams and visions that Jesus has put on my heart. The IRIS Lichinga team also has a vision to see local communities learn to take care of their orphans by being self-sufficient through agriculture. The first step is to get the children’s center to be somewhat self-sufficient by planting food and raising goats for meat and milk and chickens for meat and eggs. I am excited to help with all of these things when I return to Lichinga at the end of January.

Another amazing venture that I will be part of will be the process of taking in orphan girls. We plan to go on a ten-day journey to the villages where the team has already given out registration forms to register the girls who are full orphans between the ages of five and ten. We will collect and give the forms to Social Services so that they can verify each case. Then we will prayerfully choose 24 girls from about 140+ that have been registered and go out again to bring them “home”. I am so excited that the lord is allowing me to be involved in this process. It has been about 16 years since Jesus first spoke to me about taking in children that need loving homes and families, and finally I will be able to be a part of that reality for 24 precious treasures. Yeah, God!!

Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying for me (especially during the trip to Lichinga), and supporting me financially. Without you I would not be able to walk out the “beautiful hope and future” that the Lord has for me and also help bring it about for the people of Mozambique. Thank you for praying for the Mieze farm project divisions, which we accomplished in time for the families to plant before the rains came, and for praying for the preparation of Christmas gifts for the kids here in Pemba. The children were elated to receive their gift bags overflowing with amazing provisions of clothes, toys and other goodies, and it only took about 6 hours to give them all out. Hee! Hee!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with friends and family, and I pray that this New Year will be filled with the abundance of the Lord’s riches in your life and many ‘kisses’ from heaven!

New Beginnings!

"The Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lord!!!"

As many of you may know, I will be going back to Mozambique in October to once again partner with IRIS Ministries in bringing the love and hope of Jesus to orphans, widows, and the poor. I have had such an amazing time the past seven months reconnecting with friends & family and resting. One day I just cried as I realized how good the Lord has been to me. He has restored my natural family to me during this time and also my church family. I was able to spend 5 weeks with my church and friends in Maine and was so blessed by the renewal of relationships and support from my "family" there.

After returning to the States in March, I started praying about my next step in ministry, and every time I prayed I would see Mozambican faces. I didn't know if this was the Lord or just me, as I still had such a great love for these people. As time progressed I began to realize that the Lord was giving me more of His heart for the people of Mozambique. He reminded me of ideas that He had put in my heart to help the people become more self-sustaining in order to be able to care for the orphans in their own communities. One thing that I believe the Lord wil have me be involved in is agriculture, such as starting vegetable gardens, and raising chickens, and goats. I love gardening and have been researching ideas for ways of growing veggies in the mostly hot, dry climate of the area we live in. I see myself sitting with the people in the villages and learning what already works for them in growing different foods, and then giving advice on the ideas I have found that may help increase their crops.

The Lord has renewed my vision during the past months, and He says it's time now to step out. Yeah!! Initially I will be staying in Pemba in order to renew my resident document and link up with a team of people from IRIS to go out and start a new children's center. I don't know any details yet of who will be on the team or what village we might be going to, but I am so excited for the next step of this great adventure with my Jesus. As a friend recently said, I will be "living on the edge" and allowing the Lord to guide my steps. What an amazing opportunity to have my faith built! :)

Please be praying for me as I get ready to go home and reunite with my Mozambican family. I leave Maryland on Sunday, Oct. 12th and arrive in Pemba on Tuesday, the 14th. Thank you to all of you who have given clothing for the children and finances for my trip back to Mozambique. I am so blessed by your generosity and love. May the Lord coninue to pour out His abundance of love and mercy on you as you remember His Mozambican treasures!! .....Galatians 2:10

Garden Veggies

Here are a few pics of my mom and I working in the garden this summer and some of the fruits of our labor. Sam and Christina enjoyed helping us with some of the harvest, too!

Mom was able to can about 40 quarts of tomatoes, 100 quarts of dill pickles, 25 quarts of sauerkraut, 15 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 7 pints of bread & butter squash, 29 pints of red beets, and 45 quarts of green beans. She also froze carrots, corn, broccoli, and squash. Whew!!! I helped a litlle when I was around, but she definitely did most of the work. Cudos, Mom!!

Farquar Park

Sliding with Haley
Hmmm...this is a tight squeeze
Hello Mr. Duck!
Walkin' with Haley & Toni (my younger sister)

Plumpton Zoo

Posin' at the alligator pit!

Christina checkin' out the camel

Friendliest donkey award goes to this guy...

Mom ("grammy") and Samantha

The Greatest Show on Earth!

A few weeks ago I went with some of my family to the Circus and it was great! I think I only went once before when I was little and it was still just as amazing as I remembered.

(My brother Trent & I)

Nephew Sam with mommy Angie

Take me back to Siberia or I'll bite your head off!

Brooke, Mom and me

Harvest Hands & Playa Guiones

I had a wonderful time visiting my friends Rodney & Cindy in Costa Rica where they do mission work, helping churches and other Christian organizations who minister to the poor & marginalized. I got to hang out and see what they do on a daily basis at "Harvest Hands", including visiting the neighborhood of Los Anonos where they live and have made many friendships among the local people.

Mountains over Los Anonos

Typical dwellings of the poor

The 2nd week we went to the beach! Here's some of the view along the way...

After 5 hours of driving we finally arrive....Playa Guiones

There were many interesting creatures to keep us company, like bats, crabs, howler monkeys, lizards, iguanas, etc.

Most days ended with the most beautiful sunsets....and Rodney took advantage of the great surf!

Costa Rica!!!

I've been in Costa Rica for almost 2 weeks and will be heading home tomorrow. I have enjoyed seeing a wide variety of the facets of life here, from beach to mountains and the rich living beside the poor. Stay tuned for more to come...

Home!!!

Mmmmm! Baking chocolate chip cookies!

A hunting we will go!! Handsome nephew Sam

Beautiful nieces: Christina, Samantha, & Haley

Just wanted to let you all know that I arrived safely in Maryland three weeks ago after a nice long 20 hour flight from Joburg. Thank you so much for all your prayers during my travel!

Who would've thought that being in ones home country could feel so strange? After 19 months away, I definitely sometimes feel like I've come to a foreign land, but I also have such a deep peace about being home for this season of my life! I have been spending lots of time with my family here and in PA. Yesterday, I started helping my mom prepare the garden for planting, which we'll do in the next month or so. In May I'll have the wonderful opportunity to visit some friends in Costa Rica, and in August I'll be off to Maine for a month to visit friends and church family there. In between, I'll just have lots of family time to share in beach trips, BBQ's, my niece's 1st b-day, going to the circus with my nephew and lots of other fun stuff. Yeah!!! Seems that when you've lived away from home for awhile, everyday family events can be as precious as gold & silver. I am so very thankful that the Lord has given me this time to be with my family!!!