tanya's travels

2010-12-31T10:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!!

May 2011 be a year overflowing with many wonderful surprises from Papa God! I pray that you would be filled with joy unspeakable and that your faith would increase as you receive and bask in more of His amazing LOVE!

Love & blessings,

Tanya

Helena's House

2010-11-13T06:01:00.009-05:00

Some photos of a house that we were able to help purchase through Mercy Ministry for a widow named Helena. Her husband died and she was left alone in Pemba with her 3 children and no nearby relatives. They were homeless and living on a neighbors porch before we were able to help.

the house

the family in their new house...Helena is on the right with her 3 daughters and one little neighbor boy

roof "trusses"

bedroom door

Planting Time!

2010-11-13T05:52:00.003-05:00

As the harvest season comes to an end in the northern hemisphere, here in Mozambique we are just finishing field preparations and praying for the Lord of the harvest to bring the first rains of the year so we can begin planting. He is so faithful to give us all that we need!

I had a wonderful time in Lesotho in September at the Farming God’s Way in-field mentoring. There were about sixty of us from many different countries, all with hearts to see poverty broken off the lives of the African people. The amazing truths from God’s Word, along with the agricultural techniques and management principles that I saw demonstrated are like keys in the hands of God’s servants to unlock the yokes of poverty and oppression in Mozambique and surrounding nations.

In October I began teaching FGW to the workers at our new farm in Metuge, where we hope to raise much food to feed the poor and orphans. I was also able to visit and teach those in our church in Mieze who have small farms of their own, and am currently teaching FGW at our Bible school here in Pemba to the 3rd and 4th year students. Every one is excited to implement the FGW practices on their own farms this year and to have the Lord bring them out of poverty and into his abundance. They are learning how to trust him and him alone for all they need and we look forward to hearing many testimonies of God’s miraculous provision!

Thank you for continuing to remember us in your prayers and through your generous support. Please pray for the Lord’s blessings to rest on us in all we do and for his continued provision for the least of these. Pray that the Lord will continue to add to our number those who have a heart to minister to the beautiful people of Mozambique. He is good and we trust him in all things!

Pics from my Lesotho trip...

Breaking Free from Poverty

2010-08-12T05:19:00.000-04:00

What a busy, fast track season it has been since I returned to Pemba end of May. As soon as I returned, I resumed responsibility of overseeing projects and food distribution for 240 people in our Mercy programs. In two months we have been able to get a few more thatch roofs recovered and new homes built thanks to the generous donations of visitors and mission school students. Thank you Lord for always providing for your children!

My roommates and I took on a new laundry lady in June, and she had quite the story. Beatrice is one of the ladies I had gotten to know in the Mercy program. She is a young widow with 6 children, and had no job and no way of providing for her kids, except the 5 kilos of rice and 5 kilos of beans that she received from us every 2 weeks. One day I asked her how she lived before meeting us at IRIS and coming to be part of the food program. The house they lived in before we helped them buy a new one last year had big holes in its roof and sides. It looked as if it may fall in on top of the family. They had no beds, so Beatrice would go to the town dump to find old discarded coal sacks for her and the children to sleep on at night. When the rains came they couldn’t sleep because rivers of water would come pouring through the sides of the house and when it was dry snakes came in to sleep with them. Beatrice says that the neighbors just laughed at them. The children cried to her in hunger almost every day, and the older boys would go to the dump to look for old bread and rotten food that might still be good enough for Beatrice to cook up for them to eat. Now she has income and is even able to choose foods that she wants to buy for her children in the market. Praise you, Lord, for your amazing love and provision!

Later I cried, as I thought about the reality of a lot of the poor here. They literally have nothing, and Jesus has brought us here to share his good news with them but also to help them break free from the cycle of poverty. One way that I feel the Lord wants me to help people be released from generations of poverty is through Farming God’s Way. This is a way of farming that teaches very basic and simple farming practices that produce much food. It also teaches about wisely stewarding the land that God has given us; including blessing the land and breaking off curses. I am so excited for the opportunity to go to Lesotho in September for a week long ‘In-field Mentoring’ program with the leaders of FGW and others who have a heart to see poverty broken off the lives of God’s precious people in Africa!

From Our "Village of Joy" Family to Yours

2010-03-20T15:32:00.010-04:00

1. Discipleship group of some of the ladies who care for our children

2. Mercy program- making grass purses

3. Mercy program- making bead necklaces

4. Mercy program- helping in the garden

5. Two of our beautiful girls

Greetings from Lichinga!

2009-02-10T07:34:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-01-10T08:21:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-09-20T18:09:00.004-04:00

"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

2008-09-13T18:28:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-31T15:12:00.003-04:00

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

Plumpton Zoo

2008-07-31T14:48:00.004-04:00

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!

2008-06-24T21:16:00.003-04:00

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

2008-05-26T12:49:00.003-04:00

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!!!

2008-05-11T12:40:00.004-04:00

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!!!

2008-03-28T11:48:00.006-04:00

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!!!

Going Home!

2008-02-23T04:57:00.002-05:00

Blessed by my family to move on in the Lord...

Good friends will be missed much!! I love you Rabia!

After almost 3 years of serving in Pemba , my time here is finally coming to an end. On February 12th, I will fly to Cape Town for a friend’s wedding and also visit a few other friends in SA, before heading back to the States on March 5th.

This past November during a night of teaching in the mission school, the Lord spoke to me and gave me a vision of doing different things with my family. I saw myself planting a garden with my mom, going to the beach with my family and being at my mom’s annual “Fall Harvest Party” in October, among other family outings and get-togethers. The Lord said to me that he wanted to give me a season of being a daughter and sister. I cried and cried, because it is something that I have really been wanting: some time to be a kid, but also because I thought of how much I will miss my precious family here, and all the great cultural stuff that has now become part of me. Pemba has become my home and the people my family, so it will be a bit sad to leave and a very BIG transition, yet I am very excited for the opportunity the Lord is giving me to love on and be loved by my family!

A few things I will really miss about life in Pemba……..
1. The babies and all the children at the center who have really wiggled themselves into my heart over the past years, especially Carlito and the girls in the room whom I help give extra love to on a regular basis.
2. Speaking Portuguese daily and trying to figure out what Marcelo (one of our older boys) is rattling off to me in Makua.
3. Church services African-style: 3-4 hours long, singing traditional Makua praise & worship songs, and dancing in worship till you drop! I love it!
4. Baptisms in the Indian Ocean .
5. Missionary friends who have been like moms, dads, brothers, & sisters for me here. I will miss them all dearly!
6. Amina & company!! She has become such a sweet Mozambican friend to me. Even though she started out cleaning our house, she’s feels like a sister now and her kids like nieces and nephews!
7. Hearing “Mana Tanya, Mana Tanya!” yelled out wherever I go. (Mana means big sister in Portuguese.) Even the kids in the village behind our center all seem to know who Mana Tanya is, as well as market and street vendors in town vying for a purchase.
8. Frog symphonies in rainy season and cricket symphonies during dry season.
9. Friendly critters, ie: bug eating lizards, toads, bush babies (little monkey looking animals that cry like babies at night)
10. 4:30AM sunrises and the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life. This is Africa !
11. Towering baobab trees with trunks even wider than a redwood tree. Beautiful!
12. Swimming in the warm and beautifully crystal clear water of the Indian Ocean .
13. If you are half an hour to an hour late you’re still right on time

And a few things I definitely, well, probably won’t miss…….
1. People begging for something everywhere you go, because of your skin color. Here “white” equals rich. Even if you are poor in America , you would be looked at as rich here.
2. Unending need for maintenance on everything! Everything you can buy here seems to break within 6 months to a year.
3. Not-so-friendly critters, ie: big flying cockroaches, tukwehs (Makua for biting ants) that find their way into your clothes, centipedes (yuck!), scorpions, poisonous snakes, etc.
4. Feeling like you could just melt into a puddle on the ground because of the intense heat (100-120 F) and humidity (90-100%) during rainy season (Dec.-March)!
5. Witchdoctors beating on their drums and chanting through the wee hours of the morning. Talk about intense spiritual warfare!
6. Being "proposed" to more times than you can count by men who just want a “rich” white woman to take them to America!
7. Always looking over your shoulder or across the street for possible “banditos” (thieves) every time you walk down the road from our older, smaller base to the newer, bigger one.
8. Malaria, cholera, worms and other ‘known to Mozambique ’ illnesses….

But, after all is said and done, I will miss this place and people very much! Whether I get the opportunity to come back or not is up to the Lord, but the community of Pemba-Iris will certainly remain in my heart forever!!! Please pray that my transition will not be too difficult and that miraculously I won’t have reverse culture shock, but that I will really be able to enjoy my time back in the States. Pray for traveling safety and favor with luggage, etc. I will be traveling on these dates: Feb. 12th from Pemba to Cape Town , SA, 18th & 26th within SA, & March 5th & 6th back to the States.

I am so very grateful for all your support and prayers over these past few years, and look forward to partnering with you once again when the Lord shows me my next step to the nations! Many blessings to you all and please continue to keep in touch!

Email: tanybo@yahoo.co.uk

Carlito (almost 3!)

More of my family in Pemba

2008-02-23T04:51:00.006-05:00

Preschool buddies with teachers Ancha(L) & Olivia(R)

My girls & Carlito... (back L-R) Zelinha, Bina, Luisa, me, Carlito, & Fausia....(front L-R) Lila, Atija, Paulina, Catarina, Mariamo

Missionary mom and dad (Jacques & Mary)

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T13:33:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Dear Friends & Family!!!!!

This Christmas at Arco-Iris Village of Joy was definitely the most joyful and amazingly blessed out of all three years that I have been here to celebrate the birth of Jesus with my Mozambican family. We had two teams of visitors and one family who came especially to celebrate with us, bringing with them many gifts for the children and missionaries, including over 100 soccer balls for the boys and many beautiful skirts and sundresses for the girls.

Holiday festivities began with the traditional room decorating and candlelight service on Christmas Eve. The children danced and sang their hearts out, worshipping the one who was born to die for them. Then they each received a lit candle and humbled their hearts before the King of Kings during a time of adoration. Afterwards we all enjoyed a special treat of ice cream and popcorn, which a previous visitor had donated finances for. The children were so excited to have ice cream and sat patiently waiting while mission school students, visitors, missionaries and tias (“aunties” who care for the children on a daily basis) dished up and handed out the treat. We had so much ice cream that every child got a second cup, and everyone finally went to bed around 10:30PM very happy and excited for the coming day.

On Christmas morning all of our almost 200 children received brand new blue Iris t-shirts and got themselves ready for the day. At 10AM the same groups of adults that helped the previous night to decorate each of the children’s rooms also handed out Christmas presents to those children. Everyone was so excited and joyful at how the Lord had provided beautiful new clothes and toys for them. The older boys each received a soccer ball, and the younger boys also received different kinds of balls and cars. So there were about 100 balls being kicked around all at the same time! The girls were delighted with the new skirts, tops and dolls that they received and were soon doing fashion shows for us and each other. There certainly was not a sad face in the center yesterday morning. All were rejoicing!

At noon we all joined in for the annual Christmas chicken dinner family style with just our kids and center family first. At around 1:15PM the doors to the center were opened, and about 800 to 1000 children, women, and men came to share in the joy of filling their bellies. The community children also received little bags of candy and cookies along with either a tennis ball or stuffed toy. Smiles were abounding!

Thank you to all who have poured out your hearts in prayer and your pockets in giving so that we are able to bless abundantly these treasures that the Lord has put into our care! You are a great Christmas present to us through the love you so generously pour out. I also want to thank those of you who have specifically lifted me up to the Father on a daily or weekly basis or have given financially so that I too can keep giving. Without you I could not continue being His hands and feet in this place.

Blessings to you as you celebrate the love and joy of our Savior during this holiday season. And may the Lord pour out an abundance of His Holy Spirit and provision on you in this New Year!!!

Love,
Tanya

Holiday Festivities!

2007-12-26T13:12:00.002-05:00

Making Christmas cake

Dancing up a storm!

Silent night, holy night....

Adoration to the King!

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!

2007-12-26T12:40:00.002-05:00

Dishin' it up

Yum! Yum!

Serious business!!!

Blessing of Christmas presents.....

2007-12-26T12:25:00.001-05:00

Waiting to be distributed!

Blessed beyond measure!

Mana Tanya with some of her girls!

.....and more presents!!!!

2007-12-26T12:04:00.002-05:00

Boys showing off their new soccer balls

Missionaries sharing in the joy

Little boys playing with their new trucks. Vrrrmmmm! Vrrrrmmmmmm!

Annual Chicken Feast!

2007-12-26T10:47:00.003-05:00

Waiting for chicken and pop!

Carlito digging in....

Natalia & Mana Emelyn

Mario

Lila, Mariamo, and Mana Tanya

Thank you supporters!!!

2007-09-14T13:05:00.001-04:00

Birthday girls! Thanks to those of you who support me financially, each month I am able to take the girls in my room who have birthdays that month to a local store to pick an outfit that they like. (L to R)Milda, Fatima, Rema

Thank you Andrea for our new clothes!

Missionary Emelyn with baby Natalia whom she cares for (see June article "Home in Pemba!") Natalia is now 7 months old, very healthy, and full of joy!

Thank you Laura for my new dress!

Pemba Coastline and Fishermen

2007-09-14T12:52:00.000-04:00

Faithful One

2007-09-14T12:41:00.000-04:00

The Lord has been so good to me in the past two months here in Pemba . A week ago I was able to move out of the noisy house I was living in to temporarily stay in the mission school housing until the room being built for me is completed. It is like being in heaven or on vacation compared to where I was. So peaceful and quiet that I can really spend quality time with Jesus and hear him speaking to me in a still small voice.

Last week, the day after I moved in, I came down with the symptoms of malaria and a quick test revealed that for the first time in 2 years I had malaria. Even though I couldn’t do much at all this week, I have realized what a blessing it was to have time to rest, read and spend time praying and worshipping. Apparently, malaria attacks and destroys red blood cells faster than they can reproduce, which means that oxygen doesn’t get delivered to all the parts of the body as timely as usual. This can make you feel weak, dizzy, forgetful, body aches and a number of other symptoms from lack of oxygen. The treatment for malaria helps the body to fight off the malaria microbes so it can rebuild healthy cells. Thankfully, I have been recovering at a pretty steady rate from day to day and am hoping to get back to work tomorrow, but it may still take a week or so to get my full strength back.

Two weeks ago I returned with a team from a two week outreach to the province of Niassa in a town called Lichinga, where there is a small newly planted IRIS base. Working alongside the team from Lichinga, we were able to show the Jesus Film and share the gospel in different villages on all but two nights of our trip and many people were saved. This area of Mozambique is one of the most unreached, so to see all these people coming to Jesus who had never heard of him before was quite a miracle. Their hearts were really open and ready to receive this good news! I had the opportunity along with others in our team to pray for a boy who had been lame for 1 ½ years. He was unable to walk or stand and was often in much pain. After praying for him for a few minutes he said that he had no pain at all in his legs and could turn one of his feet from side to side, which had previously been impossible. We shared about Jesus with this boy and that it was Jesus who was healing him. He then asked Jesus to forgive his sins and come into his heart. We continued praying and after about ten more minutes he was able to stand without holding onto anything or anyone and without any pain at all! Then we shared about Jesus with the rest of the family and the little crowd that had gathered outside the door to the house, and many of them put their faith in Him. A few days later we got a report that the boy was now able to walk across the courtyard. Hallelujah! God is continuing to pour out his love and mercy in our midst and we give him all the praise and glory!

I really enjoy hearing from many of you from time to time and am so thankful for your commitment to pray and support financially the work that the Lord is doing through us here. Please continue to pray for the following:

1. My health to be fully restored and for my body to be totally immune to malaria so that I won’t get it again.
2. Continued spread of the gospel in the Niassa province and for God to raise up strong leaders to disciple the people in love.
3. More wisdom, guidance, grace, mercy, and love for our leadership in dealing with the day to day struggles of a growing ministry to the poor and Fatherless.
4. My room to be completely constructed by the start of the next mission school.

Blessings to you all and may you set your face like flint before the Lord (Isaiah 50:7) in all that he has called you to!

Home in Pemba!

2007-06-26T03:22:00.000-04:00

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

About 3 weeks ago, after our staff retreat in the
south, I made it back to Pemba safe and sound. I had
a hard first week of transitioning back into life
here, but God was so faithful in surrounding me with
old and new friends who are an amazing support. Thank
you all for praying for me as well. I really am
surrounded by His arms of love!

As far as work goes, I have been helping to get the
resource room/library up and running for the kids, and
next week I will start teaching one of our educators
how to teach pre-school. Hopefully in the near future
we will also have a prayer team to pray for and with
the kids.

While I was away, we received 2 precious little
treasures in the todlder house. One is baby Victorino
who just turned one year old and is full of life
despite his small body, which is due to malnutrition.
The 2nd gift was 5 month old Natalia who also came
very tiny and very sick. She has been here almost 2
months now, and under the care of fellow missionary,
Emelyn, has put on weight and really come to life!
She was diagnosed with a reflux disorder, but even
that sems to be on its way out. Thank you Jesus for
your healing power, especially among the smallest in
our family! Please pray for Victorino who is
currently battling malaria for the 2nd time in 2
weeks.

My housing situation is a bit interesting and I would
appreciate your continued prayer for me in this area.
IRIS Pemba has grown very large, very quickly, so
there is currently a shortage of longterm missionary
living space on the bases. I am now living in a house
that is smack dab in the middle of all the offices,
children's homes, mission school housing, Bible
School, and the caferia. I think originally it was
intended to be offices for the prayer house, which is
literally connected to the back of the house. To put
it lightly, it can get a bit loud here at times, and
the only time it's usually quiet is 9 or 10 PM till
5:30 AM. I have found that Jesus is giving me an
amazing grace to be able to live here and feel that He
has even promised to make it a "Dwelling Place" for
His presence. Yeah!!

I want to thank all of you who have been faithfully
praying for me and supporting me financially. I have
seen God come through for me many times already this
year through your faithfulness to run alongside me.
My prayer for you is that "the eyes of your heart may
be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to
which he has called you, the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints, and his incomparibly great
power for us who believe." Eph. 1:18-19

Blessings and love to you!
Tanya

Russian country outing

2007-06-12T00:37:00.003-04:00

We went out one afternoon and played on this hill overlooking the town of Armavir

The whole gang with Armavir in the background- (back row) Slavik, Lera, Connie, George, Matthew- (front row) me, Anya, Nastya, Paula, Jo

First time kite flying in Russia

Beautiful Russian countryside

Bowling

2007-06-12T00:25:00.002-04:00

STRIKE!!!

Greetings from Armavir!

2007-05-16T05:22:00.000-04:00

Ecc. 3:1 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..."

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow! It seems as if the past 4 months here in Russia have flown by, and in two short weeks I'll be heading back to Mozambique in time for our annual IRIS staff retreat. This has been such an invaluable season of prayer, worship, healing, freedom and learning to rest in the Father's arms. Without a doubt I will be going home a different person. More like the woman God created me to be in the first place. Hallelujah!

In the past week I have been thinking a lot of Pemba, the children, and my missionary friends there. It will be so good to see everyone and to love on the kids. Carlito is now two years old and others tell me he's talking up a storm and sometimes even bossing them around. Although we only spent three weeks together when he was 6 months old, he still has a huge place in my heart, and I like to spend time with him as much as possible.

When I return, I will no longer be responsible for overseeing the entire children's center but will be involved with ministry to the children in other ways. There are three areas that I will most likely be helping in. The first is doing art/creativity with the children with another missionary and possibly incorporating that with times of prayer. I would also like to teach them more about prayer and soaking in God's presence. The second area would be to disciple/mentor the older girls and encourage them to live lives of purity. The third would be to possibly help with our brand new resource room/library for the children that was opened two weeks ago.

So, I'm excited to be heading back and sad to be leaving another wonderful family here. I have truly felt the tangible love of the Father through the arms of my family here in Russia.

For those of you who are committed to praying for me, here are a few requests:
1. Safe travel to South Africa on the 29th of May, to Mozambique on the 1st of June, and to Pemba on the 6th of June.
2. Smooth transition from one country, culture, and language to the next.
3. Grace and wisdom in carrying out new responsibilities in Pemba.
4. Jesus' love to be continually poured into me, flowing through me and poured out again to others.
5. Provision for travelling expenses and other needs.
6. Anything else the Lord puts on your heart!

Thank you for your unending love, prayers, & financial support. I pray that God's abundant goodness and mercy will be continually overflowing in each one of your lives!

Love,
Tanya

Christmas Day

2007-04-28T11:22:00.002-04:00

Christmas day 2006, bringing out the gifts for an extremely excited group of our toddlers.

Receiving their gifts from Mama Aida.

Girls full of joy in their new Christmas clothes.

Each missionary is assigned to a room of children to care for. We take the kids to the beach, buy little gifts for them periodically, pray with them, and sometimes tuck them in bed at night. These are the girls who were previously in my room before all the children were moved around according to age in January 2007.

My new room of girls all age 7-10, except Luisa (top L) who is 15 and helps with the littler girls in the room.

Graduation Day

2007-04-28T11:04:00.001-04:00

Graduation ceremony in our big tent for the Mozambican Bible School and IRIS International School of Missions in Pemba, December 15, 2006.
Ministry time at the end of the 7 hour ceremony.

Jesus, let your FIRE fall!!!!

More, Lord!

Heidi and Lesley-Anne in traditional Mozambican dresses.

Amina

2007-04-28T10:03:00.001-04:00

Amina with her 3 children, Beto-2, Gabriel-10, Helena-7 and neice, Estefania-10 (in aqua shirt). Amina is a friend who has helped a few of us to do housekeeping and laundry for the past year in Pemba. In April 2006 we helped her buy a new house after hers was washed away in a heavy rainstorm. Her original home was a one room dwelling of bamboo and mud.
Amina's new finished house! (December 2006) Most people in Mozambique cannot afford to make their homes secure with good doors, windows and cement, but God provided for her through a visiting team.

We had curtains made as a Christmas gift for Amina to hang on her new windows that were installed before the cement went on the walls.

A few of us went to celebrate with a chicken dinner to bless Amina in her new home. (L to R) Laura, me, Varya, Emelyn

Xima (kind of like mashed potatoes but made from corn meal) and chicken with sauce. Yummy!!

Carlito

2007-04-27T08:17:00.000-04:00

A day at the beach with Carlito!

Russia Team

2007-04-27T07:58:00.000-04:00

(From top left clockwise) Lesley-Anne, Varya, me, Connie, and Paula at the IRIS International School of Missions graduation day Dec. 2006

Lesley-Anne directs and teaches at the school of missions in Pemba. Paula has been a missionary in Russia for 13 years and started a ministry called Living Waters (see link) to help people suffering from the traumas of war in Chechnya. Varya is her Russian assistant director. Connie is Paula's new P.A.