"Luxury is a warm blanket, soft pillow, and comfy bed," said Mark Biech, Director of Hope for the Nations Romania, quoting a friend who comforted him during a time of stress and frustration. "If I can have a warm bath and climb into a nice bed, even after a hard day, I can remind myself that compared to most of the world, I live in luxury."
Our team of nine was from the Boston area in the United States, and we were in Brasov, Romania, on a mission to do a home makeover for a needy family of twelve.
I recalled Mark's words the day we picked up the mama and one of her ten kids when they needed a ride to the hospital. At first glance she looked like the grandmother, only four and a half feet tall, with a shiny red-and-white scarf tied around black hair, and several front teeth missing. She wore a yellow knitted vest over a winter green blouse and a clashing long red, blue, and white striped skirt. In her arms, a young toddler with a knitted cap, whose chubby hands grabbed at his mother's breast.
On the day we picked up the mama and I figured, after ten kids in quick succession, she deserved the title "the mama," she handed over the infant to her eleven-year-old daughter, and in rapid Romanian gave her and the other six remaining kids (the eldest worked full-time), final instructions. She placed the injured child in the middle of the backseat beside Deborah and got in. I sat in the front while Mark drove. As we pulled away, I looked back at the pack of small children, led by a girl the same age as my own daughter, with an infant in her arms, walking alone, together, to the shelter. I was moved.
"Christina let me use her bath," the mama said, as Mark translated. "It was so wonderful, beautiful." Her face was childlike as she recalled it. She went on to say how she couldn't remember the last time she had a bath. I found that unbelievable.
Mark said, "Oh, yeah, they just sponge bath in the kitchen. With cold water."
We had just left their small two-room apartment. Deborah and I had spent the day scraping mold off the walls and ceilings. The mold infestation was unimaginable, completely discoloring large areas of the room. The apartment wasn't fit for habitation, and yet ten children were being raised there. The three men on our team stayed behind, with plenty to do. I have to mention that the bathroom was down the hall, shared by all the tenants on the second floor. There were two stalls with stained toilet bowls filled with brownish water, and no toilet seats. The floors were broken cement, and damp. The place was foul smelling, and I tried to imagine toilet training kids there.
The mama was still talking. "Thank you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" My head swiveled from the backseat to the front as she spoke and Mark translated. "You are an answer to prayer," she said. "My children are such a blessing, and they need help." (Wait a minute, did she just say ten children are a blessing!)
"I try to clean the mold, but it just comes back," she explained. "The children are always sick. My husband is so often sick and it is hard for him to work. I can't believe that this is happening. It is so wonderful."
My neck was getting stiff, but her flood of gratefulness continued to pour out. Her little son, squished in the middle seat, was drifting off to sleep, the shock of his injury wearing off. Then, tears. Two streams flowed down surprisingly youthful cheeks. With toffee-colored hands, clasped together as if in prayer, she said: "I am so thankful to God. Jesus has visited my home through you."
In that moment, it was all worth it. The effort and work of gathering a team together, raising finances, dealing with jetlag, and staying at a one-star hotel. Our team labored hard, and at the end of four-and-a-half incredible days, the family arrived. Just like the TV show, "Extreme Home Makeover," we worked right until the end. I was still scrubbing the new wood floor as I backed out the front door, while Mark was "Swiffer-ing" behind me. Then the family arrived. (Can somebody say, "Bus driver, move that bus!")
It was a moment we will never forget. The mama and her brood entered in stunned silence; then spontaneously broke out with applause. Soon there were smiles and tears, and exclamations of disbelief. No more mold, no more sickness because of mold. New walls, floors, a refrigerator filled with food. And three brand new sofa-beds, with new soft, comfy blankets and pillows.
Our two inside dogs lay sleeping fitfully by the bed, frequent, low growls coming from their throats. I tossed and turned and mumbled at them to be quiet and go to sleep. It was the middle of the night; the air was still and quiet other than the screech of crickets outside my window. The dogs continued their growls and grumbling so I turned over, pulling my pillow over my head. I fell back asleep only to be awakened a short time later by more persistent growling. Both dogs were
now prowling restlessly around the house. The chickens roosting in a pen outside the house had joined in the fuss, squawking and clucking.
Fearing a night visit by common predators, bush cats or snakes looking for eggs, I groggily pulled myself out of bed. Judy and the twins were traveling back from Canada and I didn't want to meet her with news of her pet chickens being slaughtered in the night. I shushed Odie and Anna, our inside dogs, and dragged myself across the bedroom and out to the front door. I turned the lock, the click sounding loud in the night air. I pushed the door open. As I took a step outside, the butt of a handgun came smashing down on the side of my head. Hands wrenched the door open and I was forced back inside with a machete in my face.
Men poured into the house yelling at me to give up my weapon. They forced me up against the dining room table and three times they yelled at me to give up my weapon. In shock I stammered that I didn't have one. "We know you are lying!" they yelled at me and jammed their weapons in my face, pinning me in place. They had seen military jackets in both our vehicles, a protection Judy and I both wear when going to town so we aren't harassed by bribe-seeking police. They presumed that we were military so of course we had weapons as well. They started yelling at me to tell them where the safe was.
Stunned, my body shaking violently and head pounding, I couldn't answer. Both dogs were ferociously barking and snarling, keeping the men confined to the dining room and office area. One of them turned and saw a square form in the dark, on the floor near the dining room table. "There it is, there it is," he yelled above the din of the dogs barking. They forgot about me momentarily and grabbed the safe, piling my laptop on top of it as two of them struggled to carry it out the door. Along with it went our printer, other office equipment and supplies, anything they could grab as they ran.
As soon as they stepped out the door I stumbled to it and locked it so they couldn't come back inside. The house was pitch dark as we don't run our generator at night. Both dogs were going crazy and my heart was beating like it would come right out of my chest. I could barely comprehend what had just happened and would have thought it all a bad dream except for the throbbing on the side of my head where they had beaten me. I tried to still the dogs that refused to settle down.
I collapsed on a dining room chair, belatedly gripping a baseball bat in one hand and a cattle prod in the other, both weapons we keep near the door in case of intruders. I sat there shaking for two hours, completely in shock. Once the sky began to lighten I forced myself to search for my mobile phone and called down to the Children's Home at the other end of our 10-acre compound, to let them know what had happened. Once I confirmed that the thieves were gone, and it was safe for them to come out, the house parents came up to see me. We went outside together and discovered that the group of thieves had begun their destruction before they had reached our front door.
The door of my Land Rover was hanging open, the interior a mess of broken plastic and wires where they had wrenched the dash apart and tried to hotwire it. Bolts lay scattered in the driveway from the driveshaft of Judy's Land Cruiser. They had spent considerable time trying to remove it. Papers and our office supplies lay strewn across the ground, leading up to our 10-foot cement compound wall.
In the opposite direction were more drag marks and chips off the top of the wall
where the men had somehow lifted the safe over. A few hundred feet away, down our hilly driveway, lay my motorbike where they had abandoned it - being far too heavy for them to push, the locked compound gate preventing them from taking it away. Over the wall, in the bush, we found many discarded items. I picked up my computer bag and my heart sank as I discovered it was empty. Farther over in the bush I discovered my laptop laying face down and covered with dirt and leaves. We also found the printer and other things, dirty and trampled on.
We gathered everything up and carried it back to the house. We sat together in stunned silence. Fighting back nausea and fear, I recounted what I could remember of the attack. As I talked with the house parents a few things became clear to us. The first, most obvious was the fact that I was alive. Armed robberies by rebel soldiers wandering back from Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire are becoming frequent and almost commonplace inside Freetown and in almost every instance they shoot and kill the homeowners. The second fact was that the men had been outside our home for sometime – trying to steal the vehicles and/or parts off them which are quite valuable around Freetown.
Another thing was that this attack was well planned as we found our two outside dogs totally incapacitated by drugs. The robbers were in a tremendous hurry to get out of the house and off the property. Because we are out in the middle of nowhere, there would be no reason for them to hurry so they had to be aware that the British military have taken care of us in the past and could be at our compound in five minutes. They had probably spent time watching our compound. All our animals had been restless and fussy since early evening. The attack happened just before 4am. Were the men waiting outside all night or did the animals just sense that something was going wrong?
These men came specifically looking for the safe. I had purchased it that very day in downtown Freetown. It appears that this was set up – the company sells the safes and then sends men back after it, hopefully filled up with people's valuables. All the years that we have lived in Sierra Leone, we have lived without a safe. We had another system that worked quite well, however an episode with some of our Dove kids the month before had convinced us that we would be more responsible if the money was harder to get at. Banks are not safe to use so funds need to be kept at the house. The kids had gotten a copy of our house key and had stolen many dollars worth of medicines, our personal belongings, and cash.
I was suddenly sick to my stomach with the realization that inside the safe was almost $20,000 US dollars worth of operating funds for the orphanage, building funds for our school and guest house, cash from the sale of our big utility truck, Christmas money for the Dove kids and personal support. It was all gone with the safe. Along with the horrors of the armed robbery was the realization of many blessings – I was traumatized but alive. The things that these men do to women are too horrid to mention, but at the time of the robbery Judy and the twins were being held up in London by a failed airplane engine. I hadn't yet had time to install the safe anywhere in the house, so it was sitting in the dining room, in full view so the men were easily satisfied and were out of the house quickly.
Because of lack of power and with a full moon just passed, the house was very dark, keeping the men from seeing other items that would have caused them to ransack the entire house. Our two inside dogs kept outside the reach of the men's weapons but put up a big enough fuss with snarling and trying to bite that the men were also discouraged from going further into the house.
We have to ask why this had to happen, especially after I was robbed in my vehicle earlier in the year as well. I don't think for a minute that God minds us asking. At the same time we have to focus on the blessings and the obvious fact that He kept His hand on me the entire time as well. I feel like I have failed, losing so much money that was intended for the work of Dove, even though reason tells me that there was nothing I could have done to prevent the robbery. It was well planned and executed.
Sierra Leone is rated as one of the worst countries in the world to live in. Judy and I certainly know from personal experience that it is one of the toughest to live and work in. But in all this we can tell you that God called us here for a reason. The children of Sierra Leone have no voice if we are not their voice. We do not know how we will manage with the loss of money being so huge, but we do know that we will stay. It is extremely difficult but with God's help we will persevere. Jesus gave His life for us. It is the least we can for Him.
Village outreaches are Iris at its most basic. This is the core of what we do. Here is where we meet the poor, the remote, the forgotten lost sheep of the world. Here the Gospel shines deeply into the darkness, facing head-on our frail human predicament, and all the despair and damage that Satan and his demons can cause. Our province of Cabo Delgado, classified by missiologists as unreached and unreachable, has been a land of syncretism and witchcraft famous for its resistance to the Gospel. But the power of the Holy Spirit is overcoming the darkness, village by village, and tonight we are launching out again.
Our team of staff and visitors are going to pack into three trucks, and after a typically intense day of meetings and business we start pulling our gear together. We need tents, sleeping bags, mosquito spray, flashlights, drinking water, and bare minimum of personal stuff so we can stay overnight. A Mozambican team has gone on ahead with our sound equipment, a generator, and a screen and projector for the Jesus Film.
We head south down our only paved highway and continue on in the dark. The air cools. The moon appears from behind clouds, casting a faint, silvery glow on the thatched mud hut villages that come up again and again along the narrow road. Without electricity, they seem ghostly quiet and deserted until children here and there dart across the road in our headlights. We then turn off to the east, taking a dirt road that winds around trees, ditches, and scrub brush, and through ruts and gullies. We are far from lights and telephones, shops, and gas stations. We feel alone in the shadowy night, deep in the African bush. Who could be out here waiting for us?
Finally, more mud huts and a clearing appear. We slow down and carefully thread our way between huts, turning sharply back and forth, and avoiding deep pits. Then suddenly, around a corner, we see the meeting. Bright images are flashing across a screen high above a crowd. Heads are silhouetted against the screen, which is showing a man commanding the attention of all those around him. The sound is crisp, carrying far through the night air. This entire village is also listening to the Master hearing His words in their own Makua language. They have not been forgotten. The Good News has arrived.
After the film Heidi preaches her heart out, going straight to their hearts with the Makua she has learned. Everyone responds, crowding around the platform, the flat bed of our big Mazda truck. They are jumping and dancing in clouds of blowing dust lit up by our floodlights. They are crying and shouting. And they humble themselves and pray, asking their incredibly great and merciful Savior to rescue them in every way. There is no resistance, no holding back, no indifference. They have recognized, many for the first time in their lives, what love is, and they cannot get enough.
We pitch our tents in the dark with our flashlights, finding space in a fenced-in little courtyard of swept dirt between huts. The night is cool. The unfamiliar stars of the southern hemisphere are brilliantly arrayed in a sky far from lights and pollution. Sleep comes easily, until the drums begin. And then until four or five in the morning the village witch doctors persist with their chanting and drumming in a determined effort to undermine our spiritual effect on their turf.
The next day, we teach, pray, and lay hands on pastors. Some are overcome by the power of God, shaking intensely on the ground with tears and supernatural joy. Our concentration, as always, is Jesus and Him crucified. We point everyone to the Cross. We are here to impart faith without which all our work is for nothing. Jesus alone makes all the difference. And again, there is no resistance. The witch doctors make no headway against the work of the Spirit.
The Word of the Lord is spreading through Cabo Delgado Province just like this, village by village, miracle by miracle. The poor and humble do not refuse so great a salvation. They do not want to live without Jesus, who has shown Himself to be the God of their deepest longings, and the only One who can deliver them.
We continue to be deeply moved and grateful for your generosity, and also for the interest so many have shown in becoming involved with us. We can make good use of nearly every gift, skill, and background as we build our infrastructure and send out more and more missionaries around the world. Thank you for loving us, praying for us, supporting us, and being thrilled with our God along with us! We love our family in Him!
My name is Leticia Diaz and I have three children whose names are Elizabeth (16), Josué (14) and Gorettí, aged three. I am a volunteer in the orphanage and I have been working for 18 months in the Casa Leonel. I am a single mother and have never had support from my family. I have always had to work to support my children, but this meant that they would have to stay alone for long periods of time, when they were much younger than they are now. They became rebellious and disobedient and were passing a lot of time in the streets.
My family doctor is a Christian, and he began to talk to me about God, and the possibility that my children could benefit from being in the children's home. I talked to my kids and they were in agreement to entering the home. Josué was the first, and he went to Casa Samuel. After that Elizabeth entered the teen girls' home. I kept Gorettí with me, but it was very difficult to work and care for her or to find and pay for someone to care for her. I talked to Pastor Nahum to see if there was a possibility that Gorettí could go to the Casa Cuna, and he told me that there was, but in order to accept her, that I too would have to go to the women's formation home - "Hogar Belen."
I struggled with the decision, but I was having so many financial problems. I was living in Cd. Guzman, but God wanted me in Colima, and began to shut all the doors until I had no option but to go to Hogar Belen. I left everything behind with the hope that I would be able to change my life. I only brought my clothes and my baby and came to Colima. It was very painful for me to be separated from my baby and I spent many days crying. During my stay in Hogar Belen, I learned to depend on God, as He was all I had. When I finished my three-month program, we were given permission to stay in one of the homes during the week of summer vacation when all the children are out. I was provided with food, milk, diapers, and a small offering.
After that week I was asked to stay in the Casa Leonel as a volunteer. Now I am able to visit my children every weekend and we are together every third weekend. We have received Christ into our hearts and attend Grupo Amor. We have also been baptized. Everyday we pray that the Lord will prepare us for the time when we can be together as a family once again. For now we are praying that the Lord will provide a little house for us so that we can be together on my days off.
I want to thank the Lord for all that He is doing in our lives. Thanks also to the people who are caring for my children and guiding them in the path of God - teaching them to love him and know Him better.
New Hope Center in Swaziland Opening its Doors and Heart to Children
Eight thousand children are orphaned monthly in Swaziland due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic as parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, and aunts are dying from the 42.6% HIV infection rate. Traditionally, there was no child left uncared for in the community because the African family tradition is to care for all the extended family. Children always had an aunt, uncle, cousin, or sibling to go to for refuge and care. Times have changed as the adult population is diminishing to levels that leave thousands of children without any living relative. The result is that many children are left stranded, living alone in the abandoned desolate homestead, living off insects, berries, and frogs. The children also find themselves living with strangers who abuse them and use them as unpaid labor - providing a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs but little else.
The surrounding nations, like South Africa and Botswana, have governments with resources that can provide child support of about US$120 monthly to the orphans living with relatives or strangers, but the Swaziland government is not able to do so and gives only US$10 monthly to some children. The government of Swaziland announced that all orphan children would be sponsored to attend school through funds donated by UNICEF. Recently, it was announced that these funds are gone and thousands of children were sent home before the end of the school year due to lack of money to pay school fees. This only adds to the loss of hope for a future.
The New Hope Centre targets children who have lost all hope of having a family to care for them. Children are referred to the New Hope Centre by teachers in the community, neighbors, strangers who see a problem, police, or pastors. In a few cases, the grandmother or grandfather has contacted us through the police or through pastors to request help as they have reached the stage in life where they can no longer care for these children.
One abandoned child was seen by a laborer. He came to the New Hope Centre and asked if we could help. We went with him the next day and found this little two-year-old girl under a tree; she was all alone and eating dirt. She was so undernourished she was unable to talk or walk. Her body was more like a five month old. We found out that all of her relatives had died and a neighboring family had taken her in, but they could not care for her during the day because they had to work. She was left under a tree by herself during the day. She could have been bitten by snakes, eaten by ants, raped, or even murdered by some passing stranger. Jedidah (the name of King Josiah's mother that means GOD'S DARLING) came to live with us and is now walking and starting to talk in less than six months.
The Children's Home is a permanent home for sixty children aged 2 to 12. It is a large wooden house on the Bethany Mountain where children are cared for and loved. Our children are happy, healthy, and understand their sense of purpose through God. This is the reason we exist - to bring life, hope, and a future where there is none.
This December was such a special time for everyone here in Mexico and we want to extend our sincerest gratitude to everyone who made the Christmas season special for the children in Partners in Action Latin American Ministries and at Rancho San Juan Bosco and Wa' Ta-Lus Kuatai Children's Home. The beautiful gifts and donations were well received and much appreciated.
This Christmas we spent with the boys at Rancho San Juan Bosco and it was a special treat for us to be able to spend this special time with them, and to be there for them during what for many is a difficult time. Thank you all for making Christmas a blessed and memorable time for them all!
We also enjoyed being able to attend the various Christmas programs with the children and it was simply precious to see all of their hard work and dedication pay off on the big night!
Once again thank you for making this past year so special and continue to remember us and pray for us in this exciting new year.
Feliz Año Nuevo y Dios Les Bendiga,
Jeremy Francis
Field Director PIA Latin American Ministries
We praise the Lord for the good performance of our children in their midterm exams. We thank the Lord for providing them with wisdom. (Proverbs 8 and 9)
Pray for our children to stop falling sick as often as they do. If we join in prayers together, we are sure the gentle hand of the Lord will reach out to them.
(Psalms 18 and 40)
Pray for our children to perform well in the forthcoming end-of-term exams. Since it is the last term of the year, they are anxious to go to the next classes during the new year.
(Proverbs 8 and 9)
We need some shoes, sandals, bed sheets and sweaters for our children. We are now in a rainy season and it is normally cold especially in the mornings and evenings when it rains.
Children say they need a special meal every weekend.
Mojo
Praise God that all the children are healthy and go to school.
We praise God that these children have someone to assist them.
Praise God that He has blessed our donors.
People whose life and property are affected by recent flood in the country.
For commodity prices to go down.
Boxes and storage lockers.
Hope for the Hopeless
We are enrolling more children in public school.
Pray for our project work and fund for our new home.
Sleeping materials, chairs and tables to sustain the orphanage population.
Extra funds for more food.
The Shepherd's Fold
For the changed life. This is both in their daily living as their bodily needs are met and able to go to school. The weekly meetings have made a great impact in their life, especially in their connectedness to God and ethical living.
The beneficiaries thank God and PIA for the monthly provisions and weekly Bible studies.
We thank God for our kids that they are healthy and can attend school regularly.
We want to thank PIA for standing with us to help the poor.
We pray for kids in our project to have the fear of God and know Jesus personally and have success in their studies.
We are praying for PIA staff to be blessed by God.
We are praying for all poor children and orphans in our country.
School uniforms
Money for school fees
Romania
For the children and our volunteers.
Our volunteers and supporters.
We are currently at 2000 diapers per month, but need 3500.
Funds to supplement children's meals with healthy snacks, yoghurt and fruit.
Funds for educational toys.
Funds for an activity room in the hospital.
Funds for a vehicle to transport children to the villages.
Remember the Poorest
It's always a joy to see little children streaming into the school compound after the summer holidays. We thank God for enabling us to add grade 1 to our education program this academic year.
We praise God for supplying our need for a new Christian principal for our KG School to replace the previous school director who left for the States recently.
Again, we're grateful to God for enabling us to purchase school supplies in time before the commencement of school. We praise God for two of the street children had baptized in one local church.
We are very pleased for most of the street children going to finish their vocational skills training and ready to start another phase of life of seeking jobs or other means of generating income.
Pray that we may have dedicated and exemplary teaching staff and that the school may be a vehicle for demonstrating God's love and mercy to the surrounding neighborhood.
We request your prayer support concerning the alarming inflationary trend because it's becoming virtually impossible to make any sensible price adjustments. Every two or three days there is an upward increase of commodity prices.
We ask you to stand with us in our effort to find a more conducive learning environment for our students living in the northern section of town. We need a place where they can get their tutorial lessons and some space for playing games.
We need more desks, chairs and other facilities to run the school on a more or less smooth condition.
We also need more teaching personnel.
Almaz
We praise God for giving us strength and wisdom to carry on with our work and for supplying us with the resources to help the orphan children.
We are grateful to God that he has helped our donors who supports us. God bless you!
House rent increased. Please pray for us.
Please pray that God might provide more of the necessities of the orphans' needs.
That God might touch the life of many of the children in deeper spiritual experience.
Pray for us that God increase our resources more abundantly, so that we may be able to adequately meet our planned objectives.
We pray that our donors might be able to raise ample funds and meet our request.
The biggest challenge we face is price fluctuation day by day. We are struggling to purchase items necessary for the month.
"Luxury is a warm blanket, soft pillow, and comfy bed," said Mark Biech, Director of Hope for the Nations Romania, quoting a friend who comforted him during a time of stress and frustration. "If I can have a warm bath and climb into a nice bed, even after a hard day, I can remind myself that compared to most of the world, I live in luxury." 
On the day we picked up the mama and I figured, after ten kids in quick succession, she deserved the title "the mama," she handed over the infant to her eleven-year-old daughter, and in rapid Romanian gave her and the other six remaining kids (the eldest worked full-time), final instructions. She placed the injured child in the middle of the backseat beside Deborah and got in. I sat in the front while Mark drove. As we pulled away, I looked back at the pack of small children, led by a girl the same age as my own daughter, with an infant in her arms, walking alone, together, to the shelter. I was moved. 
We had just left their small two-room apartment. Deborah and I had spent the day scraping mold off the walls and ceilings. The mold infestation was unimaginable, completely discoloring large areas of the room. The apartment wasn't fit for habitation, and yet ten children were being raised there. The three men on our team stayed behind, with plenty to do. I have to mention that the bathroom was down the hall, shared by all the tenants on the second floor. There were two stalls with stained toilet bowls filled with brownish water, and no toilet seats. The floors were broken cement, and damp. The place was foul smelling, and I tried to imagine toilet training kids there. 
My neck was getting stiff, but her flood of gratefulness continued to pour out. Her little son, squished in the middle seat, was drifting off to sleep, the shock of his injury wearing off. Then, tears. Two streams flowed down surprisingly youthful cheeks. With toffee-colored hands, clasped together as if in prayer, she said: "I am so thankful to God. Jesus has visited my home through you." 
It was a moment we will never forget. The mama and her brood entered in stunned silence; then spontaneously broke out with applause. Soon there were smiles and tears, and exclamations of disbelief. No more mold, no more sickness because of mold. New walls, floors, a refrigerator filled with food. And three brand new sofa-beds, with new soft, comfy blankets and pillows. 
Fearing a night visit by common predators, bush cats or snakes looking for eggs, I groggily pulled myself out of bed. Judy and the twins were traveling back from Canada and I didn't want to meet her with news of her pet chickens being slaughtered in the night. I shushed Odie and Anna, our inside dogs, and dragged myself across the bedroom and out to the front door. I turned the lock, the click sounding loud in the night air. I pushed the door open. As I took a step outside, the butt of a handgun came smashing down on the side of my head. Hands wrenched the door open and I was forced back inside with a machete in my face. 
I collapsed on a dining room chair, belatedly gripping a baseball bat in one hand and a cattle prod in the other, both weapons we keep near the door in case of intruders. I sat there shaking for two hours, completely in shock. Once the sky began to lighten I forced myself to search for my mobile phone and called down to the Children's Home at the other end of our 10-acre compound, to let them know what had happened. Once I confirmed that the thieves were gone, and it was safe for them to come out, the house parents came up to see me. We went outside together and discovered that the group of thieves had begun their destruction before they had reached our front door. 
In the opposite direction were more drag marks and chips off the top of the wall
Another thing was that this attack was well planned as we found our two outside dogs totally incapacitated by drugs. The robbers were in a tremendous hurry to get out of the house and off the property. Because we are out in the middle of nowhere, there would be no reason for them to hurry so they had to be aware that the British military have taken care of us in the past and could be at our compound in five minutes. They had probably spent time watching our compound. All our animals had been restless and fussy since early evening. The attack happened just before 4am. Were the men waiting outside all night or did the animals just sense that something was going wrong? 
Village outreaches are Iris at its most basic. This is the core of what we do. Here is where we meet the poor, the remote, the forgotten lost sheep of the world. Here the Gospel shines deeply into the darkness, facing head-on our frail human predicament, and all the despair and damage that Satan and his demons can cause. Our province of Cabo Delgado, classified by missiologists as unreached and unreachable, has been a land of syncretism and witchcraft famous for its resistance to the Gospel. But the power of the Holy Spirit is overcoming the darkness, village by village, and tonight we are launching out again.
We head south down our only paved highway and continue on in the dark. The air cools. The moon appears from behind clouds, casting a faint, silvery glow on the thatched mud hut villages that come up again and again along the narrow road. Without electricity, they seem ghostly quiet and deserted until children here and there dart across the road in our headlights. We then turn off to the east, taking a dirt road that winds around trees, ditches, and scrub brush, and through ruts and gullies. We are far from lights and telephones, shops, and gas stations. We feel alone in the shadowy night, deep in the African bush. Who could be out here waiting for us?
After the film Heidi preaches her heart out, going straight to their hearts with the Makua she has learned. Everyone responds, crowding around the platform, the flat bed of our big Mazda truck. They are jumping and dancing in clouds of blowing dust lit up by our floodlights. They are crying and shouting. And they humble themselves and pray, asking their incredibly great and merciful Savior to rescue them in every way. There is no resistance, no holding back, no indifference. They have recognized, many for the first time in their lives, what love is, and they cannot get enough.
The Word of the Lord is spreading through Cabo Delgado Province just like this, village by village, miracle by miracle. The poor and humble do not refuse so great a salvation. They do not want to live without Jesus, who has shown Himself to be the God of their deepest longings, and the only One who can deliver them.
My name is Leticia Diaz and I have three children whose names are Elizabeth (16), Josué (14) and Gorettí, aged three. I am a volunteer in the orphanage and I have been working for 18 months in the Casa Leonel. I am a single mother and have never had support from my family. I have always had to work to support my children, but this meant that they would have to stay alone for long periods of time, when they were much younger than they are now. They became rebellious and disobedient and were passing a lot of time in the streets. 
Eight thousand children are orphaned monthly in Swaziland due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic as parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, and aunts are dying from the 42.6% HIV infection rate. Traditionally, there was no child left uncared for in the community because the African family tradition is to care for all the extended family. Children always had an aunt, uncle, cousin, or sibling to go to for refuge and care. Times have changed as the adult population is diminishing to levels that leave thousands of children without any living relative. The result is that many children are left stranded, living alone in the abandoned desolate homestead, living off insects, berries, and frogs. The children also find themselves living with strangers who abuse them and use them as unpaid labor - providing a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs but little else. 
The surrounding nations, like South Africa and Botswana, have governments with resources that can provide child support of about US$120 monthly to the orphans living with relatives or strangers, but the Swaziland government is not able to do so and gives only US$10 monthly to some children. The government of Swaziland announced that all orphan children would be sponsored to attend school through funds donated by UNICEF. Recently, it was announced that these funds are gone and thousands of children were sent home before the end of the school year due to lack of money to pay school fees. This only adds to the loss of hope for a future.
The New Hope Centre targets children who have lost all hope of having a family to care for them. Children are referred to the New Hope Centre by teachers in the community, neighbors, strangers who see a problem, police, or pastors. In a few cases, the grandmother or grandfather has contacted us through the police or through pastors to request help as they have reached the stage in life where they can no longer care for these children. 
One abandoned child was seen by a laborer. He came to the New Hope Centre and asked if we could help. We went with him the next day and found this little two-year-old girl under a tree; she was all alone and eating dirt. She was so undernourished she was unable to talk or walk. Her body was more like a five month old. We found out that all of her relatives had died and a neighboring family had taken her in, but they could not care for her during the day because they had to work. She was left under a tree by herself during the day. She could have been bitten by snakes, eaten by ants, raped, or even murdered by some passing stranger. Jedidah (the name of King Josiah's mother that means GOD'S DARLING) came to live with us and is now walking and starting to talk in less than six months. 
The Children's Home is a permanent home for sixty children aged 2 to 12. It is a large wooden house on the Bethany Mountain where children are cared for and loved. Our children are happy, healthy, and understand their sense of purpose through God. This is the reason we exist - to bring life, hope, and a future where there is none.
This December was such a special time for everyone here in Mexico and we want to extend our sincerest gratitude to everyone who made the Christmas season special for the children in Partners in Action Latin American Ministries and at Rancho San Juan Bosco and Wa' Ta-Lus Kuatai Children's Home. The beautiful gifts and donations were well received and much appreciated.
We also enjoyed being able to attend the various Christmas programs with the children and it was simply precious to see all of their hard work and dedication pay off on the big night!
