Rob and Heather Blanks MOZAMBIQUE

Dear Partners,

Please thank God with us that our monthly support is complete!!!

We still need around $4,000 in start up money for our vehicle.

Recently our children got to meet Rodger Schmidt.  Our children have already taken to him and we are excited for them to meet Lynne, Andrew, and Stephen.  We are so blessed to have the Schmidt’s in Mozambique to receive us.  They truly are a gift from God!!!  Please pray for them as they lead our WorldVenture Mozambique team.

We planned to load our container this past Saturday but had a set back…the container never made it to the loading point.  We have rescheduled for next Saturday.  Please pray that this loading time goes well and our container makes it safely and expediently to Mozambique, and that there will not be any importation problems in Mozambique.

Dear Ministry Partners,

We have our plane tickets purchased, the applications for our visas are submitted, and our shipment container arrangements are underway!

We are at 98% of pledged monthly support registered with WorldVenture.  Praise God!!  This means we only need $160 more per month!

We are at 92% of our start up cost money!  We still need around $7,000 more to leave.

Thank you for your financial support.  God is so gracious!

Serving the King together,

Rob and Heather

Cedaredge, CO

A pastor friend of mine, Eric Schumacher, and a friend of his, David Ward, just published a song/hymn on missions.  Eric wrote the lyrics and David did the music.  

Listen to it here, worship, and meditate on its depth of content.

Go and Send and Pray

David Ward and Eric Schmacher

Lyrics:

O Lord, the peoples perish,

All scattered o’er the earth;

They give their praise to idols

And do not sing Your worth.

In Christ there is redemption

But how, Lord, can they know

Unless the Word is preached to them

So move us, Lord, to go.

Chorus:

Come and move us to join this cause,

May we go and send and pray

Until every nation, tongue and tribe

The worth of Christ display.

The Lord has charged His people,

Commissioned us to be

Ambassadors proclaiming

The truth that sets men free.

May we forsake our idols,

Our time and wealth and fame

To go and send and pray that all

May learn of Jesus’ name.

And we will be the fragrance

To all, of Jesus Christ;

To some we are the stench of death,

To some the scent of life.

O Lord, send forth Your Spirit,

Empower those who preach

To spread the fame of Christ the King

‘Till every land is reached.

And when the field looks barren,

When enemies assail,

Remind them that the gates of hell

Shall not be what prevail.

The seed that they have scattered

Has not been sown in vain;

May they press on in faithfulness

And trust what You ordain.

I am back from my short trip to Mozambique!  It was a mind blowing thirteen days!  Thank you for your prayer!  I would love to share more about the trip with you.  Please email me for that information.  Thanks!

Recently we found a thought-provoking answer to that question from no one less than an atheist:  Matthew Parris in “As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God: Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem–the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset.” (see article)

It is indeed striking to hear an atheist call for a worldview shift from the African thought that breeds fear and oppression to Christianity:  “Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change.  A whole belief system must first be supplanted.”

Enjoy this worship clip of our Mozambican brothers and sisters in Christ.  This video was taken on our vision trip to Mozambique in September of 2007.  Boy can they sing!

This special anniversary service in the capital city of Maputo is much more formal in nature compared with most others you would find in Mozambique.  They are singing in their mother tongue, Changana, not the Portuguese one might expect.  It was our observation that their exuberance and passion comes out most clearly when they are praising God in their first language, their heart language.  This reminds us why it is our goal to learn the heart language of the people of the Island of Mozambique–Makhuwa.

Marian and Hayden love listening and singing this music.  At a recent Christian school chapel service, where we were invited to share, Heather and Marian taught the kids this chorus “Akuna ofana naje” (where the j in naje has a y sound).  The basic meaning of the song is that there is no one like Jesus.  You can look all around the world (turning around), you can look really hard (hand above the eyes), and you can look all through the earth (hands down digging) but you will never find anyone else like Jesus.  That theme reminds me of Peter’s response to Jesus when many of His disciples were leaving:  “So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (John 6.67-8).

Elsewhere is exactly where we’ve been as of late. Where is elsewhere, you may ask? The dictionary simply says it is some other place. Our other places seem to be getting more complicated these days. We have spent this past year as missionary appointees. A fellow appointee calls us the “wannabees.” We want to be missionaries, but we aren’t yet. We have been making steps toward the dream God has given us to serve the people of Mozambique, Africa. For us it has been a trying year of moving, traveling, parenting, sharing, working, waiting, hurrying, teaching, learning, questioning, doubting, praying and fundraising! For one week we left all this behind to join with other appointees, invited guests, staff, missionaries and alumni-each from their own places all over the world-at WorldVenture’s annual Renewal Conference.

Our first two days at the conference were spent in a prayer summit. We sat in a circle with no agenda except to be with God. God’s presence through prayer was just the place we needed to be. As we prayed, confessed to the Lord and to each other, we found ourselves shedding off our other places. We felt our hearts being realigned from the doing for, to the being with God. It was precious to pray with missionaries who have served and lived through excruciating circumstances and are still praising God, still loving God, and still turning to God. It built our faith to see their trust in God.

After the prayer summit, we experienced God’s presence through the teaching of His word. Pastor Mark Hanke’s messages from the life of Jeremiah were poignant. He challenged us to be sustained through God’s calling, through processing our life (fear, loneliness, anger, and hurt) in prayer, and ultimately through His sovereign grace. God, from start to finish, from calling to completion, will finish the work that He starts. It was good exercise for us whose thinking is “prone to wander.”

At times during the past year, we have found ourselves wandering to the less than noble place of wishing we were, well, elsewhere. Elsewhere like, already in Mozambique or back in a normal life. But elsewhere is not where God wants us. “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere,” Psalm 84:10a. God brought this verse to mind driving home from Renewal Conference. Psalm 84 describes worshipers anxious to be in the presence of God. His presence is described as a place of strength and protection. This was true for us as we were refreshed in His presence through prayer and through His word at Renewal Conference this year. Our places have changed and will continue to change as missionaries. We are grateful for the reminder that God’s presence in our lives is better than anything else. And that is news good enough to take all the way to Mozambique!

I wrote this recently for WorldVenture Connection, WorldVenture’s quarterly news publication for the home office, missionaries, and allumni.  

God has blessed me with a great part time job working for John Carvey with Integrity Painting.  John Carvey is a gracious Christian man.  He grew up on the mission field himself (his parents were WorldVenture missionaries in the Philippines) and is excited about what God is doing in Mozambique.  This job will allow me to earn income for living expenses while also providing the needed flexibility for my other tasks of ministry, support raising, training, meetings, etc.  Praise God!  

Recently Heather and I completed Advanced Camp training at the WorldVenture headquarters in Littleton, CO.  This was the final stage of our training at the home office.  We still need language and cultural acquisition training for five weeks later this year.  

It was a great time to reconnect with other missionary appointees from around the country.  The fellowship we enjoyed was a tremendous blessing!

As many of you know, I have had the opportunity to do an internship under Hans Finzel, President of WorldVenture.  I cannot thank Hans enough for this opportunity.  

This experience impressed upon me the vital and difficult role of leadership and administration.  He showed me the value of vision and long-term planning in leadership.  I was particularly struck by Hans’ transparency and genuineness in life, ministry, and leadership.  

Thank you, Hans, for this internship.  

Thank you, Hans, for your leadership at WorldVenture.

The WorldVenture family is so blessed to have you.  May God’s favor and blessing be upon you.