Thank you for your prayers over the past weeks.  God is using them to sustain us.  WE CANNOT overstate the importance of your prayer in our lives.

Recently we have become more convinced than ever that we are fighting a battle of spiritual darkness, not physical, and the evil one and his emissaries do not want us here.  Over the last number of weeks we have been hit with a number of attacks and trials: the robbery, sickness in our family (which were with us for many weeks for Heather, Marian, Judah, and Josiah–we are all doing better now Praise God!), and a very real spiritual attack on Rob one night when he was home alone with Judah and Josiah.

Since the robbery we have replaced the old security bars in the windows in our house with much stronger and secure ones.  Steel bars across all windows and doors are a regular part of most larger houses here in Mozambique.

Through this time God is showing us how ABSOLUTELY VITAL our actions of prayer, believing and applying His Word, hoping in Him alone, and dependancy on Him are.  These are not merely nice, good Christian practices…THIS IS OUR LIFE!  Without Him we undone.  Our Father, and Him alone, is our provider in all things.  He sustains us.  He grants provision, and we have victory only in and through the blood of Christ.  HE IS FAITHFUL!

Thank you again for your prayer!

Continued Prayer Requests:

-Reliance on God and hope in Him alone
-Management of our daily activities and building consistent routine
-Continued Portuguese learning for Rob and Heather
-Continued cultural learning and adaptation
-Physical Health for all six of us

Thank you and God bless you!

Serving the King Together,

Rob, Heather, Marian, Hayden, Judah, and Josiah

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.

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

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.

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).