Our trip to Africa 2008

Hi everyone! We are back from our two-week outreach trip in Africa!

God did many amazing things! ALL of our stories are below (the ones that are first are ones NOT included in our newsletter! The newsletter stories are at the end!)!

Josh also says...THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TRIP, IN SHORT are:
1. Preaching Jesus and Him crucified
2. Being with my wife 24/7 and ministering with her (I,Liz, second that--this was AWESOME!!! We are the BEST team EVER!!!)
3. Doing what I am called to do

So yeah…ENJOY the stories! DO look at the picturesPICTURES (a slideshow!!) AND... VIDEO is COMING SOON to this site too!!! :-) :-) (If you want to see the pictures like you would in a big folder, go to the little yellow person icon on the left and click on "AFRICA". IT will send you to our photo gallery)




love you all!!!!

josh and liz


CHURCH IN AFRICA
These kids at the Maputo base in Mozambique, Africa (With Iris Ministries) have church on Monday, Thursday and Sunday, and wow, God gives them a FEAST of His presence every time, it’s amazing! He’s raising up the poor to own the Riches of His kingdom. The first worship service we went to had kids in the front packing out the altar and dancing these amazing in-sync African fun dances. I felt God’s presence so strong and a hunger for more of Him was stirred up in me. I wept as I thought about these kids and how little they have naturally but how they are the richest ones on this earth. I thought, I want what they have!

“Bush” Outreach: On our 1st weekend, we went to an overnight “bush” outreach. There we visited and encouraged two just-planted churches. The congregations that our leader, Pedro pastored, were made up mostly of children!
The first church was a little hut where we met together to pray. Afterward, we just played with the kids in the dirt, and sang songs with them.
The second church, just a few buildings down from the place where Josh and I stayed, was a simple concrete-room building with no door and three walls (one side was just wide open).
First, we had a service with the kids. God gave Josh a special word for them which he shared. That night, before we fell asleep in the tent we brought, Pedro’s wife made some ground peanut & coconut dish in their house, and Pedro shared stories by the light of a ancient looking oil lamp, about food multiplication and God raising the dead, and how God miraculously brought him and his wife together.
The next day, we just loved on the kids. I drew pictures and played with them. Josh did too, and he also took lots of video of the place where we stayed.
Wells are in the ground, where the water has to be drawn up by a rope, like Biblical times, and it feels like we went back in time since there is no electricity or running water and the toilet is a hole in the ground. And it’s very deserty and hot with little vegetation. The children’s clothes are often dirty and torn, and many of them fend for themselves. There, in the “bush-bush” of Africa, I learned that all we really need is Jesus--that He will provide for his kids even where it seems impossible to survive!

Children’s Center:The first outreach we did, was to another children’s center which Iris helped start (but it is not an Iris base), where Josh and I did face painting after a church service and gave out balloons. The kids went CRAZY over this (they loved it)!!!! Josh also shared about why Jesus is the most important thing in his life to them during the service, and we introduced ourselves to them.

THE SUITCASES
On the first day, we got settled in, and dropped off two extra suitcases loaded with toys, clothes, school supplies, etc. that we were donating for the children. We were glad to be rid of the extra luggage and put it into hands that needed it!

TRASH DUMP (called “Bocaria” in Portugese): The trash dump is this very long city dump, where people live and scavenge for food, clothes, and other items of value. There Iris has built a church, where we worshipped and sang, with kids pretty much fighting each other for even one minute of us holding and hugging and loving them (they are starving for love, not just food!).
The kids that know Jesus are so full of joy! They are more joyful than many in the States! And more loving, too! This tells me, we don’t need anything more than Jesus! He is everything!
With two kids each in our arms (then rotating for another set of kids), Josh and I tried to worship with the songs they sang, the sweat dripping from our faces (it was a hot day!). Flies were everywhere. After we introduced our names and loved on the kids, the pastor of the dump, once a “dump” child himself, preached an in-depth sermon over the noisy raucous of the kids, straight from the Bible. Then we passed out bread, and the little ones nearly trampled each other to get the bread. I have never seen such physical hunger. I noticed at least one tummy that was swollen from starvation. At the end, Josh gave out candy and a soccer ball for the kids to share there.

Then we divided into two groups--one would go to the people’s huts surrounding the dump where people lived, and another to the highest point of the dump where we would pray and ask God who to speak to. Josh felt led to go to a man who I call “the Coconut man”. He was surrounded by coconut shells! (Different people find different things, some sell plastic pieces, others fragments of coconuts, etc.) We talked with him and prayed for him.
Josh then met a man whose English name is Justin. They began to talk, and Josh found out he is a Christian who lives in the dump living off of collecting plastic. His English is good because he has learned from scraps of paper he found in the dump. He was also trying to find a roof for the place where he “stayed”. Josh was able to give him his own pocket English bible and a shirt and other items to help him along. He gave us his prayers and some prophetic words for us and the church of the West.
When we got back, we noticed that our nostrils were black from inhaling the burning garbage for only two hours. (There is no place on earth I wanted (physically) to never go back to again so badly). I don’t know how people can live there 24-7! I was so thankful for a cold shower when I got back! But I know God will probably want us to go back to be with his children!


A SPECIAL WORD
One night, a man was preaching to the children, and was saying how God has called many people to be preachers of His gospel--of preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God had just been speaking to Josh about that, so at the end we went up to the altar, along with the kids at the center! We got prayer from him and God moved mightily to confirm our calling to preach!

Also, The Sunday before we left, a man came and preached to the kids about having a dream for your life from God. He spoke about how Joseph, before being sold as a slave, had been given a dream from God. He knew God had big plans for him and was able to trust God even when things got hard or temptations came. When Potifar’s wife tried to seduce him, he refused because he knew it would mess up his dream God had given him. He related this to all kinds of temptations and stuff that the kids in Africa face. Drugs, sex etc. The presence of God was strong. Lots and lots of kids came up, crying out to God for a vision for their life, for a dream. I just wanted then to be used of God to impart dreams and visions for them.
I was weeping. I wanted God also to give me his dream just for me. I wanted breakthrough in personal areas of my life. So yeah I needed an encounter with God too.
The head of the Bible school came up to me and gave me a direct word from the Father. It confirmed my calling and also was an affirmation that God was going to bring breakthrough in those areas, too. Afterwards, a little girl came up to me and hugged me. The love of God flowed freely from her to me. Her arms were Jesus’ arms. It was amazing. I was being ministered to by her! I don’t even know her name but I will never forget her…



Text-only version of our newsletter:
Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! God answered prayers for His kingdom coming, salvations, healings, strength, vision and us not getting sick (Malaria is a problem there!). Also everything was provided for before we left! Thanks so much! For two weeks, from Aug. 25-Sep. 8, we were in Maputo , Mozambique in AFRICA, with IRIS Ministries . It went by like Haley’s Comet! It was beautiful, fast, and powerful--a life changing event for us and many others! We got back on September 10th, after two days of almost non-stop travel, one van, 4 airplanes, 2 layovers, 3 countries, lots of walking in airports, a bus, and a car! But it was all worth it…God did so much on this trip! OUR FRIENDS IN THE CENTERWe decided each day to eat in the cafeteria with the kids. The diet is: a loaf of bread per person in the morning with yummy tea, rice with a topping for lunch, and rice with a topping for dinner. We bought fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement the high starch diet! On the second day, still recovering from jetlag, we ventured out into our children’s center playground, and there we made our first Mozambican friends, about 8 little girls. They entered our world and us theirs by doing our hair into very tight little braids (it took about 3 hours at least--we were sore after but they did a beautiful job). The girls were our friends for the remainder of our stay and some even called us “mommy and daddy”! We held them, hugged them, played with them, and told them how much Jesus loves them! If you want to pray for them by name, they are: Maizinia, Jentrudie, Rosa, another Rosa, Ulga, Mercia, Regina, and Beniah (there were a couple other girls too but they didn’t hang out with us as much). We also showed the boys and girls pictures of our engagement and marriage. The girls and boys hardly see any affection between non-Christian couples there. It’s against their culture to show public affection between couples or even between/toward kids. So they would giggle happily and love to see our love for each other. Whenever they wanted us to kiss each other, they would all start yelling, “me beige”! (kiss!!) Joshua made friends with the young guys there, too, by playing basketball and soccer (mostly basketball) every few days, and just hanging out with them and eating daily at the base. It was hard for Josh to leave and he misses them now…and I am sure they miss him too! He especially made friends with a 16 year old guy named Anuncio. Anuncio loves to play basketball, can do amazing gymnastic flips, loves Jesus and really found a friend he could share things with in Josh. He’s very funny and crazy and Josh and him bonded quickly, and made each other laugh alot. Josh was able to share God-things with Anuncio, which he received openheartedly! OUTREACHESBesides making friends at the children’s center, we also signed up to some outreaches within Mozambique . Here’s a couple of the outreaches: Hospital Outreaches: We went on two hospital outreaches. On the first outreach, our leader (Domingos, who grew up with Iris, once a street kid but now a powerful preacher of the gospel), bought bananas for the hospital workers and the patients we would minister to. We divided up into a women’s team and a men’s team. As we prayed and laid hands on the sick, I and some others were able to give out a couple prophetic words as we prayed for them. Later we found out that there were testimonies of healing from the time we went (we aren’t sure how many, but at least two were a lot better, one lady’s leg was very swelled up and it went down and someone’s eyes got better). Praise Jesus! On Josh’s team (the guys), in every room they went to, Josh and the other men took turns to share the gospel and ask people to receive Jesus. In each room, almost every hand was raised! People there are so hungry for Jesus and accepting of Him. Wow! They want Him! This also happened on the second hospital outreach we went on! Prison Outreach: On this outreach, the guards brought all the prisoners out of their dark, dreary prison cells and had them sit against a wall. Then our leaders passionately and simply shared the gospel with them. Many wept and were so broken and raised their hands to receive Jesus. The presence of God was strong as we laid our hands on them, and prayed for them. Then we gave them loaves of bread, two each, and then some more until our big bag was empty! COMPASSION FOR A CALL A couple times when hanging out with the children at the Maputo base, I felt God’s love and compassion well up my heart, making me want to cry.There are 300 kids there altogether who have been rescued from abandonment, the streets, drugs, the trash dump, and other situations. While Jesus is their “mom and dad” right now, God can use us to be HIS hands and feet to them and givethem the love they need. Joshua said he experienced that compassion too…One day while there, he told me he feels God is leading us to go back for the school, then a two year commitment. I feel the Lord leading in this direction, too. Please keep us in prayer for His perfect will in all this! Thanks for being a part of our trip to Africa ! We give God all the glory for the amazing things He did!

We love you and God bless you!

We’d love to hear from you! Our address: 559 Gene Lane Valparaiso , IN 46385 •
Phone: 219.263.8665 (Josh) or 219.707.9380 (Liz) • Email: joshandlizinJC247@gmail.com

We love Africa

We're back!!! This is my friend i made in Africa at the Children's Center...her name is Maizinia...she is 11 years old, loves to dance, sing and do hair! She is amazing. I hope i can see her again...pray for her. Love you all