everlasting joy!

This seems to tell the story....

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor.

 Instead of your shame
    you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
    you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
    and everlasting joy will be yours.

“For I, the Lord, love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
    and make an everlasting covenant with them.
 Their descendants will be known among the nations
    and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge    that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

 I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.

Isaiah 61:1-3, 7-11

Happiest 9th Birthday to our Nede! 

May "everlasting joy" continue to be yours! 

You are beauty from ashes!

You are a delight to the Lord--

and everyone who knows you!

death where is your sting

We've been asking the hard questions here lately. The ones where there are no answers. The ones that by finding 2 Thessalonians 2:7, I found comfort, "The Mysterious Wickedness is already at work, but what is going to happen will not happen until the one who holds it back is taken out of the way." 
Because, really we know that there's no answers other than God is weeping with us.
I want to ask "Why didn't God stop?" my friends nephew from being abducted and mutilated with body parts being used to make some evil person "rich". I want to say, "Why didn't God stop the bus from hitting her?" 
As I grow, I realize those aren't the questions to ask. Because, what I know of God is that He is ALWAYS good. No, these situations are NOT good AT ALL! They're absolutely awful. 
I've wrestled with sharing these tragedies with you-- I'd rather protect you from hearing the grimmest of grim that we see here. But, reality is, my friends, it's happening. And why? I do wonder. And, being in the positions we're in we're asked, "why doesn't God stop these tragic things?" 
I don't have the answer. The only thing I can promise is that God is always about good. The families of these children probably don't see this, I don't see this. No, not yet. 
This brought me to wonder if my view is too small-- too much of the here and now. Maybe I sit and analyze and only see our earthly life. Fact is, it's all I can comprehend at the moment so of course a premature death has nothing good linked to it. I do know though (in theory) that these tragedies that are pure evil are not God's good plan. Thankfully we can be assured that the story doesn't stop there. Jesus conquered life and death. Not just life. So, maybe the real thing I should be contemplating is what it will be like to see the fullness of God's goodness on the other side. Because, asking just the why's of now forgets about the promises of then.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 5:55

There is victory. In the meantime, there is grieving, yes, much, much grieving. And, the Mysterious Wickedness is surely at work. But, there will be a time when it's moved out of the way and the fullness of His goodness will be revealed. And then, and only then, will I understand. May I fix my eyes on the larger plan. The bigger view. The whole story!

Mvura Ye Upenhu Palliative Care and Hospice

And we're rolling....

How does one start a pilot palliative/hospice care program in Mozambique? That's the question I've toyed with for a good nine months now.

First priority...Mozambicans. I need a Mozambican to learn from and to train up. My impact in a community as a “pink person” (as Nede refers to us) is minimal compared to a respectable Mozambican. So...

This starts the 4^th week of my training Rebecca in palliative care/hospice. I have chosen Rebecca as my first “trainer”. For many reasons, she is the obvious first person for me to train. I have known her for greater than 6 years, she's been a friend but has also demonstrated compassion and care to the sick in the villages (out of her own initiative). She speaks English well. She's well grounded in her Christian walk-- these are great first steps. Rebecca has made many choices to reject her cultural “norms” and stand in a “Kingdom culture.” These were requirements for me in anyone I would work with on this program. So, with my first “trainer” selected, we've kicked off...

We have now completed 5 weeks of 2 days of training each week. First, we started talking about what palliative care and hospice care are. It's interesting as I start to recognize the philosophy that I so believe in just from being raised in America. The understanding of alleviation of pain and suffering are not the natural thought process here in Moz. The mountain is big!

Into the 2-3 weeks we spoke about grief and bereavement because, tragically, there was a traumatic car accident recently so these talks were not just theory-- it was needed practically. This week we started on HIV/AIDS.

Already I've been faced with many cultural questions and challenges. Imagine being told by the pastor, at the death of a loved one, “don't cry” you will see your loved one one day? Don't show your sadness!

Imagine believing that every death needs to be blamed on someone. There's no acceptance of accidents. There's no understanding of disease pathology-- there must have been a curse.

Imagine that I just spent the equivalent to almost $40 on a box of latex gloves! Oops, I need to do some shopping around for that! That will not be feasible (but necessary)!

To be honest, I'm not sure how to work with this. But what I do know is that I'm excited to try. I'm eager to keep teaching, I'm eager to start working with families. And, yes, we could dive in and start visiting but the crises was here yesterday, it'll be here tomorrow and, I'll feel so much better to start and do it well when we're ready. It's my goal that by October we'll have admitted and started visiting our first family with...Mvura Ye Upenhu Palliative Care and Hospice (Living Waters Palliative Care and Hospice) Because...Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. John 7:38 Yes, that is our prayer....

 Please pray for us!

We've also started recording for our Wildlife Animal players that our patients will receive. These girls have started recording music with Chad. Soon stories and scriptures will join them to bring peace and hope to our patients at the end of life. This is exciting...

(No, the video is not frozen, it's just one photo. I didn't know how else to share the song! ;)

(Wildlife Animal players which will play the music we're recording, along with scriptures and Bible stories)