Thanks!

Here are the bales of clothes that we have purchased to distribute to the children. Carlos and the other volunteers have been very excited to purchase and coordinate giving the clothing to the children. This coming Saturday is the usual day when all the orphans gather to have a fun day. This month they'll all leave with new clothes. This is such a blessing. Thank you all who have helped to make this happen so quickly. Things don't often get done so quickly here in Africa. This is a wonderful ministry to be a part of and it is happening only because of your faithfulness. Thank you. A key phrase that Carlos speaks regularly is this..."Wow, that is a powerful ministry!" And I would agree, clothing these children..."This is a POWERFUL MINISTRY!" Thank you so much.

Thank you!

Muito Obrigada! Muito, muito obrigada!!!! I now have enough money to purchase the bales of clothes that we have asked for for the orphans! I can’t thank you enough or make you realize the impact this is about to have on the community! Thank you for your faithfulness. In the next couple weeks we plan to go purchase the bales of clothes in Chimoio (about 35km from here). I think it will take a few days to organize and arrange all of this. Once the clothes are delivered to the Rubatano center we’ll have to go through them, sort them and organize them for the orphans to come. Once we do this over 600 kids will go home with new clothes! I can’t wait! I will be sure to take pictures of the process and share them as soon as I can. I can hardly imagine what this is going to be like but the volunteers we work with are truly amazing and they’ll make this happen beautifully I am sure.

(Praying for an orphaned family after the volunteers bathed the children in the nearby river)


Before I left to come here a close friend/mentor told me boldly, "Dara, be prepared and available for the Lord to use you however He wills. It may look different than you're expecting. Just be willing to do whatever He asks of you." At the time I thought, "Of course, I am open for anything." Now I see what that meant. I have been gone about 6 months now and things are very different than I imagined they would be. We are still waiting on our nursing licenses to be recognized. This means we are still unable to treat patients. That's where these important words have encouraged me. God has asked me to do different things that I thought I would be doing. We still have hope that our nursing licenses will get cleared "any day now." In the meantime were educating the local volunteers and writing proposals to help Rubatano expand and strengthen the work they are already doing. One of the biggest things that I would like to see happen is for us to find a local Mozambican nurse to start working with the home care volunteers. If this were to happen that nurse could carry the work that Laura and I are meant to be doing. The whole heart of Hands at Work is sustainability. We want to support and encourage the local church and community to take care of their own people. This is so much more effective. We learn this more and more each week. Coming in as an outsider is very challenging. We not only look different and speak different but we don't understand how these people think. One day as we walked through the bush we crossed a small, dirty pool of water. We asked the volunteer we were with if that was the water that the people drink from. "Yes, of course." "Oh, great," I thought, an educational opportunity. So, being the nurses we are, Laura and I started in on the importance of boiling the water (in a clean pot of course)at a rapid boil for at least 2 full minutes. Our volunteer kindly, respectfully listened and then truthfully said, "Okay, good. Right. Yes, but the patients won't listen. They have been drinking this water their whole lives. They aren't going to change now."
"Oh, of course," I thought. Why would they change suddenly when the white girls show up and tell them that the way they are living is all wrong! So, the challenges continue.

Another funny thing is that this is the same volunteer who the other week saw me drinking water on a "cool" African winter morning and said, "You drink water when it is this cold?" (I am sure it was like 65 degrees). I said, "Yes of course! You don't?" He responded, "Sometimes I go one week without drinking water." Ah ha! That explains the headaches! :)
So, with that, please keep praying. Some days are long, some are discouraging, most are overwhelming but thankfully I know a friend who says this..."Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light." (Matt. 11:28) Thank you Jesus for this promise. I will wake tomorrow and face another day.

No Words

So many things here I can't even portray in words. Each of these pictures has a story. One day I look forward to sharing them with you personally. For now, my words are insignificant but these images have huge significance behind them and they need your prayers. Whatever you feel when looking at them, please pray.

A Few Shots...

I just learned a way to upload pictures more quickly...

This is a picture of one of the families that we did a story on with the film crew. There are 6 children and a mother in this family. Their father died about a year ago. They live in complete desperation, not knowing if they'll have a meal each day. This girl wakes early every day to go gather firewood. One day when we visited she had left at 5am (without any breakfast) and was returning at 1230pm carrying her heavy wood bundle on her head.

This is the youngest child in the family.

I saw this vehicle parked in town the other day- an interesting way to dry fish!

These are Carlos's beautiful children. A few weeks ago we drove to a swimming pool for the day. The girls enjoyed the Twizzlers that had been sent to me in a care package! It was a great way to spend the day away from the heartache of the usual routine.

Just a bike

The last couple weeks have been full. I have been a lot of places, seen a lot of things and observed the inside scoop of how Christian TV is filmed. There have been a lot of things that have tugged at my heart lately but today we were able to be part of something beautiful.
Yesterday when we were out doing home based care we saw a patient whom we had been told wanted to go to the hospital. This man has recently become a Rubatano patient. He became a patient after his very old sister met us on the dirt road one day. She knew that Rubatano volunteers walked that road on that day and she waited around to catch us. She spoke with the volunteer we were with and we decided to go to the home to see this patient. We walked up and down some hills on the small dirt path to this humble house. There we found a very ill man. He complained of abdominal pain (with a very enlarged spleen), nausea, vomiting, and a cough. Our options were few. We are still unable to give out medications and he lives too far from the clinic/hospital.
Yesterday we saw him and he seemed to have been drastically changing. He is now very thin- very frail. We discussed in-depth with the volunteers what we could do for this man. After much discussion we came up with our best solution. Today we carried out the plan. Three volunteers got up early and went to the man's house with a bike. They then put the very frail grandpa on the back of the bike and pushed the bike down the tiny dirt path to the main road. There we met them and drove him to the hospital. What a sight to see these dedicated volunteers pushing this ill man on their bicycle.
This afternoon we went back to the hospital to pick up the man and his wife. We drove them back to the dirt path where 2 volunteers waited for us. We then positioned our patient on the bike and off he went...pushed back up the hill to his house. It was incredible.
That inspires me. That is dedication. That is beautiful, that is what it means to care for the community. Just imagine…



I have been trying to upload pictures but this is the only one I had luck with so far.
These are some boys we met on a trail after there big hunt.

Bend or Break

This is just a quick note to touch base since it has been awhile. It's a busy but exciting week here. One of our friends from Hands at Work in SA is here with us now (which is great) and we'll pick up 7 more people at the airport tomorrow. There's a Pastor and film crew coming to Mozambique to do some filming of the work that is happening here with the home-care I am working with. They will go back to Canada and make an hour television program to raise awareness, prayer and financial support for Hands at Work and Rubatano in Mozambique. I will be sure to get the information out as to when this will air so you can see where I am and who I work with. It is all very excited.
Leading up to this there has been a lot of planning. As we know, plans are often changing- especially here in Africa. The best bit of advice I received before coming here is this..."You need to be flexible. If you don't bend, you'll break!" We are finding that to be VERY true."
There were 3 major things that we needed to plan before the arrival of our guests. #1: Hotel accommodations, #2: Rental cars, #3: Translators. Well, this is how week started. Last night we found out the hotel gave away our reservations as there was a big group that came and booked all the rooms (after WE had to write a letter requesting reservations and WE had to give the hotel written notice that we wanted to rent rooms. Weird). Then, we found out one of the translators got called to go do some translating in the capital city so she's unavailable. Lastly, one of the rental cars (which we were getting from the hotel) doesn't have insurance on it. Thankfully, God sorted all these issues out and they do have a place to stay (which may be better than the original place), we do have enough vehicles and Carlos did find another translator. So, as of right now, Tuesday evening, we think things are under control. Who knows what tomorrow will bring! Along with everything else I am learning I am also learning to not stress out and to trust that most anything can be worked out. There promises to be many more stories like this...please pray for things to continue to come together and to be a success. More later...

Special Hat

Santos is one of my favorite men here in Mozambique. We first met Santos when he came to South Africa for the Hands at Work Africa conference. Since our initial meeting we have shared many laughs. Although Santos can only speak a few words of English, and my Portuguese is still quite limited, we still manage to get by. The day we showed up to the Rubatano Center and Santos was wearing this hat I laughed so hard. He didn’t realize it was so funny. When I asked him why his hat had a hole in it he first said, “It’s for carrying,” and he took it off, put 2 fingers threw it and swung it in his hand. Later that day I was still laughing about it and he smiled and in his broken English said, “It’s a ‘special’ hat!”
Yes, it is special and I love it!

Clothe the Orphans

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Matthew 25:34-36

I have had many messages from people asking what can be done to help these dear orphans that I see on a daily basis. I have been really bothered by what these children have to clothe themselves in- often nothing but rags held together by a few threads.

After much discussion with Carlos, the leader of Rubatano Home-Based Care, we have come up with a dream. If we can manage to get enough money we have access to buy “bales” of used clothing. If we could buy 2 “bales” of clothing, the 633 orphans that Rubatano serves could each get 3 new outfits. So, I come to you to ask for your help. Here is what we need.

1 large bale of clothes = 18,000(meticais) equivalent to $750 USD
Transport to obtain the bales= 1,500 (meticais) equivalent to $63 USD
Total for 2 bales and transport is= 37,500 MT equivalent to $1,562.50 USD

In order to make sure that the money goes directly to the orphans we have decided the best way to make this happen is for me to have access to the money. This way we can go purchase the bales and we know that the money will just be used for this. I can also take pictures and share them with all of you so you’ll see the impact that this will make!

If this is something you would like to help with you can send money through my church in AZ (tax deductible). Please mail checks to: Highlands Church, 9050 E Pinnacle Peak Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85255. Make sure you make the check to Highlands Church and write Hands at Work on the memo line. If you're in MN and just want to get money to my mom that is also an other option, she can deposit it for me.
This way 100% of the money comes right to me and I will go with Carlos to purchase the clothing! (Could you also send me an email so I know what money is coming in specifically for clothes for the orphans? darajean15@hotmail.com)
Laura and I are really excited to see this happen. We have given a few articles of clothing to some children and when we have they always walk away with a new glow. I can only imagine how happy they will be when they get a new wardrobe! Please let me know if you have any other questions. Bless you!

3 Happy Girls!

This week promises to be a much better week than last. Today was the first day I felt like getting out of bed after my recent bout of tonsillitis (or as known here by some, tansilators). I was determined this morning that I was going to go out to the community again, regain my vision of why I am here and have a better week!
We did home care this morning, I had a good day but the highlight was definitely this evening. Our friend Jenny was over and as we were preparing dinner Carlos and his family showed up. He doesn’t usually come by in the evening so we weren’t quite sure what was going on. As he approached our house I noticed he was carrying packages. Not one! Not two! Not even three! 5 packages! That, by far, beats my previous record of mail received while in Africa! 5 packages in 1 day! Thank you for your love and thinking about US! After Jenny, Laura and I finished dinner we made ourselves a cup of tea, got comfortable on the floor and took turns opening the packages one at a time! The contents will be enjoyed by many over the next weeks and months! Thank you!
And now, to finish off our evening Laura and I just had an active cockroach hunt in my bedroom! Phew, we cornered the lil’ bugger, got him outside and smacked him with my flip flop! I am tired; I think I’ll call it a night!
Thanks for making it a great day!