Life goes on... because it must.

"I again realized that I am blessed only to be a blessing. I am here to be an ambulance, and a hearse, a friend and a shoulder to cry on. I am here to hurt for others as Jesus hurt for me. I am so blessed, God, let me also be a blessing." 
(Rick Neufeld, June 5th, 2013)

Was a tough day for us yesterday. Our friend and employee, Maganesu, lost a child yesterday. A beautiful baby whose life ended because of a lack of doctors to perform the C-Section Maganesu's wife desperately needed. Doctors are on strike here at the moment, and that most likely contributed to the problem. She laboured for nearly 12 hours and then waited for a surgery to be open for another 4 before finally having the C-section performed. By then it was too late.

 Today Rick is driving home with the body of the child in the truck, being held by family members because no coffin for a child that small could be found. 

Lord.... why??? Why must a parent hold their child like that? Why ? Why must doctors demand a wage far above anyone else in the country and yet provide service that is sub par to begin with? Why are the medicines and supplies continually stolen leaving hospitals and clinics woefully understocked and unable to assist? Why do we have to watch our friends lose child after child to diseases and problems that are preventable and treatable? Why does my heart hurt so much? Why cant I stop the tears from falling this time? What is different about this situation? I see so much death and suffering nearly every day here, and I cry for each one, but this particular child seems to have resonated deep within me. Seeing Maganesu's face and watching my husband sob as he prayed over the family, as he wept alongside this man that is not just an employee but a friend. As three of our staff come to inform me that they cannot build a coffin for an infant that young because culturally only the older women will take the child, wrap it in a capalana cloth, and go to bury it alone. Building a coffin for an infant that small without permission of the local Regulo (chief) could result in a fine. Coffins are for people. Traditionally, infants that have not yet eaten a "meal" are not considered people yet. (And we thought that was a North American problem...) There will be no funeral procession or proper burial, since babies who have not yet taken their first meal or breath when they are born must be buried in the soft wet ground by the river so the mother will not become infertile....   I again ask.. Why ???

( Felicio watches the video I took of him)

Just this week I posted a video of little Felicio, one of the Amigo Orphan kids, not even old enough for school yet, reciting Psalm 139:13- (this is my English translation of the portuguese he recited)  "YOU created every part of my body, YOU have formed me in my mother's stomach." (see link to video at the bottom of this post, in the video we laugh because he was mixing up some letters, saying porco (pig) instead of corpo (body) I have placed the link at the bottom, bc of the value of the verse it represents, not to make light of this situation)  As a local Pastor told Rick today,  "I am a Christian, I believe the Spirit of God resides, even there, in the child in the mothers stomach (meaning that even an unborn child has a soul, and is in fact a person) but how can I change the minds of everyone? This tradition is so old." Even the Christians, like Maganesu, struggle to do what they know is true in their hearts, when there is the threat of a fine or worse, if they do not follow traditional practices.

Last week I got a card from my mom, saying she was praying for a different one of the farm employees, Meque, who has lost 8 family members in the last year. She recounted sharing with an acquaintance about it and this person had responded "well, they (as in the local mozambicans) are probably used to it". My mom of course was astonished at the callousness and replied that no, actually, the people here grieve the loss of every family member and love each of their children just as much as north americans do. They feel that death as keenly as anyone would, and weep just as we do. The only difference is that here life must go on, just to survive they need to pick themselves up, and keep going. Just to feed themselves they HAVE to go back to the fields or thieves and cows will steal their only source of food for the coming year. They HAVE to go fetch firewood and water or their remaining family members wont be able to eat or bathe. They HAVE to keep on, "keeping on". They dont have a choice. They dont have the luxury of several weeks of bereavement leave, they dont even have the luxury of a week to prepare to "say goodbye". Most are buried within 24 hours of death, their simply is no place to keep a body.  

 Our mission staff sat in stunned silence and sadness today as they heard about the death of this child. Not a single one of them is immune to this sort of thing. Many of them have pregnant wives right now and know all to well the dangers a complicated birth can bring especially here, more than 40 kilometres from the nearest Maternity centre. Most of them do not make much by Canadian standards, but will humbly contribute a small amount from their wage to support a friend who has lost a child and needs help.

They may not grieve the way we do. But they do grieve. They may not bring casseroles over to support the grieving family, but they give of what they have.

On the days when I just feel like asking WHY? I am so glad that I have the knowledge that God is sufficient for my needs. He is sufficient for the needs of those around me. He is not scared of my "why's" or my tears or even my anger. He is waiting to comfort me and give me Peace that passes all understanding. He is doing the same for Maganesu and his wife. Even for his two young daughters whose crestfallen faces last night were more than this momma could bear to see. Because this world is not perfect, and because we live in a place where things often do not make sense, I HAVE to rely on my Father God who sees the much bigger picture than I do. I am so grateful that I can rest in Him, so grateful to be able to put my hurting heart into His loving hands. 

I have no idea why this particular death has made such an impact on me. Maybe its because Maganesu has worked closely with us for two years on our house, maybe its because Rick was the driver of the ambulance and now the hearse. Maybe because I know the father's heart that Maganesu has, oft times RUNNING to protect Tendai, dust her off when she has fallen or rescue her from a bug when she screams, simply because he cares. Maybe its because I might be just stressed in general. Whatever it is, this one has hit me hard. I know this blog is normally photos and brief updates, but I have felt God impressing on me lately to share not just the ups of mission work, but also our stresses, our moments of anguish and pain, and the struggles of living and working in a place that is more and more our home, and yet will never truly be. To share all of these things alongside the joys and highlights and successes. I wrote about the challenges of working cross culturally several posts ago. And today I have confronted those things once again. As I struggled to understand a culture that wont allow proper burial for fear it will render others infertile, and as I cried in front of three of our staff, I was again reminded how very different our cultures are. I know these men were incredibly uncomfortable to see me crying like this. I know they wonder what I am thinking, or why I am so upset by this part of their culture. I know that they also respect me for trying to understand and for being willing to show my tears and fears and being willing to put aside my own culture and to allow them to wrap this child and lay it in the ground at the rivers edge, despite knowing full well it will do NOTHING to protect the fertility of the mother, or anyone else. 

Lord, please help us to be a light in this darkness. Help us be a beacon of light and hope into a culture full of traditions based on fear and spirits of anger and retribution. Help us learn to better navigate in this community as we struggle to understand. Help us to remember to rest in You, and in You alone. Help us to remember that we are here for a reason, each and every day. Today, that is to be the driver of a hearse, tomorrow it may be to speak a word of encouragement to a struggling pastor. Another day it may be to assist a widow or orphan. Whatever the reason is, Lord, help us to be ready, help us to be willing, help us to be open to Your leading.

Life must go on.......

Thanks for the prayers... Heather (and Rick and Tendai)

A Blur of photos

Hi all, it seems I have once again fall far far behind in updating the blog. So, in attempt to catch you up,  im going to provide you with a whirlwind of photos,  in no particular order, but hopefully it will help you get a feel for all thats gone on in the last month. Rick has been up north for the past week, and when he gets back Im sure I will be able to have a full blog post just from his pictures and videos alone, which will be nice!

 Rick and Armando tiled the shower.

 The truck with most of our supplies arrived, as well as rolls and rolls of fencing for the farm.

 Our house workers bringing our new washing machine down to the house. Been saving for awhile to purchase this- will make a big difference! Our old one has been on the fritz for quite a while now and finally kicked the bucket two months ago! 

 Working on assembling the kitchen cupboards.

 After years of no storage, we made very certain this kitchen would have PLENTY.

 Main bathroom... see that thing in the back left corner? Its a bath tub. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this- havent had a bath at home in FIVE YEARS!!!!

Gladys is VERY happy about the new washing machine- shes been washing the laundry by hand for months now!

 Tendai giving Chupicai (one of the Amigo Orphans) a "new" coat.

 Mae Farecia was LOVING her new coat!

 We purchased a stroller to help little Malachias to be able sit in a more upright position, using tightly rolled blankets to support his body and head.

 wasnt so sure about Ricks beard at first... but after a while he was giggling!

Everyone is very happy with the new chair.

 The wood boards for our kitchen cabinets have been planed and prepared... now to sand them down, stain them and finish them for installation.

 Rick and our Puppy, Higgins, enjoying a brief rest after a hard days work.

 Local kids gathered to see what the fuss what about, when I became ambulance driver after being asked to take the brother of one of the farm staff to the hospital. He was extremely sick with pneumonia.

 Little Suzanah giving me her best smile!

 We had friends (fellow missionaries) from up in Tete come visit and help me deliver food to the orphan families.

 After being sorted out by visitors from Canada, we were able to give new t-shirts and dresses to all of the Amigo Orphans and their caregivers.

 Tia Johanna was thrilled with her new dress.

 Visitors from Canada took time to try their hand at pounding the maize in the traditional way.

 And separating the chaff from the kernel afterwards.

I was able to visit with Linda and her newborn twins, and the midwife who delivered them, less than twenty four hours after they were born!

 Tendai was given a set of REAL doctors scrubs, just in miniature size from Kyra who was visiting from Alberta Canada- her dad runs a medical supply store!

 Using her REAL (albeit not very functional) stethoscope to check on daddy. (dont worry he wasnt sick really)

 We chatted with our Home church via skype, and spent the time waiting for the connection to get started taking selfie pictures of our little family. 

 Yeah... that was interesting.

 Went for a family hike for supper one night, and discovered a whole BUNCH of nasty scorpions. This is a mama with tons of babies on her back!

 ACK!

And weve seen a few wonderful sunsets as well- this one i stopped on the side of the highway to take the picture.. i just couldnt pass up the chance it was so lovely!

Thanks again for your prayers and support. Tendai and I have been home alone this last week as Rick has been up north leading seminars. We appreciate all the prayers since Rick has been travelling on horrible roads, and so far has had no problems. 

We hope to be moving into our new house before the end of June, Lord Willing. Our main holdup at the moment is the plumbing- it needs to be installed before we can move in! We would also like to have the cabinets installed as well, since they are a lot of bits and peices that could get lost in the shuffle.

God Bless,

Rick, Heather & Tendai

Of this and that and a few other things.

Every other week or so, the Amigo Orphan kids who live close enough to our base to walk here, come for a meeting with Pastor Mariano. They spend a few hours, playing, singing, hearing a Bible story, and especially lately, memorizing scripture.

A few of the verses the kids are memorizing.

We have given them a challenge to memorize 10 Bible verses this year, and if they can do it, they will get a prize! We are hoping to hand out lovely portuguese children's Bibles if we can find enough cash to purchase them. The children who live close by are getting lots of help because they have the meetings to come to where Pastor Mariano is diligently demonstrating new ways for them to memorize and encouraging them. Hopefully the children who live a bit further off will be able to memorize as well- we will have to make sure to encourage them quite a bit!

Some of the girls reading from the Portuguese Children's Bible.

Last Friday we had an orphan program, which most of the local kids attended since they are on holidays from school. Usually the kids are broken up into two groups, some who come in the mornings and some who come in the afternoons, since they attend school at the opposite time. It was so nice to have all of them together again and to spend some time playing and chatting with them.

Rimbudzai 2 (there are Rimbudzai's in the same family so we distinguish them by a 1 or a 2) brought her tests from the first term of school for me to see. She had very good marks in almost all of her tests, with only a few below the passing mark. Here kids are graded out of 20 and with pressure on teachers to prove their position of power over students, it is rare to find find kids who are actually excelling enough to get these types of grades! It is encouraging to see that there are many kids in our program who are not only passing, but passing WELL!

In addition to the scripture memory challenge, we have also challenged the kids to really work at getting good marks this year. The attitude here is, "as long as I pass, who cares? why bother putting in effort to get a higher than passing mark?" We want to encourage the kids to strive for excellence not just in their schooling, but in all areas of life! One of the things we are doing to motivate them is by letting them know that at the end of the school year, those with an average of 15/20 on their school marks will be going on a "little trip." They dont know where, or when, or what they will see, but the prospect of going on a little trip has most of them so excited they are working VERY hard to try and reach that 15/20 average. We are hoping we will be able to arrange to take them north of here, to a game reserve where they will be able to see lots of wild animals- which most of them will have NEVER seen before- there is even the possibility of seeing elephant and lions- a true adventure for anyone, let alone these kids who were thrilled last week to see Dwight and Lynn's little Duiker, Pumpkin wander thru their game of soccer.

In other news, our house is trucking along- though at this point it feels like every small thing takes FOREVER!!! We are finishing up odd jobs right now, such as the final plastering under the overhand of the roof, the lid on the septic tank, painting touchups, roof work on the porch, etc, while we wait for our order to arrive on a really big truck from South Africa.

The mission is purchasing fencing for the front of the farm as a security measure, and its coming from SA, so we were able to combine our order with that and get a much cheaper rate on transport costs. All of our toilets, sinks, tub, showers, cabinets, remaining paint we need, and even our fridge will be coming on the truck! We cannot wait for it to get here!!! :) Our goal had been to be in the house by our 12th anniversiary on the 28th of April- but the order from SA has taken much longer than we anticipated, so it looks like I will have to hope on being in the house before my birthday in June instead.

 

Please pray with us during this "home stretch"- we are still short of funds, and have had to borrow from other areas to purchase these items up front. Pray the remaining funds will come in and that we can get the work done, even with Rick spending a good chunk of may up north doing Children's Ministry Training seminars!

We had family photos taken this past week, which was a good thing bc Rick woke up on Saturday morning with one side of his face VERY swollen and in pain. Despite several days of antibiotics, etc, the swelling has only increased and at this point we feel he has been bitten by a spider. We are seeking medical advice from South Africa regarding how to proceed, but we ask for your prayers- Rick has quite a bit of pain now from the swelling and is pretty uncomfortable.

And, just purely for the sake of cuteness to brighten your day after that lovely pic of Rick's swollen face, here is a pic of Tendai and our two dogs, Magnum (the big black one) and Higgins, (the soon to be big brown one) playing in the grass. :)

 

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! Since I started writing this blog update this morning, Ricks swelling has already started to go down somewhat! We pray it will continue to go down further, and stay away! (the last few days it has gone down, but returned in the evenings, though today it has gone down the most) If you would like to get in touch with us, to drop us a word of encouragement or get more info on how you can pray for us, or support us, please use the email up on the right hand side of the screen.

God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai Neufeld

 

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