Welcome to 2015! I cannot believe that it is that time already (plus a couple weeks, but who's counting right?) I apologize for my lack of blogs the last... well ... 3 months, I (Tawnya) got super sick, after 2ish months, multiple tests and blood draws I can only credit my recovery to a miracle. One day I was so sick and the next I was fine, praise God But now that all that is behind us lets talk about Mozambique! Late November our Base leaders Brian and Lorena headed up to Pemba to teach at the Harvest School that was in session, what was suppose to be 2 weeks turned into a little more than a month when their son came down with malaria and was put in the hospital, while they were gone we were in charge of running things here on base, this was a great opportunity to see things in a new light, really get to know the workers that we have here on base but mostly gain a much greater appreciation for what they do to make Iris Central run the way it does. During this time we celebrated Thanskgiving, yes I missed all the food (again, since we were in Pemba last year) but it was nice to have a quiet day, - minus the rat that decided to make our BED his. Lets just say that it was his LAST holiday. Lincoln turned 5 years old on December 10th, it was an amazing day and was such a huge surprise for him, we stopped talking about his birthday mid November and decided that we would decorate the house on the 9th so when he woke up on the 10th he would be surprised! We were able to find balloons and a had a Disney Cars themed birthday, with a few gifts, cupcakes, pizza and time at the beach. December started in to a busy time for us, we had two students come straight from Harvest School and stay on base for a couple weeks, during this time Peniel church in Beira had their 4 day youth conference which brought in about 2000 youth from all over Mozambique. Although we were not in charge of the event Eric facilitated a ride for any of the youth from our church that wanted to be a part of the conference, so he was there every night. Immediately after this we hosted a youth conference for the provinces that we cover through Comunhão na Colheita (the churches through Iris Global) here at our center. We were able to share the word, encourage and also plan for future youth seminars and conferences through out central Mozambique. Eric was able to take our visitors out on some 1 day evangelism’s in a nearby town, we were also able to continue with our Tuesday night youth discipleship and Thursday evening village outreaches, where we take some of the youth out and visit with members of the local villages, sharing the word but mostly just taking the time to pray and talk with people, it is a great way for the youth to learn how to stop and take a look around at their local communities and spot a need, or learn how to approach people and love on them and show Jesus in their daily lives. Christmas was a success!! We found a tree (plastic of course) and the kids made out well with new bikes, baby dolls, pirate ships, stockings and even a package from Grandma Carol in America, packed full of things we wrapped up for them to open on Christmas morning! It was a small quiet day, but it was special and the kids had a great time. The best part about Christmas to me was that we were able to bless some of our friends/helpers with chickens, beans, pineapples, and a little extra cash so that their holidays could be extra special. It was so awesome to see the excitement when we were able to just wish them a Merry Christmas or Feilz Natal and give them what cost us so little but made all the difference to their families over the holiday season. New Years eve Eric helped with showing some christian films in a nearby village for a friend of ours, me and the kids stayed on base and had a Mozambican firework display, --I was just surprised to see any thing like that here, the kids were to, but I am not sure how impressed they were after seeing the firework displays on the 4th of July in America. Now its January, on the first Sunday of each month we invite all the churches we are over to come to the base for a big church service, since it was the first Sunday of the month and of the new year we decided to provide a chicken lunch to each person, lets just say we bought enough food for 600 people and there were no leftovers, it was a crazy busy day but we were able to bless our churches and have fellowship. Last week we had a leadership conference here with the commission leaders from three of our privences. Our base directors have written a series of foundations of the faith books that we use to teach the leaders in areas and then the material is used by them to teach and strengthen the local churches We were also able to go over the calendar for the next few months and schedule training seminars and evangelism outreaches. We have a womens seminar this week, widows distribution, where we distribute food and supplies to about 150 handicap and widowed locals, we have Friday night evangelism and Eric and Peter will be going to a nearby town to teach the a leadership training book that was just written. Our Base is in the process of purchasing land to build houses on for widows in need, currently we are fixing up the houses that they are living in now but we would like to have our own housing that is used for the purpose of proving shelter for the widows or handicapped that we care for. We are also in the first stages of making the structures for a “church in a day” where we build steel trusses and have them ready to take to local villages in need of a church and set it up with a nice roof so that they will have the skeleton of a church and can build the walls as finances come in, immediately providing then with a dry sturdy place to have church in the mean time. We have so much going on the next few months I am very excited to share with you all of the things that we are able to be a part of here in Mozambique.
Thank You all for your love and support. The Weavers Eric , Tawnya, Lincoln and Haley
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