Well, beloved friends and family I am sure that you're as surprised to find a newsletter from us as I am that I remembered the password to log in here. Its been 16 months since my last post. What can I say about the past 16 months??? I think that I could fill books with all of my thoughts from then until now. I will simply start in January 2019. This started our second year as official base directors here in Dondo. The first year was beautifully greeted with a heinous break in on our base that led to months of sleepless nights and our dearest friends trying to regain their strength to make it through. 2019 started off with joy that we would soon be hosting our annual bible school and visiting teams. Our family and church family was coming from America in April which is always a delight. Everything was good until March 15th. EVERYTHING CHANGED. As all of you know this was the day that turned 2019 into a year of absolute chaos. Cyclone Idai blew through the central region of Mozambique utterly destroying everything that was in her way. How do I even begin to explain what this was like? I have never in my life felt loss like I did during this time, I was uncertain if my friends were alive as the winds and rains ripped roofs off and uprooted trees throughout our neighborhood and central provinces. Over 300 people sought refuge on our property, nearly all our trees were uprooted, roofs gone, water supply damaged and so many afraid, devastated Mozambicans seeking help at our door step. The following 5 months were a blur, I sometime have a flash back of something that happened and try to piece the memories together to comprehend what took place. I know that Gods absolute grace was on us during this time, we went to bed almost nightly at 2 or 3 am and woek up ready for the day at 6. Though it was an intense season, I am so thankful for all the Lord spoke to me during that time. Daily I was reminded of the Good Samaritan and how he was moved with compassion to help. Again and again He spoke "I desire mercy over sacrifice". I long to do what I do here out of pure compassion rather than religious duty. We had an amazing team that came to help us during this time, we made amazing friends and I am forever grateful for what we walked through along side those who came to live with us and serve. Also my mom and dad are able to come out and help which was awesome. During the Relief efforts our team was able to facilitate building over 50 churches, 200 houses, and feed over 12,000 families. During this time we had tremendous favor with the local government, and saw many miracles. Food multiplication, friends alive where they shouldn't be, trees falling but not crushing certain important buildings or falling just enough over to spare a friends life. God truly is Faithful. We visited America in August for 4 months. This was a busy season for me too. I know that furlough is suppose to be a time of rest but I can honestly say this was far from a time of rest. I really had to find joy in all things, and sometimes it was difficult. We managed to continue working with the relief team on the ground in Dondo while visiting churches in the States. Eric and Lincoln were fortunate to kill massive Bucks and an Elk this year, so hunting was a success for our family. Any one that knows Eric knows that we only return home during hunting season so these trophy animals were an absolute blessing to him. Eric and I had the opportunity to send some time in Jackson Mississippi and Mexica doing Ministry with dear friends. It felt good to arrive back home in Dondo with things calmer than when we left. The relief teams have left, though we still continue with house builds and food and material distributions things are slower than the past summer. We are in rainy season and just a few weeks away from the one year anniversary of the largest humanitarian disaster to hit the Southern Hemisphere, and things here are still grim and people are still in desperate need of help. Large relief agencies have mostly left with just a few internal workers here and there. For me being back home after what we went through has its pros and cons. I love my house, my friends and my routine. I am sad at all that has been lost and all that has changed. During the first weeks after the cyclone some of my very best friends moved back to the USA to peruse missions in Nepal. I have shared a yard with the Pulliam family for the past 3 years and consider them to be some of my best friends, I wish so often that I could just visit with them face to face. This is one of the saddest realities of the mission field, we had to learn it and teach our children that people come and go and often. We do however have an amazing new family that joined us mid relief. The Windon family arrived late June. Their sweet boy Titus is such a great little friend for Ahava. Our Missionary team now consists of our two families and we should have a single girl arriving soon from Romania. We are in full swing with ministry now, preschool started on base on the 10th of February with 81 precious kids. We are still re building some of what was damaged on the base. Eric is doing weekly seminars, preaching in various churches on Sundays, and I am running the preschool again along with our Mercy Ministries (formerly knows as our Widows Program ). Doing admin to keep the doors open and financial accountability strong. The kids are home schooling, Ahava is attending the preschool on base and cannot understand a darn thing that is spoken. She mumbles what she thinks is Portuguese and I am hopeful that she will pick up the language soon, she enjoys going. Eric goes out this week for a 5 day bush seminar and then we gear up for our School of Kingdom Advancement (our Bible School) in late March. I am going to do my best to update monthly (or more), I appreciate everyone who has read this far and thank you for supporting us whether in prayer or through monthly support. Those of you who are supporting us monthly are helping us stay in the country as it is quite an expensive to get yearly visas, pay rent, and utilities and we are also employing some workers and putting Song through College. You are changing our lives, our kids lives providing them with education and changing the lives of those we are able to help. God bless you all. If you have any interest in sponsoring a class room in our preschool, or our bible School please email me. Hearts and Hugs - Tawnya 16 months at a glance
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