Hi Everyone - I'm Heather's Mum. She has asked me to add this blog as she is ill with malaria. Please pray for her. You know how much she believes in the power of God who answers prayer.

thanks

New wine

hi
How are you all? i guess most of you nam people are at new wine now. hope it is going fabulously! am really missing it this year! God is going to do amazing things. Am praying for you all. Please let me know how it went and what God did in all of your lives. Chris did you enjoy club one?! Bet you did. Am so tired today, we stayed up all night last night praying in the prayer hut. Was totally awesome to spend so much time with Jesus. We have to do it more back in chelt! Anna i miss our times in trinity house.. haha. The Lyles how are you?i miss you lots. I only have one more week of school left before i go to zambezia for 2 weeks on outreach. Please pray that i will continue to press in for all he has for me, and for the people around me. Please pray for wisdom and direction for future decision makings, although i have total peace about whatever God decides for me. Am still ariving back in the UK on the 3rd September, after going to maputo first for 5 days. God bless you all, love heather x

I got a 2.1 in my degree!! wahoo!! thank you Jesus.

Wow. I went on outreach again this weekend, only this time as part of the medical team. It was totally amazing. God's glory really came. We went to the bush bush literally in the middle of nowhere, and travelled on dirt tracks for hours!! The medical van is really new to iris - its the first one ever, and the outreach i went on was the 4th ever! Its really exciting. I went as an intercessor mainly, but also to do simple woundcare. I love the vision of the medical team - the priority is totally God first.
We set up tent, and when people came in, first of all we asked them if they knew Jesus, and then if they had been to the witchdoctor (most had, and in this particular area, it was very high for witchcraft). Then, if they wanted to, we would lead them to Jesus, and break off any curses, and heal them! Many times, as soon as we broke off the curses, they got instantly healed, becuase it was the curse causing them the sickness. The first village we got to, the people were literally circling out tents and poking us through our tents! I had like grown men circling mine! very intimidating. When we first got to the village, we de-wormed the children (most, if not all, had big bellies). The next day, we set up the tent, and i was rubbing lotion on children with scabies for hours. It was heart breaking. In the second village, babies were literally covered in it. Two girls needed treatment at the end, so i took them to the latrines to apply the cream. However, i ran out of cream, and i was praying so hard that Jesus would multiply it, but it didn't, and so i couldnt finish half of the first girl's body. I was so upset, and in the truck on the way home was just crying so much at the desperation of the people there.but then God gave me a picture .It was of Jesus and he was knealing at her feet, and kissed her feet, and was crying. Then he healed all her scabies. He said to me, 'dont you think that i am enough for her? dont you think i can heal her?' I am truely learning what it is to 'fellowship in his sufferings' (phil 3) We cant be JEsus' hands and feet unless we see people how he sees them; through this eyes, and share in his sufferings.Seeing all the suffering, the desperate suffering of these poverty-stricken people really broke me.. its just so hard to explain. I can also rejoice in him becuase he has everyone and everything in his hands! There were many joyous times too! here are some amazing testimonies from this weekend:
A man came into the tent, and the team just asked him like usual, have you been to the witchdoctor? And he said he was the witchdoctor! He came in to get healing for the cataracts in his eyes. He got healed and gave his life to Christ!! Greater is HE!!! Praise Jesus. Pray that he would be discipled well now, and that through this the whole village will be truely transformed.
I had the amazing priviledge of leading 2 people to Christ in portuguese! It was awesome becuase i had no translator and i was like Jesus!!! Help me! And he totally gave me all the words to say.
nearly everyone who came into the tent received JEsus!!
Nearly everyone we prayed for got healed!!! Eyes, ears, leg pain, back pain..
So many demonised were set free. There was one lady who came in and had knife scars all over her legs. She said that the demons take over her everyday and make her cut herself. She was totally set free!! We cut off SO many witchcraft bands of nearly everyone who came to us. Its just crazy the amount of witchcraft that goes on. (Actually in church on sunday, although i wasnt there, a cobra just appeared in the tent randomly on the stage! apparantly, a witchdoctor had done something.. not really sure)
Praise JEsus!!! Glory to him. It was just so eye-opening to what really goes on in the supernatural; an area that i know myself, and many of us in the west are so unaware of. Priase be to JEsus. I found out where i am going for my extended outreach - to Zambezia. A 19 hour drive away, to the place where they have recently apparantly had the worst floods recorded in history.

Love to my 109 ladies!! Well done Anna too!! tis brill. Other giriles how did you do? Jess - when do you leave for canada? xx

freedom!

I havent written about it yet but last week, i had a massive life-changing revelation of the cross, and it continues daily! I am stuck in Galations and in Romans 6. Galations 2v20, 'I have been crucified with Christ and i no longer live but Christ lives in me!' 5v1 says, 'it is for freedom that Christ has set us free - stand firm then, and do not let yoursleves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery!' I have realised the freedom that i have in Christ!! I do not have to be burdened by my sin.
Oh yeah and Colossians 2v12, 'having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead'. Wow. Our flesh is dead.. our sin..ALL of sin is dead! It has been buried by the blood of Jesus, and now he has raised us in his resurrection! We ARE a new creation! Man o man. This revelation is changing my life; by the knowledge of the freedom that i can live in. Nothing, nothing, can hold Jesus back. God sent Jesus from heaven to become one of us, to suffer for OUR sin, to save us. wow. man, that revelation should never grow cold, and should never be stale to read or know. Praise Jesus. Thank you Jesus.

July 17th

'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'

Wow. We had our first session on the Beautitudes from Heidi just now. It completely wrecked me - Im totally undone. This verse has totally come alive to me with meaning and humbled me. What is it about the poor, and also about children, that brings them the kingdom of heaven? What do they have?
All the student pastors that had had children die were asked to come to the front (Iris trains up pastors for 4 years here, and sometimes we have our classes with them.. many of them are baby christians..and have only known Jesus for a few months!). Probably 1/3 of the pastors came to the front out of the 200. They had lost children due to such simple means by which we in the west would consider not worth worrying about. Some because the mum didn't have any milk. Some becuase of starvation; some because of malaria; some at childbirth. It was a realisation that i will never forget. The poor have desperation - they can only but rely on God. If God doesn't show up they will die! They have to rely on God. They have humility, and they know they are poor - they know they have to rely on God. In a similar way, God says that children will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Children are hopelessly dependent, they are vulnerable, they have no back-up plan, and they believe so beautifully. Children know how to play - they have a natural joy! Children need and want Mum and Dad - they can't function without him (something my parents will know!!) and amongst everything, all they really want is mum and dad.. no sweets, no bike, nothing. They just want their parents! All these student pastors were asked to come and pray for all of us holy given students for impartation of desperation. Then we prayed for all those that had had children died. It was so powerful. It was so humbling. I have had such a revelation of these things, and God has completely broken me. God wants us to have a faith like this! He wants us to be so utterly desperate for him, where we literally cant function without him... I am desperate for him! I am hungry for him, but i want more desperation. I want the desperation of a small child who wants their dad!

The more i am living here, the more i learn what life is truely like here, and what it is to be a missionary. I know that all my blog things probably come across like everything is perfect, etc.. But daily there are crisis' here. Just yesterday, one of the Pastors from another province had an attempted murder attack, and was knifed all across his face. The guy who did it is known here, so everyone is really shaken up, particulary the student pastors. So your prayers for this stituation would be great.

July 14th

As i look at the glorious African tree, the sun rises behind it; today a pinky cloudy beginning. It is just too glorious to even describe - not even captureable on a camera. Praise Jesus! You are so glorious. Literally 10 metres behind me there are people even living in desperate poverty, behind the dividing wall of the centre. I can even hear the screams of a baby right now.. Please pray that these people would know his love and glory.
Yesterday i came back from outreach with Mama Ida. It was lots of fun - loads of people came into the Kingdom! So i will try and explain a typical outreach.. We all load up on a truck, so much that everyone is sitting on top of each other and drive to the village, (sometimes up to 9 hours) and when you get there you get hundreds of children literally running after the truck shouting, 'akunya!' (white person!) So we set up our tents, with an audience of hundreds of Mozambican villagers somehow all perfectly arranged eager to see what their alien visitors entertainment would do next! We play cheesy worship music which brings in the hundreds, sometimes thousands, and then show the Jesus film, and preach and do altar call, and pray for the sick. So many people gave their lives to Jesus. (Its amazing as all the different groups go out into the bush to hear about all the different villages, and how they are all turning to Jesus! ) Love it! In the morning you wake up to the same audience of people harmlessly goggling at you, literally standing right outside your tent.. hilarious. We then go into the village and speak to people about Jesus and pray for the sick, and invite people to church, with at least 50 children following us everywhere - even into peoples houses! Yesterday, we did a marriage ceremony for 4 different couples in the village, and Mama Ida married them.. it was very cute. They were all very shy and at the end the whole village was shouting, 'beju!!' which means kiss. We then officially opened the church, and had a celebration, and somehow managed to get the whole village into 2 truck loads and went down to the river to baptise people. I had the amazing priviledge of baptising people in the muddy river!! I have to say.. not only was it the first time i baptised people, but also baptised topless women!! Hilarious - not allowed to show our knees, but for thouse to go in completely nude on the top was totally fine.

July 16th – I just came from the last session with Rolland, (very funny..) and then we just cut witchcraft bands off a widow and baby on our way into town and told her Jesus’ love and truth! Wahoo! A regular daily occurrence here! Stacey Campbell is our guest speaker at the moment.. hope y’all have a great day today. Please let me no how you are all doing. Lots of love xxx
p.s. had a sleep over in the girls dorm last night!! was fun. Really getting to know the girls well, its such a blessing.

Hi again!

Just feel i want to say a special hello to my lovely small group! Thank you so much for praying for me. Love and miss you guys.
In the past few weeks, God has really started to put a nation strongly on my heart, so am really praying into that, and when (and if actually) he does want me there. So prayers for confirmation would be great for that; thanks guys. Hope all is well with you; let me no how your summer is going too. if you're going to new wine, have a FAB time! Lesley Anne is going to be there (shes the lady in charge of our school) so im sure she will tell all about the school. shes an amazing lady - be blessed.
We have Georgian and Winnie Banov here at the mo, if you have heard of them, you'll know that they are crazy in love for Jesus, haha. They have the anointing of joy, and when Georgian plays the fiddle, oh my word, it was so special. The presence of God comes so powerfully, and people get healed just when he plays! It was so realeasing - i feel totally freed and released in my worship now.. It is incredible. We just danced for hours and hours for Jesus! Afterwards we just ran into the water becuase i was so unbelieveabley sweaty!! haha. nice. I miss you all so much. God bless you. I cant wait to catch up with you all and what God is doing in your lives. He has so much for us all, and he loves us with such an incredible love..

Wowee!! God has even done so much in th past 3 days since i wrote the blog underneath.. I love Jesus so much!! I love him so much i dont know what to do.. im am just overwhelmed by his love, and there is so much more of his love - for all of us! we will never get to the bottom of it. Ever. He is limitless. He is love! wow. Please pray for protection for me - undergoing lots of attack at the moment. Also please pray for wisdom in decision makng that ihave to do in the next few weeks! if anyone gets any words for me please feel free to email or leave comment. Thank you s omuch foryour continued love and prayers, i appreciate it so much. I love u all. Do let me k now what is happening in your lives to - i will pray! take care y'all. lots of love xxx

Wrote on July 1st

We have a teapot! Its so exciting, we can now make coffee in ease - without having to use a saucepan!! Praise Jesus. We also had running water this week for 2 days in a row, and it was quite strong! We also had curry tonight which was so much fun - we all helped cook something separately in our houses, and as students, we had a massive meal together in the prayer hut. It was very special. A group from each nation did a song, it was so funny! Its amazing how God is raising up an army from all over the world to unify for his kingdom. There is people from all over - from New Zealand to Ukraine, to Iceland, Brazil.. the list goes on. I had a really nice weekend.Yesterday, i helped take a large group of children from another centre to the ocean.. it was SO much fun! They had clearly not been to the ocean in a while, as they were so excited to go in the water - and some a little apprensive; at one point i had like 3 little starkers chidlren clambering all over me! I took a little toddler and a baby to the beach which was sspecial. The little boy, Benny, is 2 and is a proper tank! He is a big boy bless him, which is great! Fat is good! But its also really cool, becuase apparantely when he arrived at the centre he was so underweight, so he is really thriving, and one of many stories of God's amazing grace. As I get to know the children more, i am discovering their heart-breaking stories behind their short little lives. One of the older boys from the village took me to his house this week, and it totally broke me. Its true, what Heidi says, you just don't understand until you go and see their homes, and their lives and see how they really live. You dont know them; you dont know. When i visited his tiny little room with a broken roof that when it rains, he and all of his stuff get completely drenched, it totally opened my eyes to his life here. He has no family, he has no job - he is still at school. He is just a child, living alone in such poverty. And i know he is one of thousands like that, and he is actually very blessed to have a home and the security of Iris, but it really hits you when its someone you know. We started to pray for him, and he just broke down and cried and cried on my lap for an hour or so.. words just cannot describe the experiences i am going through.
One thing that i am struggling with actually is knowing how to be wise in my giving. Children are constantly asking for things, and begging for clothes, money, anything they see. It is heart-breaking when the village children all stand behind the metal bars of the dining room and look up at you with their beautiful big eyes begging for the left overs of your plate piled high with rice. Its heart-breaking when you take a child swimming, and all they have to put back on is a thread-bare t shirt, that has more holes in it than material. Its heart-breaking to see the village children constantly fighting, pinching, hitting, throwing stones, bullying the younger children; when you know that there is a bigger picture behind their violence; and although necessary, its hard to be very stern with them. So when do you know how and whom to help? When is it right to say yes? When is it wise to say no? I have really been struggling with these issues, as my heart just wants to help them all.. but of course i know its just not possible. I am learning to focus on the one that i can help. Stop for the one. Love the one. I bought one of the village children, Manuel, a football - he was SO happy! His face just lit up when he realised it was a gift just for him. I saw him later and he had picked me some flowers to say thank you! It was so special.
What does love look like? How can we help the unlovely? How can we feed the hungry? What is mission? words and phrases that are constantly used, but God has set me really thinking about these things. I cant stop reading Isaiah 58 - he has called me 'to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and break every yoke. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wonderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?' Love is action! Its sitting with them in the dirt; its buying them a football, its sharing your food, its spending time with a widow, its hugging an orphan (as one of the children says, 'hug me harder Manna Hedar!!), its buying someone some more bamboo for their roof. In my last blog, i think i wrote about how God was giving me more compassion and love, and i feel that this week God is showing me how i can actually use what he has given me for his glory.