Sickness, Darkness, and God’s Amazing Grace!

Dear friends and family,

Once again too much time has passed since my last update.  Keeping up with newsletters is certainly not my gift, but I hope by the Lord’s grace to improve in this area!  I will write a more comprehensive update on our ministry work soon, but for now I am sending through a more personal update on my health and what God has done through it.

Since my last blog post, I started battling with my health once again.  In February I started becoming sick with what turned out to be malaria, and again it seemed like it just wouldn’t go away! I had malaria 4 or 5 times between February and May, and I was feeling exasperated.  Many of my close friends and family encouraged me to leave Mozambique, and rightly so.  Even I felt like giving up on everything here and leaving, as being constantly sick was becoming unbearable!  I couldn’t function well and I could not do any ministry work whatsoever.  I was just at home most of the time, sick and unable to do anything. This drove me to my knees and I started seeking the Lord earnestly, to know His will. I was desperate, depressed, and weak. As I prayed and sought the Lord, He confirmed to me once again that He has indeed called me to be here in Mozambique. He showed me that I must completely surrender to Him and trust Him fully, even in my health. My parents also reminded me of the many times our family had been in crises in our first years here and the only possible outcome had seemed for us to return to South Africa, but they had trusted the Lord and stayed on. Now 21 years later we are still here, which is a testimony to the Lord’s faithfulness!

My health now became a priority for us in prayer, and we decided to do all in our power to resolve my sickness. So in June I consulted with different doctors and specialists, and they all came to the same conclusion: the number of times I was getting malaria while taking every precaution possible, was abnormal! They said I either have a strain of malaria very resistant to treatment or I have some serious underlying sickness that is compromising my immune system. So in June I traveled to South Africa for a comprehensive medical checkup, and I was honestly expecting bad news. I was dreading my test results as I knew that my liver, kidneys, and other organs would be damaged and stressed due to all the malaria, not to mention the possibility of some other underlying sickness!

That morning finally came when I sat across from my doctor to hear all my test results, and I was about to be amazed. With a puzzled look on his face, my doctor said to me, “Isak, I don’t know what to tell you.  I am looking at your test results, and I am looking at the results of a very healthy young man. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you!  This is really miraculous, but I cannot even tell that you have been sick at all! Your organs are all in perfect health and show NO DAMAGE, even after all the malaria! Your tests all came back with great results. I mean, I wish MY results came back this good!!” I was awestruck. As my doctor sat there all perplexed, I could barely contain myself with the joy and gratitude I was feeling; the Lord had healed my body!! What an amazing, faithful, and merciful God we serve!

To the left is a picture of me taken recently, looking and feeling so much better. I praise the Lord for that! Being constantly sick really took a toll on me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Honestly, if I look back over the last year and a half since my friend Michiah’s death, I see a time of deep darkness, grief, and sickness. But I am so grateful for it, as the Lord used all this greatly in my life for my own good. You see, the Lord put me through the fire to show me what I am really made of, and it became clear to me that apart from Christ I am a miserable, weak and sinful wretch who cannot do anything! Christ is ALL!! I have eternal life because He mercifully gave it to me, and not because I earned it; I am forgiven, pure and righteous before God because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, and not because of anything I did; I can live this Christian life only by His grace, and not in my own strength; it is for Christ’s Kingdom and glory that I must live, and not my own! So the Lord disciplined me in His love, for He saw how my heart had become hardened and prideful. He saw how my love for Him grew dimmer and dimmer, as I neglected the Savior who died for me. Even though everything with ministry was going well, my own heart had become hard, dull, and filled with unbelief. I was not walking closely with my Lord anymore, and instead I was following my own will and walking in my own wisdom. Through this time of discipline, struggle and sickness God has humbled and broken me, and brought me to a deeper place of surrender and trust in Him. And for this I praise Him! I am just amazed at what a wonderful God we serve, for He is faithful even when we are faithless! He forgives us, restores us, and heals us even when we do not deserve it in any way!

So please join me in thanking and praising the Lord for what He has done and continues to do in my life. Please pray for me that I may be revived, that my heart might be filled with a passion and love for the Lord Jesus, and that I would live fully surrendered to Him for His glory! And I want to thank you all who loved, supported and prayed for me during this difficult time. I don’t know what I would have done without you, and I thank the Lord for you! One particular friend the Lord greatly used in my life is Hunter Combs. He and I recently spent 2 weeks together as he was teaching at a Bible College not too far from us and then he came to visit us here in Xai-Xai. You can read about our time together here: missions-to-mpumulanga-and-mozambique

I am now full-time back in the ministry work and Lord willing I will be sending you an update on the ministries here soon, as there are some exciting things happening! I can’t wait to share it all with you, but for now I will close here. May the Lord bless each of you and cause His face to shine upon you in this day!

Love in Christ,

Isak for the Westraads

Pain and Growth

Dear Friends and Family,

It has almost been a year since many of you have heard from me.  What a year 2018 has been! It has been a time of much pain and growth for me personally, but the Lord has been faithful through it all.

The last blog post I had written was on the death of my best friend Michiah Lancaster, who went to be with the Lord on the 14th of January.  It was the first time that I lost someone so close to me, and it was a very hard blow.  I managed to keep myself together through February, but in March I started falling apart.

My physical health started declining severely as I suffered from chronic malaria (In 3 months I had it 5 times), and I had a complete breakdown mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I was so severely depressed and sick constantly that I could not face anyone or do any work, so our doctor recommended that I take a sabbatical away from mission work and away from a malaria area. We agreed this was best, just so I could recover my health, both physically and mentally. My aunt in Bloemfontein, South Africa, very graciously opened up her home to me and I was blessed to stay with her for 5 months. She is in the photo on the left with me, and as you might tell I went in the middle of winter and it was very cold there!

In this time I focused mainly on resting, eating healthy, becoming more physically fit, and recovering spiritually and emotionally.  I spent a lot of time sleeping, reading, praying, hiking, going to the gym, and visiting with my extended family.  It was a blessing to get to know my Aunt, cousins, grandma, and other family better. I especially spent quite a lot of time with my grandmother (dad’s mom) who had advanced alzheimers.  She sadly passed away a week before I came home, but I am grateful that I was able to spend time with her and be at her side when she slipped away. The picture on the right was from one of my visits with her.

In Bloemfontein I joined a wonderful small church which was such a big blessing to me.  I had gotten used to always being the teacher or leader, so being able to just soak in the teaching of others, to be spiritually fed and to just fellowship with other believers without the pressure of ‘being the missionary’ was so nice! I am so grateful for that group of believers and for the blessing they were to me.  I also traveled down to Cape Town for 3 weeks where I visited Frontline Fellowship and everyone I had gotten to know there after Michiah’s passing.  I visited Michiah’s grave with some friends there, and although it was very emotional, it was very good and helpful.  It was good to work through some of the emotions and truly wonderful to fellowship with everyone there.

I have been back home in Mozambique now for 3 weeks, and although there have been challenges (a bad ear infection, extreme heat wave, etc.)  it has been great to be home!  I have enjoyed catching up with friends and family, and am slowly stepping back into ministry.  I am so grateful for my parents and brother who did all the ministry work in my absence, their own and mine!  I really want to say thank you to them and my Aunt Bets who made my 5 month sabbatical possible; thank you, I don’t know what I would have done without you!

My parents are both well, although they have had a very busy year with me being out of ministry. My mom (in the picture on the left, taken soon after we saw each other again after 5 months!) continues to disciple the young Christian girls, mostly teens, while she and my dad also work  with our youth leaders.  They have been wonderful counselors and teachers to them, and I am so grateful for the input they have in these young Christians’ lives.  My dad’s main work continues to be construction which supports our ministries, and although it keeps him very busy, we are grateful for all the work the Lord has blessed us with. We are continuing to build our school and have begun the long and arduous process of registering it with the government.  You can see some of the work in the picture on the right. This Christian school is being built in the memory of Michiah Lancaster and the roof of the first main building was put on using donations from a fundraiser in his memory.  We thank all who contributed.  We are excited for this new area of ministry the Lord has been leading us into, which is Christian education.  The Lord has been leading us for several years towards starting this school and our desire is that it will be a shining light to this community and that Christ will be glorified in and through it.  Already we have begun training a few staff members and are teaching a few expat children.  Please pray for the Lord’s continued guidance, provision and wisdom for this school!

My brother Juan is doing very well and continues to teach English to young adults.  He is such a servant and is always busy in the background, helping out wherever needed and doing things we tend to forget about!  To prevent being bitten by mosquitoes and getting malaria, I no longer go out in the evenings, so Juan has also taken to leading the prayer meetings on Monday nights.

I was very encouraged to hear upon my return from our Sunday school teachers that the Lord has been blessing our Bible classes with the children, as they have had good attendance and many inquisitive questions from the children. On the left is a photo I took a week or two ago, and although it’s not the best quality, I thought I would share it with you.  We are very proud of our teachers who were once students in these same classes! What a blessing it is to see them grow in the Lord and now teach other children.  Our youth also seem to be doing well, although I have not spent as much time with them since my return as I would have liked to, but Lord willing I hope to catch up with them over the next few weeks.  Some of our programs are shutting down for a couple of weeks as many travel over the holidays, but we are excited for 2019 and can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for us and the work here in Xai-Xai, Mozambique!

This year of 2018 has certainly been a very difficult and traumatic one for me with the loss of my best friend, my grandmother, being very sick, having a breakdown, and suddenly being away from home for 5 months, but the amazing thing is that in the midst of it all, the Lord has taught me, comforted me, and grown me in ways that would never have happened otherwise.  Although I would not like to repeat this year, I would not want to change it.  The Lord truly is good always, and we can only praise Him for His constant love and mercy that He shows towards us.  As we enter this holiday season and as many families gather together, we hope and pray that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in our midst as we fellowship, encourage each other, and witness to our family members who do not know Christ yet.  May the Lord Jesus be the center of our lives not just Christmas Day, but every day of our lives.  How we need Him constantly!  Help us, Lord!

Thank you all so very much for your prayers and support towards us for this year of 2018, we are truly grateful.  We hope and trust you have a very blessed holiday season and enter 2019 with new strength and deeper faith in Christ as we all seek to glorify our mighty Savior!

~ Isak Westraad

 

With Christ

It is hard to believe that tomorrow it will be 3 weeks ago that our beloved Michiah went to be with the Lord.  We miss him so very much, yet the Lord has been comforting and giving grace in our grief.  The picture on the right was the last one taken of him, at lunch time on that fateful day.

For those of you who do not know what happened to Michiah, please click on the following link which will take you to a report written by Dr. Peter Hammond on how it all happened. Here is the link:  Extraordinary Testimony of Michiah Lancaster

I am back home now after 2 weeks, having returned to Mozambique on Wednesday earlier this week.  Isaac Lancaster, Michiah’s younger brother, is here with us until the 19th of this month when he will fly home to his family in the USA.  We are so glad to have him here, and we hope and pray his time with us will be  fruitful and a blessing for him as it is for us. The Lord has really been helping him in this time, giving him special strength and grace.  Please pray especially for him and the rest of the Lancaster family for when he travels back, as it will be Isaac returning home alone.  No Michiah will be with him.

My time in Cape Town was difficult but very good.  Many new friendships were formed, as I think a death of someone so dear certainly draws those around him close together.  I am so grateful for everyone’s support there during this time, and I will cherish each of those people who were such a comfort and help in one of the most difficult times of my life.  On Thursday the 25th of January we laid to rest the earthly remains of Michiah in Cape Town.  It was a beautiful graveside service with hymns, Scripture, and testimonies of Michiah’s life, but there was also such a sense of finality as his casket was lowered into the ground and then covered up.  Walking away from that grave was one of the hardest things I have had to do.  Yet we know that is not Michiah we buried….it is merely a shell.  Michiah is with the Lord!! What a glorious thing.

While sorting through his things, I came across two journals.  In one of them he wrote out his own testimony, which I would like to share as I believe it may be a blessing to you:

My Testimony

As a young child my mom and dad taught me the Bible.  I grew up with very good parents who loved the Lord and wanted me to do the same.  But I did not wan to give up sin.  I loved my sin, though I also wanted to make my parents happy.  So tried to do all the right things, like go to church, pray, read my bible, and not do a lot of bad things!

I remember thinking I can repent of my hidden sin when I am old! But when I was 12 years old, my oldest brother passed away.  He was 17 years old, and that hit me because he was still so young.  But I also saw that he was ready and I was not. I saw that I needed Jesus and that none of my good works would save me, and also that I may not live to be old, to be able to repent.  So it was soon after that, that I received Christ as my Savior! That changed my life.  Even though I did see much change at first, but God has done an amazing work in me.  He has given me freedom from the sin I once loved and gave me a hatred for my sin.  He gave me joy, peace, and love, that I did not have before.  But I do not want you to think it was just that easy and I had it all.  No!  It was and still is a hard road at times.  But totally worth it.  

He is still working in me as he will be until the day that I die.  God is good!

The morning before he died, he shared this very testimony with Romans 8:28 at a church he with other participants of the course visited.  Little did he know that very day he would drown like his older brother, and even cause others to come to Christ through his death! The Lancasters and ourselves have been amazed to see how much the Lord is using Michiah’s death in people’s lives, and we pray that He will continue to do so.  Please read a few more quotes below from Michiah’s journal, I believe you will be blessed.

12/12/2017  ~  Today has been a blessing again.  The Lord has been so good in answering my prayer in conforming me to the likeness of Christ. In breaking me over being self-sufficient, and helping me to put away sin and to stand strong in the middle of temptation. And for that I must give God all the glory! There is nothing in me that will be able to stand in temptation.  In all things I want this and this alone: God be glorified.

26/12/2017  ~  I have made some really stupid choices in my life, and yet God has forgiven me.  But not only that, He has brought me close to Himself in it all.  Through breaking me, in giving me repentance, and by turning me around for His glory.  It is nothing that I have done, but what He has done.  Oh thank you Lord! You are a good good Father! What can I ever do to thank You enough?  I need You, oh I need You!  Thank you Lord!!

01/01/2018  ~  Well, new year’s has come.  What a strange year.  So much has happened in this past year.  Most of all, God has been so good.  I would be up for a long time if I were to try to write down what all God has done for me in 2017.  There are so many things, that we can only just say, “Thank You”!  There has been a lot of hills and valleys.  All of which I am so thankful for!  God, even when I was going through hardship, temptation, stress, addiction and so much more, He has even grown me through it all!  What an amazing God He is!  I am so grateful for all that He has done, and really look forward to what He is going to do in the year 2018.  I know that He will continue to be faithful to me in this year because God never changes.  I am right now in Washington DC. By the grace of God He has given us the blessing of being able to go to Cape Town, South Africa, to the Frontline Fellowship camp.  I am really looking forward to what He will do through this camp.  Well I must be getting to bed as I have a very long flight tomorrow.  Oh Lord, give me a heart for the lost around me! Amen and Amen!

What a blessing it is to know Michiah is with Christ.  I often just sit and ponder, and try to imagine what he must be doing, thinking, and feeling!  I can’t imagine.  But I know he is experiencing joy, delight, wonder, elation, and rapture beyond description, as he worships at the feet of his beloved Lord Jesus! Often as I hear worship songs, I imagine Michiah singing more beautifully than ever before, standing before the Throne of the Lamb, praising Him for His mercy, grace, love, and salvation!  What a wonderful and mighty God we serve!!

To close, I want to share below a note my mom, Wiesie, wrote to Michiah on the day we buried him:

Dear Michiah, your sudden death came as a shock and heavy pain into our lives. I know you are beyond happy and I am so happy for you. I just wish we had you a little longer so that we could sit and talk and give each other a hug and to love you. Our God decided to take you home and we do not ask why. But just know that you left a hole in our hearts and an empty place in our lives. Our Father gave you the best of all and He gave us the best. We are so thankful that He borrowed you to us for 21 years. We are so thankful that He started a good work in your life and He finished it. Our beloved Savior is rejoicing over you and has made you perfect. We love you dearly beloved and miss you very much. Please Lord comfort our sorrow and heal our broken hearts and remind us that it is just a little while before we see each other again. Maranatha!!! 

 

Into Eternity

As I am sitting here at Frontline Fellowship in Cape Town, South Africa, I find it hard to know where to even begin writing.  A week ago, my life was forever changed in a way I would never have imagined.

Sunday the 14th of January, my best friend, Michiah Lancaster, went Home to be with the Lord.  He and his younger brother, Isaac, were here in Cape Town on a missions training course given by Frontline Fellowship for the month of January, and they were supposed to come to Mozambique afterwards for some missions work and a visit.  Michiah and I had been both so excited, as it had been 3 years since we had seen each other in person.

That fateful Sunday afternoon, as I was driving home from Bible study, I got a call from Auntie Tressa, Michiah’s mom.  The moment I saw her name on my phone, calling me, I knew something was wrong.  When she told me that she now has one more son in Heaven, I knew it was Michiah. She then told me he had suddenly drowned in a swimming accident. I cannot express in words the horror, shock, and grief I felt.  I could not believe that my best friend was gone.  Not only did it seem unreal, but it felt wrong. I was angry in way, that God would take him away from us.

After that it was a flurry of activity as I prepared to fly out to Cape Town to be with Isaac and to attend Michiah’s memorial service and burial.  I arrived on Wednesday, and Thursday morning was Michiah’s memorial service.  It was so, so beautiful.  I am so thankful for Dr. Peter Hammond, director of Frontline Fellowship, who put together such a beautiful and Christ-exalting memorial service.  Many people came, most of who had only met Michiah a few times or had only known him a few weeks while on the training.  It was amazing for me to see how even in his short time here, the Lord had used him to touch so many people’s lives.  At the service Michiah was remembered for the Christ-loving young man that he was, with his heart to glorify God in all, desiring to live full out for Christ, and to be a bright light in this dark world.  Dr. Hammond’s message was powerful and challenged people to make sure they are ready for eternity.  It was exactly what Michiah would have wanted.

Friday was a very hard day for me.  Michiah’s absence was so sharp, and the pain felt almost unbearable.  I could not fathom that he was no longer just a phone call away, and it broke my heart. As I sat in the room where Michiah had stayed, I noticed a journal.  I picked it up, saw it was Michiah’s, and so I started reading it.  After finishing his journal, I listened to all the whatsapp voice messages he had sent to me in the last six months as well.  At the end of it all, I was amazed.  Just amazed.  Looking back at what he wrote in his journal and what he shared with me, I could see how the Lord had been preparing Michiah for his death.  Knowing Michiah as well as I did, I know that his greatest desire in life was to live all out for Christ, without any sin or struggles to keep him back.  His greatest griefs in life was his flesh and his own struggles with sin.  He wanted to be holy, and to glorify God in all.  In his journal, I was amazed to see how the Lord had pressed eternity on his heart and how he had seen the grace of God in salvation in a deeper way than ever before.   He knew with certainty that he was going to Heaven, and not because of anything he did, but only because of what the Lord Jesus did for him on the Cross.  Listening to his whatsapp voice messages that he had sent me recently, I was so encouraged to see how the Lord had been helping him to overcome certain sins he struggled with, to throw aside weights that had held him down, and to love and live for the Lord more than ever before.  All this and so much more in the last 6 months.  The Lord had been preparing Michiah for eternity.  Michiah never complained in the 4 years of our friendship about tiredness really, but in the last 6 months, in almost every message he sent me, he would tell me how tired he was.  How much he wish he could rest, have more time with the Lord, and just quiet down a little.  Now he IS resting! One of the last things he wrote to me, he shared about how we rest in Christ, in life and in death.  And that is who Michiah was.  He did not rest in himself or his own good works, he rested in Jesus while alive.  And now in eternity, he rests still in Christ, just more perfectly than ever before.  And this was his greatest desire in life, to be perfect before the Lord Jesus Christ, without any sins or struggles to hinder him.

So as our hearts break and we grieve his sharp absence, we rejoice knowing that Michiah is in glory, now absolutely perfect, with the Savior whom he loved so very much.  So we mourn, but not like the world, because we know even though he is dead, he LIVES!  Praise the Lord of our Salvation!  Michiah is Home.

Below are some quotes from Michiah:

“”We live a pilgrim’s life.  One that is not always easy, but it is not meant to be easy until we get Home.  We must remember that it is not this life that we will be living for eternity.  This is not our best life here.”

“Oh how we MUST RUN to Christ! This is a real battle! Just look to Christ and all sin will be SO ugly! Christ has set us FREE, may we trust Him!”

“God will sometimes ask us to do things that we do not want to do.  But we are called to obey.” 

“In everything we must seek to do everything for the glory of God.  Oh, that we will be satisfied in God, doing the things that don’t seem to be very big, doing all to the glory of God!”

“We will not understand the big picture of what God is doing until the end.  Then we will see how beautiful God’s work is.”

“It is SO hard to understand why God would love me! Chief of SINNERS!!!!!!! I should be in HELL RIGHT NOW! ONLY BECAUSE OF GODS MERCY AND GRACE CAN I BE CALLED RIGHT BEFORE GOD! I have NEVER done a thing that would make me worthy of what God has given to me! It is just SO AMAZING! Oh THANK YOU LORD!!!!!!!”

~ Michiah Lancaster

Good bye for now, my dear friend and brother, Michiah.  I miss you so much, but I know where you are, and I know you would never want to come back to this sinful, troublesome earth.  Until we see each other again in eternity.  RIP

August/September Update

Dear friends and family in the Lord,

The Lord has been so good to us in these past two months and I am so excited to share all the news with you!

Let me begin with the Palavra Da Vida (Word of Life) Youth Camp we had in August.  In my last post I had asked prayer for the camp, and the Lord certainly did hear and answer your prayers!  It was an amazing time with about about a hundred young people attending.  There was wonderful fellowship, fun games, powerful sermons, Bible studies, and small group sharing.  We were truly blessed by this outreach Palavra da Vida came and did, and we are grateful for their work here in Mozambique.  We look forward to working with them more in the future.  Please find more photos from the camp at the bottom of this blog post.

The Lord used this camp greatly in the lives of the young people.  Those who were already saved, were greatly encouraged and helped.  Many new friendships were formed, and I believe many were drawn closer to the Lord through the camp.  Most attending were not Christians, and it was a wonderful opportunity for them to hear the wonderful Good News of free salvation which Christ offers to sinners like ourselves!  I believe several people may have come to truly know the Lord during the camp, and others have begun seeking God since then.  Around the time the Lord started really working in the lives of our youth, putting a hunger for God in their hearts.  Our number of youth in the last two months have doubled, but it really isn’t about the number.  It’s about what the Lord is doing in the lives of these precious young people! I am amazed to see over 50 young people to come together every week to pray and seek the Lord. Please continue to pray for them, as many who come are not saved yet.  Pray that they may see their lost state, and that they may come to the One who can give them new life!

Around the same time that the Lord started working among the young people, we also experienced a work of the Lord among the younger children.  Our Bible class teachers have improved greatly in how they give classes to the children, and have seriously been praying for them.  Many children have been staying after class to get counselling.  Several have made a profession of faith, and our prayer is that they truly have found Christ and will grow up to be men and women of God!

In the month of August a new staff member joined us at the Literacy Center.  His name is Noé, and he is 19 years old. Noé was saved just over a year ago when we started the Sunday school teachers’ training and he was one of the trainees.  He has grown to be a leader among our youth and an excellent teacher for the children.  He often fills in for me when I am unable to teach/preach, and the children all love him very much!  Noé, we are excited to have you with us and we pray that your time teaching at the Literacy Center will be a blessing to you and that God will use you in their lives.

Since Noé started teaching at the Literacy Center, he has focused a lot on the spiritual aspect of teaching the children with more Bible lessons and counselling with the children.  We are so excited to say that it seems like 2 of the children have given their lives to the Lord!  Our prayer is that the children will not only excel academically but that each child will come to know our Savior personally.

In upcoming news, I am excited to share that our dear friend/brother Seth Lancaster who volunteered here with us for a year and half with his sister Joy, is coming to visit with his new bride!  We are so excited to meet Victoria Lancaster, Seth’s new wife whom he married on 2 September.  They arrive October 26 and depart on November 19.  A big congratulations to you both, Seth and Victoria!! May the Lord richly bless your marriage, and His Name be glorified in your lives.  We look forward to seeing you Seth after 2 years, and meeting you in person, Toria!

As I close this post, I have a few prayer points.  Praises and thanks:

• Praise the Lord with us for saving several new young people and children
• Praise the Lord for the hunger and thirst we have seen in the hearts of young people and children
• Thank the Lord for the spiritual growth in the lives of the youth
• Thank the Lord for answering our prayers in regards to the Youth Camp
• Thank the Lord for the Noé, the new staff member at the L.C.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for more youth and children to come to Christ and be saved
• Pray for the continued growth and sanctification of the saints
• Pray for our family’s health
• Pray above all that Christ will be everything to us, and that our hearts will be consumed with love and passion for Him;  He is worthy!

Now for the promised photos 🙂  First is a video of the Youth Camp in August, and then extra photos from the same camp.  Below that are  photos from the Literacy Center I took today.

 

Happy smiles!

Writing a song

Small groups

Having fun!

Today I was at the Literacy Center and took a few photos.  Enjoy! 🙂

Thank you once again for your faithful prayers and support.  Please continue to pray for us, as all is in vain without the Lord!

May the Lord cause His face to shine on each of you in this day!

Update & Prayer Request

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.  We are in so much need of the Lord’s help and grace constantly, and we do believe He hears your prayers for us so we are very grateful.

We have had a very busy time these last few weeks as it has been public school holiday for 5 weeks now.  This is the last week, so next week all the youth return to school and we also go back to teaching at the Literacy Center.

In this holiday time we had a both a girls’ weekend and a boys’ weekend at our home.  First it was the girls, and we invited a group of girls over for a few days of fellowship and teaching with my mom.  They enjoyed going to the beach several times, listening to several sermons, watching a movie called The Hiding Place (on Corrie Ten Boom), having a Bible study with my mom on the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31, and lots of fellowship.  They had an absolute blast!  We really enjoyed having them over as well. In the photo to the left they are all enjoying a meal together (and yes, that is Jorge, the poor guy, between them!  He was here working with me on something else).

The following weekend we invited several of the guys over for a fellowship weekend as well.  They enjoyed going to the beach, several sermons, several Bible studies with me on purity/marriage/singleness, playing games, watching a movie called Candle In the Dark (life of missionary William Carey), reading, and late night talks. 🙂  We had a wonderful time together, and it was really a blessing!  You can see some of them on the picture on the right (yes, a girl among them…Irene was here for the day so I could help her with homework).

We had several other special days of fellowship, and coming up we have our biggest event of this holiday which is the Palavra Da Vida (Word Of Life) Youth Camp.  Please pray for this camp!  We already have 91 young people (teenagers and up) registered and we are expecting about 30 to 40 more to register for the camp.  The camp starts on Thursday the 17th and will finish on Sunday the 20th.  The theme of the camp will be Unmasked: Living a Genuine Faith Without Pretense.  Many of the youth attending the camp do not yet have true faith in Christ, therefore we ask you to pray for them.  Pray that the Lord will use this camp to draw many to Him, and that those of us who are already saved will be blessed, encouraged, and helped!  Thank you so much.  As Christ said, “Without Me you can do nothing.”  Today many of us youth are fasting and praying today for this camp, and we ask you that you join us in prayer as we ask the Lord to come and work among us.

Yesterday was a Game Day with the children at church, and we had an absolute blast!  Below you can find a few pictures of the kiddos 😉

 

The Lord is Good!

It is high time I post an update here! These past few months have been so busy that finding time to write to you all has been escaping me.  Forgive me for that please!  The Lord has truly been so good to us here, and we are so grateful.  Every day we see more and more that truly all is dependent on Him, and without Him we are nothing.  It is amazing that God would choose to use such weak vessels as ourselves to work here for His glory.  But the weaker we are, the brighter His power and strength shines as He works in spite of our many weaknesses and failings.

In January we started up our next Literacy Center with 30 students.  This is an afterschool program for children in grades 2-4 who are still illiterate, where we teach them English and reading/writing.  The Gospel, Bible, and character-building are incorporated and emphasized for the 3 years that this group is taught.  We have been blessed by two Mozambican teachers, who are part of our Christian youth.  Jorge (main teacher) and Leontina (assistant teacher) have both been doing so well, and they are a great blessing to us!  And then there are the children, of course.

Thirty precious souls, who are so eager to learn!  Even in just these few months we have already come to love them, and with a little extra help, love, and attention they are all flourishing!  We are on break now, but the day after we closed we took 10 of the students who had reached privilege level (good behavior) to the beach.  For most it was their first time seeing the ocean, even though they all live only a 15 minute drive away from the beach!  Needless to say, it was an absolute BLAST! 😀 They had so much fun!!  I’ll include some pictures of it at the bottom of this post.  It was so special to see their joy as they splashed around in the water. 🙂

Speaking of children, the Sunday morning Bible classes for children have also been going well.  I now hardly ever teach, as our local teachers have taken over almost completely!  What a blessing this is, to see those who were children in those very classes now being teachers themselves!  We are so grateful.  This year we have seen children coming for counsel in regards to salvation, after almost two years of no children approaching us for help.  I truly believe it is in answer to prayer, and we are blessed to see how the teachers are praying for their classes and are working hard to honor and glorify the Lord in their teaching. Two of the teachers are planning to start their own Bible club in their own neighborhood within this month, so we praise the Lord for the expansion! 

In June we celebrated Children’s Day with a variety of games, singing, a puppet show, a Bible story, and snacks.  Over 500 children showed up!! We are so grateful for the 20+ volunteers from our youth who helped, as it would not have been possible without them.

As you may remember from my mom’s post in April, the Lord has really been working among our youth.  It is so wonderful to see how the Lord is raising up a group of young people who have truly been saved, love the Lord, and want to glorify and serve Him with their lives.  We have had several recent conversions among the teenagers for which we praise the Lord, while there are others who are searching for salvation. We were blessed to see 3 of the girls (the 3 in white in the picture) be baptized this month as they made a public confession of their faith in Christ. We continue with the weekly Bible studies on Sunday afternoons which either my dad or myself teach.  Monday nights we have a prayer meeting, and I think this is my favorite night!  Many of the youth fast and pray the whole day Monday, and then after the prayer meeting we break our fast with bread.  Prayer is absolutely vital in our lives, as we seek the Lord; without Him, we can truly do nothing!  It is wonderful to see how seriously the youth are taking these prayer meetings, as many are coming.  Tuesday nights the youth have their own youth service which they lead and arrange themselves, while Wednesday evenings we have a fellowship night again of either a good Christian movie or a Portuguese sermon we watch.  We are still very far from perfect, and there is still plenty of immaturity, struggles with sin, wrong teaching, etc. that we battle against, but we are seeing a hunger for the Lord among the youth and our prayer is that it will continue!

This past weekend we took 10 of our youth leaders to attend a conference in Maputo (capital of Mozambique). For several of them it was the first time ever in a big city, so it was quite an experience for them!  It was the yearly FIEL Conference, which was excellent with wonderful teaching, lots of fellowship with like-minded believers, and many excellent Portuguese books for sale! We bought over 55 books to add to our library, and the young people are so excited!  We have a library system where the young people borrow a book and upon finishing it they must give a report on it before taking another book.  It’s amazing to see how eager and excited they are to read these books, I certainly was not as eager to read such deep books at their age.  Some of the titles include Charity And It’s Fruits ~ Jonathan Edwards, Spiritual Depression ~ M. Lloyd-Jones, Our Sufficiency in Christ ~ J. MacArthur, and many more!

As a family, we are doing well.  The Lord has helped, guided and protected us by His mercy.  In a time of severe economic recession here, the Lord has been faithful to provide for us to continue on here in His work.  We praise Him for that!  In regards to our health, there have been some struggles.  My mom has been struggling some with her health, so please pray for her.  Then I have been battling sickness since the beginning of this year, particularly malaria. In just 6 months I have had malaria 5 times, and the last one was particularly bad.  The first 4 times were actually the same malaria as the medication never quite cleared it out of my body, but I now use a strong injectible medication, which is more effective.  So please pray for me, as it is very hard to function and do all that needs to be done when one is struggling so much with sickness.

Right now it is public school holidays for 6 weeks and in this time we have several events.  We started off with the conference we attended which I mentioned above, and next we are going to invite several of the leading girls to our home for a weekend of teaching and fellowship with my mom.  Another weekend several of the guys will come for a weekend of teaching and fellowship as well.  Our biggest upcoming event is a large youth camp we are organizing in conjunction with Palavra Da Vida (Word of Life Ministries).  They are a non-denominational ministry which specializes in youth, and we have been very encouraged and blessed by their work.  This will be their first time doing a camp with us, and we are all very excited!  We are responsible for food, accommodation, and getting the youth together, while they will be leading the actual camp. It will be for 4 days, from 17 to 20 August.  Please pray for that, we are expecting up to 200 youth.  It will be a wonderful outreach opportunity! Please pray for lost souls to be saved, and the believers to be encouraged and helped.

Below please find some more photos, I hope you enjoy them!  Lord willing we hope to keep you all better informed as to what the Lord is doing here.  We appreciate and need your prayers very much.  As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 15:30, “Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.”

Photos of Beach Day with 10 students from the Literacy Center:

Some photos from the Children’s Day Party in June:

Some photos from the FIEL Conference in Maputo:

And finally, the new ministry van the Lord blessed me with, it has been a huge blessing!

We are so grateful for the Lord’s many blessings!  Please pray for us that He will work in and through us, and that His great Name will be glorified!

Thank you!

Thank You, Lord

And the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and of Hades! (Rev 1:18)

“Flower! Easter lilies! Speak to me this morning the same dear old lesson of immortality which you have been speaking to so many sorrowing souls.  Wise old Book! let me read again in your pages of firm assurance that to die is gain.  Poets! recite to me your verses which repeat in every line the Gospel of eternal life.  Singers! break forth once more into songs of joy; let me hear again the well-known resurrection psalms.  Tree and blossom and bird and sea and sky and wind whisper it, sound it afresh, warble it, echo it, let it throb and pulsate through every atom and particle; let the air be filled with it.  Let it be told and retold and still retold until hope rises to conviction, and conviction to certitude of knowledge; until we, like Paul, even though going to our death, go with triumphant mien, with assured faith, and with serene and shining face.” ~ Streams In The Desert

What an Amazing God we serve. We here in Xai-Xai just want to bow down before this great God. He has been long-suffering and patient with us for many years, and we cannot in words say enough thank you for what He has done for us.

The Lord works in mysterious ways and truly His ways are not our ways. We have been praying for revival for years. Then the Lord starts to answer our prayers and it is not always in the way that you think, but it is still so amazing to see how He answers those prayers.

Our Mozambican young Christians have been growing so much in the Lord these past 4 months. We see how the Lord is really working in their lives. The Bible studies on Sundays afternoons are growing,  Most of the time the young Christians try to come together at least once a week to watch a good Christian movie or a sermon. They invite the youth of the church, friends and family to these meetings as well. About 6 weeks ago they watched the movie ‘War Room’ and the young Christians that work with Isak and Juan just felt that the Lord wanted them to have a prayer meeting every week after watching it. The Lord honoured these Christians’ desire for prayer. He visited them that first prayer meeting as they confessed sins and asked the Lord to use them more. They prayed for their lost families, friends and the youth of the church. The Holy Spirit is truly working in these weekly prayer meetings. After 2 weeks the young men who are the youth leaders, Jorge, Noé and Vasco decided that they need to bring the Gospel to the young people in the church. There are so many of them that do not know the Lord yet. The young men had some difficulties at first, but they have now started a weekly youth service.  The Lord is faithful and He is honouring their desire to reach out to the lost. They started with the youth meetings and the youth started to come in bigger number than what they thought would come. In these meetings the Lord has started to move through His Spirit and young people are coming under conviction. There is one such a girl that we need to pray for. She is 14-15 years old, already a heavy drinker and lives a very promiscuous life. She knows the Gospel. She came to our children’s Bible classes on Sundays since she was a little girl. The Lord is working in her life and convicting her of her sins and she wants to be saved, so please pray for her.

These young people are also coming to the prayer meetings now. They really seek the Lord through prayer and tears. In Mozambique it is not strange to pray for unsaved people while they are sitting next to you. So, our Christian people are pleading for these young people in the prayer meetings. And the Lord is answering those prayers by convicting the unsaved ones of their sins and their lost state before Him.  Just this week we were overjoyed to hear of one more soul saved, a young man named Gilberto who is the brother of Alcidio, who himself was saved just last November!

Amazingly so many youth are seeking the Lord now. We stand in awe before the Lord in His mercy and pray that the Lord will bring in a huge number of young people that they can go out and spread the Gospel in Mozambique. The Lord is so good. He is really encouraging our young Christians by answering their prayer requests. One such a testimony is from a young lady by the name of Nelma. Nelma’s parents are in the Zionist church, which has so much witchcraft mixed in the with Christianity that it is more a witchcraft church than anything else. So, her mother wanted her to visit the church with her all the time like she used to before she was saved. Nelma really did not want to go back there, but was finding it very difficult to deal with the pressure from her mother.  After we prayed for her, her mother did not ask her again to go with her to the church and overall things are better at home. This is such an encouragement for her and she rejoices in the Lord. Thank you, Lord!

If I look at what the Lord is doing, I am in tears. What a blessing to see the Lord move, and we will keep praying that Revival will bring people to the Lord. May we as Christians grow in our love for our Lord and may we love Him with every thing we have. Worthy is the Lamb. Please Lord, make us holy and use us as instruments in Your hands. Mould us and form us to Your image!

~ Wiesie Westraad

Update From Xai-Xai, Mozambique

Dear Friends & Family in the Lord,

We apologize that it has taken so long to put an update out here.  The Lord has been so good to us and the work here, and we are excited to tell you about it!

In October the Nazarene Youth Rally at our church where I (Isak) was asked to preach, went really well.  The Lord helped very much in the messages, and our prayer is that lives were changed.  There were probably about a hundred people attending, and there were many fun games, contests, LOTS of singing, and some dancing too.  Mozambicans love singing and dancing!! I’m adding a short video below of the youth from our church entering the church that Sunday morning dressed in traditional kapulana and dancing a traditional dance.

Sadly many of these young people, even though they are regular church goers, do not know the Lord yet.  The messages that were preached focused on Christ as Judge, how escape the coming judgment, and being saved by grace alone.  We continue to pray for these young people, and this coming Sunday (Christmas night) we are hosting a Christmas youth event at our church.  There will be games, a short evangelistic film, and a Bible study.  Please pray that the Lord will bless this time!

This past Sunday, I asked one of our youth to lead the Bible study for the first time.  Noé has been helping with the children’s classes for a while now, and he truly loves the Lord and is a man of the Word.  The previous weekend he and a few of the other guys spent the weekend at our home and I had some really encouraging conversations with him. He is a quiet young man and a deep thinker.  When he led the Bible study yesterday, I was really blessed and encouraged!  The Lord really helped him and I can see he is a natural teacher with a good understanding of the Scriptures and a love for theology!

In other news, we are SO excited to share with you that last month the Lord saved two more young people, Alcido and Nercia!

Alcido is 15, and has been coming to our Bible studies for a couple months now.  As he shared in his testimony the other Sunday, he told us that he had already been sharing the Gospel with others when the Lord spoke to him through James 4:10, where he realized he had never humbled himself before the Lord, never truly repented and given himself over to Christ.  So for two weeks we did not see him, as in that time he earnestly sought Christ, humbled himself before the Lord, until he found Him!  Seeing the joy on his face when he pulled me aside the next Sunday afternoon to tell me the Lord has saved him, was so precious!  We are so very thankful and encouraged, and we are glad to see him continuing to follow the Lord.

On the very same day that Alcidio told me that he had been saved, a younger girl named Nercia (14 years old) came to tell me how the Lord had saved her just the previous week as well!  Nercia has been coming to our children’s Bible classes since she was a little girl, and has been part of our Bible study group for a long time as well.  She shared in her testimony that she always thought we were faking it when we prayed, that God did not really exist, or if He did, He did not really care about us.  Through the Bible studies the Lord began working in her heart, and finally one night after watching God’s Not Dead 2 with us at church, the Lord opened her eyes to see that God is real, that He really cares about her and loves her, and so she surrendered herself to Christ and entrusted herself to Him.  She has become a completely different girl!  In her testimony she shared with me, she sat crying as she told me what a terrible sinner she was before, how she rejected Christ over and over, but how amazed she is that Christ has forgiven her and saved her!! We are so grateful for the work of salvation that the Lord has done in her life!  Please pray for her twin brother who is not saved yet.

In regards to our family, we are all doing well. December has been a very busy month for us with work, ministry, and visitors. Last week we had dear friends from South Africa here to visit, and it was a precious and encouraging time of sweet fellowship; we hope to have them come visit again! In the picture to the right you can see Daniel who was kind enough to catch and remove a young python that had been living in our backyard. 🙂

My sister Anneke just arrived this past Saturday to spend her vacation with us, and we so glad to have her with us! We miss her and are looking forward to spending time with her this Christmas break. My father continues to work in the construction business to support the ministries here and he will be finishing this week for a much-deserved Christmas break.  Juan and I both will also be busy with ministry and work this whole week, finishing on Sunday night with the Christmas youth event.

My parents will be travelling to South Africa for their Christmas holidays to visit family and friends, while Anneke, Juan, and myself will be staying home.  We are looking forward to plenty of swimming, snorkeling (it’s summer here!), walks on the beach, fourwheeler riding, visiting with friends, reading, and SLEEP!! 🙂  Not to mention some awesome brother/sister time! 😀

Looking back over this past year, we see how we truly have so much to be grateful for.  We thank the Lord for good health in our family, the saving of lost souls among the youth, spiritual growth among the young Christians, the raising up of local leaders, new ministry opportunities, and so much more!  So please join us in thanking the Lord for His continual faithfulness, grace, mercy, and love towards us.  We serve an amazing and wonderful God!

In closing we would like to wish you all, our dear family and friends, a very

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!!!!

Thank you so much for your prayers, love, and support.

Lord’s Workings Among the Youth

Dear Friends and Family,

In my last update I promised to do another blog post to tell you all a bit more about what the Lord has been doing in the lives of the teens and young adults at church.  The Lord really has been good!

As you may remember, for the past few years we have Bible studies every Sunday afternoon for the youth, and in the past year at least 4 young people have been saved.  Most recently a young man named George (on the far right) was radically saved by our Lord Jesus!  We have known George since he was a little boy and he used to come to our children’s classes, but he stopped coming when he entered his teens.  In these last few months he started coming to Bible study again and he also went with us to the August youth camp in Chokwe.  During this time the Lord did a work in his life and he was truly saved!  I am so blessed and encouraged to see how the Lord has been transforming George’s life, and how he loves the Lord and seeks to follow Him with his whole heart.  I am very excited to see what the Lord will do in his life!

The Bible study as a whole has really been blessed by the Lord lately.  We have more young adults coming, some with a real hunger for the Word.  Not all are saved yet, but we pray for those who are lost.  We are so grateful for the true believers who come and with whom we are blessed to study God’s Word and fellowship together.  We are SO excited to see what the Lord will do in their lives!  It is such a wonderful blessing to fellowship with them, and to see them grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Many of them really love the Lord, and even though they are often surrounded by lost family and friends, an ungodly culture, they press on to follow Christ!

To create opportunities for fellowship, we now get together with the youth twice during the week too.  We usually have one night of ‘fun’ where we either watch a good Christian movie or play games, while the second night in the week we either listen to a sermon, have a prayer meeting, or have a sharing and discussion time over the Word.  It has been wonderful to be able to spend more time with the young people, get to know them more, and to become more a part of their lives.  They also have said that they really are glad to get together in the week too, as many of them are surrounded by lost people all the time, so it helps and encourages them to meet with other brothers and sisters.

Six of the youth now help me every Sunday with the children’s Bible classes, and this has been a huge help to me!  (In the picture to the right, they are busy preparing songs for class the next day). They are leading the classes mostly on their own now, while we just help them when needed.  Our goal is that they will be enabled to go into their own neighbourhoods and teach children there about the Lord too, as we do at church.  As missionaries, one of our main goals is to train up others to continue with the work of the Lord here, and that is what we seek to do specifically with this group of teachers.  This past Saturday they spent the day at the beach with me to celebrate my birthday, and we had a blast! Below are some photos. A few friends/siblings came along.  🙂

All the girls, from left to right: Assie (Muslim neighbor), Irene (a teacher), Naira, Stella (recently saved, loves the Lord!), and Delfina (a teacher).

All the guys, from left to right: George (recently saved and teacher), Noe (a teacher), Isak, Alan (Assie’s little brother) and Vasco (saved as a boy in our children’s class, one of the leaders in our youth; also a teacher!).

Playing in the water!

 

Playing a netless version of volleyball 🙂

As you can tell, we had a lot of fun on the beach that day!  It was a great blessing!  😀

Lastly I would like to inform you that the youth rally I had mentioned in my last post, had been postponed.  It will now be this weekend on the 22nd and 23rd.  I will be preaching 2 sermons, hosting a debate, and giving Bible quizzes. The program starts Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. and does not finish until Sunday at noon!  Please pray for me as I finish preparing this week and please pray for all there that the Lord will work a great work, as most of those attending do not know the Lord yet.  Pray that souls may be saved!

In closing, here are a few prayer points:

• Thank the Lord for the work of salvation He has done in the lives of several of the youth.
• Please pray that the Lord will save many more.
• Please pray that the Lord will help the young Christians, that they may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that they may know and love the Lord more!
• Please pray for help and wisdom for those of us who lead the Sunday Bible study.
• Please pray for the bi-weekly evening meetings to be blessed by the Lord as well, that it may be times of sweet fellowship and spiritual growth.
• Please pray for the 6 new teachers who are helping with the children’s Bible classes.  Pray that the Lord will help and enable them, and that they may become effective witnesses for the Lord.
• Please pray for the youth event this weekend, that the Lord will give much grace, and that He will do a great work in the hearts of those attending.

Thank you all so much for your faithful love, prayers, and support!  We truly appreciate each one of you so much.

~ Isak for the Mozambique Team

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”” ~ Revelation 7:9-10

 

Update From Xai-Xai, Mozambique

Dear Friends and Family,

It certainly has been a long time since we have posted an update on the blog!  For that I sincerely apologize.  Lord willing, I will be posting more regular updates from now on, and I apologize in advance that this post is a bit lengthy.

First I would like to say that our family is doing well!  The Lord has been very good to us, and we are all healthy and fit. We are so grateful for this, as some of you may remember that we have had our share of health battles.  The Lord is good!  One of our recent blessings is that on the 4th of September my parents celebrated 34 years of marriage.  They are truly such a precious couple and are still very much in love with each other 🙂 ❤ Anneke, Juan, and I are so blessed to have grown up with such a beautiful example of marriage and love!  We love you, Ma & Pa!!

Now for an update on the work here, which I know is very overdue.

In the beginning of the year, Juan started teaching English to a group of young people.  He has been doing this for several months now, and is about to finish this beginner course he has been working through with them. This is a wonderful opportunity for Juan to touch the lives of these young people, especially since several of them are true believers.  They all love and appreciate Juan very much!  Right now we are looking at different curriculums and English courses for him to continue teaching English, so please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom as to how exactly we are to proceed.

Some of you already know this, but Lord willing, we are planning to open an English Christian school here in Xai-Xai in the future. We are very excited about this! Mozambique is in such desperate need of good education, and the best way to give that to them is together with the Gospel and the Bible, and that is what we want to do! We are planning to use the A.C.E. curriculum, as it is our favorite curriculum out there.  Not only is it wonderful academically, but even more importantly it focuses on the Gospel, Biblical teaching, and character building in an exemplary way.  We have our own property and right now we are in the process of constructing our first building.  If the Lord wills, we will open in January of 2018 with the first few grades of primary school.  As the students move to the following grade each year, we will expand the school until we are a full school from pre-school to grade 12, Lord willing!

You may remember that before we had a Literacy Center where we would teach a group of students for about 3 years.  We finished with our first group at the end of last year, and decided to take a break this year.  The Lord has been laying it on our hearts to continue with the Literacy Centers though, so Lord willing we will be opening a new one in the beginning of next year. At least one (possibly two) of our Christian young people will be helping me teach, with the goal that they will learn to run a Literacy Center by themselves in the future.  To remind you, at the Literacy Center we take a group of between 20-30 students ages 8-10 who go to public school, yet who cannot read or write.  We teach them basic English and how to read and write using A.C.E. curriculum for about 3 years.  Most importantly, we share the Gospel with them and teach the Bible to them.  We have found that the Literacy Centers are very successful, and it is such a wonderful opportunity to pour into the lives of these precious children who need Christ so desperately!  Right now we are in the planning stages, so please pray for wisdom in that.  We will likely start in February 2017.

As for the Sunday morning Bible classes for children and the Sunday afternoon youth Bible study, it is going very well!  Especially the Bible study has been going very well with more young adults attending.  I will soon give you all a more detailed update on the children’s classes and Bible study that will include the testimony of one of the young men who was recently saved.

In other news, two weeks ago I attended a youth camp in Chokwe (where Anneke is) with 9 of the young people from here in Xai-Xai.  The Christian school where Anneke works hosted the youth camp which was given by a Brazilian ministry called Palavra Da Vida (Word Of Life), and it was excellent!  It was a fantastic time of fellowship, much fun and games, and excellent messages by the Brazilian pastors.  We liked it so much that we are hoping to host them next year here in Xai-Xai, so they can give a youth camp here!  It truly was a blessing to be there and I know that our young people from here came back very encouraged and helped.  Below are a few photos from the camp.

Lastly, I briefly want to mention that I (Isak) have been asked to be the guest speaker at the yearly youth rally the Nazarene church we attend hosts.  It is the youth of several churches who come together for two days of fellowship, games, and messages, and this year they asked me to preach.  I will be preaching two messages and I will also be hosting a debate (yikes!).  Several of the young Christians from church told me that the majority of those attending are somewhat religious, but still very lost!  So this is an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel with them.  Please pray for me, as I so desperately need the Lord’s help!  It will be on the 17th and 18th of this month.

I would like to close with a few prayer points:

• Please pray that the Lord will keep us close to Him, that we will come to know and love Him more, and that we will glorify Him in our lives here in Mozambique.
•  Please pray for the A.C.E. school we want to start here, that the Lord will finish it, that He will provide the right staff and students, and that His Name be glorified there.
• Please pray for the Literacy Center for next year, that the Lord will give wisdom and help in all areas as we plan and prepare for it.
• Please pray for the children at the Sunday morning Bible classes, that the ones who are saved may grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ while those who are lost may come to our Savior and be saved
• Please pray for the Sunday afternoon Bible study, that the Lord will cause great spiritual growth there for all of us, and that those in the group who are lost will come to a saving faith in Christ.
• Please pray for the saved children and young people.  Pray that the enemy will not cause them to fall back into sin, but that instead they will be completely surrendered to the Lord, obedient, and loving and following Him with all their hearts.
• Please pray for the youth rally where I’ll be preaching, that the Lord will give me great wisdom (which I desperately lack!!) and that the Lord will work in the lives of youth so that they might be saved, and those who are saved may be blessed and encouraged.

Thank you so very much for your prayers, love, and support!  We are truly grateful.  May the Lord richly bless each of you in this day.

~Isak for the Moz Team

Plans…

As you may see from the previous posts, our residence permits in Mozambique have been denied and we are heading back to the USA tomorrow. These last couple of weeks have been a bit more like a dream than reality, as we say our goodbyes, and pack our luggage. We have also had several farewell gatherings.

With all the people we know, there is one question we hear often. That question is “What are you going to do when you get back?” or “What are your plans when you get back?” That is a hard question to answer, as this was a very sudden thing and we didn’t have time to plan everything, but that really got me thinking of plans.
What are plans? Why do we make plans? Why don’t our plans always work?

Well, if I think of what this world would be like without plans, I know that they are needed. We make plans for everything, everything from the way a government works, to how a car is built to how a surgery is performed.
This world would be chaos without plans. But then we also have our “Personal plans” we make plans for what we will do the next week, the next month, the next year, but do they always happen? No! In Proverbs 16:9 it says “The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” We were already starting to make plans for the next year, but the Lord was directing our steps elsewhere.

In the days after the call from the immigration department, there were several verses that came to my mind, one of them was James 4:13-15 which says:
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

We can always make plans, but in the end, they are just that. Plans.

But anyway, we are going back to the USA for at least temporary. I do not know the future, but God does, He is the one who said ” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The Lord has lead and guided us to this point, He used this time here in Mozambique for so much in our lives, and we know that He will continue to work more in our lives wherever we are.

I want to thank you so much for your prayers for us in this time as we have prepared. It has been a busy time with preparation. I had several things on the cars and four-wheelers which needed to be fixed before I left, and Joy had other things to finish up. We also wanted to spend some time with friends here. Of course we also spent time on the beach, as we may not be able to go there for a long time!

Now we have come to the last full day in Mozambique. We are leaving tomorrow at 3:30 pm our time (7:30 am CST). Isak, Juan and a couple other friends will bring us to the airport where we will meet more friends for lunch. Then we will be flying out and leaving Mozambique. We do not know if we will return, as we do not know the future, but we know Who holds the future. He is in control, and His plan will be accomplished!

Here are a few photos of these past few days;

Joy getting “beach time” before going back to the winter time.

Photos from snorkelling.

Fixing the car.

Four-wheeler riding.

With friends.

Eating lunch at this dear family’s house.

 

We will miss our friends and adopted family here, but we know that the Lord is in control! Please be in prayer for us, we know that the Lord has a plan for us, and we will rest in that. Maybe we will not be coming back to Mozambique, maybe we will. That is in the Lord’s plan.  Either way we want to rest in the Lord’s plan!

 

 

Goodbyes…

Well, this will be the last blog post that I will write from this side of the world, at least for a while. The last couple weeks have been a flurry of tearful goodbyes, trying to visit everyone that we really want to see before we leave, and also enjoying the warm (or more accurately HOT) weather while we have the chance. I think we will miss it once we get back to the States in wintertime. 😉

Hearing that our residence permits were denied, and that we would have to go back to the USA for at least a time, was quite a shock to us. We were aware of that possibility ever since we started the process, but sitting in the immigration office, and hearing that we might only be able to stay for 10 more days was like a slap in the face. I think we were all stunned for a while, and it still is hard for me to believe that we will really be leaving on Wednesday, the 16th. As a result of delays with immigration, we still don’t have our exit visas in hand, but Lord willing we will get them tomorrow (Monday).

I think the hardest thing for us is the unknown of the future… will we come back after a while? Is God closing the door for us here? If so, what is His plan for our future? Many questions like this fill our minds, and I can only be thankful that our God holds the future in His hands, and we know that His plan is the best. Whatever He ordains is right, and we want to submit to His will, without fighting for our own way, or what we think is right. There is a song that keeps coming back to me…

I don’t know about tomorrow
I just live from day to day
I don’t borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to gray
I don’t worry o’er the future
For I know what Jesus said
And today I’ll walk beside Him
For He knows what is ahead

Many things about tomorrow
I don’t seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand

I would like to ask for prayer for Seth and myself, as we seek the Lord for His will in our lives. And thanks to all of you who have been faithful in prayer already!

We are very thankful for the time we have had here already, and the precious relationships we have been able to build. It’s hard for us to leave just as we are getting to know the people and the language well, and we hope that this is not “goodbye forever”, but “until next time”.

It is especially hard to leave our “African family”, the Westraad family… They are truly like our own family, and we will miss them greatly! Please keep them in your prayers also, since the work load will be heavier on them after we are gone, and while we are leaving one family to see another, they don’t have that to look forward to.

Here are a couple photos from the farewell that the church did for us. They gave us traditional gifts, sang, and we said our thanks and farewells…
(Sorry for the bad photo quality.)

So, we will be flying out on Wednesday, the 16th, and landing in Kansas City Missouri on Thursday. It will be a very happy reunion with our family there. 🙂 We have not seen most of them for a year and a half now.

We’ve taken plenty of photos with different groups as we say our goodbyes, so I’ll include some of those photos here.

Sad News

Dear friends and family,

We have occasionally shared with you before that we have been struggling to get Joy and Seth’s residence permits for here in Mozambique.  On Thursday last week immigration called us, and asked Joy and Seth to come the next day with my father.  When they got there on Friday, they told us the sad news that Joy and Seth’s residence permits have been denied 😦 .  The officials here at the local provincial office had approved their permits, and were actually very sad to tell us that it was denied, but the denial came from Maputo (capital of Mozambique) and so the local officials cannot do anything about it.  They gave Joy and Seth a short amount of time to leave the country, and so we are looking at two different dates right now.  They will leave Mozambique on either the 10th or the 17th of December.

The local immigration officials advised Joy and Seth to go back to the USA for several months, and then if they so wish they can come again and apply a second time.  The accountant who did their paperwork for the applications made some mistakes, and there were also some other technical details that caused Maputo to deny the application.  If Joy and Seth choose to reapply in a few months, we would do it with the help of the local immigration officials under the Nazarene church (with which we work).

At this time Joy and Seth do not have clear leading yet whether the Lord wants them to reapply again or not.  They both personally desire to come back, and we all certainly want them to come back too, but we know that the most important thing is not what we want, but what the Lord’s will is.  So for now Joy and Seth are returning to the USA, and it maybe for a few months or it may  be permanently.  Please do pray for them, that the Lord will lead and guide them in the right way.  He has a plan for each of their lives, and He knows best!

Our family here in Mozambique will certainly miss them very much, as they have been living with us for a year and a half now.  They are family.  But we know that the Lord has allowed this to happen, and we have peace, though we are sad too.  Please pray that the Lord will help us who stay behind, that He will guide us, strengthen us, and lead us in His perfect will.

We are so grateful for this past year and half we were able to have them here with us, and we also thank the Lord that He allowed them to finish with the Learning Center before their applications were denied.  It has been a blessing to have them here, and I think we all are changed for the better after our time together.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17

Learning Center Finished!

Dear Friends & Family in Christ,

In October 2013, we opened the first Learning Center here in Xai-Xai, Mozambique.  We had 30 students, ranging from ages 7 to 17, none of which were able to read.  In this Learning Center, we took these precious children and over the past 2 years have been teaching them to to read and write and basic English.  Most importantly, we also taught them about the Lord Jesus, His glorious Gospel, and His Word.  Every weekday for 2-3 hours we had a chance to greatly influence their lives!

Now, in November of 2015, two years later, we have finished with this group of children!  What a blessing it has been for us to be able to work with each one of them, to see them grow, to see them learn, and to see them gain a deeper understanding of the Gospel.  In the last few weeks of teaching, we especially focused on evangelical Bible lessons.  Two of the children with great joy on their faces told us, “Yes, Jesus has saved me, and I am following Him!”  There are others who may be saved, but do not have assurance of salvation yet.  Others are not saved yet, but they all have a clear understanding of the Gospel and we continue to pray for them that the seed planted in their hearts will be watered by the Lord, and that they would sprout and bear much fruit one day!

Except for two mentally handicapped children, all of our students are now able to read and write!  Several of them received Bibles for their farewell gifts, and they are now able to read them well.  Seeing these children who never could read before take the Word of God and read it, definitely makes the teaching worth it!

We are so grateful for this Learning Center the Lord allowed us to do, and He has taught us so much through it. He is the One who opened the door for us to start the Learning Center in the first place, He carried and helped us through it, He saved two of those precious children, and we pray He will save each one of them!  Please praise and thank the Lord with us for what He has done in the lives of each of these children, and also for what He has done in our lives as teachers too.  I think we all, students and teachers alike, walk away from this Learning Center changed people, with lessons learned that would not have been learned anywhere else.  Our God is so good and faithful!

On our last day, we had a special ‘party day’ for the children, which they greatly enjoyed.  It was a blast! We had a Bible lesson, then a treasure hunt, then some snacks, and then played some more different games.  We took some pictures, and they are below.  Enjoy! 🙂

Thank you for your prayers for these children, and we ask that as you read this, that you would take a moment to pray for them.  Pray for those who are saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and pray for the lost ones to trust in Christ and be saved!