Hello friends & family,
This has been the journey of a lifetime. We’ve been able to see and experience so much of what God is doing in different parts of the world and it’s been such a blessing and honor to partake in it!
So much has happened since our last update, here are some of the highlights
Brazil Visa Miracle:
As we've mentioned, after our time in Mozambique, we were to be sent out to another nation. Only due to your generousity were we able to afford to go to Brazil, (the nation God had put on our hearts). Before our departure from Minnesota back in October, we had gone to Chicago 2x (using up our airline points) in attempt to get our Brazilian Visas. Both trips were stressful, exhausting and LONG story short, we were denied entry into Brazil.
The woman at the Brazilian Embassy in Chicago warned us that the Fortaleza slums are a very dangerous place and that we should not go. She informed us that she put notes in the system sharing that she had denied our entry and she told us, “You can try to apply in Africa, but good luck. If they see my notes you will be denied there also.”
We had a peace and knowing that God would make a way for Brazil still. We were confident it was where He called us. We ended up applying for Brazil Visas while in Mozambique. We got many people praying for favor and for the Embassy to overlook our previous attempt…. And guess what?! We got our Visas!!! God is SO faithful and SO good. He is the God of the impossible.
Babies in the garbage dump:
With a few locals and friends from the mission base, we headed to one of the main garbage dumps in Pemba. We brought drinks, snacks and balloons with us and off we went, not knowing what to expect. As we arrived, there were large mounds of trash with a view overlooking the ocean. We looked around we saw small children all spread out snatching whatever they could. Most of them were barefoot and glass and metal shards were everywhere. A few of us in flip-flops had to pull metal out of our feet. You could see small homes in and around the dump where the children lived. Their clothes was soiled and some had large open wounds that were infected. This created in us such a deep appreciation for the simplicity of having access to antiseptics and bandages. These children with wounds had no means to clean them and allow them to properly heal!
We gathered all the youth and they joyfully joined in singing with our local friends in Makua. We then had someone share his testimony of once living in the dump and finding Jesus and getting out of his situation. Jake shared the gospel and most of the youth wanted to receive Jesus. Afterwards we handed out the food and drink and each child got a candy and balloon. We even got to pray for those with wounds for healing and they all said the pain left them. One child whose pain left had gotten his foot ran over by a garbage truck!
The dump forever marked us. The children were so sweet and humble. It hurt so much to see their reality. They were both physically and spiritually hungry. We could have easily gone back daily if our schedule had permitted. Thankfully, we were able to return a 2nd time to feed them and love on them before heading to Brazil.
Bush bush #2:
We drove through some torrential rain to reach this village and being in the back of the truck we all got soaked along with many of the backpacks and tents. The team prayed for the rain to stop and it did; which allowed us time to set up tents and get to bed. Early morning it down poured for hours. Many slept in puddles of rain and those with blow up mattresses floated and slept on the rain! Come sunrise we prayed for a sunny day and at 7am the sun came out from behind the clouds and by 10am all the wet items were dry. Praise God.
The prior night when we had arrived, our lead pastor traveling with us informed us we had not gotten the signed documentation we needed to be able to evangelize in this village. He told us we had made our 6 hour drive in faith. A a team we prayed for breakthrough. We would not be able to do much of anything until we got the papers signed. We spent our 1st morning playing with the children and doing a children's program. Many of the children had never seen what their face looks like- so we used our phones as mirrors. The kids roared in laughter seeing their faces for the 1st time. Can you imagine living life without knowing?
As the afternoon came; we got restless. We decided we would do a prayer walk in hopes that we would get good news soon. Right as we were headed out, we got word that the documents were signed! We were then able to go door to door instead.
Door to door was AMAZING. A few highlights- We prayed with a Muslim woman with a super hefty cough and she saw some healing, but not complete. Then while we shared the gospel to her she interrupted to tell us she was 100% healed and she knew that everything we were telling her about Jesus was true because He healed her. She said she knew the weightiness of her decision to live for Him, so she did not receive Jesus then and there, but told us when she was ready, she would invite Him into her heart. We also prayed with a woman with heart pain and it all left. We prayed for a woman with a constant headache and stomach pain (usually from witchcraft spells) and it left. We prayed with a blind man and as we were praying he let us know his back was healed; which we weren't even praying for! There were many more amazing stories of the love of Jesus touching lives!
The night service was so beautiful. The generator/electricity kept going out in the beginning of the service; which was just the enemy trying to hold things back once again. We decided to worship and dance with the community without power. We danced and danced and danced and praised God and the power surged back on. We had no issues the remainder of the night. After worship, Jake shared his testimony, we did a skit and pastor Jose shared a super powerful gospel message. The crowd held about 450 people and when he asked who wanted to receive Jesus arms were up everywhere (probably 300+) and the gave their lives to Jesus. We shared the Jesus film afterwards and ended with a prayer tunnel so that we could lay hands on each person. This prayer tunnel lasted 2 hours because there were SO many people. It was mostly men and youth which was very encouraging. Usually the women are the ones in this culture leading in faith.
This village was drastically different than our 1st bush experience. The atmosphere was one of peace and the people were not afraid to show that they were VERY, VERY hungry for Jesus.
The morning we went to leave we honored the chiefs of the village. Pastor Jose informed us of what really had been going on behind the scenes when we had been trying to get our documentation signed. He said the government official of the entire district had our paperwork on her desk and was refusing to sign it. They even had gone to her office in the morning while we had been out playing with the kids and she still said NO. A couple hours later she actually drove out to the village with the signed the documentation to personally hand it to Pastor Jose. She told him anytime he comes in the future he is welcome to visit ANY village in her district. At the night service there had been a woman we did not know who opened the evening. Pastor Jose told us that this had been this government official. She wanted to come and publicly honor and bless the work we were doing. She had a complete change of heart. Talk about God breaking in and turning the situation around in 24 hours!
Hope your Decembers are going well! We landed in Brazil early Saturday AM. We CANNOT wait to share about it in our next update!
Be blessed,
Jake & Rachel
