Adilson's Encounter with His Heavenly Papa

We’ve been praying for our boys to have dreams and visions from Heaven so that they will know that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them unconditionally who will never leave them nor forsake them.  Our prayer has been that they would have supernatural encounters with our living Jesus...well our prayers are beginning to be answered! Yesterday one of our youngest boys Adilson aka (Zimba) who is 10 years old came to us and said he wanted to talk to us about a “spirit” that has been following him. So...intrigued and shocked of course we wanted to find out what was going on!

A little background on Adilson: Adilson has been with us the past several months, he’s one of our newer Shekinah boys. Adilson had a mom who just recently passed away and he doesn’t know anything about his father so he’s been on the streets of Tete for several months now running with the rest of our Shekinah boys. We immediately fell in love with Adilson when he started coming around. He’s always got a huge smile on his face and he loves to dance and make people laugh! He brings joy to our heart and always puts a smile on our face!

Keep in mind Adilson is 10 years old so this story may not be grammatically correct or in the perfect order, I’m just writing it the way he told us! Also prior to him telling us this story we’ve NEVER discussed these things that he shared. We’ve only told him that there is a man named Jesus who died for him who sent us here to Tete all the way from America to love on him and feed him, and that this man died to save us so we could have eternal life and not go to hell where the devil is. This is all we’ve shared with Adilson and we know that he’s not had anybody else in his life teach him about Jesus or anything relating to the bible. As you read this try to imagine sitting in Africa at a little stick kitchen table with concrete walls and floor and no paint with a precious 10 year old Mozambican boy sitting in front of you telling you this amazing story and hopefully you’ll be able to share in the joy it brought us.

And so his story began yesterday... These are the words of Adilson just the way he told us.... “I had a dream Saturday night. I heard a loud scream and I woke up. When I woke up I saw a bright bright bright light! I’ve never seen a light this bright before! And then a voice came from the light and said, ‘If you want to be with Jesus you have to take my life and I will take yours. I don’t want a child like you to suffer. You are staying with my heart.’ So I responded, “Who is this?” Then the voice from the light said, “You don’t need to drink, smoke or steal because your gonna be a Pastor one day and you are gonna help other kids just like you. You don’t need to get into anybody else’s car except for Nick & Marlene’s. Then I saw a cross and devils beating this man and he was on the cross and he said, “I’m dying for you, I died for you!”  So when people beat you, you just keep your head down, you don’t beat them, you just apologize.” Then he said, “When you are on the street and people ask you to carry their stuff to their car and then they offer you money tell them ‘I don’t want your money, I just want to help you.’ Then he told me, “if your brother beats you, just say I’m sorry.” Then he said, “If you see your brothers fighting, tell them ‘Why are you fighting? You are brothers!’

Then he said, “If you listen to the things I am telling you, you will grow up to be a fine young man.” Then he said, “I am leaving now” and He took a bible bigger than your house, much much bigger, your house is little compared to this bible and he said, “ Do the things I told you today.” 

Then Adilson said, “In the light I saw a man....dressed all in white. With a BIG BIG white beard, I’ve never seen a white beard like his before, and his sandals were so different ....wow, I never seen any like his. Then I saw a little cup, really small cup way up high, my heart was pounding and I was laughing the whole time; and the whole time he was way up high and he was REALLY REALLY BIG, I had to look WAY WAY UP HIGH to see his face.”  

Then Adilson looked at us and he said, “I’m tired now, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” hahaha! We sat in amazement wondering how in the world this could be. Marlene and I kept looking at each other saying “how in the world could he know all these things? Did he really see Jesus? Was this a vision or did Jesus actually come and visit him? He said he saw the light after he woke up from the dream!?!?! Did he have a visitation? I wonder if the cup was a cup of joy he was pouring out on Adilson? I wonder if it was the cup of His blood?” 

We were amazed and we still are! All I can imagine is Jesus is answering our prayers and he came to visit Adilson to reveal to him how real he is! When we had to take Adilson back to the street last night to drop him off he looked at us and said, “please don’t tell all my brothers (the other Shekinah boys) because they will think I’m crazy.”  We laughed and agreed, dropped him off and drove home amazed at our Papa! So many things were going through my mind... “did Jesus really answer our prayers? Is he really visiting our boys? What could it have been like? I wonder how it felt?”  I thought back to last week while Marlene and I were at a conference in Beira and Jesus showed me a vision...In the vision I saw the heavens open up and dreams and visions were falling from heaven onto our boys. These dreams and visions were filled with Glory! I cried and cried amazed and so full of joy with hopes and anticipation for this vision to actually happen. Marlene and I have both prayed and prayed for Jesus to begin to reveal himself to our boys in supernatural ways....

He hears our prayers and he answers them.  We pray that this story fills you with joy, excitement, peace, love, and questions just like we have that make you go DEEPER to find the revelations of Papa’s heart! May His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Thank you for your prayers for us and Shekinah! Please keep them coming! He hears our prayers and answers them... 

"To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill." Psalms 3:4

Blessings, Grace & Peace in Him,

Nick & Marlene

JESUS FEEDS

Jesus Feeds.... It's 2 in the morning and I can't sleep...It's been like that for a week now. Tonight I was like Jesus why? I'm tired I just want to sleep.  He sweetly replied "I have only asked you to feed the boys, nothing else." He then continued to tell me that "He was the one that would transform their lives, not me. He would change their hearts, not me." I WAS ONLY CALLED TO FEED. He gave me the example on how He fed the five thousand, not everyone in the crowd believed and loved him, but He had compassion and FED them. Matthew 14:16 says: Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT." Those words spoke to my heart tonight like never before. A week ago on Sunday after the boys left church 6 of them went and stole 2 computers. I was so sad and disappointed  and couldn't believe that after leaving church and being part of a drama they would go and steal again...  So I thought, Jesus they simply don't get it. We tell them over and over that stealing is a sin and they still don't get it... Nick is always telling them "Everything we give you is a blessing, God can take it from you if you continue in your sin. "  So we decided to stop feeding them. We told them that God blesses us and we can't take for granted his blessings...well that's what I thought till tonight. I thought if we stopped feeding them they would actually get it, they would realize how God loves them, how he sent us to help them, they would call on His name, surrender their lives and finally get it! Tonight I finally get it....I am reminded on how I stopped following Jesus for many years and He never stopped feeding, loving and pursuing me. In His mercy although I was disobedient He blessed me with a good job and He always FED me. I'm not blessed because I'm good but because He loves me and He has compassion for me, He died so I could have life.  So why all of a sudden am I turning into a judge? The bible says do not judge so you won't be judged. Sometimes we complicate things. I truly thought I was changing them, they were listening and changing because (I ) was doing something.   I was so dumb and egotistic, and prideful in  thinking I had anything to do with their transformation. I was so so so wrong  and now I'm ashamed and embarrassed.  Our flesh wants and has the need to feel  useful, needed and important.  That's what happens when we stop listening to the Father, when we stop being at His feet because of how busy we get, our flesh starts rising thinking we are "somebody"when we are just filthy rags.  It shouldn't matter if the boys are still stealing, fighting, drinking, and smoking, I have been called simply to feed them and love them unconditionally. Jesus doesn't have conditions on His love for us. He has compassion, patience and loves us even when we are not lovable. As I write this I can't stop crying because He brought me across  the world  to Africa just to feed our boys,  and for a week I stopped doing what my sweet papa asked of me.  Peoples expectations shouldn't  matter to me. It shouldn't matter to me that people think that after almost a year and a half that I have been working with the boys, they should be completely different. Yes, I am believing Jeremiah 29:11 for them, Jesus gave this scripture to us as a promise and I believe they have hope and  a future and are gonna be Godly men but for now, most of them are still the same and that shouldn't matter to me.  I shouldn't feel pressure to give people numbers and statistics on how they are different and how they love Jesus and how all of a sudden they are laid down lovers.  Tonight I finally feel relieved in knowing Jesus has only called me to feed and love them and that is all. The when and the how and if the boys will be transformed is up to Him. I can finally rest in Him knowing that He will transform our boys lives, I was just simply called to feed and love!! I am honored He picked little ol' me and my husband to love these amazing boys. Everyday I am reminded of His love for us through them. He moved us away from everything and everyone we know to Love the boys that people say here in Tete are the "worst kids" that's how much He loves Shekinah although far from perfect, He loves them with an unconditional love, Just like he Loves you and me. He is worth it all.... How could I ever repay Him for what He has done for me? All I can do is what he has called me to do, which is FEED our boys with no conditions and show them compassion and love. Rooted in Him, Marlene 

In the fountain of life is the light of the world...

Our second month here in Tete...

Wow, I can’t believe April has already come and gone! Praise Papa God for another month filled with His amazing mercies and grace. We truly couldn’t have made it thru one day here much less another month without Papa’s extravagant love. We wake everyday knowing that this is Papa’s will for our lives. There’s no doubt we’re supposed to be here. I’ve learned so much about Tete this month...the biggest thing being how much darkness there is here. Thank God we are “THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”. I truly feel like people look at us differently (not just because we are white)... I know they see the glow. How could they not? If we truly are the light of the world and Christ lives in us how can they not see His Glory? They do. Hallelujah! Not to boast in ourselves, but in Christ because He is the light. We are merely the vessel He chooses to shine through. 

Please pray for Tete...Alcoholism has a huge hold on the majority of the people here. At night the streets are filled with drunken people trying to fill themselves with something that is empty. It breaks our heart to see so many people completely lost trying to find something to cure the pain and hunger but waking up day after day finding themselves hurting worse than the day before.  Prostitution is another stronghold in the lives of many many young women here in Tete. There’s a demonic sexual spirit realm here that has more people entrapped than you can imagine. Generations of ancestry witch doctor worship and years of war and poverty has filled people with anger and hatred and stripped them of their desire to love. We see so many people fighting in the streets and the markets while onlookers are cheering on the hatred instead of breaking up the fight.  We are claiming scriptures over this city and the land of Tete. Psalm 34:15 says, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry..” We are believing God for reformation and transformation in the lives of thousands because of our cry! This morning as I was worshiping and praising God He gave me this scripture as a promise over our people here: “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong. Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart. May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. See how the evildoers lie fallen-thrown down, not able to rise” (Psalm 36:1-12, NIV, emphasis added). I know this scripture is referring to the fall of the wicked but Papa God spoke to me through this scripture in a new light and gave me a deeper revelation of this word, He said, “ Nick the wicked there have no fear of Me but my love for them is greater than the mighty mountains and it’s deeper than the depths of the seas! My love for them will never fail, even though they feast on the abundances of my house (the world) and I give them drink from my rivers and they fear Me not, I will always love them. For in Me is the fountain of life which I have put in you and the light that is in Me is in you my son, LET IT SHINE FORTH!!!! As you fill yourself with Me, the light will grow brighter and brighter and the wicked will soon FALL on their faces, not able to rise because my GLORY will be on them!” WHEW...WOW! I hope each of you can feel the GLORY on this word from the Lord! This is His promise! We are proclaiming this over the people here! They will come to the saving knowledge of His grace! They will experience the GLORY OF THE LORD! They will lay on their faces in awe of Papa God and His love for them! They will cry out in repentance for their sins and they will be FOREVER transformed! GLORY GLORY! 

Christ alone gives us the strength to carry out His work daily. Im becoming more and more aware of this mystery. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 the Lord spoke to Paul and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And Paul said, “Therefore I will boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” I’m finding that the weaker I get and the more reliance I have in Papa to go about each day carrying on His work the stronger I become! The more I realize that it is HE that is working in and through us and not the power of our own being the more power He gives us to LOVE the “LEAST OF THESE”. God wants us to love the sinner just as much as the saint. He wants us to reach out to the robber and the murderer, the rapist and the prostitute, to show them His love. This week alone our hearts were broken as we found out from some of our younger boys that one of our older boys has been raping them when he gets drunk. What do you do when you find out that one of your older boys that you’ve been trusting as a leader for the younger one’s has been raping them?  When one of your boys that you love dearly has been raping your younger boys and telling them that he will kill them if they tell you? One of the boys who you thought were actually “getting it”. What do you say to that? What do you do in this situation? Our hearts broke into a million pieces. We left the boys that morning not knowing what to do. Asking God, “God how could this happen? How could one of our boys who we’ve been trusting as a leader and teaching your word go and rape his little brothers? God what do we do?” We questioned God and wondered if they were hopeless. We wondered if we’ve been doing it right... if we’ve done something wrong. I wondered should we take our older boy to the jail for “justice” to be served.  But Papa spoke to us and said, “What’s he gonna learn in jail?” God showed us that the one who was raping our younger boys was raped when he was in jail this past year. So all day we prayed and asked God what to do. Papa gave us comfort with this word, “KEEP LOVING THEM, Don’t stop, don’t give up, don’t lose heart, just keep loving them.” 

So here we are, still loving them. Still pouring out everything we have to show them the Father’s love. Loving them and expecting nothing in return. This is the love of Christ, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13.  Through loving our precious children here in Africa we are finding this scripture to be the very heartbeat of Jesus. There’s no greater love to experience than to lay down your life for someone else to experience “true life” by encountering the one true living God. Some of our boys are already walking as new creations! We can truly see a difference in them...they've quit drinking and stealing and they're doing they're best to live a life honoring God despite the hard living conditions they are in.

We have GREAT NEWS TO SHARE!!! By the amazing favor and grace of God we NOW HAVE LAND HERE IN TETE IN OUR NAME!! It’s truly a miraculous miracle that two little azungues “ah-zoon goos” (means white people in Nyungwe, the local dialect) would obtain a piece of land here in Tete right now. Because of the recently found gold mine of coal here in Tete the government has pretty much seized all the land to sell to these large rich companies that come from oversees to mine for coal. The government is even telling the Mozambicans who are trying to obtain land that there isn’t any available. Only God could open the doors he opened for us to get this beautiful piece of land! We’re amazed by His faithfulness. Please pray for us as we have to purchase the rights to use the land next wednesday which will cost us $40,000 Meticais which is approx. $1,500 US dollars.  We had actually been told that it would cost us around $6,000 Meticais which would have only been a few hundred dollars so we were a little surprised yesterday when they gave us the price. We know God will provide for the land and completely provide the rest of the funds we need to build Shekinah Healing Home. Papa has provided some of the funding we need to start building (approx. $14,000 US dollars) and we are estimating that it will cost us $60,000+ to build the Shekinah Healing Home. Pray with us as we are trusting Papa for miracles! 

For the next two months we are the base directors for Iris Ministries here in Tete so we are leading the Iris Church and all the base operations as well as continuing our work for PIONEER61. God has placed a huge desire on our heart to evangelize in our village where the Iris Base is located. I’m estimating there are probably 2,000-3,000 small mud hut homes in our village Canangola which in turn means thousands of people who are lost right here in our own back yard. Right now the Iris Church has about 70 to 100 members and there’s no reason that there shouldn’t be at least 1,000! We’re praying that during the next 40 days while we take our church outside of the building and evangelize many many people would come to the saving grace of Jesus as their Lord and Savior! Please partner with us by praying for hearts to be touched and more people to come visit our church to hear the name of Jesus during this time!  

We are so thankful for each and every one of you who are praying for us and sowing seeds into our ministry! This work couldn’t be done without you! Our prayer today is that through our journey and mission Papa is touching your heart and taking you to deeper revelations and knowledge of His love. We pray that you are challenged to be obedient to His voice and “step out of the boat” into His will for your life. We pray in the mighty name of Jesus that you will partake in His JOY and LOVE by completely surrendering your life to the great commission of “going into all of the world to share his name and make disciples!” 

Blessings, Grace & Peace in Him from Africa,

Nick & Marlene

The Long Journey to Tete...

Well I guess it's time for an update... We FINALLY made it to our new home Tete! After two solid weeks traveling we're so glad to be home. There are so many amazing stories to tell of Papa's amazing provision and miracles but I don't have time to tell them all.  First off we are so grateful for our wonderful 4X4 vehicle! While we were in the states Papa told us to book our flights to Maputo (the capital city of Mozambique) by faith and trust Him to provide us a vehicle. When we booked our flights we were more than excited to book them by faith! Once the time came to actually fly to Africa we pretty much freaked! Ha! We began trying to change our flights via different routes and checking prices and we couldn't find anything that we could afford! The prices were outrageous for us to change our flighton such short notice.  We realized that Papa God was showing us that we WERE NOT supposed to change them. He told us to book them by faith and TRUST Him. He really stretched our faith on this one! He gave us so much peace and we kept our flights the same. Once we got to Johannesburg, South Africa we had NO MONEY to go towards buying a truck! By the time we flew to Maputo which was 2 days later somehow we had several thousand dollars! After a few days in Maputo we had $11,500 to purchase our vehicle! Papa God is GOOD. He's always faithful. Thru this process of buying a vehicle in a 3rd world country (which isn't all that easy) Papa showed us that our Faith can only be in Him. We can't put our faith in people or material things, we truly are on a journey of trusting in Him alone to be our provider.  Once we purchased our vehicle we began the LONG HARD 15hr drive to Dondo, Mozambique. Driving 15hrs in the states is NOTHING compared to 15hrs here in Mozy! Most of the roads are in really bad shape...there are tons of potholes and the sides of the road are so corroded that it's hard to tell the road from the dirt. The potholes make driving at night really FUN...NOT. The next day we drove another 8 or 9 hours to meet the Iris Relief team and the majority of that drive was thru the bush bush on a rough muddy dirt road (which I really enjoyed..maybe there is a little country in me! ha).  We did get to see about 100 Baboons, a huge iguana and a huge snake! That made the adventure even more fun! As we drove thru little bush villages it made me so happy to see the dirt roads lined with cute little babies and kids as well as the village people waving a jumping up and down with HUGE smiles, excited to see some crazy white people! Along this part of the trip I realized Papa really has called us to live a life as PIONEERS. The joy on a child's face when you stop and give them a stick of Wrigley's gum or an empty water bottle makes it worth it all! My eyes were really opened to how spoiled I've lived the majority of my life when I handed some kids a stick of Wrigley's gum and they ran to there mud hut to show some older youth, which came back to me to ask me what the stick of gum was. I actually had to take a piece and start chewing it to show them what to do with the gum! Ha... It's hard to believe that Wrigley's gum is over 100 years old and there's still people in the world that have never seen nor heard of it! Most of these people in the deep bush villages are born and raised there and never go anywhere else. They work really really hard growing their own food and farming to live. It amazes me how simple life can actually be. We really don't need the mojority of the things we have. God is showing me how life must have been for my grandfathers  fathers...generations of hard working men who carried their water from a well or water source like a river and used a bamboo outhouse to use the restroom in.  I love that Papa has called us to live much more simply. We literally get to carry our water from the well by bucket! We have a trash can buy our floor drain in the bathroom where we store about 25 gallons of water and we have a plastic cup nearby to pour the water over our heads to get wet. I love the simplicity of our life here! It makes us respect the luxuries that Papa God has so richly blessed us with while we are in the states or traveling elsewhere! We don't have anything to complain about. The rough roads, carrying water, sketchy electricity, sketchy internet, bucket showers...it's such a blessing to have these amazing things. My heart is burdened for so so many people in our world that don't even have the necessaties like water. I thank Papa for giving us MORE THAN ENOUGH. He always does!  While with the Iris Relief Team we got to bless so many people. We got to take Jesus & food (rice & beans mostly) to two villages that were very poverty stricken. The second village we went to was about a 5hr drive out some of the roughest dirt/mud roads i've ever been on! It was so far from any city or town...we didn't. Think we were ever gonna get there...Ha! When we finally arrived a couple hours after dark the children of Luabo were standing in the muddy road waiving an Iris flag waiting on us! Their faces lit up with joy when they saw us! They ran beside our vehicles about a mile to their village singing and dancing. When we pulled into their little village all the people gathered in front of our headlights to sing praises the  Lord and dance!! All the people of Luabo were more than excited and so blessed to see us. The Pastor of the little Iris mud hut church in Luabo said no one had been to visit them since 2003! Many of the young children staired at us in bewilderment as they had never seen white people! We had a blast sharing Jesus and passing out large bags of rice & beans to the people who have suffered from the cyclone!  Now that we are here in Tete, we've found out that there are some changes in our plan. The land that we were planning on building on isn't in the best place, we were informed that during the rainy season it stays under water. Also it's in the desert! There's not a tree in sight so there's not a bit of shade and it's HOTT here in Tete! We are in the process now of finding a piece of land to purchase! Please be praying for us during this upcoming week...We have a lot going on. We actually found a beautiful piece of land just a little way out of town that has 3 HUGE beautiful Boabab trees (Boabab's are also known as "The Tree of Life" because they are used for so many resources. Boabab's bark is used for cloth and rope, the leaves are used for condiments and medicine. The fruit is called "monkey bread", is rich in Vitamin C and is eaten. The trees are capable of storing hundreds of litres of water, which is tapped during dry seasons. Some Boabab's are dated to be over 2000 years old, so they've been around since Jesus walked the earth!) I find it funny that the tree is called the "Tree of Life" and there's THREE on the land that we would love to purchase...Boabab's are few and far between here in Tete so we were shocked to find three together on one piece of land! We are praying for Papa to show us if this land is our inheritance!  We will be purchasing our DIRE's (Residence Permit) on Monday, once we have those we will be meeting with the Municipal Government to propose our plan to build Shekinah Healing Home to rescue homeless and abandoned children from the streets of Tete. Once we propose our plan to the government they will let us know whether or not the land is available and how much of it we can "purchase". Here in Mozambique you can't actually buy land...you buy the rights from the government to use the land. We are praying for favor! We are also meeting with the Governor's wife to propose our plan as well. We're praying for favor with her as well. We will hopefully be meeting with a large coal mining company to make a proposal for our program as they sometimes use tax money to assist in certain "public service projects" so they could be a great help! Pray with us! We know God has gone before us and already paved the way. We're excited to see what the Lord has in store for us these next few weeks and we hope to have a piece of land and start building Shekinah Healing Home soon! We will also start our program with our boys soon! So pray for us as we begin to disciple and love on them!  Papa touched me when i read this scripture the other day... "Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily,  I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward?  Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so make use of my rights in preaching it. Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." 1 Corinthians 9:16-19 We're so blessed and honored to be here in Africa sharing the love of Jesus with everyone we come in contact with. "I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in it's blessings." 1 Cor.9:23.  It's truly a blessing to share the love of Christ with those who have never experienced it. There is no greater joy that I have yet to find.  We love each and every one of you and we're so thankful for your prayers and support! We pray God bless your offerings and continue to pour out His extravagant love as you seek a deeper revelation and knowledge of Him!  Blessings, Grace & Peace in Him,  The Boyd's

WE MADE IT TO AFRICA...

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 "Our Heavenly Dwelling"

Well, we're excited and expectant! Thanks to Papa God we made it safely to South Africa!  Marlene and I are so blessed to have the opportunity to "go to the nations and make disciples" (Matt 2

As we woke up early this morning (jet lag is the best..ha)  I was filled with joy knowing that we are in the will of our Father. There's no greater joy than knowing you are right where Papa wants you and I'm full of peace because that's where we are. We're walking in our DESTINY...What we are created for.

"Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands"      (2 Cor 5:1). As I read this verse this morning I was filled with peace knowing that my "home" isn't this world, my home is Heaven. It's funny...we are actually on our way to do disaster relief work in the bush of Mozambique from the cyclone Funzo and we'll be living in a tent for close to a month in flood zones...but I'm not worried one bit. This tent isn't home, our home wasn't built with human hands, but we are in the hands of our daddy God and we can rest assured that our dwelling place is in heaven. "Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Cor 5:5). The Lord reminded me that He created us for this very purpose "to preach the good news of salvation to the poor" (Isa 61:1) and that the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that there are GREAT THINGS TO COME! We're expecting to see miracles, signs and wonders but most of all we just want people to know that their daddy in heaven has prepared a place for them and "this tent" is not their home. "We live by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7). We're headed to Maputo tomorrow (the capital city of Mozambique) and our flight ends there...we booked our flight to Maputo "by faith" (to buy a truck that we need to build our first Shekinah Healing Home) and we yet to have all the funds we need to purchase it, but Papa reminded me that we walk by faith not by sight. Our faith is in Him, not what the world tells us! Hallelujah! 

"We make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Cor 5:9,10). Our goal on this new pioneering adventure is to please Him who sent us. To bring Him glory and honor and all praise! We want to share His extravagant love, that everyone we meet may know the love of the Father. 

Thank you all for the prayers and support! "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God." 

Blessings, Grace & Peace in Him, 

Nick