Fun in the Sun! And there’s always sun!

There’s a botanical garden not too far from our center, hidden away, way, way off the main road, down a bunch of dusty dirt roads.  They really do have an amazing amount of plants there. 

But the boys love to go there for their little playground, that’s the best part for them!  They love the big toys to play on that are different from what we have here.

Above, Paulo takes his turn at driving the car, by far the most popular toy there!

 

Pai, Alfeu, Reginaldo and Paulo Luis are enjoying the bridge.

Twins, Francisco and Lourenco are way too young to be driving!!!

AAlito is just about to set sail on his cool swing.

I love that Casmeiro is in the tube while Felizardo and Pai are swinging it away.  He doesn’t look any worse for wear!

“Hellloooo Agostinoooooo!!!”

Finished off by a yummy snack of hard boiled eggs, grapes, chips and a lolly – yum!  For the boys, that makes up for making them play outside when it’s a thousand degrees!

Computer-Free Wednesdays

(More handsome boys who have nothing to do with this post!!!)

To carry on with March’s theme of so-called sacrifice, I wanted to share another endeavor I have embarked upon.  But this isn’t just for March - this will be on-going indefinitely.  Maybe, maybe not forever.  But for some time.

By the way, I don’t write “so-called” in front of sacrifice to be disingenuous.  I am just aware that my attempts at limitations and giving things up are rather small and painless in the grand scheme of things.  This isn’t a 40 day fast.  I’m not evening fasting one meal (although I might have to if my money runs out – ha!).  Nor have I given up the internet entirely.  Not to mention personal sacrifices people make on a regular basis. I’m not even giving up Coke Lite for Peat’s sake (Hi Sam!). 

I’m just aware that what I am giving up is rather small and temporary and it just seems too self-important to keep referring to it as a month of sacrifices.

Back to the topic at hand!

In the last post, I wrote about realizing how much time I spend on the computer reading about doing things rather than doing things themselves.  I could no longer ignore how much time I waste on the computer instead of enjoying real-life things.  Like people, reading, crafting, cooking.  Even watching a movie!  I may have used the work “addicted” to refer to my time on the internet. 

I’ve always wanted to live an intentional life.  To live deliberately.  To Seize the Day!  I came face to face with the fact that 2011 was not “The Year of Living Deliberately” in my life.

Now, I do think that this year of what I might call laziness and inertia if you will, has it’s roots in my grief over losing Pedro at the end of 2010.  This impacted me in ways too deep to explore in this blog post.  Suffice to say, grieving took a lot of my energy and heart and time.  The internet was easy and didn’t require any effort from me.  I could lose myself in it. 

Mind you, God has been faithful and present and a great comfort to me since Pedro died.  But we all have coping skills and we all make choices.  And I think I chose to check out for awhile.

It’s time to check back in. 

So, Computer-Free Wednesdays.  I won’t be turning my computer on, on Wednesdays.  Not even for email.  I wrestled with this initially because of both my parent’s health and realized that if something happens, they both would call me anyway, not email me.  So there it is, no reason not to unplug for one day a week.

To show what a wimp I really am, I have to tell you, I chose Wednesday because it’s Home Group night here at the center so I knew 7-10 would basically be temptation-free anyway!  But as it turns out, it hasn’t been very hard at all.

And the neat thing is, between giving it all up on Wednesdays and giving up facebook and blogs the rest of the time, I really am beginning to live more purposefully again. 

I have decided to have people over for dinner every Wednesday, so I am both cooking and socializing (with real, live people, not their facebook photos!).  I am reading more, I’m exercising daily for the last month, I’ve even enjoyed a craft evening with a few friends.  (I’ve also watched two seasons of Survivor but hey, entertainment is still good!).

If you’ve ever wondered if you should unplug for awhile, disconnect from whatever screen takes up the most of your time, I highly recommend it!  Even if you set yourself a small time frame to begin with.  If you have ever done this, I would love to hear about it!  I get encouraged and inspired when I hear about people trying to make deliberate choices for their lives and it all looks so different for each one of us.

Now, I’m off to eat some of my homemade chili and read one of my textbooks!

Minimal Spending March

(Gorgeous twins, Francisco and Lourenco, have nothing to do with this post, just thought you all might be missing some of these delightful faces since I haven’t written about the boys lately – enjoy!)

It wasn’t intentional that the month of March contains so much so-called sacrifice for me this year.  It happened kinda by accident, unless of course you consider the leading of the Holy Spirit intentional, in which case it wasn’t by accident at all!

As I wrote in my previous post, I am celebrating Lent this year by abstaining from facebook and from reading blogs.  Of which I read a lot.  Like 20 or so.  Every day.  The blogs I read are helpful and inspiring and there is nothing wrong with them, I’ve learned a lot from them.  They are about cooking, homemaking, raising and educating children, crafts, etc. I will likely return to reading most of them when Lent is over.  But they, with facebook, have been taking up too much of my time and energy and I haven’t been choosing real-life activities enough.

I was struck by this thought – “when did I start reading ABOUT cooking rather than cooking?”  “when did I start reading ABOUT crafting rather than crafting?”  I was aware for awhile I needed to break this habit.

But wait, this post is about Minimal Spending March, not Lent!  Let’s carry on  . . .

So, on one of these blogs, one of my favorites called Small Notebook (http://smallnotebook.org/2009/07/01/the-no-spend-month-challenge/) I read about their family’s annual endeavor to be mindful of their spending.  It inspired me to do the same. (I told you the blogs I read are inspiring!) This is just one of the articles, they did it three years.  If you’re interested, this article will include lots more links to what they did, what they learned and what they took away with them

So, rather spontaneously, Minimal Spending March was born!  (It took me awhile to come up with that catchy label – “for one month I can spend money on things but not much, I’ve given myself a set, very restricted budget” was a bit cumbersome!).  It just “so happened” to be the same month as the majority of Lent.

I took the amount she spends on her family of four as a cue (obviously we live very different lifestyles, I don’t think she has to pay $8-10 for gas for one trip to the grocery store!) and set myself a budget of $20 a week, $80 for the month, for all of my spending.  This does NOT include spending on the boys or my work or giving within the context of my work.  This does include the $8 I will spend on toilet paper, representing 10% of my monthly allowance!  My friend asked to use my restroom and jokingly apologized for using up some of my precious TP/money!

This will include food, gas, phone credit, eating out, trinkets, etc.  In the interest of total disclosure, it does NOT include my Coke Lite!  This is my game, I can make the rules.  So there!

I’ve made a fairly big mistake so far.  Here it is, Day 10, and I’ve just sat down and written everything down that I’ve spent.  I also just now did the math to determine $80 for Mozambican Mets and realized I had 2160 mets to spend.  It suddenly made those 79 met grapes a luxury that maybe could have waited til April and I could have made do with the apples that were already in my fridge.  If I’d already had a running tally, I might have made a different choice.

Plus, one of the points of this exercise if being mindful of my spending!  Not writing down the first ten days made it fuzzy and vague rather than in clear focus.

Writing down what I’ve spent so far in ten days was shocking – $57.29!!!  That means I have $22.71 left to spend.  For the next 21 days!!!  That’s $1 a day! 

I hope I have enough toilet paper!!!

Celebrating Lent

Although I am not Catholic, I have always appreciated the purpose and meaning of Lent (my limited understanding of it anyway).  I love the idea of preparing my heart and mind and spirit to reflect on the significance of Easter, Christ’s blood shed for me, the perfect sacrifice to make me wholly acceptable and pleasing to God.

I also love the process of giving something up as a small (pathetic really) symbol of what Jesus gave up for me.

And, I love the act of sacrificing something so that my heart and mind have more room for God.  And more time.

So the times I have celebrated Lent, I have never given up food.  Rather I have given up something with a time element. 

This year, I have given up Facebook.  And reading blogs.  Both of these things take up a lot, way too much, of my time.  Both of them are enjoyable and valuable and yet something that their absence will enable me to enjoy and value my time and relationship with God more.

So this post will show up on Facebook because my blog is automatically linked to it.  But if you want to reach me, try the “old-fashioned” way – email me at Lauraleighanderson@hotmail.com!

Anyone else out there celebrating Lent?  Or have you ever?  Would love to hear your stories!

A Gazebo by any other name is a Pajorta!

There’s the almost finished product, a new Pajorta, otherwise known as a Gazebo, in the beautiful late afternoon sun.  The sky was just gorgeous!  (Technically, it’s not the finished product because the straw has been trimmed around the edges to give a nice clean cut look!).

Here’s Ermilio creating our pajorta.  It took him and another man about three days.   This is third pajorta we’ve had in the nine years I’ve been here.  The wooden posts get eaten by termites and we have some very strong wind storms (like the cyclone that passed through on Saturday and the two from two weeks ago) that easily take them down when they’ve been weakened by the termites, 

The garden gets full (HOT!) sun in the early afternoon when the kids are in there playing so it’s wonderful to have a shady place for them to play that isn’t inches from my living room when I am trying to teach the afternoon program in there!

Special thanks again to Rock Harbor for their generosity in making this possible.  This simple structure is deceptively expensive and we wouldn’t have one if it weren’t for Rock Harbor!

But while I’m at it – a  big THANK YOU to all of my supporters who help make all we do here possible.  It all ads up, every dollar, and I am so blessed by the generous, sacrificial giving that makes it possible for me to be here blessing these gorgeous boys!  Thank you and may God bless you richly!!

(Here’s a shot from the frame of the old pajorta that had fallen down – he was able to re-use quite a bit of it thankfully.  I was always amazed the boys didn’t destroy it when they used it for a jungle gym!)

Puzzling!

These gorgeous boys love to put together puzzles!  Well, actually they love to play with puzzle pieces and they are learning to put together puzzles!  Many of them are still working on the idea that the colored sides don’t mix with the plain brown sides!  But they’re getting the hang of it and learning to reason out how puzzles work.  They are one of their favorite things to do! 

Here’s a sampling:

I happen to love puzzles too and am working up my courage to start one that is 1000 pieces!!!!  My friend Jannie is my inspiration!

(By the way, has anyone ever noticed all the wicker in my house?  It’s everywhere in Mozambique, wood is expensive and hard to find.  The only wood item I have is my kitchen table which I bought in South Africa and brought back over the border.)

Colors and Shapes

Please try and ignore the fact that every single photo ever taken in our “sala grande” or, big room, is awful.  The lighting in there is the pits! 

So since I have so many new boys now, a third of the dorm is new to me, I decided to start the year off with some “assessment” of where they are at.  I use quotes because I am not a teacher and there’s nothing formal about my assessment, just an idea of what the kids know and don’t know and who works well together with whom, etc.

We’re taking a look at colors and shapes and numbers and letters and if the kids know how to cut with scissors or hold a pencil properly or write anything or even follow directions!

This was a two part activity, the first as you see here, where I called a different boy to stand on a different shape or color.  Then I had each boy start on a particular shape and I called out the next shape they had to jump to, progressing thru all of them. 

I think the novelty of standing on a piece of paper was the biggest hit of all!

Although Feliciano IS quite a bit taller than everyone, the fact that he is in the front and that he is on his tippy toes makes him look like a giant!  He has some special needs that have kept him in my dorm even though he’s older than the rest.

 

Just an attempt at a shot of the layout of the place.  The boys sat so patiently while I would call out a boys’ name to go stand on a particular shape or color.  They love helping each other too!

Beginning the battle . . .

Or maybe I should say taking back up the battle?  It seems to me that at some stage in my life I at least participated in a skirmish or two in this area . . .

The last few days, I’ve felt God reminding me that it IS in fact possible to take our thoughts captive to Christ, that I am not at the mercy of my thoughts but I can actually take my stand in the “battlefield of the mind” to quote a famous book.  I haven’t read it but I think I will.

Lately, I feel like I have been at the mercy of my thoughts which have kind of spiraled around negatively more often than I care to admit.  And I haven’t much tried to do anything about it.  Much to my sadness.

So over the weekend, I felt God speak to my spirit gently and remind me that I don’t need to indulge every negative or grumpy or hopeless thought that comes my way.  I was mulling this over when in church on Sunday, during the worship time, I really felt God wanting to do some work in this area of my life.  Our pastor opened up the altars for anyone who wanted to be prayed for something they wanted to give over to God.  I went forward as did many other people.  My friend Wendy snapped this precious shot of some of my boys (and some other kids too) praying for me which is so lovely to me.

After some prayer time and we had all returned to our seats, our pastor called up our guest speaker, one of our visitors named Larry.  After amazingly greeting everyone in Portuguese, Larry declared, “THOUGHTS! That’s what I want to talk about today!”

Well, he had my attention!  As did God, even more so.  Isn’t it amazing when He works things together like that? 

I look forward to renewed vision and purpose in this area of my life and the good things that will come of it.

Anyone else battle this area, now or in the past?  Have any words of wisdom, books or scriptures that have inspired you?  Please feel free to share!

Second Corinthians 2:5:  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Going Home . . .

These gorgeous boys came to live with us last year but this week, they were reunited with their parents and grandmother and they will go home to live with them.  The oldest boy is named Edson.  The two twins, Fernando and Francisco, lived in my dorm until January when they moved to the next dorm.  The youngest, Reginaldo, was still living in my dorm.

Look at those faces!  So full of life and joy and spunk and they were such a delight!  We will certainly miss them but we are so glad they can be restored as a family. 

Please pray for a smooth transition for them all! 

Back to School!

January marks the beginning of the school year for us here in Mozambique.  Just like in most households, when school starts again, so do routines and structure and new school clothes!!

These fun shirts which say “Meninos de Deus” which means “God’s Boys”, were gifts to my boys from Heidi and Tanya Hus, twin sisters who are friends from college!  Oh my word, they are not Hus anymore!  That is Heidi Fox and Tanya Devoll!  Thank you generous friends!

Let me tell you –I always breathe a huge sigh of relief when school starts again!!  The boys are occupied for the whole morning which means less boredom so less mischief and less fighting.  And they love going to school!  Please pray for their education though, the methods here aren’t the latest and greatest so their learning is often a challenge.  I so want to open up the world for them of discovery and learning and amazement at this world God has created!

A New Home

These three brothers came to live here at our center temporarily as their home was destroyed and their mother had no place to keep them together. 

The ministry has been helping the mother build a new home and it’s now finished so these boys can go back home to be with their mother!

It has been so lovely to see how close these three have remained even though, due to their ages, they’ve been in three separate dorms.  They were all three excited to return home to their mom, even Edson, from my dorm, who looks sad here in this photo.  It’s a combination of a bad shot and that he was a little overwhelmed but all the days leading up to it he was so excited!  When the time for actual change comes, it can always be a little challenging. 

Please keep this family in your prayers that they adapt well to being back at home, that they thrive there in the family God created for them.

Precious Girl, One Week Later!!

One week later, just seven days, and this sweet little girl is doing so well!  Last Sunday the whole church prayed for her and we know people have been praying the world over as well.  We are so thrilled with the progress she is making!  Not every child comes in as drastically ill as she has but she still serves as a visible reminder of why it is such a privilege to be here. 

 

Of course, I don’t have anything to do with her care, as I am not a nurse or work with the babies.

But I love being a part of a ministry with such tangible expressions of the love of Jesus!

Look at those long fingers, think she’ll be a pianist or a guitar player?

The Story of the Hot Pink Towels!

Shopping can be a funny thing here in Moz.  Sometimes, it’s very straightforward, you go to the store and buy 200 sausages at one shop for New Year’s Eve in 15 minutes flat.  Other times, you drive around to four different stores and still don’t find the chairs you need for the kids’ mealtimes.

The story of buying the towels was half and half.  Here in Moz, many, many things are sold on the side of the road, either by permanent vendors who sell the same things in front of their homes or by mobile vendors, walking along the roads selling any manner of things from brooms and bras to Santa caps and soft drinks.

There is one vendor not too far from the center who sells towels in front of her home.  In fact, there are three different ladies right next door to each other who sell towels in front of their homes.  That’s how it’s usually done here – people are all selling the same thing in the same places, funny.  Diversification anyone?

So the first step is to stop on the side of the road at Sandra’s, where I bought towels once before.  Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t home and lost out on a big sale.  Laurina, a diminuitive of my name that she was SO excited about, was home and assured me she could buy 30 towels, ten of each color for my three rooms which are blue, red and green.  Phone numbers were exchanged and she promptly called me two days later to tell me she needed me to drop by 1000 mets, about a third of the price, so she could buy them.  Bummer she hadn’t told me that while I was there.  So back I go to drop off the money with her beautiful teenage daughter. 

She then called the next day to say she had the towels.  I went there and met her sister as she wasn’t there.  The first set of towels – hot pink! – were of pretty good quality for 100 mets each (about $4).  But the second two sets, blue and orange, were horrible!  You could see thru them!  Even her sister said “she didn’t choose well with these.”  So after speaking with Laurina on the phone with her assuring me she could get twenty different towels, I took my hot pink set and left the others. 

The next day she called again to say she had my towels.   I drove there and discovered she had twenty more of the hot pink towels!

So now we are a boys dorm with 30 hot pink towels!  These boys don’t mind a bit, they just think it’s so exciting to get something new.  I’ve never had the same color for the whole dorm, it’s always been easier to control things by room.  Here’s hoping these hot pink towels will last a good long time in each of the rooms!

Lastly, a big thank you to Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, CA for their generous donation this December.  They have covered not only the towels but so much more – Christmas clothes and gifts, bed cushions and sheets (still to come) and more!  They have a fantastic First Fruits program that I was blessed to be the recipient of – thank you!

Little Baby Tortellini!

Well, imagine our surprise when one morning, this little guy showed up!  I have been housesitting in a home across the driveway from my house and dorm and that house has come to be called “Ralph’s House” in honor of the only permanent resident – a 25ish pound tortoise who outlasts all the occupants who come and go!  One morning – we discovered Ralph had a little friend!

Was Ralph really a woman all this time?  And, ahem, how had this happened?  But no, after checking on the internet, Ralph is indeed a man and we have no explanation for where this little peanut came from.

If the kids had found him, they would have been all over themselves showing everyone in sight, as they always do.  And it’s hard to imagine an adult putting him in the garden but not saying anything to anyone.  He’s so little – he’s lucky he wasn’t run over by the lawn mower the day before we discovered him!

I got to enjoy him for a couple weeks before we had to find a new home for him with great friends who live over in Matola.  At least I will get to visit him!

Tortellini, my apologies for not cleaning the schmutz off your back before I took your portraits!  I did get a clue at the end there.

Our newest little precious girl

Please be praying for our newest little one who, as you can see, desperately needs God’s healing touch, our TLC and your prayers!

She is 8 months old and weighs 6 pounds.  She arrived two days ago.

Please also be praying for our nursing staff and Tias who look after this precious girl and make minute by minute decisions for her care.  What a privilege to be here serving “the least of these.”

Think I got enough new boys in the last two weeks?

It’s the time of year for dorm changes.  13 of mine moved up to the next dorm – sad  but we got lots of new little ones in from other parts of the center as well as two littlies from the community. 

Introducing . . .

Jerso and Jeremias.  These boys need prayer for adjusting to  life with structure and boundaries again as they have been on their own.  They’re quite feisty and know their own mind.  They also look out for each other.  It would be easier if they came into a more settled dorm but with so many new little ones who also don’t know the ropes, it’s a bit chaotic here.  Please pray that I and the tias have lots of patience – for all the boys and ourselves!

Jeremias, who has three other names including a famous footballer, Reginaldo, who came after his mom died and he and his brother were fending for themselves for a month or two.

Jerso, Jeremias’ older brother.

Ernesto from the Baby House – he has the funniest little smile that scrunches up his whole face!

Adilson came from the transition house, also known as Tracey’s dorm.  Isn’t he handsome?  Some kids spend a year there between the Baby House and my dorm, depending on space.  Any Cards fans reading this blog?

Meet my third set of twins, Lourenco and Francisco.  Fortunately for me, they aren’t identical so I can tell them apart!  They are gorgeous and came directly from the Baby House.

Francisco, the more outgoing of the twins.

Lourenco, the follower,  Wonder if he was born second?

Felix who also came from Tracey’s transition house.  He’s a bit older than the rest of the littlies who came.

Luis, from Tracey’s, the biggest helper ever!

Paulo Luis (one of TWO Paulo Luis, unrelated, who live in this dorm!) came from Vella’s transition house.

And lastly Pai, also from Vella’s dorm.  We’ll be getting two more from Vella’s dorm sometime in the near future. 

So, including Deldon from the previous post, that is 11 new boys to the dorm in about two weeks time!  Please pray for us!!