Set Your Minds on Things Above

Dear Family and Friends,

“Set your minds on things above…” Col. 3:1.  “In everything give thanks…” I Thes. 5:18.  Think on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8).  When we wake up in a world of poverty, corruption, and war, these verses keep us on the right track.  God is good, no matter what is happening in our lives or around us.  His character doesn’t change.  He never leaves us, and we can never be separated from His love.  As we worship, come into His presence, and feed on His Word, we are filled and ready to give out – once again.  Our lives are different from those of you living in First World countries, but no matter where we are or what we’re doing in life, we all have negative influences and have the choice each day on what we will think about and dwell on.  I’m so thankful for the wisdom and encouragement we receive from the Scriptures!

The Lord has put on my heart for some time to put scriptures to music here in Mozambique.  I don’t know how all the details will come together, but I’m just taking one step at a time.  This is an oral culture with a high percentage of illiteracy.  Singing the scripture is a natural way for the Gospel to spread and for believers to learn and remember what the Bible says.   Right now I have 10 Mozambican worship leaders working on songs.  The dream is to record them in time, and put them on the mini SD chips with our oral Bible school and audio Bible.  Many of our pastors have cell phones and whatsapp (even though they live in mud huts in the bush), so I will be able to pass these on to our distant provinces as well.  Please pray for these song- writers, that they receive inspired melodies that any Mozambican will enjoy singing.

Already 3 great songs have come back, and we just started this two weeks ago!

Over half of Mozambican households own a cell phone - most take micro SD cards

Brian has been busy with our leaders in Zambezia, flying there last week to meet with them in Quilimane.  (We’re fortunate some of our provinces have airports, since the roads are too dangerous to travel.)  He prepared the leadership team for gathering students from their 22 districts for the next Bible school session in Pemba.  It was also great to hear reports from their seminars these past few months.  Three new churches have birthed in this region recently as well as a couple new children’s ministries.  2 kings 6:1-23

I’ve been enjoying visiting and preaching at our local surrounding churches – mostly giving this message of valuing scripture and putting it to music!  Brian is continuing preaching at our main regional church, when not visiting other provinces. 

The famine continues in some parts, but praise God, a huge donated container of freeze dried food has arrived from the States!  It is now in Nicuadala, Zambezia.  Our leadership team is now busy giving out this food to our most desperate areas. 

We’ve also been blessed with funds to buy food for the areas too far away from this container.  Next week one of our missionaries, Peter, will be going on a train to the province of Tete, with one of our lead Mozambican teachers.  Their farms are still dry and no harvest has come for a very long time.  Of course they will also take the opportunity to share the Word of God with our churches there. 

Our boys, Caleb and Nate, are doing very well with their home schooling.

A bit of sad news, our beloved dog, Midnight, passed away last week.  He had been with us since the first week we came to Mozambique, 8 ½ years ago. 

Politically, the conflicts continue here and are worsening in some parts.  But the immediate area we are in is fine.  Please remember in prayer our Mozambican teaching teams that travel in war zone areas though.  One has been shot at while in public transportation traveling through a conflict area, but he was not injured.  He is our head seminar trainer, named Pastor Mario.  He continues strong and full of faith.  The others are also not deterred, but request prayer for safety and protection.  (We have 5 main teaching teams doing about 100 seminars this year.  Our missionary team does other seminars and evangelism in addition to these.)

Thank you again for your continued financial and prayer support.  We are happy to be serving the Lord here and value your participation!

Website:  Transforminglivesministry.com

Financial contributions can be sent to:

Transforming Lives Ministry

1908 S. El Camino Real

San Clemente, CA   92672

Much love,

Lorena, Brian, Caleb, and Nate