Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Recent Testimonies

#1  Radhika had asthma with severe chest pain.  She has gone to many doctors for 8 years, and taken lots of medicine.  Discouraged, Radhika stopped taking her medicine and using her inhaler.   
Radhika also had pain in her right leg, which was covered with a red rash.  A bone in her ankle area was also protruding.  This pain and bone problem occurred just two days before heading to this conference.  Her daughter had gone to celebrate a pagan festival and was demon possessed by the time she got home.  Seeing this, her mother, Radhika, cast the demon out.  This is when the rash and bone displacement began.  Though in great pain and unable to walk without assistance, Radhika prepared to come to the conference.  Her daughter argued profusely that the journey would be too difficult for her.  Determined, Radhika asked for help to get into the rikshaw and came anyway.  Upon arrival, her sisters in the Lord carried her up the stairs to her room and later to the meetings and meals. 
The night Radhika received prayer, she fell out in the Spirit three times.  The pain and rash in her leg disappeared, the bone returned to its normal place, her chest pain left completely, her breathing was restored to normal, and she felt "light"! 
Pic of group praying for the sick

#2  Jamni had swelling in her stomach for 4-5 years.  Her left side was burning, and her right side had two boils in her kidney.  She knew this because she had just gone to the doctor a week ago and gotten an ultrasound. Jamni's whole body ached.  She works in the tea gardens, and has a second job carrying heavy bricks for construction workers.  Her right shoulder especially felt great pain.  For the past week until she received prayer at the conference, Jamni had a high fever, was unable to eat, and just vomited everything she tried to ingest.  Fever sores covered her mouth.  After receiving prayer, however, all her pain left and her appetite came back!  Her mouth is clear of all the fever sores, the fever is gone, and the swelling has disappeared.  She has no more burning sensation, and she can now raise her right arm without any shoulder pain.  This testimony is being taken the second day after her healing.  I asked how she liked her dinner last night (which was served right after prayer time).  She said it was wonderful and she had several helpings!  "Today I ate 2-3 helpings of breakfast and lunch too!”

#3  Elena had boils in the roof of her mouth and inside her lips. Her teeth hurt and she had a severe headache.  She also had two tumors in the back of her mouth, one on each side. Pain continued down through her neck and into her arms.  Seeking relief, Elena visited many doctors and a private hospital.  They gave her six injections into her mouth and told her these problems would become cancerous.  One year has passed now and still nothing has helped - until last night.  Elena now joyfully reports that God has healed her completely.  She has no more boils in her mouth or on her lips, no pain in her teeth, and no pain in her neck or arms.  She could also feel the tumors almost completely gone in the back of her mouth.   She says all these were at a high pain level and are now at a 0!

#4  Swastika had severe chest pain.  All her bones and joints hurt, including her elbows, nose, ears, arms, legs, feet, and hands.   She had bronchitis and a fever.  Swelling also plagued Swastika's body, affecting her hands, legs, and feet. Opening and closing her hands was impossible, as her fingers has swolen to tripple their normal size.  With her feet too large to fit into her shoes, Swastika arrived at the conference in slippers.  She couldn't work and sometimes couldn't even walk.  The stairs prevented Swastika from coming to some of the meetings at the conference; she had a fever and was in too much pain to walk.  The second night of the conference she came for prayer, however, and God touched her.  Now she testifies that her chest pain has disappeared and her bones and joints no longer hurt.   Her swelling is completely gone, she can open and close her hands normally, her legs and feet are back to normal size with no pain, and she is wearing her shoes comfortably!

#5  Sakila’s left eye burned with a high pain level for two years.  She went to several doctors, who told her that the nerves in her eye were squeezed together on the side.  Some said she needed surgery.  When receiving prayer, however, she felt extreme heat on her eye.  Now she has no pain!



Friday, June 29, 2018

News, pictures, and video from Brian and Lorena

Dear Friends and Family,​​

It is so fun to be a part of God’s work, as He expands the Kingdom of God. Every week we get great reports and testimonies of how God is using our seminar teams to disciple His people of Mozambique.  

Below are a few photos of some of our seminars this month.

District of Ribaue
District of Sacaeque
Nampula Province

These young people (above) are holding my new Foundations 3 book that I recently just finished writing and printing.


Chief of the Region Hears God's Word for the first time

We rejoice in seeing the chief of this region come to a recent seminar and hear God’s Word for the first time! (click on above video)


Our good friend and one of our top seminar teachers, Pastor Zito, sent these photos last week (see below). So many people showed up for the seminar that they had to move outside to accommodate all the people. 

Pastor Zito’s Seminar in Namaroi, Zambezia Province



Pray for Northern Mozambique.

Pastor Mario, our Mozambican director of our discipleship seminar program, recently returned from Cabo Del Gado, the province in the North.  He was able to help distribute thousands of our discipleship books to our district pastors there and explain how to teach them to their local churches.  Unfortunately, the churches are now experiencing extreme persecution, but at by God’s grace, the books got into their hands before this began. 
God is so good.  He has blessed our family so much as we take care of Lorena’s Mom here in Redding, California and get our sons, Caleb and Nate assimilated into life in America.  They are doing well and will both be completing their senior year of high school this coming school year as well as taking classes at the local Jr. College. 

Family picture at Marge's 95 birthday party.  Caleb and Nate are on the far right.  
Nate (with baseball cap) turns 18 tomorrow!
Lorena’s Mom, Marjorie, just turned 95!  She is pictured here with our two wonderful grandchildren,
Brock and Fallon. 



Blessings from the Wood Family!


If you would like to support this ministry our support address is,
Transforming Lives Ministry
1908 S El Camino Real 
San Clemente, CA 92672

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Almost thirty years ago

Almost thirty years ago, we lived in the Philippines with no internet or cell phone.  Mail took twenty days - ten to America and ten more days for a response.  If we wanted to make a phone call, we had to take a two-hour bus ride to the city, wait 30 minutes, pay several dollars, and go into a booth.  So, talking to two of our pastors in Mozambique this morning, using an app, and paying nothing, still amazes us.

After spending nine years in Africa, we are getting settled in the States.  We now live in Redding, California.  If any of you are in the area, please come for a visit!  Grandma has moved in with us now.  As many of you know, Lorena’s mom needed more attention than she was receiving at her independent living center.  She is almost 95 and we felt it was important for us to temporarily leave the mission field to help her for a couple of years.  We are also helping our teenage boys, Caleb and Nate, transition into American life before heading back to the mission field.

Weekly leadership training seminars continue in Central Mozambique as we continue to organize and monitor them from here via regular internet phone calls and fellow team members… We are excited to report the printing of 2,000 more discipleship books just this week.  This time they were made in Blantyre, Malawi, where the quality is better and at a lower price.  Please pray that the documents we have will be sufficient to get the books across the border!  (Often this is where corruption takes place, making up “fees” with no receipts.)  Most mornings we spend speaking to our Mozambican leaders.  We are so thankful for smartphones!  For a few cents, Mozambicans can go online for one hour and communicate with us via WhatsApp, Messenger, and email.  After each seminar they send us videos, photos, and written reports, so we are always in touch and able to move forward! 

Lorena and I are both writing.  I hope to finish another discipleship book by the end of November.  Lorena is writing a unique curriculum for teaching and training the illiterate, using her experience in Africa and India.  We are also writing a joint book on missions. 

The family is doing well. Caleb and Nate are finishing high school at home and taking some classes at Shasta Community College. Nate has also enrolled in the Welding Certificate program at the Community College.  This will our first Christmas in America in ten years!  It’s wonderful to be in the same town as our daughter, Marissa, and her family and Matthew along with his wife Danica. Leaving family and friends behind is one of the greatest sacrifices missionaries make.  We’re blessed to be reunited with our family for this season and hope to see many more of you during this time as well. 

We so appreciate all your support and prayers over the years.  

Love,


Brian and Lorena

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Moving Forward

Moving Forward!

20,000 New Books    
We have plans to print 20,000 of our discipleship books in Malawi.   We usually print a thousand books at a time locally in Mozambique.  Unfortunately, printing prices have really climbed.  Our plan is to have a large quantity printed across the border in Malawi.   A ministry in Blantyre can print the books at less than half price.  We are currently working on getting permission from the Mozambican government to bring the books into the country without custom fees.  We would appreciate your prayers!

Transition    
We are now working both in Mozambique and Redding, California.  Lorena’s mother is 94 years old and needs to move in with us.  We are in the process of organizing a house that will be suitable for her needs.  Our boys are also at the high school age now where they need more intense school courses, which are not available in Mozambique.  For this reason, we are settling in Redding, California, where our daughter and her family live, while continuing our ministry in Mozambique through regular visitsongoing writing projects, and continual oversight of our seminars and ongoing recording projects through video chats, regular phone calls, and online banking.  We still maintain our house in Mozambique at our center in Dondo, and continue working with two other missionary families living there.  We also remain the directors of the pastoral discipleship program in Central Mozambique with over 1,000 Comunhao na Colheita churches in the 6 provinces.  After we settle things a bit, Brian plans on taking a month-long trip to Mozambique to conduct two pastoral training conferences in the provinces of Nampula and Zambezia, as well as touch base with our missionary team in Dondo, and our Mozambican discipleship teams.

More Fruit      
Last October, we received several prophetic words saying we would be seeing more fruit than ever before in our ministry.  Interestingly, this is a time of transition for us, where we will be spending less time living in Mozambique.  So how will we see even more fruit?  Yesterday I (Lorena) saw a glimpse of what God is stirring up.  I was talking to Pastor Mario, who heads our seminar program.  He was telling me how he and his wife’s children’s ministry program is flourishing, how they learned from me and use my curriculum, and how much they wanted me to come see it. (They live 10 hours from our home in Dondo.)  These children, by the way, have begun inviting their parents.  Now they are excited, adding in number, and it's turning into a new church for all ages!  As Pastor Mario and I talked, we agreed how great it would be to teach the pastors at the next conference how to begin and run a children’s ministry at their own churches.  I told him I couldn’t go now, but he could teach them.  He hesitated, but after some encouragement, he agreed excitedly that this was still a good idea and he and his wife could teach them well!  Sometimes people flourish when their leaders leave and they are left to fly on their own.  We’re blessed to have good leaders in place that will continue the ministry and apparently bare even MORE fruit!

Friday, December 16, 2016

New Church in Mile Oito

With the help of the YWAM Sunshine Coast Team from Australia, we were able to construct another "Church in a Day."  Mile Oito is a spread out community in the "bush, bush."  We have been conducting seminars and evangelistic meeting in the area for the last year.

See a one and a half minute video of the project and building dedication.




Heading out to Mile Oito with our construction team, 12/7/16!

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Reaching the Unreached


“The rains are coming!  We must go to Molevala quick before the river rises!”  Mounting the chappa (public transportation) with his wife, Pastor Zito and Josefina head out at daybreak on their long journey to this remote district in Zambezia.  They go as far as the chappa will take them, but the village is still miles ahead.  No cars, bridges, or roads exist in these parts.  Finishing on foot, Zito and Josefina are eager to reach this village, crossing the river before it rises too high.  Surprised, the couple finds the church full to the brim with the few believers from the previous visit, along with a crowd of unbelievers, mostly Muslim.  Zito decides to explain the gospel first, seeing so many unbelievers.  He and Josefina pray for their sick, feed them lunch, and share about God’s wonderful love and forgiveness.  Amazingly, the entire group accepts Jesus as their Savior and many are healed.  “Of course we want Jesus!  Why wouldn’t we?  We just never believed in Him before because no one ever told us about Him before!”  The seminar continued for three days, with more repentance and joy.  Monday morning a groggy voice answers my phone call. “How was the seminar?” I asked.   Receiving a slow, sleepy response, I quickly ask, “Oh, did I wake you?”  “No, we just got home after traveling ALL night!”  Yet Pastor Zito quickly set aside his fatigue and recounted with pure joy what happened over the weekend. 

Zito and his wife Josephina

I couldn’t help swell with pride for him, seeing such incredible spiritual growth and heart for the lost over these last six years of friendship.  He first came to us seeking employment.  But as he worked alongside us, his hunger and understanding for the Word increased. Evangelism and preaching became second nature as he became one of our most valuable ministry partners. This last year we all could see God had anointed him to return to his village and take on the leadership of his province, Zambezia, in church planting and teaching our seminars.  Sometimes spending time discipling one person can produce more fruit than you can ever imagine!  We miss Zito, but sometimes letting go can also produce more fruit than you think!  So we continue working with him from a distance, along with other team members we’ve raised up and sent out.  Together we are building up the Church and reaching the unreached with the Gospel – this is the abundant life! 

Love,

Lorena

Saturday, October 15, 2016

My Week in Mozambique


Eating a simple meal of cabbage and rice at a women’s conference I was invited to speak at a few days ago in Buzi, the district pastor’s wife quietly explains, “The people here are suffering.  Even to get this meal, everyone sacrificed greatly.  The rice and corn fields haven’t produced any harvests this year because of the drought, and many are hungry.”  The next day, a church member brought to our attention the condition of our former guard.  Weak from a stroke, he stopped working his full time job.  But now we heard something most Westerners never hear.  This man could not walk because he was too weak from not eating!  The little bit of food he had, he gave to his wife and children.  Brian came home almost speechless after taking food to this man’s family and probably saving his life.  Today I received news that one of our grown orphan boys went to our worker’s house asking for a meal.  “Why did he go to your house to ask for food?  Why isn’t his uncle feeding him?”  Clemente replied, “His uncle hasn’t been able to find work, so the whole family hasn’t eaten these last 3 days.”   Telling one of our church leaders the condition of the hunger problem in Buzi, Mama Aida informs me how the ladies when doing home visitations, discovered countless families in our own neighborhood that are also suffering from hunger.  She said these mothers go house to house asking their neighbors if there’s anything they can do to earn just a little money to buy food.  Of course most of their neighbors are also lacking.  I quickly asked her to make a list of these ones suffering.  Yesterday and today we had the joy of giving out rice to 50 needy families in our own backyard.  





We plan to return to Buzi soon with food as well.  Today I spoke with our dear pastor from another local church who reported how so many widows in her town are also suffering from hunger.  I told her to make a list too, and I’d go there next week.  None of these people came to me with these reports because they thought we had food to give.  They were just sadly telling me what was going on in their areas. We are so dependent on Jesus to be our source of joy and hope in such a difficult place.  That’s our constant message to the Mozambicans as well – look to Jesus.  He is our only hope.  We must all depend on Him alone.  I praise God we are here and able to help a bit.  It’s such a different world here!  What did your week look like?

Lorena