Stand Tired... For The Lord is Coming

The title of tonight’s blog was a line from a song that we heard at one of the COTs (Community Orphan Trust) that we visited yesterday.  “Stand tired…  for the Lord is coming.”  Today we were tired.  But we were still standing.  There was still work to be done.  The Lord is coming and we are here to proclaim His glory, His kingdom, and be about His work.  This morning we were without the Lehman’s for breakfast, but because of Linda’s gift of hospitality we had cinnamon rolls ready heat up and eat!  We were picked up by Daniel, from the World Hope team, and headed out to the government-funded orphanage here in Xia Xia.  The same precious faces that we met for the first time yesterday greeted us.  As we were arriving in the courtyard, they were lining up for breakfast.  They stood in a line from the shortest (able to walk) to the tallest.  Moses was the line leader today.  Moses had an amazing story.  He came to the orphanage without a name.  His mother had thrown him in the river when he was an infant.  He was rescued, brought to the orphanage and his mother went to jail.  The women at the orphanage aptly named him Moses, since he was rescued from the river.  That face could win a million hearts as you can see above!!  We had a wonderful morning with all the kids.  After they ate breakfast we played a little soccer in the courtyard, and then enjoyed drawing in “art class” with them.  We each created a message for them and our translators helped us to write it in Portuguese.  After art class we went outside to play games with the kids.  The few hours we had with them flew by and we enjoyed every moment.  We were taken back to the World Hope headquarters where we said goodbye to the staff and to our translators for the week.  We so enjoyed getting to know them and learn about the culture from them as the week progressed.  Daniel took us to a local restaurant in Xia Xia for lunch before coming back to the Lehman’s house.  This afternoon we went for a tour of the local Bible college, where Orai Lehman is a professor.  Chad, another missionary we have met while here has a recording studio at the college.  His ministry records readings of the New Testament in the languages of Mozambique.  There are 39 languages.  They have recorded 5 thus far.  These recordings are put onto solar powered audio bibles that they can then distribute to the villages.  They currently have two men from tribes in Northern Mozambique down for 2 weeks to record in their tribal language.  Very cool stuff!!  The college is located on the top of this hill and had a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside.  Too bad none of us had our cameras!  The day culminated with a dinner and a rousing rematch of Phase 10 (a card game).  Vanessa whooped up on some of us last night… and a few of the team members are out to take back their dignity.  (At this moment in time it's not looking good for them.)  It has been a wonderful trip.  There has been a lot of laughter, at times some tears, and all of us have been changed.  We are tired.  But we are standing. 

We leave Xia Xia tomorrow morning at 6:30 (12:30am Atlanta time) headed to the airport here in Mozambique.  We will fly out of Maputo to Johannesburg (Joburg as it is referred to here) where we will have a 7-hour layover (oh my goodness!!!!!!!).  Our plane leaves Joburg around 8:00 (2pm Atlanta time).  Then after about 15 more hours we will arrive in Atlanta.  Thank you for your prayers over our LONG journey home.  We can’t wait to get home and share our pictures and our stories with you.  See you soon!