The following is a letter from my friends in Maputo. Things have settled down a bit but it does cause waves of trouble to reach HoB. Higher risk of corruption and stealing. Please pray for Moz. The fear of it becoming like Zimbabwe is in the hearts of many people as well as myself. God knows what they need though to cry out to Him, and He will answer them when they do.
Dear praying friends of Iris,
Today is September 1 and we are in the midst of riots in Maputo. In July this year the price of passports rose 600%, visitor visas 500% and our annual permanent resident documents went from $80 to $700 each.
Today September 1 the price of a bus ride doubled, bread rose by 30% and the price of a 50kg bag of rice is more than half a months salary for an average Mozambican (if he is one of the 18% of people that has a job)
So today the people rioted -upturned buses and burned them right outside our base, looted shops, burnt tires, petrol stations and threw rocks and bricks. The city was closed down as were schools and the airport and the official figure is 6 dead.
The police and army are controlling the rioters and streets with tear gas. It is now 4pm and it is quiet. We will wait and see what happens tonight and again in the morning. We are all safe and sound in our compound here -except for runny eyes from tear gas. No workers here today but the missionaries, educators and children prayed and played
together -no school today.
This is Mozambique -still the 6th poorest country in the world and living in such difficult circumstances. Please pray with us for a miraculous breakthrough.
Steve and Ros Lazar
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
House of Blessing Then and Now
2003-2010
House of Blessing was birth out of a call to the orphans of Africa to Lee Trueblood in July of 2000. She arrived in Mozambique 2 years later with an organization but after 6 months serving with them left to start her own orphanage in the big city of Beira, HoB began with one orphan named Danny and grew to 42 within 4 years.
It all began at an orphanage she was trying to help while she prepared her heart to take orphans into her own home. You can see from this photo of the orphanage that the care takers were not producing happy children. In fact they were taking advantage of missionaries and pocketing what they gave, not using any of it for the care of the orphans. Social Services discovered this and shut them down. They found family mimvers to care for most of the children but 6 of them were left homeless. They were brought to the police station and just left there. After a night there they were taken back to the orphanage to fend for themselves.
After 3 days Patrick of World Relief with a couple of other missionaries who had been watching over the children came to their rescue. The children had been terrorized by banditos and were very hungry. He called Lee, knowing she was preparing to start an orphanage and brought them to her home 2 hours later. After a bit of food and a couple of hours of security they were happy and not afraid anymore; except for little Deonicio who was suffering from a life threatening disease. It took a long time to get this traumatized little boy to smile.
Lee had not planned to take in girls, just street boys, but Julia was in that precious 6 pack and changed everything. The Lord was watching the girls in Moz and His heart was for them.
After 3 days at Lee’s house the children were discovered by Social Services and taken to another orphanage while she finished her application for directing an orphanage through them. This process took 2 months of struggling through all their confusion and corruption. December 15th 2003 was home coming for them.
There were 10 orphans in the House of Blessing for the first Christmas. Social Services had brought 2 more while Lee prepared to bring the 6 home. One more boy had been added to the 6 because he went looking for his friends from the first orphanage and found them waiting for Lee to pick them up. They told him to wait to see if he could come live with Lee also. Danny was also with her from Dondo so that made the beginning of a very happy family.
Social Services now began to add to their family. A man dieing of AIDS brought his son Manuel to see that he was well cared for. He also had a little 3 year old girl but was planning to take her to an orphanage that takes little ones. Lee was pushed again to change the rules and take in little ones in order not to separate the family. The 12 year old sister, Eva came after caring for her father until he died.
Little Maria had been very influenced by her mother who was a witchdoctor. She had been chosen out of all of her siblings to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She was very sick and dark. She was also very afraid of the white woman. After just a few days of prayer and carefully reaching out to her, her heart was won by love and she began to shine.
Isaque and Lazaro were added after a year. They had been being cared for by their older brothers who were bound by alcohol and violence. Isaque is HIV positive and when he came he was suffering from TB. Lazaro has epilepsy and had suffered a stroke at some point disabling him and even though he is 19 his mind is more like a 3 to 5 year old. His right side is underdeveloped also so he has difficulty functioning. He is very difficult but Lee is determined to teach the other children to love and care for him so that he can have a better quality of life.
These 2 brothers are doing as well as can be these days. Isaque goes to an AIDS clinic once a month to keep his HIV condition in check. Most of the children who contract AIDS from their mothers at birth never make it to their 5th birthday. At the time of this writing he is 10 and quite healthy. Lazaro’s life has improved also. He used to live more like a wild animal but now even though he is difficult he is living better. He and another handicapped boy attend a school once a week for people with deficiencies. They love it.
Zito is Flora’s big brother. He was one of the first ones that came to HoB and as the children would pray each night sometimes he would cry. Lee asked him what troubled him and he told her about his 2 little sisters still suffering with his grandparents in Dondo.
They took a trip to Dondo to check on these little girls. They discovered Flora in terrible condition and the younger sister had already died. The atmosphere at the home where the grandparents were caring for their grandchildren was the most depressing place Lee had ever been in. Flora was starving to death like her sister had. All of her ribs were showing. When meal time came they would chase her off with a stick. She spent many hours crying in the trees. We took her out of there but it was not easy to get grandma to let her go with us.
The dress she wore was falling off of her and lee kept it in 2 zip lock bags because of the stench, as a reminder of what was. The other girls were os happy to have another sister and welcomed her in. Flora was very sick and hallucinating for the first few days. She was the only child that Lee has ever had to have sleep with her. At night she had to be held tight and snuggled right up to Lee. It was a rough few days until her grandma released her to be cared for by Lee. Then they began to watch the Lord of Glory change her.
Flora is now what Mozambicans consider fat and happy. When she visits her family the whole neighborhood comes out to behold what she has become. She is full of life and loves with a whole heart, knowing that she was truly saved.
Before Lee had her own orphanage she was trying to help orphanages that Mozambicans were trying to run. She met little 3 year old Enes at one of these in 2003. Enes was very sick so she Lee got her some meds and then she lost contact wither until 2 years later. Her 8 year old sister ran away from her brothers home and ended up in Lee’s care. After some time she also began to tell of a suffering sister in Dondo. When they went to check on her they found their precious Enes. Le noticed though, that Enes had many of the illnesses that Isaque had struggled with and got her tested for AIDS. It was a very sad day when the test came back positive but still she is doing well considering what others experience.
Lee was sure she had enough children at 19 in 2005. Even that number was over the 12 she had agreed to take in from Social Services. But she told the SS worker that she would still be willing to take in any handicapped child that was being neglected. Davi was found naked sitting in the dirt eating a banana peal; he was brought to HoB. He was crippled and could not communicate. He had trouble eating and drooled a lot. His history was traumatic and heartbreaking but even so he was a bright happy child that brought great joy to the boy’s home as well as the girl’s.
Davi walks now. Sometimes as he would watch all the other little boys running and playing he would be seen sitting on the steps praying for his legs. He loves to worship with dance.
Later Davi’s older sister joined the girl’s house. Her life has been difficult but she is happy to be with us and her brother.
Mangueze saw a house in Maputo while visiting his family and decided that he wanted to build one so we provided materials and he built it behind the dining building. He lived in it for a couple of years and then took it apart to build a house for a needy neighbor.
He has always been responsible and tries to take some care of his mother who struggles to survive. She had already lost 2 babies for not caring for them properly.
Rosina was one of her daughters who was suffering. After finding her badly wounded from a beating she received from her aunt we took her in. She was very sick with her belly full of worms. She had been very neglected and did much of the household chores at the age of 5. After a little care at HoB she is thriving now.
Lee met Danny in Dondo during her first 6 months in Mozambique. He was her first orphan, living with her for 9 months before the others arrived. Danny has some terrible scaring from being severely burned by an oil lamp while selling oranges when he was 10 years old. His upper body was badly burned and disfigured and he desperately needed surgery. His chin was attached to his chest not allowing him to lift his head. His also could not bend his arms straight. Lee was not allowed to take him out of the country to get proper care so she arranged for surgery on his neck in the local hospital. It turned out to be a nightmare experience and she would now allow for him to have surgery on his arms. She began to search for other ways to get the much needed medical care Danny needed.
After several attempts to get care for him in South Africa and the US fell through, friends from Australia managed to get him cared for at a hospital near them. As of this writing he has had several surgeries and they are not yet finished with all that he needs to have done. Everything done for him has been free of charge and he stays with the friends who were able to have some success getting his surgery done. Danny is being stretched in many ways and is shining. His Moz family is very proud of him.
Papa Greg came from South Africa to HoB in 2006 to help with the boys. He is a wonderful father to all the children and a great help to Lee. When she travels she has confidence that the children and finances are in good hands. Greg is a missionary much like Lee devoted to the care of the children and teaching them the ways of the Lord.
Joseph has been with HoB since 2005 and is a extremely talented and helpful young man. He works with the boys and assists with translating and negotiating with the authorities. He is a great example of integrity to them.
Pai (Father) Afonso had been the HoB guard since 2004, the father of Dauce, one of Lee’s older boys. While Lee was in the US she got word that he had died. He had been to the doctor many times with a constant problem and no one would help him. They kept telling him to come back next month. This was a sad time for HoB. He was a much loved uncle to the children. Lee offered to continue paying the widow to keep the family together but she opted to leave her 2 beautiful little girls with HoB and return to her family. They were already a part of our family so it wasn’t a problem. The widow, Juliet, could not find family able to care for her so she was found by one of her sons ready to commit suicide. Lee brought her into the girl’s house and watched God heal her and then she put her to work. She lives with the girls and is one of the housemaids.
Some of the children attend government schools. The upper grades are able to attend a private school run by a Christian organization.
Because many of the children had not attended school before they came to HoB they are behind in their education. Some of the older children are taking courses at a nearby trade school. Some of the boys are training to be plumbers and electricians. A couple of the girls are also training there; one to be a secretary and the other tailoring.
The children are very gifted in many areas, jewelry making, crochet and knitting, music, cooking, and even building houses for the needy in the neighborhood. They hope to open a little mini mall to sell their services and crafts.
For 3 years as HoB grew they lived in rented homes in the big city of Beira. It was costly and difficult to find someone who wanted to rent to a single mother of 40 children so the Lord provided the perfect piece of land and a building for the boys in the country. In Dec of 2006 the purchase was made and they all moved to the new place. There are 21 mango trees, some banana bushes, an avocado tree and a very large area for a garden. It has been difficult to improve the living conditions from no running water or electricity. Slowly the improvements are being made. Funding came from a Church in Savannah to build a new building for the little boys. Now they are planning to build for the big boys and then the girls. The girls are currently living in a rental just a stones throw away.
2003-2010
House of Blessing was birth out of a call to the orphans of Africa to Lee Trueblood in July of 2000. She arrived in Mozambique 2 years later with an organization but after 6 months serving with them left to start her own orphanage in the big city of Beira, HoB began with one orphan named Danny and grew to 42 within 4 years.
It all began at an orphanage she was trying to help while she prepared her heart to take orphans into her own home. You can see from this photo of the orphanage that the care takers were not producing happy children. In fact they were taking advantage of missionaries and pocketing what they gave, not using any of it for the care of the orphans. Social Services discovered this and shut them down. They found family mimvers to care for most of the children but 6 of them were left homeless. They were brought to the police station and just left there. After a night there they were taken back to the orphanage to fend for themselves.
After 3 days Patrick of World Relief with a couple of other missionaries who had been watching over the children came to their rescue. The children had been terrorized by banditos and were very hungry. He called Lee, knowing she was preparing to start an orphanage and brought them to her home 2 hours later. After a bit of food and a couple of hours of security they were happy and not afraid anymore; except for little Deonicio who was suffering from a life threatening disease. It took a long time to get this traumatized little boy to smile.
Lee had not planned to take in girls, just street boys, but Julia was in that precious 6 pack and changed everything. The Lord was watching the girls in Moz and His heart was for them.
After 3 days at Lee’s house the children were discovered by Social Services and taken to another orphanage while she finished her application for directing an orphanage through them. This process took 2 months of struggling through all their confusion and corruption. December 15th 2003 was home coming for them.
There were 10 orphans in the House of Blessing for the first Christmas. Social Services had brought 2 more while Lee prepared to bring the 6 home. One more boy had been added to the 6 because he went looking for his friends from the first orphanage and found them waiting for Lee to pick them up. They told him to wait to see if he could come live with Lee also. Danny was also with her from Dondo so that made the beginning of a very happy family.
Social Services now began to add to their family. A man dieing of AIDS brought his son Manuel to see that he was well cared for. He also had a little 3 year old girl but was planning to take her to an orphanage that takes little ones. Lee was pushed again to change the rules and take in little ones in order not to separate the family. The 12 year old sister, Eva came after caring for her father until he died.
Little Maria had been very influenced by her mother who was a witchdoctor. She had been chosen out of all of her siblings to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She was very sick and dark. She was also very afraid of the white woman. After just a few days of prayer and carefully reaching out to her, her heart was won by love and she began to shine.
Isaque and Lazaro were added after a year. They had been being cared for by their older brothers who were bound by alcohol and violence. Isaque is HIV positive and when he came he was suffering from TB. Lazaro has epilepsy and had suffered a stroke at some point disabling him and even though he is 19 his mind is more like a 3 to 5 year old. His right side is underdeveloped also so he has difficulty functioning. He is very difficult but Lee is determined to teach the other children to love and care for him so that he can have a better quality of life.
These 2 brothers are doing as well as can be these days. Isaque goes to an AIDS clinic once a month to keep his HIV condition in check. Most of the children who contract AIDS from their mothers at birth never make it to their 5th birthday. At the time of this writing he is 10 and quite healthy. Lazaro’s life has improved also. He used to live more like a wild animal but now even though he is difficult he is living better. He and another handicapped boy attend a school once a week for people with deficiencies. They love it.
Zito is Flora’s big brother. He was one of the first ones that came to HoB and as the children would pray each night sometimes he would cry. Lee asked him what troubled him and he told her about his 2 little sisters still suffering with his grandparents in Dondo.
They took a trip to Dondo to check on these little girls. They discovered Flora in terrible condition and the younger sister had already died. The atmosphere at the home where the grandparents were caring for their grandchildren was the most depressing place Lee had ever been in. Flora was starving to death like her sister had. All of her ribs were showing. When meal time came they would chase her off with a stick. She spent many hours crying in the trees. We took her out of there but it was not easy to get grandma to let her go with us.
The dress she wore was falling off of her and lee kept it in 2 zip lock bags because of the stench, as a reminder of what was. The other girls were os happy to have another sister and welcomed her in. Flora was very sick and hallucinating for the first few days. She was the only child that Lee has ever had to have sleep with her. At night she had to be held tight and snuggled right up to Lee. It was a rough few days until her grandma released her to be cared for by Lee. Then they began to watch the Lord of Glory change her.
Flora is now what Mozambicans consider fat and happy. When she visits her family the whole neighborhood comes out to behold what she has become. She is full of life and loves with a whole heart, knowing that she was truly saved.
Before Lee had her own orphanage she was trying to help orphanages that Mozambicans were trying to run. She met little 3 year old Enes at one of these in 2003. Enes was very sick so she Lee got her some meds and then she lost contact wither until 2 years later. Her 8 year old sister ran away from her brothers home and ended up in Lee’s care. After some time she also began to tell of a suffering sister in Dondo. When they went to check on her they found their precious Enes. Le noticed though, that Enes had many of the illnesses that Isaque had struggled with and got her tested for AIDS. It was a very sad day when the test came back positive but still she is doing well considering what others experience.
Lee was sure she had enough children at 19 in 2005. Even that number was over the 12 she had agreed to take in from Social Services. But she told the SS worker that she would still be willing to take in any handicapped child that was being neglected. Davi was found naked sitting in the dirt eating a banana peal; he was brought to HoB. He was crippled and could not communicate. He had trouble eating and drooled a lot. His history was traumatic and heartbreaking but even so he was a bright happy child that brought great joy to the boy’s home as well as the girl’s.
Davi walks now. Sometimes as he would watch all the other little boys running and playing he would be seen sitting on the steps praying for his legs. He loves to worship with dance.
Later Davi’s older sister joined the girl’s house. Her life has been difficult but she is happy to be with us and her brother.
Mangueze saw a house in Maputo while visiting his family and decided that he wanted to build one so we provided materials and he built it behind the dining building. He lived in it for a couple of years and then took it apart to build a house for a needy neighbor.
He has always been responsible and tries to take some care of his mother who struggles to survive. She had already lost 2 babies for not caring for them properly.
Rosina was one of her daughters who was suffering. After finding her badly wounded from a beating she received from her aunt we took her in. She was very sick with her belly full of worms. She had been very neglected and did much of the household chores at the age of 5. After a little care at HoB she is thriving now.
Lee met Danny in Dondo during her first 6 months in Mozambique. He was her first orphan, living with her for 9 months before the others arrived. Danny has some terrible scaring from being severely burned by an oil lamp while selling oranges when he was 10 years old. His upper body was badly burned and disfigured and he desperately needed surgery. His chin was attached to his chest not allowing him to lift his head. His also could not bend his arms straight. Lee was not allowed to take him out of the country to get proper care so she arranged for surgery on his neck in the local hospital. It turned out to be a nightmare experience and she would now allow for him to have surgery on his arms. She began to search for other ways to get the much needed medical care Danny needed.
After several attempts to get care for him in South Africa and the US fell through, friends from Australia managed to get him cared for at a hospital near them. As of this writing he has had several surgeries and they are not yet finished with all that he needs to have done. Everything done for him has been free of charge and he stays with the friends who were able to have some success getting his surgery done. Danny is being stretched in many ways and is shining. His Moz family is very proud of him.
Papa Greg came from South Africa to HoB in 2006 to help with the boys. He is a wonderful father to all the children and a great help to Lee. When she travels she has confidence that the children and finances are in good hands. Greg is a missionary much like Lee devoted to the care of the children and teaching them the ways of the Lord.
Joseph has been with HoB since 2005 and is a extremely talented and helpful young man. He works with the boys and assists with translating and negotiating with the authorities. He is a great example of integrity to them.
Pai (Father) Afonso had been the HoB guard since 2004, the father of Dauce, one of Lee’s older boys. While Lee was in the US she got word that he had died. He had been to the doctor many times with a constant problem and no one would help him. They kept telling him to come back next month. This was a sad time for HoB. He was a much loved uncle to the children. Lee offered to continue paying the widow to keep the family together but she opted to leave her 2 beautiful little girls with HoB and return to her family. They were already a part of our family so it wasn’t a problem. The widow, Juliet, could not find family able to care for her so she was found by one of her sons ready to commit suicide. Lee brought her into the girl’s house and watched God heal her and then she put her to work. She lives with the girls and is one of the housemaids.
Some of the children attend government schools. The upper grades are able to attend a private school run by a Christian organization.
Because many of the children had not attended school before they came to HoB they are behind in their education. Some of the older children are taking courses at a nearby trade school. Some of the boys are training to be plumbers and electricians. A couple of the girls are also training there; one to be a secretary and the other tailoring.
The children are very gifted in many areas, jewelry making, crochet and knitting, music, cooking, and even building houses for the needy in the neighborhood. They hope to open a little mini mall to sell their services and crafts.
For 3 years as HoB grew they lived in rented homes in the big city of Beira. It was costly and difficult to find someone who wanted to rent to a single mother of 40 children so the Lord provided the perfect piece of land and a building for the boys in the country. In Dec of 2006 the purchase was made and they all moved to the new place. There are 21 mango trees, some banana bushes, an avocado tree and a very large area for a garden. It has been difficult to improve the living conditions from no running water or electricity. Slowly the improvements are being made. Funding came from a Church in Savannah to build a new building for the little boys. Now they are planning to build for the big boys and then the girls. The girls are currently living in a rental just a stones throw away.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
