For Our 2nd Family - Vineyard Meridian

Post from Josh: I’ve been thinking about our awesome church back home lately. God has flooded my heart with love for all of you. I am so proud to call Vineyard Meridian my church home. I am blessed to have such amazing leaders in my life. Could you agree that Randy and Reeni Rodes are astounding?? I can’t wait to get back and worship our Almighty Savior with you. We miss you tremendously and are so thankful for each and every one of you. 

Here on the IRIS base, our Harvest School is currently in the midst of a 24/7 prayer time which lasts for 7 days. We have been assigned a few 2-hour slots throughout the week but can go to the prayer hut any time to intercede. We were specifically asked to pray for Pemba, the IRIS base, and our Harvest School classmates. My first slot was yesterday afternoon with a group of people we are very familiar to. One person brought a guitar and another person a violin. As they started to play, His presence fell on the open-air prayer hut we were in. I could smell a sweet aroma like flowers and could feel Him just residing with us. I immediately picked up my bible and started to read. As I read through Philippians, Holy Spirit prompted me to intercede for Vineyard Meridian and all of the staff. I prayed for all of you fervently. Know that intercession was going up for you from the other side of the world.

After a very intense prayer time which lasted quite some time (I’m not really sure how long), God told me to pick up my bible again and open it. I asked Him where I was to open to and He said to just open it. I kind of chuckled in the back of my mind thinking that it was just me having a conversation with myself instead of God speaking. However, He got my attention again and said to open it quickly. How many of you know that God knows you better than you know yourself? He knows how you think, knows your self-imposed inadequacies, knows the mistakes you will make before you make them, and knows how you will respond to His prompting. But God (I love this!!!) still calls you His beloved, still says you are seated at the right-hand of the Father, and will still change the world through you!!!! Amen? Okay, back to the story.

I took my closed bible in my hands and with a large smile on my face, I opened it. Page 739 was at the top of my bible. It was Lamentations 3. The very first verse on that page is verse 21. God said read 4 verses and then go back to read all of chapter 3. Here are those 4 verses:

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of Lord never ceases; His mercies never      come to an end; they are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him’.” 

I went back to read all of chapter 3 and would encourage you all to read it. I feel like God is saying that He is the God of healing, He is the God of prosperity, and He is the God of grace. However, He is also the God who said that trials and tribulations will come. I feel like God is saying that Vineyard Meridian is about to see something new, something never seen before. God says to prepare your hearts. Prepare to experience a new joy, prepare to experience a new grace, and prepare to experience a new peace that surpasses all previous understanding. 

God is so faithful to His word and I know we are in store for something new and awesome! Take just a few quotes I’ve heard here in Mozambique and chew on them a bit. I hope a little taste of the teaching here can be imparted through this post. These are just a few of the ones that have completely blown me away. I am not going to give the names of the speakers but they are legit and anointed.

Here they are:

 - “It’s time to stop asking questions and start releasing answers.”

- “It doesn’t matter if we take a nap or raise the dead, the pay is the same.” (Just for Randy)

- “Trust and strength come from rest and quietness with God.”

- “We can have truth but not be free.”

- “God doesn’t ask for more than who you are. He just asks for everything.”

- “If we have access to all heavenly blessings, what are we going to do with them?”

- “ EVERYTHING in the kingdom begins with desire.”

- “Our conviction has to be stronger than our comfort.”

- “The true fear of the Lord is being absolutely obedient no matter the cost.”

- “It’s just not that bad to be saved.”

- “How about instead of praying for revival, let’s have one!!”

- “Don’t judge God and how He feels about you by what He did for someone else.”

- “Trust God for everything and give Him the credit.”

- “The obedience to the Word of God opens heaven.”

I have so many more that I hope to share with you when we come home. 

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We love you very much and look so forward to serving God with you when we return. Our hearts desire is for you to be blessed today, and every day!!!

See you all very soon!

Josh Mason

Two Words

Post by Mindy: Shortly upon arriving in Africa God laid on my heart these two words: unity and honor.  He highlighted how many people are divided in their core beliefs and have turned their eyes to man but that He wants to bring unity back to His Church.  HE is the core and many have lost sight of that.  It breaks His heart that many have taken their eyes off Him and instead have let the waves toss them to and fro and have been carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning and by craftiness in deceitful schemes (Ephesians 4:14).  It breaks His heart to see many “chewing up and spitting out” their own family members (look at this from a natural and kingdom perspective).  He sees many churches that have been reinvented and become less dependent on Him and the power of the Holy Spirit and more dependent on man’s cleverness and puffed up knowledge.  The gospel is pretty simple – we have a personal Savior!  When you’re convicted of that, you won’t put aside the gospel for your own life or another’s.  Instead, you will lay down your life for HIM!  In Ephesians 4 Paul says, “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.  God is waiting for His Church to attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God so that we grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ.”  Speaking from my own heart, I desire to be a vessel for Him and want to play a part in bringing unity back to His Church.  God has been healing wounds within my own family which has kept us from being in full unity.  He is helping me to “adjust my lenses” to see more of His heart.  He is teaching me how to better honor my husband, Josh, simply by opening the eyes to my heart so I can see and love Josh the way He sees and loves Josh.  I am definitely not perfect at it, but as I focus more on the Father’s heart (staying in Him and not just around Him) and humble myself before Him, He continues to chisel away at the rough edges.  It is vital to focus on the first and greatest commandment because without love we gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3).  Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and strength.  People define love in many ways, but the only love that transforms lives and brings true freedom is the love of the Father!  He showed us what this looks like through the life of Jesus.

He continues to speak into my identity, as only He can, and is helping me to view others in the same light that He sees them.  We are to honor the potential of who someone is and not focus on their sin or faults.  When a person messes up they usually know it.  We don’t need to point out people’s shortcomings.  We need to love them to Christ.  The Holy Spirit has been convicting me of ways in which I have been dishonoring to my husband and not loving Him the way Jesus taught me to.  I haven’t been ignorant of this, but the Lord is pointing me to the source of my hurts and why I react a certain way when my buttons get pushed.  He is pulling the weeds out by their roots and replacing them with fresh seed so He can produce more of His fruit through me as I allow Him to nurture me.

It’s hard to show honor to someone when they hurt your feelings, don’t agree with you or don’t honor you back, but most of the time people react the way they do or treat people the way they do because they haven’t fully surrendered their life to the Lord and don’t know their true identity.  As we walk in our true identity, we will begin to see people the way Jesus does, and we will be able to respond to them with unconditional love the way Jesus does.  Even if one hasn’t given their life fully over to the Lord, we are to see them as a potential child of God – a prince or princess – royalty…because that’s who they/we are!!  You know who you are when you know the I AM!  You don’t have to fix yourself or be “worthy” enough to be in His presence.  Some of you reading this may think that God doesn’t like you or is disappointed in you because of choices you’ve made in life, or the enemy has told you lies that you’re just not good enough or you’re not doing enough to please God.  God doesn’t like our sins but He loves us no matter what!!  We don’t have to please Him because He is already pleased with us.  We don’t have to earn His love because He loved us first.  We don’t have to earn our salvation because Jesus already paid the price.  We simply have to receive the gospel message – that God rescued us from death by sending His son to die for us on the cross so that we might have life with Him for eternity.  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus and we all need to stop listening to the lies of the enemy.  God’s love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on us!  Wherever you are in life, it’s never too late to get up and follow Jesus.  He is always pursuing you even if you aren’t pursuing Him.

 

I knew that God was going to do a great thing in our family, and He is cleansing our hearts to rid of the things that are not of Him.  To be transparent, the enemy really tried to divide Josh and I for a few weeks while here.  We were hitting walls when trying to communicate and reacting out of hurts, and we couldn’t seem to get past this hurdle.  When it came time to go on our weekend outreach, we were even divided about our entire family going.  Even though God made it clear from the beginning that we were to do certain events together as a family, the enemy tried to bring discouragement and doubt into the situation.  At first we failed to protect our relationship with the Lord and became frustrated and distant with each other, but then we fought against the attacks of the enemy and acknowledged that he was trying to divide us.  If God wanted us to go on outreach, we knew His favor and grace would be upon us because He highlighted 2 Corinthians 12:9 and His word does not turn void!  We will share about our experience with outreach in person, but we want to remind you all how serious the spiritual battle is right now.  We don’t fight against flesh and blood but against the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  We know that God has already won the end battle, but in order for us to take back ground that was stolen by the enemy, we must stay in unity and keep our eyes focused on Him.  That is the key.  How do we do that?  Simple.  By living our life out of the first commandment.  By loving God and allowing our hearts to become one with His.  He wants a bride that is caught up with Him and not the world.  Who’s ready to spend their life proving their love to the Lord?  What does it look like to you to love God with all your heart, mind and strength?

Life in Africa

Post from Mindy: A few weeks ago there was a change in our living situation.  The family from Germany that we have been living with moved into a new living quarter that was recently constructed.  We miss their company on a daily basis, but Josh and I are enjoying the relocation of the kids in their own bedroom because it has given us much needed space and privacy.  Josiah continued to sleep in his travel tent with us for about 1 more week, but then we decided to have him sleep in the crib and move Gracie onto the bottom bunk with Christian because the travel tent was becoming a bit claustrophobic for him.  The first night we put Josiah in the crib, he layed down, looked at me with a smile and then said, “Bye, bye.”  It was like he was telling me, “I’m going to be okay in my new sleeping quarters, Mom.  Go ahead and leave me for the night.”  Josh and I can actually talk about our day without concern for waking up one of the kids now.  Our house parents from the UK still live with us in the same house.  The kids’ room is literally big enough to fit the bunk bed and cot (aka crib) in and that’s about it.  God continues to show us how blessed we are and that less really is better in many ways!  It is a daily occurrence to see children walk around with holey clothes, broken flip flops or no shoes at all, dirty or miss-matched clothes, and I am quite humbled by the way in which some Mozambicans here view life.  They are grateful for the clothes they do have on their back, no matter what condition.  The IRIS children – they aren’t in love with their possessions because they know everything comes from God and they simply love their Jesus!!  During my quiet time one morning I was listening to some music and the lyrics to one of the songs was, “What would the world be like if we let Jesus live through you and me?”  Some great words to ponder and take to the Lord…  How is He living through you?

On Father’s Day we spent some time at the beach and some of Josh’s students from the outside village came to spend time with us.  One of them, a boy named Caita, had this bead bracelet on.  I pointed to it and asked if he made it.  He told me no, that someone else had made it.  I told him it was cool.  He then proceeded to take it off and hand it to me.  At first I thought maybe he was just showing it to me, giving me a closer look, but then I realized that he was actually giving it to me as a token of friendship.  I was quite honored and humbled by his generosity – and yet such an act came so naturally to him.  He wanted to give me his best, with no hesitation, even though he didn’t have much to give.  A part of me wanted him to keep it for himself, but I knew that it would be honoring to him if I received the gift he wanted to give me.  His motives were so pure and righteous.  He simply wanted to bless me.

There is a family of 10 here and almost daily we find Christian over on their front porch hanging out with his new buddy, Ethan.  I think it’s pretty cool that God has blessed Christian with a friend named Ethan during the summer while he is away from his older brother, Ethan, back in Idaho.  Christian is growing up fast.  We celebrated his 5^th birthday on June 22^nd.  Mid-morning he began fighting a fever, but for the most part he got to enjoy his special day.  The night prior we celebrated with a home-made chocolate airplane cake and home-made banana/coconut ice cream.  Many of the kids made birthday cards for him, and one friend gave him one of his very own books.  He was definitely showered with the love of Jesus.  One of the Harvest students gave Christian this little lego knight at the time of his eye injury, and it wasn’t until a week or so later that we found out the special meaning to it.  This student, Shawna, is from Canada, and she told us how the Holy Spirit had prompted her to buy this lego knight before leaving for Africa.  When she arrived to Africa she would give it to someone very special.  That someone special turned out to be Christian!  We call it his warrior.  Christian is a prayer warrior for the Lord and loves to pray for people, so we see this gift as prophetic for ways in which God is going to use Christian to pray for and heal the sick.  God simply looks for a heart that is willing to do His work here on earth, and it is a common occurrence for children to heal the sick here in Africa.  As Jesus says, “Unless you become like a child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  The children’s faith here is so innocent and they expect only the best from their Heavenly Daddy!

We have our own personal greeter at the house – Josiah.  He says “hi” and “bye” to everyone that crosses our way.  Often times he will continue to say “bye” until he can’t see the person anymore.  He is beginning to talk more and more and even tries to say a few words in Portuguese or Makuwa like “obragada – thank you” and “salama – hello”.  He even says 3-word sentences now.  He had a recent breakthrough where he will now go to our house parent, Mama Bev.  He was looking at a frog that was sitting on our front porch when all of a sudden the frog hopped toward him.  He screamed and squealed and then ran into the arms of Mama Bev, who up until this point couldn’t get Josiah to come to her.  It was a wonderful moment.  Papa Alan then came to the house and was playing peek-a-boo with him.  While in the other room getting Christian ready for bed, I could hear Josiah continue to giggle.  He is so full of God’s joy and I’m excited for what God has in store for His life.

A couple of Sundays ago, as Gracie was asleep in my arms, I went towards the front to worship.  Many visitors were being prayed for, and God highlighted one in particular to me.  I don’t know her name or where she was from, but she was soaking in the presence of the Lord.  While doing so, one young Mozambican girl was gently brushing her head/hair and fanning her off with a paper.  Another young girl was sitting at her feet praying for her while also wearing a sling with an infant wrapped inside.  She was caring for this infant while blessing this visitor, whom she didn’t even know personally.  God spoke to me during this time and told me that I don’t need to use my kids as an excuse for not being able to do the things He’s asked me to do.  As I am obedient to Him, He will take care of all hurdles.

There was a conference this past weekend with over 1,000 additional pastors/visitors here from all over the world.  Due to the increase in numbers, they shut off the water supply until late at night.  To wash dishes we would have to fill our wash bowl from a large tub of water, but as soon as the water would turn back on we’d scramble to refill our tubs, water bottles and take quick showers.  You can imagine the excitement in the house and how quickly we moved to replenish our water supply before it shut off again! J  The other night we boiled macaroni noodles for dinner, and as we were about to rinse them off we discovered black things floating to the top.  We thought maybe it was just burnt flakes from the bottom of the pan, but as we looked more closely we discovered that they were BUGS!!  Somehow either a bug was present when they were packaged or there was a hole in the bag and one got in.  We tossed the noodles and went to get a fresh bag of spaghetti noodles, but to our amazement that bag was full of bugs as well.  Uck!!  Our house parents were gracious enough to bless us with one of their bags of noodles, which I will gladly say was BUG FREE!  We got to enjoy a nice meal after all.  Although, from now on I will be more cautious about checking our food before cooking/eating it!

We were scheduled to attend our weekend outreach to the bush-bush on Thursday, July 5^th (Jade’s 10^th birthday), but it has been postponed for a later date.  Many prayers will be needed during that time so we will keep you posted as best as we can once we receive our new departure date.  It is such a joy to be a vessel for the One and Only, and we are ecstatic to see God move more and more in the next 5 weeks.  Maybe He will send us to a village with witchdoctors so the power of God can move and set them free!!  We celebrated Jade’s birthday with french toast and bananas for dinner, and then a chocolate “beach” cake for dessert.  She had a sleepover with one of her friends from Canada, although, the Imam woke them up at 4am in the morning so they didn’t sleep well after that.  Nonetheless, it will be a very memorable birthday celebration for her as she turned double-digits while in Africa.  Thank you to everyone for all the birthday wishes to the kids.  My next blog will reveal more of my heart and the things God has been showing me while here.  We love you all and can’t wait to see/talk with you again!

Everything is Bigger in Africa

Post from Josh: I have heard the saying that everything is bigger in Africa and I believe it to be true in many cases. Being here in Mozambique has been unforgettable so far and I am utterly thankful to the One who is the One for bringing us here. He has truly blessed us!! I am so in love with Jesus that I could burst. I’ve put together a list of things that are bigger here in Africa. Enjoy!

Bugs – Yes, the bugs are definitely bigger. From the crazy biting ants which inflict a good wound to the very, very large grasshoppers (aka locusts) to the massive banana spiders, they really are bigger here. There are ants that are 2 inches long and very aggressive. We don’t have too many around but I’ve heard enough stories to know I don’t need to see more.

We were sitting at an outdoor restaurant at night and I saw this thing flying around. It looked like a small bird, maybe a hummingbird, but not as fluid in flight. It turned out to be a flying grasshopper. What? The family was having a lazy afternoon after class one day when one of the single guys came around with the largest spider I’ve seen in the wild. It was a banana spider that was VERY large. The body was literally 4-5 inches long and the legs were a good 4 inches more. It was crawling all over him. Apparently, they are deadly poisonous but can’t bite us because their mouths are too small. Hmmmm…… One Sunday, Gracie had to go #2 during church so I took her home to take care of it (no bathrooms at church only latrines – aka holes in the ground). I took her in and reached down to grab a roll of TP to get her some. As I lifted the roll, I saw something fall from the inside of the roll. It hit the ground and immediately coiled up. It was a very large black millipede. I let out a mini scream like a little girl. The funny thing is it didn’t bother Gracie at all. I didn’t smash it but got something to get it out of there.

I have seen more types of beetles, roaches, ugly things, moths, and butterflies than anywhere else I’ve been. The mozzies (the Australian/UK way to say mosquito….yes with a funny accent) are the only bug that’s not bigger. They are small and only come out at night. These disease carrying menaces are the least threatening looking bugs here. In fact, I’ve killed more mozzies than any other bug. They don’t fly as fast as the ones at home and are way smaller. Easy prey!! I’m on the hunt for mozzies in Mozambique!

Rain – The rain is crazy here! It is so amazing to listen to and watch. It can rain for 1 minute and I guess the accumulation is more than 1 inch. The rain drops are HUGE and when they come down hard, it’s really cool. It’s rained a few times at night and it sounds like a tornado coming through. The kids sleep right through it. For those that know the song, “Let it Rain”, we always sing it in class or church when it rains. If you’ve never heard it, fire up your fast internet machine and give it a listen.

Fish – My son Ethan (miss you buddy!!!!) and I like to fish together but we’ve never caught anything like the fish I’ve seen at the roadside fish market. Jade and I walked to get some bananas and stopped to look at the fresh fish. There was a parrot fish (I think). It was about 2 feet long and was bright blue and orange. Very cool looking! They also have really big lobster here. Some friends bought some to cook at their house and I was shocked at how big they were. They were cheap too! Every day I’ve been out I’ve seen fresh squid, snapper, swordfish, and many more. It’s one of those things us Idahoans get excited about.

Smiles – No matter where we go, the smiles on the Mozambicans’ faces are large, ear-to-ear grins with bright white teeth showing through. They aren’t asking for anything or expecting a handout. They are genuinely happy to see us. I am overwhelmed at the cheerfulness and authenticity they show us even when we don’t know them. What if we did that back home? Just an authentic smile without expecting something in return. WOW!! Everyone could learn how to smile from these people.

Hearts – I can honestly say that my heart capacity, the ability to love, has been increased here. God has used this beautiful, broken land to change me. The people here know what love is. They know WHO love is!!!!!! They know that without Jesus they would die, some literally! I greet a grandmamma every week in the village named Sofia. She exudes love. The way she greets me knowing very little English melts my heart every time. She kisses each one of my cheeks and greets me in her native language, Makuwa, but then saying Papa Josh with it. I can’t really even explain how awesome it is. We don’t say any other words to each other but our connection is on the heart level. It makes me really think about a simple greeting and how much we take that for granted.

I am teaching English to a group of boys in a village. There is one in particular named Angelo. He speaks very little English, but is learning, and needs so much love. He has no parents, no siblings, no family. He runs to me when he sees me coming. He smiles constantly in church when he is with us. He is so in need of love but gives so much love to our family. I am astounded at how big his heart is. I want to be more like Angelo!! Why?? Simply because he is the face of Jesus. Angelo knows Jesus. I mean he really knows Jesus and he has been taught to love like Jesus did. My prayer is that God continues to expand my heart to love like Jesus did. That’s really all that life is about. Being away from the Western culture has really made that crystal clear to me. I hope I can bring that revelation back from those of you that want it!

God has made things in Africa bigger for a reason! I am thankful for experiencing a small part of the beauty of Mozambique!

Blessings to all of you today!

Josh Mason