We hope you all are well and that the year has begun well for you. We are thankful for all your prayers regarding Maggie’s health. She has made a complete recovery and has been able to do all her normal activities since coming back to Mozambique (including climbing a number of mountains!). In the end, the doctor said that it was impossible to say what exactly she had been sick with, though it is likely it was a combination of two different illnesses. Had they run the tests earlier they might have been able to get a more conclusive result. We are grateful that so far this year we have been mostly healthy and things are back to normal.

     In the past few months we have been able to continue to minister to the refugee community living nearby. Many of the people had hoped to return home this past year, but with ongoing fighting and an unsecure situation, most of them opted to stay here. Others returned home, only to come back a few months later having fled a second time. Most of the crops that people grew were insufficient, so hunger was an issue this year. We were able to help out with giving some food relief, providing seed and insecticides for their farms, and school supplies for their children. Thankfully the harvest is beginning and people are starting to have food again. Sometimes it is complicated helping the refugees, because some immature Christians will begin to feel jealousy when they see others receiving help when they are also struggling to provide for their families. Usually this is a sign of a person’s lack of spiritual maturity, because most church leaders understand the purpose of this help and see its necessity. In one church though, we are trying to work through some conflicts in the leadership that have been exacerbated by these immature attitudes among some. Feeding the hungry is a command of Jesus. We continue to obey his commands, recognizing that how people respond to our obedience is ultimately between them and God.