There are times in life when the storms rise up and shake your little boat so much that you wonder which way is up.  The Haug family has felt a bit like that in the last while.  Today we’ve been reminded of Jesus’ words to his disciples on that wind-tossed lake, “Don’t be afraid…  Take courage! The ‘I AM’ is here.” (Mark 6:50)  The All Powerful Creator God, the I AM, is HERE with us.  We don’t need to worry or fret.  We choose to trust that God has provided and will provide for us as a family.

We have had to come to a difficult decision for the benefit of our family.  Boarding school has not worked out well for our children.  We do not have many options around here for high school education, and none that would satisfy what we feel is needed at this time.  With that in mind, we have decided that we need to move back to Toronto, Canada for 2 or 3 years to get our two teenagers through their high school years and settled into life in Canada.  Please pray for us as we go through this transition.  Although we are looking forward to getting back home again, it’s difficult especially for Mark.  Pray that the Lord would provide employment for him and a sense of God’s peace and purpose through the sacrifice he’s making for his family.

Our hearts are still definitely here on the mission field.  We hope and pray that the Lord will allow us to return again someday to serve him overseas.  In the meantime, we remain open to what the Lord opens up for us during this phase in our lives.

Our leaving does shake things up a bit over here in Mozambique.  We have the Santana’s, a Brazilian couple, on route to come and assist with the work here in Nicoadala.  They are currently in Maputo doing their paperwork and getting a vehicle.  They were to be replacing Rex and Rita Stuckless who have just retired in December.  Now that the Haugs are leaving, another Brazilian couple, Izirlei and Lenilda Guimarães, who have been working with our team in Maputo for over a decade, have graciously agreed to move up to Nicoadala to take over the running of the Bible School.  We know that the hand of the Lord has been in all of this.  These two couples are more than capable, and I’m convinced they will do an excellent job.  The one big concern we have is that neither of these couples comes with the full funding necessary to keep the Bible School functioning.  We would like you to prayerfully consider that any support you have been sending to us or have thought of sending be transferred to EBZ Bible School, Zambezia, Mozambique so that things can keep running smoothly in our absence.  Simply make a note of that name on your donation envelope or on your cheque. 

Pray also for the staff and students of our Bible School.  This will be another big adjustment for them.  Pray for stability and peace through all of the changes in the coming months.  Mark will be returning to Nicoadala from mid-June to mid-July to assist with the transition of the work.

Our planned travel schedule is as follows:

May 7 – 9 = Travel from Nicoadala to Maputo

May 10 - 11 =  visit, say our good-byes, Missionary Meeting with the PAOC team

May 12 – 13 =  travel to Pretoria/Johannesburg

May 14 = Mark and Jonathan fly to Nairobi, Kenya to spend a couple of days at RVA collecting Jonathan’s things, saying good-bye and getting his braces off.  J

May 16 = Donna, Esther and Jesse fly Johannesburg to London while Mark and Jonathan fly Nairobi to London, hopefully arriving within an hour of each other.  We will make the last leg of the journey to Toronto together.

May 17 = Arrival in Toronto at 14:40.

In spite of all of this, life still has a way of going on.  Some of you have asked about how Jesse’s surgery went.  Well, praise the Lord, he didn’t have to have it!  We went to Malawi to see the surgeon.  He inspected the toe and found that it has been healing itself.  Since our first contact with him, having sent him photos and descriptions, until the time of the visit, there had been a marked improvement.  It is not drooping nearly as much, and he is able to lift it somewhat.  His gait is normal.  So, the surgeon said we should leave it and allow it to heal on its own.  Thank you for those of you who prayed for Jesse.  He was very relieved to not have to go through with that.

This past week has been particularly challenging in that we’ve had to take two thieves to jail in a space of two days.  The first day, a guy in Quelimane smashed our truck window to steal something, but someone yelled.  Mark and Jonathan gave chase and actually caught the guy!  The mob that surrounded them wanted to beat the guy up.  Some yelled out to break his arm.  Others said, “Kill him!”  Mark and Jonathan protected the guy and took him to the police station and spent a few hours there doing all the paperwork.  The very next day, a guy who had claimed to be an air conditioner repairman tried a scam on us – switching our compressor with the compressor from a man down the road and charged us BOTH for new ones!  He got taken in to the police station too.  It’s been a costly few days – both financially and time-wise.  Please continue to pray for God’s protection and for peace of mind as we try to do what needs to be done before we leave.

Meanwhile, the work continues.  Mark taught a one-week intense course on Homiletics last week.  He loves teaching about the power of the Word of God.  It’s encouraging when you “see the lights coming on” in your students and feel that they’re ‘getting it’.  This week we have a Mozambican pastor teaching on the Christian family.  This is an area where the enemy has been having a field day in this country, just as he likes to try in Canada.  Our families are under attack.  Pray that the students would catch God’s vision of what a Christian family should be and stand up in its defense.

We are in the process of setting up the teaching schedule for the coming term and making other preparations to hand the work over to others.  There is much to be done in the next few weeks.  We would appreciate your prayers over the next while.  A month from today we’ll be back home with one challenge behind us and huge one still ahead.  But we are listening to the words of Jesus, “Don’t be afraid… Take courage!  The ‘I AM’ is here.”

Serving faithfully wherever He sends,

Mark, Donna, Esther, Jonathan and Jesse Haug