Keeping my eyes fixed on Him...

Well hello all,

I am sorry once again for my lack of communication recently. There is so much to catch up in lots of different areas of my life here. So here is a little snippet. 

Street ministry:

I am so excited about street ministry. We have a great team of students that are just wonderful with showing humility with the local ladies, men and each other. We have had a challenging few weeks but funny enough, it shows signs of God doing so much! God showed me a picture of the barraca being like a sitting room. A safe place and in most family households it is the centre part of the house. That’s where naps are taken, hosting, conversations, eating, playing etc. We bought some wicker sofas and mats to make it much more cosy. Since this I have noticed that we are all becoming a little family that gather each week to have a girly time of eating chocolate and painting our nails. We cry together and laugh together. The little ones sit on the floor playing games, teenagers can’t stop talking and the mamas are just putting their feet up and enjoying being pampered. In this family we have little girls with scabies, girls who sell themselves to pay for food for their family, teenagers who have mothers that beat them and those that work every single day, all day to be able to eat. We are all learning to accept each other as we all walk through the door with different stories. God is doing so much! All He wants is for us to love. That is all He has called us to do. Love the Lord your God and to Love your neighbour.

How am I to do this? How am I to love the pimp waiting at the door threatening to beat the 14 year old up if she doesn’t hurry up with getting her nails painted. And the husband that is sleeping with his child’s schoolteacher who is also a prostitute, which leads to him giving his wife HIV? I keep my eyes focused on Him and remember…He loves me. ME?! I am as filthy with sin as the drunk witchdoctor that comes past and curses us. I am just as bad. But He came and washed us all clean. He came and called us pure. Praise Jesus for His goodness!

Baby/toddler house:

You may not have noticed yet but Christmas is just around the corner! J Well for us it is! When you have 180 kids to prepare for, the preparations can’t begin early enough! We are starting to get the bags together for each child, which I love! Christmas has always been my favourite time of year but when I put together the gift bags for these children it make it that more special! I love knowing the children and finding the right toy just for them! I always remember the testimony our friend H told us. One Christmas they just had a bag with teddies in it, one for each child. God then tells her to ask one girl what she wanted for Christmas and she says beads. H and all other visitors knew there weren’t beads to be found. All they had was a teddy. However that little girl put her hand in the bag to get her gift and pulled out beads. Our God loves us so much! Nothing is too hard for Him!

Please pray for us during this time, that we manage to sort everything we need to do so for the festive season!

Please continue to pray for street ministry, that we stay focused on Him and don’t step a foot forward without knowing that He is leading us there.

Please continue to pray for my health. Although I am so much better I still have a lot of fatigue and other small symptoms. Would love to be 100% healed!

Hope you are all well! Please do keep me updated with recent news or prayer requests. Remember you are all welcome to come visit any time you wish!

Blessings and joy,

Ruth

Out of His rest...

Just for all to know, I have been struggling with my health for the last few months, so thank you for those who have prayed and sorry for my lack of communication.

It has all been a bit of a rollercoaster ride but God has been faithful though it all. I am learning so much of how to be in His rest. All comes out of intimacy with Him alone. As Psalms 62 states, our soul can only find rest in Him. I am learning how to walk each day with this.

Since going back to every day life only recently, I am praising Him so much for His goodness. I really don’t have to do anything for Him to shine through. I have gone back to sitting with the girls in the dirt each week and seeing how God has been so faithful to them over the time I have been away. Then also how our youngest one in the baby house has learnt to crawl, wave and clap. That she is developing so well even though she is the size of a 4 month old when she is 18months old. I can rest at home while getting better and God shines through in all situations. Each day is His and may He do His will in all things.

"Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil."

For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory is yours! Forever and ever!

May I never forget this lesson, may each day be His!

Prayer requests:

Continued prayer for me to get 100% better would be great as I still have to spend days in bed.

This week about 300 students from all around the world came for our mission’s school. We have opened it up for some to come along side us each Friday night with street ministry. Prayer for the students and ladies during this season would be appreciated. That healings, miracles and lives will be saved each week.

Some of our children in the baby and toddler house are going through some behavioral issues. We know this is all rooted from past rejections. Prayer for healing of their hearts, that they will know how to walk in His love and the Papa’s heart.

Please do also email me with prayer requests and or testimonies of how you are getting on!

Love and prayers to you all,

Ruth

Little film...

Some footage of my July and August from ruth Alexander on Vimeo.

We have moved!

We have moved into the new baby house and we have our first new little one! Her name is Margarida and she is fabulous! The first day we got her she was dehydrated and very weak. However, just over 24 hours went by and she was sitting up and playing with the others, feeding herself and there were no tears. She is simply amazing and is settling in well. The photo shows our three newest who came in these last two weeks. 

We have been learning this new of role overseeing two houses, (the toddler house and baby house) but God has so much Grace and is teaching us well. We have placed a beautiful Mozambican lady in charge of all our Tia’s and the wellbeing of the houses. She has come along side us to help and assist. It is so wonderful to see the locals raised up and basically taking over our jobs! They won’t even need us soon!

Street ministry is coming into a new season now. Our fantastic mission school students are going home so we haven’t got their help each week. We are quite excited about what God is going to do with this. It shall be more of a quiet time with the girls were we can have more conversation. If you remember before we were washing feet and doing pedicures. Now we are just going to show up and ‘be there’. God has given us the word faithfulness. We need to be faithful to these girls each week. We want them to know that at least twice a week we are going to be in the same place at the same time. If they need help, need food or just need a chat, we will be there!

This week I opened the barraca for bible study and two girls showed up. One I know well, she was a prostitute that still gets drunk and hangs out with the wrong crowd. The other is very pure and innocent, has money and a beautiful 6 year old son. I just had to laugh as I had these two very different girls sitting in front of me. But God made it work. The one who is very ‘well to do’ came with lots of questions which we had fun answering. Then the girl who used to sell herself for £7 a night was laughing and jumping around as she helped me with a drama. The girls were not intimidated by each other. We were just family together studying the word of God, knowing that God loves us all the same.

As I am coming into this new season with the Barraca and the baby house, prayers would be very welcomed! Please do also email me if you have any news, testimonies or prayer requests. I love staying in touch with everyone! 

New lessons to learn...

I have been praying since the age of sixteen to pray like He prays. I believe that the ‘how to pray’ lesson has to be learned. Just as the disciples asked Jesus when He gave them the Lord’s Prayer. (Matthew CH6v9-13)

Recently I have been finding my time with the Lord in my daily life here hard, simply because God has been showing me more and more of what He sees. The tears He cries, and the joy He feels, He has to stretch me, grow me and mature me to be able to handle all of this. It is almost like I want to stay blind. If I could choose to be selfish I wouldn’t go through this. However, Love keeps me on track. I have to choose to walk in obedience.

When girls who either used to work on the street or still do are at my door daily in great need, and when our precious staff members fall into sin, I have to know how to pray. God gave me the revelation while I was sweeping the Barraca to get ready for street ministry one night. Him showing me more of His heart, and my cry to pray like Jesus prays. It goes hand in hand. How can I pray the right prayers for each situation, if I am not seeing what my Father sees in the situation? I can’t stay blind anymore.

Street ministry is going really well. We have had many girls come to Christ in our little barraca, and on the street. Some are going to be coming to learn how to make jewellery one night a week. It shall be a skill that will one day provide for them. However for now we are going to be providing for them, as well as teaching them the simple social skills that may have been lost on the way. We are continuing to do a weekly bible study with them as well to teach them more about the Love of their Father!

This week is the week we are moving the babies into the new baby house! Thank you so much for all the time you have put into prayer over this! God has been so good in providing all that we have needed! For now only four babies and two of our wonderful Mozambican staff will move in the new house. Though we do know that it will be filled up very quickly with new little babies. Continued prayers for that would be wonderful!

I want to pray Romans Ch15v13 over all of you today. ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’

Love and prayers to you all! 

Videos and pictures of my life in the month of June

A little update from June from ruth Alexander on Vimeo.

“I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.” - Mother Teresa

As three weeks have past since landing back on Pemba soil I am struggling to make this update short, sweet and readable. I think if I was face to face with you all I would not be able to help but ramble everything that has happened... ‘and then this happened! And then God did this miracle, which lead to this and then oh yeh…’ And so on J God has truly been taking me through a heart-breaking season, He has made these three weeks seem like they have been months.

I got here to find the two girls who I had been mentoring were lost. No one could find them and all seemed hopeless. My barraca was a mess and my sweet neighbours decided as I had left for four months, they could place all their trash there. I came back to see such a great need and I couldn’t stand it. I wanted to run away. I could only scream and cry out ‘NOOOOO GOD NOOOO!! I CAN”T DO THIS!!’ I didn’t feel qualified, confident or strong enough. I had such a huge heart for these girls that it hurt too much. I couldn’t stand it. Too many tears were being shed.

One night God just whispered to me…’Ruth, you have the orphan spirit and that is why you think you can’t do this’. Wow. More tears came but this time I wasn’t fighting. This time I was giving all to Him, again. How can we do anything if we don’t know who we are? I thought I knew who I was. I thought I was stable in that. But when it really came down to it, I hadn’t given my whole self as a daughter to the high King of Heaven. God then gave me a torch in the spirit, and I am to hold it behind me. So while I am walking in this dark place, people can see this light of Jesus and follow.

So last night (Friday 15^th June) I opened the barraca once again, with the help of some wonderful mission school students. We started the afternoon by cleaning up the trash. This is when our first miracle happened with our neighbours coming to help. They worked the whole day with us! It was amazing! We got into the barraca and made it look so beautiful. When the night came we went out and ministered on the streets. We invited the ladies who are in the situation where they have to sell themselves, back to the barraca. We loved on them, gave them pedicures, sang with them. Learnt their names, and shared chocolate with them. It was beautiful. At least 4 ladies gave their lives to God and many more are coming to church this Sunday. They came high on drugs, drunk and just ready to party with men. But they spent a night safe with us being loved on by the love of Jesus.

We are invited by God to just sit in His arms, live in His grace and walk in His footsteps. We are invited to be fathered by the most wonderful father ever known. We are all qualified to do what we are called to do, as we are all children of God. He is the one who goes out before us and guides us. I don’t even know what I was worried about. J I know this will hurt, just because love does. However I know God is crying for these ladies with me. 

I am going home!

As the title explains...I am heading back home! :)

This whole trip God has been stretching me and teaching me. From what He was saying I knew he was teaching me for such things like getting on a plane and going places with-in days. So you might be able to see where this is going...I booked my ticket today and I am leaving on Saturday. I am basically organising everything this week to leave. So much prayer is needed as this is not my nature at all! But I can see that God is changing me to very much make it a natural thing to do. :)

Please pray for me during this week and next week. Once I get into Pemba I have to get my residency organised before the 30th May! Once this is done it means that I don't have to leave the country at all, which gives me lots more freedom. I do however have to pay to get my residency renewed each year.

Please do keep in touch with me with any news, prayer requests or just for some general chat...internet is very slow so I may not reply straight away but I will get there!

Blessings, love and prayers,
Mana Ruth

Video - Little glimpse into Iris Pemba.

Untitled from ruth Alexander on Vimeo.

November

Untitled from ruth Alexander on Vimeo.

A normal day...

As I sit here trying to think what to write to update you all, memories of these last few weeks go through my mind. Some I still can’t believe I saw and some that are little bit of delights that make each day. So I have decided to once again; write down a normal day. So where to begin…well lets start with what today was like.

7:30am The alarm goes off, although I have been awake since 6 as that is when my neighbour decides to turn on his dance music.

I get up and ready, I talk to Juliana who helps clean our house and do our laundry. I organise things for her to do.

8:30am I go to the Barraca’s to find my friend Precious. She has had an infected thumb for a while now. It has gone in the thumb and is getting really bad. She keeps going to witch doctors, which is making it worse. I asked if she would come to the Iris clinic with me to get some medicine. Sadly when I got to her Barraca I find out that she has decided to stay at home.

I then return to my house to make a sticker chart for the toddlers.

9am I get to the children’s base and go straight to our Noviane base to hand money to the head member of each family for food. Here we have three houses that house families that used to live on the street. When I get there I welcome our new Mozambican staff member that has moved into a house on the little base. I then find out one of the girls there is ill so I take her back to the children’s base with me to go to the clinic.

9:30am I am seen by one of our lovely nurses who looks over her and tells us to keep an eye on her and gives her medicine for the headache. So after giving her some TLC I take her back home to sleep.

10am I then go to our beautiful baby house and make sure everyone is ok. Talk to the Tias and then put the babies down for a nap.

10:30am Drive into town to get snacks for the toddlers. I pick up some bread rolls, peanut butter and some fruit.

11am I go into the children’s office to have a meeting with our children’s director, which is the interrupted with me having to run out and get school uniforms for the children in Noviane. I then return to finish the meeting.

12:30pm I go home for some lunch. There one of the ladies who used to be a prostitute came to my house. I am doing bible study with two ladies each week. I provide food for them at the moment. She was here to tell me that she couldn’t make bible study this week, as the other ladies baby is sick in hospital. When someone is in the hospital here a family or friend has to make your meals each day. So this is what they were doing. The mother stayed with the baby and the other made food and brought in needed supplies.

13:10pm I return back to the children’s base with Ana who I work under in the baby house. We sit down and talk to each one of our Tias (Portuguese for aunty – they look after the children) We make sure each one is doing well and if they need anything. We then arrange bible study for our 4-6 year olds.

2:20: We wake up our 4-6 year olds from their nap and do bible study with them. We talk about turning the other cheek. Most of them are going into the first year of school so we wanted to teach them that when they are provoked. They need to walk away.

3:30pm: I arrive home with my housemate Ali. She is going to a hotel/restaurant to book the swimming pool. She is taking all 14 of our 7-12 year old girls to the pool this weekend. So while she is there she offers to get me take-a-way. I take up the offer quickly. J

4pm: I eat my early supper ready to settle down for the night.

6pm: I get a phone call to say the little girl from Noviane is really sick and needs medicine. I then phone our Doctor to ask what to do. We then decide to give paracetamol for the fever. I then have to find a car to get there. In the time it takes to get a ride over it starts pouring with rain, which with the dirt floor makes floods. I have to walk through a river full of mud and rubbish to get to the Noviane base to give the medicine. I return home quickly after as the person who gave a lift needed to go onwards to somewhere else.

6:50pm: I get another phone call saying that the little girl hadn’t been able to keep the meds down so I once again get a ride to the base and walk through the river to get her. I take her home with her older sister to wait for the doctor.

7:10pm We clean her up and get a bed made for her to rest on while we wait at my house. I put a movie on and make some plain rice for her.

8:00pm The doctor comes and checks her over. We do a Malaria test, which takes a while. We then realise that the test is void, however she seemed to be doing better so we let her sleep and would try a test tomorrow morning if need be.

9pm I take her home, which meant another walk through the river and mud to her house. I have anti-vomit meds for her so I show our wonderful Mozambican worker, Ana how to give. I then go home, tidy up the bed we made and rest. J

This is generally a normal day. Nothing usually goes to how I have planned, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! I am coming back to England in a few weeks and staying away from Pemba until May. I feel God telling me that this is a time of training. I will be contacting some charities that work on the street with prostitutes and hopefully volunteer with them. I hope to also go to Mississippi to volunteer with ‘We will go ministries’. Please pray for me during this season that I hear from the Lord clearly for new strategies as to how to work with the ladies.

I look forward to seeing most of you in England. Please do let me know if you have any prayer requests.

Lots of love and prayers,

Ruth