Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

christmas 2012 from ruth Alexander on Vimeo.

Thankfulness...

It is that time again where I have placed together a little video…Here you will see things like birthday parties to general every day life. I even put in there the first time our toddlers ever played with Lego! Was so funny to watch. There is a clip of Madelena who was sick with high fevers one day and then playing feeling very healthy the next J Our God is so good! Once again sorry for the lack of footage with street ministry. I am not able to take pictures during the evening while out on the street.

These last two weeks my mum has been visiting, which has been wonderful! She brought some little gifts to make a Thanksgiving meal so we had a few people over, decorated for Christmas and ate very well! I live with an American so Thanksgiving has become a ‘must do’ in our household! Although lots of the traditional foods have to be substituted. It was great having my mum here to see some of what I do and meet the people I work with and live with.

I pray you are all well and getting excited as we come into this festive season. Please remember to continue to pray for street ministry and our baby and toddler houses. There are daily problems that come up but also daily joys as Jesus wins every time!

Love to you all in His name,
Ruth

Words can't describe this place...so a video may help. from ruth Alexander on Vimeo.

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!