All Of Me Loves All Of You

Written by Heather Boler

Early each year every shop seems to be decorated in red and white, with hearts, roses, chocolates and other decorations as the world prepares to celebrate love, and the closer to 14 February (the day of love) it gets the more people focus on love, the romantics might even expand the celebrations to the whole month of February, calling it the month of love. BUT as sons and daughters of the Most High God, as Christians we know that True Love is not restricted to one day or month a year, but every day we celebrate the Love God had for us, by sending his only son to die for us so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him, our Loving Father. The heart the missionaries at Zimpeto is to share this Love with the children God entrusted to care for, with our staff and people that God has called us to love. Its therefore such a joy to us when we see the children understanding and really knowing God love for them, and return that Love with true worship, singing and praying to God with all their hearts.
Every Thursday evening we have a children church service where you find such joy as the children sing and dance for the Lord living out psalm 149:3 “Praise his name with dancing…” and psalm 95:6 “let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”
While this is true for many of the +-200 children on the base, I want to share the heart of one young man who lives in our special needs house, He has such heart for worship, he is always at the front, arms lifted, joyfully praising the Lord, his worship not limited by his physical limitations or circumstance. It’s not just in church but a life-style. During the weekly worship session in Special needs house he sings to the guitar, and participates whole heartedly, praying, singing, and playing along with the toy instruments. He was recently blessed with a guitar, and the attached picture does not even begin to capture his joy to have a real guitar to worship His father. The weekly worship time fast became a favourite time of the week for him, as well as for all those who attended, the other children with special needs, staff and missionaries as he got taught to play the cords of his favourite songs, and lead his peers in worship playing with so much passion, making a joyful noise unto the Lord. He among others are regularly found volunteering to pray during our Tuesday and Friday Morning e intercession times with the children, where the children prayers for the nations, for leaders, the unsaved, for people affected by natural disasters, and other times simply giving thanks for all they have. It’s amazing to see the love that these children have for their Father, their Friend Jesus, but also the love they have to give to those who visit the centre, those who work in the centre and those less privileged than themselves.
On 13 February while the world was preparing for the “day of love Mozambique was preparing for the cyclone/Hurricane Dione to hit the coastal area of Inhambane province… Mozambican media reported that four people, including a child, died as a result of tropical cyclone Dineo and thousands of houses broken and communities affected. After the tragedy struck, the immediate reaction was to help, what better way to celebrate the month of love than to share the Love of God with the people of the nation, love them in a tangible way and go help the hurting, so we organized a team to travel up taking with them clothing and shoes to distribute, and financial donations that allowed building supplies to be bought, several food packages of basic needs to be purchased and handed out, but this was only a drop in the ocean of needs that needed to be met. After their return a second trip was organized this time, taking more financial assistant, and taking more goodies, including clothing donations the children of the centre had selected from the little that they call their own, snacks that they had chosen not to eat so that they can give away to those who need it more, those who no longer had houses because of a storm. While we did not celebrate Valentine Day on the centre, we celebrate something far greater, we celebrated Eternal Love, receiving and giving the Love of Jesus which is manifested in the desire to help those who need help the most.