May 2011

In this newsletter we are featuring Sveta Moroz who is a StreetCry Missionary at a children’s orphanage with Iris Ministries in Maputo, Mozambique. She is supported through the financial gifts given to us at StreetCry. Her monthly support is 1/3 of the western missionaries she works with, and still decides to give much of her $500 month personal support for medicine that is lacking for the children. She can use your encouragement, prayers and financial support.

Here is Sveta:

Hello dear friends!

Time flies swiftly and imperceptibly. The days here are very eventful and seem very short.

Do I miss home? It is more “No”, then “Yes”. It’s probably God’s grace that works because of your prayers. I am very happy to be here! God has given me so much love towards these people.

One of the things that we do here is help mothers who have children under one year old (photo on the right). We help them on a regular basis providing milk and food.

Another thing is we hold crusades in the villages and prepare meals for the homeless. During one of these feed-ins I had such a great desire to witness, but my Portuguese is not very good. I just prayed for an opportunity and a divine appointment. That day we made a meal of chicken, home fried potatoes, salad and lemonade, and went to the streets where we meet homeless people.

On the street we started singing worship songs and preaching the Gospel. After that we asked people if they wanted to pray with us and later gave them food. At the end of our meeting a man came up to me. He was not a homeless person, but he was very inquisitive. I started to explain to him what we are doing here and asked him if he believed in Jesus. He said he does not. At this moment I understood that my Portuguese is very limited. I didn’t want to let him go but I could not do anything on my own. All of a sudden he asked me if I spoke English.

Thank God! This was my answer from the Lord. I started telling him about Jesus and what He has done for us, why it is important for us to be reconciled to Him! He came to this world for our redemption and to forgive us, and how it is important that we would be born again.

I asked the man if he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart and he gladly agreed. We prayed together and after prayer I looked at him and saw lots of joy in his eyes. God is wonderfully answering the desires of our hearts especially when our desires are His desire to save people.

Our God continued to do miracles. My friend went to a village far into the interior of Mozambique, where they held a three day crusade. After the first meeting, the pastor offered prayer. A girl who had a speech problem came up to them and asked for prayer for her speech to improve. Afterward she thanked him for prayer and left saying that is seemed to get better. The next day she came again and asked for prayer. When the team started praying they received a word of knowledge that the girl is deaf.

They tested her hearing and found out that she could repeat only words when she can see their lips moving. They prayed for her but nothing changed. The next day she came for prayer again, the team members prayed for her and tested her hearing. They spoke so that she could not see their lips. All of a sudden she started clearly saying the words that they spoke. Because of her perseverance she received healing. Ask and it shall be given to you! My friend also got healed from ringworm that she got from some of the children and could not get rid of it for along time.

A little girl was brought to us who was three weeks old. Her mother died three days after she was born. The baby girl was born premature, she was 2100 gr. As a result of all this she spent three weeks in the hospital and then was sent to our home. When she was brought to us she was 1900 gr, could not suck milk put of the bottle, and had a respiratory infection. We were very concerned about this little thing and prayed hard for her. A month later she gained weight and now she is 2800 gr, is eating well and has a beautiful smile. She is growing before our eyes, we can’t recognize her. A month after she came, another girl was brought to us. She was ten months old and 3.400 gr in weight. She is also gaining some weight but not as much as her little friend.

Also I started going to a village to help with evangelism and classes for new believers once a week. Please pray for the salvation of more people. There are only eight adults here with more than 200 children for us to care for.

A week ago we had troubling news. One of our friends, Katy, who helps with the work to the prostitutes and kids here in Mozambique, was taken to a hospital with an emergency to have an operation on her brain.

Two thieves got into her house not realizing that anyone was home. Katy heard noise and came out of her room and was struck severely on her head by one of the men. Her mother also was in the house and came out and the robbers then fled. Katy was immediately taken to a hospital in Maputo (the capital of Mozambique) which is an hour away from her house. Doctors said she needed an urgent brain operation but they could not perform it there. Praise God, South Africa is only two hours away from Maputo! She was taken to a hospital in the border city of Nelspruit, where they immediately operated on her. People in our center prayed for her since her life was really in danger. Every day we received good news from her. It was a miracle! She was out of the hospital in a week. I personally having worked in intensive care as a nurse in Russia, and I have never seen such a speedy recovery! It is awesome! Our God is more than just Almighty!

We continue to have classes for new believers. In our village two of the girls have decided to be water baptized. I went to the city dump where we hold church meetings once a week. Before the meeting we always go around and evangelize people at the dump and also go from house to house (shack to shack) that are built right there at the dump. It is the poorest district in Maputo. We met a lady who was sitting in front of her house. She told us that she was sick for several days. She had pain all over her body, especially in her legs and she could not walk. We prayed for her and after prayer she said she felt better and decided to come to church with us.

Iris Ministries also has a prison ministry here that until recently, I had never been able to visit because of my very tight schedule. One day I was able to go with a team. It is a women’s prison and there were about 30-35 women at the meeting.

Since my coming was spontaneous I had not prepared a message to share, I was the last one to say something. I came up front and didn’t know what to say. I started by saying: I came from Russia. The chaplain jumped out of her seat, pushed away my interpreter and said she wants to be my translator. She was very interested and asked me to tell them more about myself. I felt I needed to share my personal testimony with the women.

I noticed how all the eyes were fixed on me, they were very open to hear and receive. I told them how I came to Jesus, then shared about the first commandment and the blessing following it if we serve Jesus and not the idols, about forsaking all to follow Him.

After my testimony our pastor came up and shared from the passage Philippians 3:8-14. My message and his came into one whole idea. Holy Spirit was moving in a strong way at that place. Many women were crying, God was really touching them. This trip impacted my heart so much, I am praying for that ministry and women regularly.

Life in the center is in full swing. Days are going by fast here. There are five nurses right now in the center and we are very full out with work. One of the nurses just left for a holiday break and after that she is going to another center that has been just started. During the summer months there will be only three of us.

Please pray

• That God would bring nurses to our center. We have so much work that we hardly have days off.

• Unity between missionaries, for understanding and love among us. We are so different, from different countries, different backgrounds. Lately this area is very vulnerable.

• One of our children is in the hospital right now. The doctors can’t find anything wrong, but he has a high fever and very weak. Pray for wisdom for the doctors, so they can find the cause of his sickness, for his healing.

• Release of the Holy Spirit over the Iris Ministries and over me personally.

• For the grace and rest, since there is so much work needs to be done here

• Fruitfulness

• For people to be saved especially the kids that live in our center, so they can experience God in a personal way and know Him as their Lord and Savior.

• For healing of the sick: we have a lot of kids with HIV, diabetes, neurological diseases. For healing during evangelism meetings on the streets, hospitals that we visit every week and during church services

• For the mercy of God to released on Africa, repentance and deliverance for the people of Africa

• For signs and wonders, creative power, for open heaven and angels of God to be released upon these desperately poor and needy people whom God loves and died for.

• For my heart to be more broken for the lost and sick

• So I can know His will and His goals for every day of my life

• Ability to see things with spiritual eyes

• Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, increased ability to follow Him and be obedient to Him

• For the spiritual and physical protection from all the plans of the enemy

• For the release of the gifts of the Spirit and flowing in God’s love

• For improvement of my English and Portuguese

• For divine appointments, new contacts

• For the enlarging of my vision for my future

• For the things God will show you to pray for

With love,
Sveta

P.S. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement! If you receive anything from the Lord concerning me or ministry, please let me know! It is always timely!