My boy, Joao, whom I've taken care of since he was a severely malnourished 18month old

The morning we left Mozambique, saying goodbye outside of our home for 3 years

Saying goodbye

Saying "Goodbye" and saying "Thank you!"

To our dear family and friends who have supported us for the last 3 years with your encouragement, prayers, financial support, and interest in our lives and work;

We want to give thanks and appreciation for all the ways you have held us up and supported us through these 3 years in Mozambique. You have truly shared in our testimonies and successes, as they would not have been possible without your care for us!


We think about the life-saving recovery & transformation in severely malnourished baby girl Faustina (Tasty Tomato, baby girl F). Our appreciation is in God who healed her and worked through us, and our appreciation is in you who held us in prayer during that time, or offered words of encouragement, support, and wisdom.



We remember the closing of the clinic and how we were surrounded the entire time by your love and concern, prayers and how you celebrated with us upon the reopening.

 We remember Matthew's terrifying fall and traumatic injury and how he came through now as if it never happened, and we utter grateful praise to God who held him during that time, but we also hold so much appreciation to you who contributed financially to help lessen the burden of that time, and we are SO grateful for those of you who held him up in prayer and wrote words of encouragement and concern...the road is almost impossible when walked alone, but together we endure and move forward; it would have been much more difficult without you. THANK YOU!

We are grateful, we are thankful, and we hold so much appreciation for the ways you have touched our lives, even with the physical distance that separated us, you touched our lives and in that helped change the lives of the children of Mozambique.

We have finished 3 years of service in Mozambique and have now returned to the United Kingdom, Bristol to continue our lives here. We will be jumping back into our professional lives here and settling down with the desire to start a family.

For those of you who have specifically contributed financially to us and our work in Mozambique we thank you and release you to invest your money to support other causes. We do hope you will continue to stay involved in our lives as we do know one day we will head back to Africa together and we would love you to continue this journey with us, as we desire to share in your life journey as well. Please stay in touch and every once in a while we may notify you of a new blog post to share our joys, prayers, desires and concerns. Please continue to see what our Iris Ministries' children's centre is up to by checking www.irisminzimpeto.org every so often and please continue to uplift those beautiful children & missionaries in prayer!

This is the IT team that Matthew poured into and handed over to. Please keep each one of them in your prayers to be able to maintain the work Matthew did and even to continue to move the IT department forward. Florindo will continue to teach computing to the community and centre children, Vovote will assist in maintaining and fixing the internet as well as teaching, Antonio will continue to maintain the phone lines and extensions, and Walter is overseeing the whole area.

Please keep the medical department in your prayers as they are in need of Western nurses for sure. Sheri did her best to train up the Mozambicans and hand over more and more responsibilities to see the Mozambican nurses working independently, safely and efficiently, yet they are very reliant on oversight and do not have it to the level they did while Sheri was there. Our prayers are that the children will remain healthy and each nurse will remain conscientious and responsible.

Of course we already miss the beautiful children so much and it has not been an easy decision to leave Mozambique, but we know that God is in control and He loves and cares for His children more than we ever could, so we know each one of us, Matthew and I, and the children in Mozambique, are in good hands.

With so much love and appreciation for all you have poured into us over these last years,

Matthew & Sheri Steer

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LITTLE LIVES YOU HAVE TOUCHED THROUGH US!!!

An honest testimony of Pemba - by Sheri

Can I be honest with you? I mean really honest, about how I’ve struggled these last few years? Hopefully some of you already know how human I am, and others will become more aware that I am just like you with doubts, struggles, battles with negativity and cynicism. I promise there is a testimony through the telling of my struggles.

It’s been a long time since I had seen the real power of God...since I had truly felt he was intervening on my behalf or on behalf of the ones I love and care for. I became weary, tired of calling out to the One who I felt was not really responding...reading my Bible became a chore and one I decided to let dust gather upon; praying, another chore – for what purpose? Yes God exists, yes He is sovereign, yes He is love and everything else I am told (and once experienced personally through SO MANY TESTIMONIES...yet these testimonies felt like ancient history...). I don’t doubt that He is who the Bible says He is, but I was beginning to believe that He does what He wants, when He wants, to whom He wants...my attitude was tainting my understanding of the character of God. I was also becoming quite desensitized to the suffering and poverty around me...and in that, questioning my purpose in being here, I mean, what difference can I really make?

I was struggling with everybody’s expectations of me to be a “spiritual” woman, wife, nurse (or maybe the expectations I put on myself to be that perfect “spiritual” being)...expectations I truly felt I could not meet and did not want to meet. I am supposed to be filled with rivers of living water; my soul, a fountain that never runs dry...my reality was not this...I was spiritually dry, dry, dry, dry...the well within me felt completely stopped up...COMPLETELY.

We planned this trip to Pemba – our last opportunity to see the most northern base in Mozambique and all that God is doing up there; an opportunity to refresh our understanding of the vision of Iris Ministries; and an opportunity to share with the people up there our faith walk...HA! I couldn’t do that....I was SO dry with nothing to give, or so that is what I told myself. And as the trip drew closer I feared it, as I would be expected to minister and speak and be a glowing example of a missionary – it felt like a cruel joke and maybe someone should go in my place?

Someone wise in Pemba said “Often times when we are facing the biggest, ugliest, worst battles it’s because the enemy knows that our breakthrough is right on the other side – DON’T GIVE UP!” We heard (and experienced) so many testimonies of this. I knew I needed to go to Pemba, that God was going to use that time...I knew He wanted to do something in my heart, that I would not allow Him the time to do in Zimpeto (my avoidance tactics were fantastic, my laziness and excuses extraordinary)! So, off we went to Pemba, with Steve Lazar our director.

Steve had asked us to prepare a short testimony of how we came to the mission field and our time in Mozambique. I felt surely I had nothing worthy to say...I am nobody special, I am not a preacher or evangelist, I get quite nervous when asked to speak to a bunch of people so I tried everything I could to convince Steve he didn’t want me to speak – in my present attitude I didn’t know what would come out of my mouth. God, knew I needed to use my voice, I knew I didn’t want to.

Steve didn’t feel sorry for me; there was no getting out of it. What on earth would I share?! Well, our first evening in Pemba we went out to eat and I was woken a few hours later with what is becoming a familiar feeling, food poisoning, the food did not want to stay put...up, most of the night, in between the pain and waves of nausea, I had plenty of time to think and ask God what He would want me to say, as I could think of nothing worthy in my own knowledge that would be helpful to anybody. I kept thinking how I was such an ordinary person, not even a “great” Christian, definitely not a great example, not a preacher, not an evangelist, yes I am a nurse and God has gifted me with this, but what do I share with 300 people who have come to Mozambique hungry to understand what missions is and how God moves through us? Then it hit me...I am ordinary, just like so many people whose testimonies are written throughout the Bible, look at how ordinary they were and some not even “great” Christians at times in their lives, and yet God chose to work through them. We are SO ordinary, but it is God who is SO extraordinary, in all of His power He chooses to use us to carry out His plans, to be His hands and feet, to love the unlovable and pull the poor out of the dust...He chooses ordinary US! We have an extraordinary God! 

The realization started to hit me, my problem all along was not that God was absent, but that I was navel-gazing...looking so much at myself, thinking, poor me, tired me, weary me, fed-up me...I lost perspective that I am serving an extraordinary God who is able. Many songs are focused on the importance of “Turn(ing) y(our) eyes upon Jesus” or “set(ting) your face as flint before Him now”, etc... I guess because those who wrote the songs knew the moment you turn away, the needs of the world crowd in and you lose perspective...focused on the world and what you can see with your physical eyes so often can convince one that God is not as involved as He should be and in that we lose our purpose. Life becomes heavy because we’re not looking to God to carry the hard stuff, the burdens, we choose to carry these ourselves because we deem God “not capable” – we grow tired on our own strength so quickly and then everything becomes a chore and an expectation all because we stopped looking to God as our help and started looking to ourselves......this seems to be the cycle of my spiritual journey...a cycle I would sure like to discontinue.

God continued to speak during our time in Pemba through different situations and people. We were so privileged to be invited to an outreach on the Iris Compassion (a large yacht, new to Iris and used for outreaches to the islands and places that cannot be reached by car). There were 24 of us in all, a mixture of Mozambicans and Westerners alike, and Heidi, Rolland, Pastor Supresa and quite a few other great men of faith. Heidi shared with me “Our goal is to reach every island, every land that is unreachable by car, to speak the name of Jesus to those who have never had the chance to hear, that is why we have this boat.” God told her to go get His Makua bride (the tribal group up in the Pemba region). (In telling this story, she honoured Steve & Ros for saying yes to leading the Zimpeto base, as that allowed Heidi to say yes to God to go to the Makua people). Her testimony and heart of love for the people was stirring up the dry wells of my heart; reminding me of the true, pure call of a missionary. Surely this is what I was called to. I don’t need to be a famous evangelist or preacher or some known man of faith to make a difference, to speak the name of Jesus and His extravagant love for His bride!

We were headed to a special village; one Heidi has been to many times, the village of Londo – only 60 or so people.  Heidi asked us to be ready to share with the people of Londo...yet, this time I wasn’t nervous, I trusted that God had a message for the people He loves. After an hour or so of sailing and soaking in worship we had arrived off the shore of Londo. The sun was starting to set and we could see the village of Londo as a clearing in the bush directly on the beach...I felt like I was on the set of movie (see pictures).

We took a dingy to get to the village from the yacht. I was on the last dingy trip and we arrived on the beach in darkness...4 other dingies before us Heidi had arrived on the beach first, so on our arrival she was already finishing a preach to the people. Walking onto the beach we could only see silhouettes of the people. I greeted a small group of women sitting to the side of the rest and kissed their cheeks “Salaama” – a Makua greeting. I sat down next to them and within moments I heard Heidi say “Sheri, are you here, come share.” Surely she did not just say my name, I must have misheard, right?  Nope, she said again “Sheri” – so I stood up immediately and greeted the people as a whole, everyone still silhouettes against the night sky, not even a fire to illuminate their faces. I shared with them that although I could not see their faces, I knew they were a people of great beauty and asked them if they knew how I knew that...they did not know how I could know that...so I told them the word of God tells us we have all been made in the image of God and spoke about God’s beauty and love and how it abides in each of them. I thanked them for allowing us the privilege of seeing this facet of God’s beauty in them and their village. I sat down knowing God was doing a new thing in me.

Following this, I sat down next to the same group of women I had originally greeted. I asked the women what they do when they are sick if there is no clinic in the village. They told me they have to go to Pemba Hospital for any medical care – now imagine this, we just sailed on a 2- engine yacht for 1 hour to reach their land from Pemba. Imagine doing that when you are sick in a canoe and having to row the entire time. My immediate response was that they truly needed to know & trust that Jesus is their healer and experience it daily. They brought a woman to me who had back pain. I asked if I could lay hands on her and ask Jesus who loves her to come and take this pain from her and heal any injury. This was her desire. (now, just to say that this is another area in which I was really struggling with my faith, my struggle was that I believe Jesus heals, but who he wants, when he feels like it, and most likely not using me). In this moment, these doubts did not disturb me as He was stirring up deep wells within me and my eyes were fully focused on Him as the healer and not on ME. After a few minutes of prayer and more prayer, the woman said the pain had completely gone! At times we would ask people to stand and demonstrate their healing, yet this woman had a baby asleep on her so I did not want to disturb them. My medical side had some doubts, but even so my faith was hugely encouraged as very rarely in the past had anyone claimed complete healing after my prayers. I felt God wanted to do it again so I testified for the woman and Heidi said there was another woman who had back pain and I immediately went to her and prayed for Jesus to heal her. Within a few minutes this second woman (who was no spring chicken – not young) was demonstrating her complete healing by touching her toes and twisting to and fro like a young spring chicken! I was convinced! Thank you Jesus not only for showing this woman your love, but being so merciful towards me and desiring to grow my faith even in the midst of my doubts and struggles – what a merciful God!

I am so thankful that my God is a merciful, full of grace and love kind of God – otherwise He would have grown tired of my complaining and disobedience long ago. And He still chooses to use me to speak to hundreds of mission school students and to speak about an extraordinary God who chooses to use ordinary people as His hands and feet – and the privilege that we should count that everyday...the privilege of being used to restore life to the nearly dead, health to the sick, hope to the hopeless – we are the hands and feet of Jesus – Jesus in us is the door of hope, how will they know if they have never heard – we are the voice and He uses us to speak hope and love and healing to a world that does not know! WHAT A PRIVILEGE – THANK YOU SOVEREIGN GOD! Thank you Abba Father!

That night we slept on the boat just in view of Londo. Up early I had the privilege of participating in deep conversations by some amazing men of faith. We discussed faith and whether it is something that can be lost. Everybody has their own opinion but I loved Pastor Supresa’s simple understanding. Faith is like a muscle, if it is not exercised it becomes weak and almost nonexistent, but the moment it is exercised and more and more, it grows. A little bit later these men of faith laid hands on Matthew and I in prayer about a situation of ours. Supresa said before he started praying “We will believe for you, you don’t worry or feel like you have to strive or do anything, we will believe for you.” God knows us inside and out!

God is in the business of stirring up deep, deep wells...in me, those wells that were stopped up are starting to flow again (Gen 26), and I can only hope that in my revelation (once again) that I can keep my eyes fixed on Him- the right perspective, and be obedient to what I know not only in my head but in my heart as well...it is a choice and He desires a relationship. Do I wish this revelation  had come earlier? I sure do! But I am thankful that I get to leave Mozambique with hope, excitement about Who God is and what He is doing – not at the end of a vision, but at the beginning of a newly revived vision - and the knowing that it is truly a privilege to be used by Him. 

With Love,

Sheri

Adoption: God's great love!

This beautiful creation of God was thrown away. Literally, she was found in the rubbish. Someone rescued her and took her to an orphanage, and when nobody wanted her at that orphanage, they brought her to our orphanage. We have been privileged to care for her for 6 months and to our delight for the last month she has been pursued by a lady who desired to adopt her. Today, this delightful little girl was put into a family, with a mother and father who have chosen her and desire to love her as their own. She has been adopted and taken home as was always intended by God. Celebrate with us that God indeed does give beauty for ashes....those who have been cast away, God still sees treasure and has a plan! Hallelujah!

God's promises brought to light by this testimony:

• What the enemy has intended for evil, God meant for good!
• God places the lonely in families! Ps 68.6
• God gives beauty for ashes! Isaiah 61:3
• God restores! jeremiah 30:17
• We were chosen to be sons and daughters

Not only did He rescue her, but He restored to her more than what she was born into...He has now given her a family who chose her. How beautiful!

And the part that makes me laugh with joy? Her name translated, means miraculous!!

The Steers' October Update

Manuel

Dearest friends and family,

It has become more obvious to us over time that Facebook and blogs are an amazing way to communicate with large groups of people, giving general information, but not always conducive to giving details and all the answers a person might want. We apologize for not being in touch sooner. If we're honest, we have not been sure how to communicate; in terms of what we are in the midst of here in Mozambique right now; about our time in Africa coming to a close for the time being; and about where we are headed. Most of you will already know that we are leaving Mozambique in December and are headed back to the United Kingdom for an indefinite period of time, pursuing our strong desire to start a family. We value your prayers as we walk this road together and leave the road walked in Africa behind for a little while. We welcome you write us individually if you would desire more details or have any questions. Look to your right and you will see our contact information  ;-D


We were blessed to spend 6 weeks in the UK in May & June to rest after 2 years' hard work. Now we've been back in Moz since July continuing in our same roles but at the same time doing our best to train up and hand over our responsibilities to both Mozambicans and Westerners. We are teaching and encouraging and empowering the Mozambicans in our skills and our giftings - we are not just taking what we know home with us, but hopefully leaving a deposit that will live on here in Mozambique as well.

Gloria

baby girl F (tasty tomato)

As we are now counting down the weeks until our departure from Mozambique, only 10 weeks to go, we feel the tug of our hearts and each moment we have left with each child is even more precious. We love the privileged lives we have lived here in Mozambique, knowing that our presence has made a difference in these childrens' lives - We see the fruit of our labours and the evidence of HIS great love, remembering all He has done;  remembering children like baby girl F (tasty tomato)(who is now up and walking and loves to eat and smile and laugh and is one of the most contented, full of character babies we know), Gloria (now an avid explorer), baby boy J (who has been adopted), Sheila (who loves to sing, and is very intelligent), Manuel (who is incredibly willful)  - all overcomers and touched by the loving grace of God. And we remember the ones who didn't make it, but whom we had the privilege of loving into the hands of Jesus; Helena, Raquelina, and Graca. And we remember the victorious moments we have had;  in the reopening of the clinic, training and staffing the clinic for 24-hour care, creating new computer classes for the community and seeing them continue (all Mozambican lead & over 200 people trained in basic computing), - AND SO MUCH MORE! We will miss this way of life, the meaning that every day holds and the ways we contribute without thought of pay or promotion or recognition - but filled with thoughts of blessings and raising the standard and making a difference.


At the moment, within the ministry there is a lot of uncomfortable shifting going on. Some, very possibly by the hand of God, and some very clearly not the hand of God with the stirring of agitation.We do not think it would be wisdom to share publicly all that we might like to, but we are asking you to please remember Iris Ministries Zimpeto in your prayers. Please pray specifically for us, for our directors, for our children, for our workers, and most of all for Jesus' name to be glorified and us all to be changed more and more into His likeness through suffering and persecution, through correction and accountability, through breakthrough and transformation! Our prayer is just as Jesus prayed, that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Saying the above, this week we will very cautiously be stepping in to help supervise the base for about 6 weeks as our Directors will be travelling again. We ask for your prayers to cover us, to cover the base and that we would walk and operate only in His wisdom,

baby girl K

Of course we have a few prayer requests for a couple of children who are struggling. We ask for your prayers specifically concerning this beautiful baby girl, K. She is 10 months old and struggling to grow. She needs corrective heart surgery but they will not perform it until she reaches 6kg (13.2lbs) - for 4 months she has gained no weight, staying stagnant at 4kg (8.8lbs). She finally in the last few weeks has started putting on a small bit of weight and we're praying that this is finally her moving in the proper direction. She is a happy, joyful, precious, peaceful little girl and we would love to see her thrive in this life!

baby boy C

We also ask you to pray for baby boy C, 10months old and hospitalised 3 times over the last 2 months because of bad pneumonias provoked by large infected tonsils. They say they will not do surgery on his tonsils until he is 2 years of age - Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and protection over him.

We thank you for your patience with us as our communication with you has become more sporadic. We thank you for your continued prayers which give us strength. We thank you for your support as well! Please pray for His grace over these next 10 weeks - and that we would continue to run this race well and desire to finish well. We will be in the States (Philadelphia area) from December 20th to the end of January, and then after that we will be in the UK. Please be in touch!!

With love and appreciation,

Sheri & Matthew Steer

4/5 of these boys have  been reintegrated back into their homes!

We are very sorry to have to let you know that baby Raquelina passed away this morning. We are very saddened by this. Please continue to be in prayer for all of us involved.

Life Goes On!

Well, we've hardly missed a step since Matthew's accident - almost as if it never happened!! He's doing  great and has jumped straight back into everything including climbing ladders (don't think I didn't say something, but he has his own mind!). We've both been working hard at making our individual areas of responsibility able to stand with as little intervention from ourselves as possible - always with a heart to train up, empower and encourage the Mozambicans to care for their own -  our hope is to watch these areas stand without us. Here in Mozambique this is a constant battle but we are moving forwards!!

Raquelina

This little baby girl, Raquelina, is fighting for her life and desperately needs your prayers!! She has been suffering with severe diarrhea and lost more than 1/3 of her body weight in a week. Was 7.3lbs and is now down to 4.7lbs. She was refusing to take anything by mouth and on Thursday was so severely dehydrated I wondered if she would pull through. We have been praying non-stop for her and knew that only a miracle would save her! As of yesterday she started to turn the corner and was much better in terms of hydration. She is in the hospital and they are trying to get to the bottom of the diarrhea problem. As of this morning she has started taking her milk again by mouth and as of this afternoon is taking whole bottles by mouth now and has had no more diarrhea since last night - and has even passed a normal stool (never thought I'd be so happy about normal poo!) Please stand with us in prayer that she will be healed!!

Do you remember Gloria? She arrived SO petite and chronically malnourished, well she just turned 2 years old last month and is a bundle of joy! She's so beautiful and so full of life!

Gloria

Gloria - 11 months

Gloria - 2 years old

And our tasty tomato baby girl F is growing in leaps and bounds - thank you SO much for your prayers for her precious life! Please pray for her lungs because they are definitely her point of weakness. Here she is - so chubby and happy - she LOVES her food! Hallelujah!

Unfortunately or very fortunately (we see it both ways - a tug of the heart to be so far from these beauties, and the great need to have a rest and some distance for a short while) we are heading off for a 6 week break in England on May 17th. Come the end of June we will return to Mozambique as we have committed to serve with Iris Ministries for another 6 months. We feel the remainder of our time in Moz will be focused on training up and handing over our responsibilities, as come December 2012 we will head back to the UK for a season focusing on starting a family, that said with a real heart to at some point return to Mozambique, Africa to continue working with Iris Ministries.   We would appreciate your prayers for us over the coming months as we only desire to go where He is leading. We have loved our time here in Mozambique and as we still have 7 more months left serving here, we cannot think of what life could be outside of these gorgeous children - we love what God has done and is doing in and through us .

We love you all and miss you and hope that if you're in England we will see you when we're back. Please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be reachable on our cell phones and we will be staying with Matthew's parents - if you desire to have our contact details please just e-mail us at Matthewjsteer@gmail.com or sheristeer@gmail.com

So much love and appreciation from both of us,

Matthew and Sheri Steer