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