The Blessing That Comes After Obedience

I got a message on Facebook from someone recently, and it concluded with the words above. Those words struck a chord with me at the time, and in fact, sort of became the theme of this week. Truth is, obedience isn’t always a fun or “feel good” thing. But it’s the right thing to do. The nice thing about obedience is that it smiles at you after the fact.

Yesterday, we had the privilege of visiting the students and staff at Thorsby Elementary School who recently raised funds to purchase 24 desks for our bush school in Mozambique. It was our pleasure to bring back a personal thank you and video report from the Mozambican children who were so blessed by the compassion and efforts of these kids to help provide much-needed desks.

First, we had to get set up.

And just about the time when we got all the systems working right, the kids filed in.

We had fun answering questions for some of them afterwards.


My guess is that during their fund raising work, some of their activities were fun, but there was probably some “doing it because it’s right” in there too. There always is with any worthwhile venture. But it was sure fun to see the video of Mozambican kids smiling, singing and cheering as those desks were delivered to the school!

It was with sad hearts that we then went from the Thorsby School to Wetaskiwin where we attended the funeral service of our dear friend, Pastor Ed Breitkreuz. Ed came to serve the mission in Mozambique several times over the past 5 years. Mozambique is not an easy place to be but Ed always seemed to be game for the challenge, and he always did this with a willing heart whether it was building in the bush with crude supplies, relating cross-culturally, teaching pastors, or even trying out new, strange foods. And he did it all with a motto that was obvious to everyone around him: no task too large or too small. Ed and Doreen have blessed the work in Mozambique in more ways than we can count and I will try to relate just a few of those ways through the photos that follow:

Working on buildings so we could have a home, office, clinic, etc.:










The health post (above) getting its roof, and now it is finished and functional (below)

Connecting with people:




We as a mission are honoured that the Breitkreuz family has selected the Training Centre in Mozambique to be the beneficiary of any memorial gifts. Ed’s visits will be missed by many in Mozambique, but his legacy remains.

Training Center foundation being poured, March 2009.

Tomorrow we head for Fort McMurray, then on Wednesday we're off to Seattle and several B.C. destinations. Living out of a suitcase isn't fun, but for now, it's the right thing to do.  :)