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Category: Personal

One For The Ages

A Jon Post

8:30 AM Tuesday morning we went to the hospital to see our doctor. It was a quick visit, a heart monitor for Anaya to see if she’s ok in Layne’s womb, an ultrasound to estimate Anaya’s weight (9 pounds 6 ounces plus or minus 1 and a half pounds) and a pill for Layne to take that could start labor within the next 3 days.

9:30 AM – back home, resting, a little disappointed and thinking resigned to thinking we’d have Anaya in our hands tomorrow or the next day.

11:30 AM – Layne’s water broke, contractions started

3:30 PM – Contractions stronger, about 2-3 minutes apart

4:00 PM – Contractions had reached 2 minutes apart and 1 minute long, we went to the hospital

5:00 PM – Contractions were almost without breaks, our doctor started saying we should make our way to a delivery room

5:30 PM – In the delivery room, starting to push

6:10 PM – Anaya Hosanna Heller, born blue as a smurf with her umbilical cord around her neck. After a few minutes of oxygen she was a nice rosy pink, she was crying and looking for mom and some food

Today, 5 days in, we are so proud and content to be her parents. Please pray that Layne recovers quickly from labor. We decided beforehand that Layne would try to birth Anaya without pain medicine and, through great sacrifice and pain, she did it. Because the labor went so quick Layne’s body paid a heavy cost and she is still recovering.

We have been surrounded by friends here who have showered us with support and love as our lives adjust so quickly and dramatically to having our daughter. Meals and visits from good friends have been such a support to us.

Anaya brings so much joy to our lives. Our ministry to her has already consumed us and we see no end in sight. Though we continue to pursue our vision to serve and love the people of Mozambique and to place their lives and needs above our own, even that ministry takes second place to the ministry of parenting our daughter.

Here are some pictures of the first few days of Anaya’s life.

We are so blessed to have all of you praying and loving us as we keep trying to live out the call and voice of the Lord.

Don’t forget to vote in the polls about Anaya below the pictures!

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Music, Cards, and an Incredible Wife

A Jon Post

Some times it feels like a week flies by but took forever to do it. It’s a weird sensation actually. I’m looking back at this week and it felt long (temperatures at or above 100° with coastal humidity that simply cannot be escaped make time slow to a crawl), but when I think about the days and how many there were it seems like they rocketed by. We’ve been splitting our time between two hospitals instead of the normal one. The extra hospital has been some unplanned appointments where we will be having Anaya. There have been some small concerns about high and low heart rates but by the end of the week she settled down and Anaya’s heart rate was at a steady and healthy level.

We took our guitar to the hospital with us this week. We’ve decided to add music as a regular part of how we bring the love of Christ to people there. We sang some English worship songs that we attempted to translate and sing in Portuguese with our friends there. As we continue we hope to add some Portuguese and Shangaan (the tribal language of this area) worship songs to our list of songs we sing with the patients. When someone is close to death they are rarely capable of conversation and we hope that singing the love of Christ to/over them can bring peace and rest where there is only suffering and pain.

“Show me how you shuffle those cards” he asked with a smile. “I want to learn that”. I smiled back and remembered him teaching me a strange little card game yesterday (sort of a mix between War and Rummy). I had picked up the cards in the middle of the game and offhandedly shuffled them during the game. He had noticed.
His request came at a good time because I had been sitting next to his bed asking the Lord what I should talk to him about next. I had been running out of ideas and suddenly he wanted to learn to shuffle cards.
“Hold them like this…” I began, and spent the next hour laughing, shuffling, and hopefully… just for a bit… helping lighten the load of living in a room surrounded by men dying of the same sickness living in him.
Just by teaching him to shuffle cards.

Valentine's DaySo Valentine’s Day is tomorrow.  I really do like Valentine’s Day. I kind of look at like a challenge.
There are two days per year that I have stark memories of since I’ve married Layne: Valentine’s Day and our Wedding Anniversary.
I hope… I really really hope that I keep making specific, stark memories with her for those two days every year for the rest of my life.
The challenge is finding that thing that I can do with her that I will remember. I also try to give her a gift, not diamond earrings, not flowers, but something specific to her and to the memory that we can keep and look back on.
Tomorrow is a good day. I get to make memories with my wife. Nothing could be sweeter.

Christmas Party in Oncology 2010

A Layne Post

One year ago, Jon and I visited the Oncology department at Maputo Central Hospital for the very first time; it was the their Christmas party. Little did we know how the people, the place, would captivate us. Little did we know that the Lord would tell us to stay, to give our hearts and our time right there in that hospital.

Jon playing Christmas carols last year

A year ago

And yet here we are.

I am so grateful, so fulfilled, so satisfied. The Lord knows what He is doing. A year ago, I felt lost. I felt unsettled and in a temporary location, but the Lord knew otherwise. Thanks for being a part of the journey thus far. Thanks for trusting along with us and for sticking around to see the faithfulness of our God. To Him be the glory.

Christmas party in Oncology 2010

Jon and Tomé as Pai Natal

Lucia enjoyed her hat as well

Lucia feeling Miss Anaya kick

Jon playing Christmas carols, much to everyone's delight

Enjoying music... her smile is contagious

Yet even amidst the celebration, their little IV ports remain taped in place, not allowing us to forget the looming fact that we’re all together because they are in Oncology being treated for cancer.

IV ports

Tomé on treatment

There are so many to love, so many to comfort. May the Lord continue to use us.

What It’s Like

A Jon Post

I asked Javan today what he thinks of our lives here in Maputo. I am always little anxious to hear thoughts and get reactions to how my wife and I live our lives. Maybe there’s something in me looking for the validation that we’re doing something right. Maybe there’s something in me looking for a fellow American to tell me that life is pretty challenging here and all the effort I put into just living is worth it.

Maybe it’s all a reflection in my heart of a deeper desire.

Maybe… I just want to rest a weary head on my Father’s shoulder and here a soft “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share your Master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:23). I really, really want to share my Master’s happiness.

Javan got the opportunity to share from the Bible at a men’s Bible study that I lead on a weekly basis at the hospital with some men who live there as patients. He spoke of perfect and complete joy. I think that scene in Matthew, where the Master says “Well done, come and share in my happiness” is one that describes what I think perfect and complete joy is.

Maybe that’s what it’s like.

I see so much that is broken and incomplete all around me. I see a broken joy in the patient Jonathan at the hospital (he and I smiled and spoke at length at how happy we were to share a name), whose tumor above his right shoulder looms over him like a death sentence. I see incomplete joy in David, a soft-spoken man whose chemo-therapy treatments sap every bit of strength he has, to where his shell of a body simply breathes and waits for it to pass.

Maybe Jonathan, David and countless others here and scattered throughout the world are all just waiting for that moment.

We’re waiting for our Master to invite us to share in His happiness.

Maybe that’s what it’s like.

So Javan, try as he might to share what he sees in our lives here in Maputo, didn’t fulfill that longing in me. That longing that I have for the Master to smile… look into my eyes and say… “Well done. Come and share my happiness!”

Perfect… Complete… Joy

I think that’s what it’s like.

Javan’s Visit thus Far

A Layne Post

Javan arrived well on Sunday, and we excitedly welcomed him into our home. With him came some extremely hot days; lucky Javan!

Monday we introduced Javan to our friends in Oncology; however, the same day we discovered our dear little friend Marcelino had taken a turn for the worse. (read his story here) Sometimes these things come so suddenly; they cannot be planned. Our usual cheerful greetings were replaced with tears and fervent prayers. Tuesday our time in Dermatology was cut short, wanting to get back to Marcelino’s side.

Javan and his easy personality captured the attention of many of the other children in the Oncology ward, and as Jon and I focused on Marcelino, the kiddos were showing Javan their beds and searching for mangoes to give him as presents.

After our visit on Tuesday, Javan began to have some pain in his chest. It seemed like a familiar pain he has had before, but while his usual pain lasts only for a few minutes, this pain continued. He rested as well as he could, with little improvement. It was difficult to distinguished between jet lag and unusual tiredness. Thanksgiving came and Javan pushed through like a champ; however, he ended his holiday feeling pretty rotten.

On Friday morning Javan actually woke up feeling better, and thought he was on the up-swing. Thirty minutes later, he had developed a fever and nausea. We decided it was time to go to the clinic to check things out. Praise the Lord we did, because after some blood tests and x-rays, it was determined that Javan had acute pneumonia and needed to be admitted to the hospital.

After some phone calls, we were able to rest assured that Javan’s short term international insurance would cover the cost, and we were able to get Javan settled into a comfy room. Boy was that a good $30 spent on the insurance!

His experience at the hospital was overall a good one. The language proved to be a bit of a barrier with the nurses, but thankfully his doctor spoke decent English. Jon and I tried to stick around as much as possible to help in that department. His IVs gave a bit of trouble, forcing Javan to be poked frequently, which is always unpleasant.

As of today, Monday, Javan’s follow-up blood work and x-rays looked so good and showed Javan was responding so quickly to the IV antibiotics that the doctor said Javan could go ‘home’/our house and continue on oral antibiotics for 7 days. His cough continues, but that can linger awhile. It could be a few weeks until he is back to normal. We’ll return for a final appointment with the doctor Friday, and then Javan can head back to the States on Monday, one week later than planned.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:31

Perhaps we’ll look back on this time and understand what the Lord’s purpose was. For now, Jon and I are enjoying our extra time with a special friend.

Here are some photos thus far:

Javan and Alexandra


Javan and new buddies

Turkey Prep

Proud Cooks

The Thanksgiving Group!

Bring admitted

Playing games and Passing time