First, exciting news: Everyone is waiting for the government to finish its process of officially approving our center as an orphanage. But in the meantime, everyone is planning for the “spiritual inauguration” of the children’s center this Saturday, August 30. Heidi Baker is coming to Lichinga to bless the center, as well as several other people. On Friday night we’ll have an outreach in a village and on Saturday night we’ll have one in Iris’ church in the city. This weekend we’ll celebrate as a praise offering to the Lord for all that He is accomplishing at the center. Our focus is on Him alone, and we cry out for His Holy presence to be made manifest in great ways at our center.
House For God’s Pleasure
All the workers are excited. Last week we laid the floor within the house and the veranda in the back. We have to finish the pipes for the septic tank, some cement plastering around the roof, and the floor and bars for the front veranda. Then, I’ll have to work on putting in the windows and the outside doors. Afterwards, we’ll connect the toilet and sinks. We don’t have running water now and we won’t have it at our new house until we can get a bore hole (machine dug well). But, at least we’ll be able to take indoor bucket baths, flush the toilet using a bucket of water, and wash dirty dishes in a sink instead of a big plastic bowl (basin) that we use now.
Where did the name “House for God’s Pleasure” come from? It’s the name the Lord gave us. It wasn’t a “nice name for a house project”. The name is about the testimony the Lord wanted to establish in our lives and through our ministry. He wants to build our lives, which are His houses, for His pleasure. His pleasure is that He wants to experience the people He created in Christ Jesus just like we love to experience the relationships we have with each other. Often, we don’t give Him that opportunity because we are always asking Him to tell us what to do, when, how and if to do it. We don’t trust Him to purify our hearts so that His church can truly be His bride who is likeminded in creativity, desire, passion and will. God made us for Himself. He wants us to use the wisdom, creativity, ideas and dreams that are inside of us. He wants to have the pleasure of being loved, of having us share our dreams with Him, of coming up with plans and holy and outrageous ideas. He’s the one that made us wonderfully and fearfully. Now, we’re restored back to God through Christ. Let Him experience the awesomeness He put inside of us, and His “goodness” (Genesis 1:27, 31; Galatians 5:22) that is now in our new nature and laid up in purified hearts.
God longs for a pure relationship, not built on the things of this life. He wants to relate to His creation solely on the basis of who He is and who He made us to be. This is love. He doesn’t want a people with a passion regulated by the things of this life. A regulated, self-passionate people, who’s faith and desire for Him go (who will only relate and walk with Him) as far as their money will allow, or their own understandings or worldly resources will allow.
The Lord didn’t tell me exactly what to build. He wanted me to dream. He tested me several times to see if I would share with Him the true plans of the house with Him. He refined some of my ideas, and shared His own with me. When I thought about a nice looking house that didn’t truly represent His work, He let me know. I would turn my face back to Him and again could think with a pure heart. Then, the things I imagined were things He enjoyed using to testify of His pleasure. We drew up the plans of the house before we even knew how much we had to build. Twice He showed me a vision of part of the house. But, the room of lights with its triple-paneled huge windows, He let me plan out. The back veranda was made just for the children to play on. The front veranda was added just for Tiffany to enjoy herself during the day. The Lord liked the idea. The Lord has and will continue to honor what He made us to be. He continues to bless the work we do for His glory. The real work is that His testimony is being revealed in the lives of His servants, and His own hands are building dwelling places (houses of His pleasure) in the lives of us and the workers.
I hope you understand a little bit more that building this house is purely ministry for us. We are not trying to build a house to be a little more comfortable as a family. We thank Jesus for what this house means to us. In building, the Lord is establishing His testimony that will help people see Him more clearly, and become more of the indwelling place for God in the Spirit (people of His presence) that we are meant to be. Hearts are being harvested for His presence.
In love and in His pleasure (Psalm 36:8 NKJV),
Tyren and Tiffany Haynes
Tyren’s phone: 011-258-827-413-545
Tiffany’s phone: 011-258-827-316-365
Email for Ministry only: heartsforharvest@yahoo.com
Blog entries: http://www.clgonline.net/blog/haynes
Construction on our house is going well. For the next few weeks, I’ll be spending a lot of time working on our house. The roof is on! It’s purely a work of God. Jesus helped me put it on myself, and use tar to fix broken chapas and seal the cracks in the chapas (cement roofing). The front roof of the house is cement and the rear is tin roofing. In about three more weeks, the house should be finished, and we should be able to move in. The Lord has been so faithful in opening our eyes and in not letting construction issues blind or distract us from purely seeing Him as He is. He is so wonderful! Building this house is a testimony about who He is and not about what is being accomplished in the physical building of the house. We aim to see God for who He is, and allow Him to be all that He is in our lives.
