First Week Back In Lichinga

We are back home in beautiful Lichinga. Before we left, the land and hills were charred black by fires set by people burning fields. Now, we’re in rainy season and the whole land is covered with green grass. Even some of the colorful wild flowers are growing.

We are glad to be back. Daily, the Lord has been consuming us in His presence, and filling our hearts with His joy and praise. And so we weren’t moved by the “stuff” waiting for us here. For instance, there’s the constant leaks from the cracks in our cement tile roof which I’ve (Tyren) been trying to discover and fix for days. Because it’s been rainy season here and our house was closed for 2 ½ months, there was mold all over. Tiffany and the kids have been washing clothes for days, and I’ve been cleaning our wood beds, the cane wood desks, and other things. We praise God! Everything is going well. In the midst of these so called problems, we are actually seeing the greater things that the Lord has done for us while we were away. Our attention is caught up in His presence as He is preparing our lives to be poured out for another year of His Harvest.


While we were in the U.S., Gazani, one of the two local missionaries who live at our center, rebuilt the rest of our fence. Gazani has such a servant’s heart. If you remember, most of our fence was burned down a few weeks before we came to the U.S.


The first few days back home, I had to make trips into the city to buy food (tomatoes, peppers, onions, bananas, bread, oil, peanut butter, etc), and feed my hungry family. It was so good to see everyone. The children came to meet me with smiles, and I gave them hugs. In the midst of buying bread for them and notebooks for another, I shared the gospel with a little boy named Ali. Ali gave his life to the Lord that day.


We know this year the Lord is preparing to accelerate some things through the entire Iris ministry here. Gazani said the Lord was showing him similar things. The Lord has shifted our direction, pushed some things out the way, and has prepared a new road before us. The road I see is nothing but His presence. And like a free gift being given, there’s the ever increasing draw to holiness. We all know that if we stay seeking and living in His presence, the Lord will release His blessing to turn hearts to Himself, bring forth the greater harvests, and quicken the pace of laying the foundation for the greater works of God in Lichinga. There are obstacles and oppositions in the spirit, but in His presence (the path of life), we have already overcome and we will be steadily advancing, growing in His peace and the love for our God, and our Savior and King.


Pray for us and with us, that the Lord may receive His harvest in the city of Lichinga and the surrounding villages.

Abundant Love,

Tyren and Tiffany Haynes

Returning Home To Lichinga, Mozambique

Happy Holidays to all of you. Bless you and thank you for all of your prayers and support. We were able to see many of our friends and family while in the U.S. Thank you for the many phone calls, cards, visits, invitations, prayers, smiles, hugs and food. Did we thank you for the food already (just kidding)? We were totally shocked by your giving, and deeply moved by your amazing love for us. Our children were excited to see the Lord working through others for the work He has called our family to do.



We were so honored to be able to share our ministry experiences at a few churches. Our time at Shiloh Christian Church refreshed us, we were encouraged at Cross Street A.M.E. Zion, and we rested in the glory during many of the services at our home church, Church of the Living God.

I think we’ve all gained weight, too. What will our local Mozambican friends think? They’ll probably use their common cultural saying when they see us and say we all got fat. For those of you who haven’t heard…we’re on our way back to Mozambique as a family of 5. That’s right, Tiffany is now a little more than 4 months pregnant. She’s due toward the end of June. Tiffany had a checkup, and Mom and baby are well. (We even have ultrasound photos!). We’ll have to send you pictures of the new little one after the birth. Both Amerel and Isaiah are very excited. (They got to see the baby moving around on the ultrasound screen, which was exciting for all of us.)

We were given a beautiful, surprise baby shower on January 11. Thank you to everyone who contributed and showered us with their love, presence and giving.

Tonight we’ll fly to Maputo arriving after 8 P.M. Tomorrow morning, we’ll arrive home in Lichinga just before noon. We’re looking forward to seeing our friends and family in Christ. We know the Lord Jesus has great plans for us this year.

With Love,

Tyren and Tiffany Haynes

VISITING THE U.S.

We’re In Connecticut
We arrived Nov. 8, and we’ll be in the U.S. until January 17, 2009. Until then, we’ll be visiting family and friends, and enjoying the time the Lord is giving us here resting and relaxing in His presence. And as a family, we are continuing to spend time in the presence of the Lord and His word, crying out for a greater experience of God’s glory and kingdom in our lives, and praying for the Lord’s work that is continuing in Lichinga.

Provision Of Peace In His Presence
When we left Lichinga, we didn’t have enough money to pay for the total fare back to the U.S. (not without using money needed for other things), but the word of the Lord is a promise of His provision. When you receive a ‘call of God’ provision is made as you go (it doesn’t always come at once). A few days before we left Lichinga we received an email with a $200 pledge. When we flew to Maputo, Mozambique we purchased bus tickets to travel to South Africa. In Maputo, a couple whom we did not know and that knew nothing about the needs of our journey, came to us saying the Lord told them to give $200 cash into our ministry. This helped pay for fare and food. Then, another person (whom we never met) blessed us with a one night hotel and breakfast in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the Johannesburg airport we had to wait about 11 hours for our flight. We got free dinners (because the plane was delayed) and someone gave each of our children free beverages. We also slept on the couches in one of the restaurants (free beds, hallelujah!!). When we arrived in the U.S. and checked our email, we found that we were blessed with news of more money. We thank God for His provision, but we believe it’s not just about our material needs being met. There’s a peace of God that causes an extraordinary increase in our daily relationship with Jesus. Although we pray for our needs, we are not consumed or distracted by them. Instead we know God is faithful, and the peace of God enables us to rest in His presence and go on experiencing the greatness of who He is (instead of focusing on how and when He will provide for us). So, we steadfastly pursue His call on our lives as we run forward in the joyful expectation of what He promised to supply as we do His work.

Another Muslim Comes To Christ
As you know from a previous blog, the coaches of the hockey (floorball) team have been helping us rebuild our fence after most of it was purposely burned down. The Sunday before we left Lichinga for the U.S., the coaches wanted to come to our church. One of the two Muslim coaches gave his life to Jesus. The other Muslim coach sat silently with his head down (one could see the Lord working on his heart). He didn’t surrender his life to Jesus, but he did agree for prayer to have an encounter with the living God that would leave no doubt in his heart to who Jesus really is.

Please continue to pray for us and for our beloved city of Lichinga, Mozambique while we are here. Join with us as we cry out for more of Jesus! Oh, how we are in need of more of you, Lord!

We love you,
Tyren and Tiffany Haynes

The Provision Of His Presence

Rebuilding The Fence

Then the head coach of the youth and young adult hockey teams (floorball teams) that I minister to found out what happened to our fence, he rallied the other coaches of the teams together to help us rebuild. In a few hours the 5 coaches rebuilt about one-third, 60 feet, of the total length of the fence that had been burned down. They only stopped because I had no more grass. It will take a lot more work and material to finish the fence, but the Lord put an amazing determination in our hearts to rebuild. We continually see that in the Lord’s presence amazing things happen, and can happen quickly. We are amazed at how quickly the Lord can restore things that are lost.

Trusting In His Presence

Tiffany and I have been overseeing the center property since 10/16 because everyone else is either on holiday or attending a conference in Beira. Everyone else that “leads” in church (worship team, translators, musicians, and pastors) is also gone. I talked to the base leaders, who are the Pastors, and they left it up to me to decide whether or not to have church. It seemed like good sense to cancel church for two weeks since I was the only one left to facilitate things, and Tiffany opted to stay at the land to “guard” it during church services. (Someone always has to be present to watch over the children’s center property which is up the hill from where the church is). But, the Lord told me not to “uproot” the church. I knew the Lord was telling me that the church, His people, is His work and it doesn’t originate in the efforts or abilities of any one individual. If I canceled church, I would have given people the wrong view of church and what their relationship with God is about. Salvation is of the Lord.

The services were wonderful. Truly, the most important thing was that the presence of the Lord was there. Jesus was pleased. And the Holy Spirit “led” worship. I encouraged everyone not to sing anything unless it was what the Holy Spirit gave them. Worship in song occurred as He chose and gave a person a song, and we all joined in singing. Then He’d give another person a song, and we’d all join in singing to the Lord. Then at once, He quieted all of us in His presence, and simultaneously we started telling God how wonderful He is. In the quietness, one person began singing “Let it Rain” in Portuguese. It was beautiful as we sensed the Holy Spirit was ministering to our hearts. As I taught each week, the Lord provided someone new to translate into the local languages of our church-Chichewa, Jao and Portuguese.

We are looking forward to traveling to the U.S. next week. We are excited knowing the Lord has great plans for us there. During this last week, we are finishing “rain-proofing” our house, putting up curtains and Tiffany is continuing to home school. We leave on Nov. 4, and will arrive in the U.S. on Nov 8.

With Love,

Tyren and Tiffany Haynes

Seeing Jesus In the Midst of Discouragement

Seeing the Face of Jesus In the Midst of Discouragement.

Not too long ago, Gazani prayed for me and told me not to be discouraged. I now know what he meant. These past weeks have been the most challenging and would have left me very discouraged in the Lord’s work. But Jesus’ assuring love left nothing in me but a fight to rest in His presence, and un-natural strength to continue seeking and doing the will of God for my life. Discouragement is a principality in Lichinga and for some reason the Lord brought me to and through an encounter with it. This principality, which is not of God (Ephesians 6:12), made all the work I have yet to do on the house seem too much, too time consuming, and the fruit of ministering in the city and villages of little value. But the Lord encouraged me, until He became my sole delight, and I knew my life was at rest “in Him”. I pressed on in the work of the ministry being reassured by the word the Holy Spirit gave me in Isaiah 49. God’s pursuit of my life for an intimacy with Him sustains me in everything. I am so secure in His love for me.

The enemy tried to make our work appear to be in vain, and our ministering useless. But, on the very day I walked with Jesus out of this “valley of discouragement”, the Holy Spirit had me minister to a Christian brother who admitted he had turned back into a life of sin. This man re-committed his life to the Lord right then. It was the next day that my friend White, came to my house, and turned from Islam to commit his life to follow Jesus. A few days later, I entered a shop in the city and saw the beauty of the presence of the Lord on the woman who works there. I never met this woman before. After I told her what I saw upon her life, she told me that she believed in Jesus as her Savior. I then released the prophetic word the Lord gave me concerning the call of God for her life. Her face lit up with the joy of the Lord (it’s not every day that someone comes into a store to prophecy and pray for you). If she is faithful, she will carry the fire of the Lord and show others how to live that life of love in His presence. The Lord is answering our prayers. He’s spreading a passion for His presence in the hearts of the people of Lichinga. Jesus is harvesting hearts for His presence!

Sunday, 10/19, my whole family was at the house of a Muslim man for dinner (his wife is saved). My children were waiting to give thanks before eating. So, this Muslim man stopped eating and allowed me to pray to Jesus Christ the only Son of God, and give Jesus thanks for the food that everyone was eating at the dinner. So I blessed his family as well.

On 10/20, the Lord opened the doors for me to minister in the two prisons in Lichinga. Hallelujah! Thank you for praying!

On 10/21, while I was in the city, my wife was at home teaching the children. The Lord told Tiffany that there was going to be an attack on our land earlier that morning. Within 2 hours, someone purposely walked through our land and set two fires next to our beautiful ~7 ft. high custom grass and bamboo fence (this is the type the locals build around their houses). When Tiffany heard the fire she ran outside and saw that it was started a little bit below our fence. My wife called me on my cell phone crying out for help. Despite her valiant attempts to fight the blaze by herself, most of our fence burned to ash - over 180 feet of it! Our 4 banana trees and many other trees in our yard burned and shriveled up because of the intense heat. The Lord saved our small pineapple, lettuce, and strawberry plants. When I arrived, I brought the day guard from the white house down the hill where we used to live. Only Jesus allowed us to stop the fire from burning the base leaders’ grass fence next door about 100 feet from our house (yes the fire spread all around the center), literally saving one missionary’s truck that is parked along a grass fence from catching fire and blowing up. (We are the only ones currently at our center besides the night guard who comes in the evening and leaves in the morning. Everyone else is far away in Beira at a conference until around 10/28. The other missionaries, Jesse and Tanya, are in the U.S. for a few months). We later worshipped the Lord, openly forgave the person/people responsible for the fire, and prayed blessings for their lives. This is what we do when we see Jesus in the midst of attacks.

We stand firm and are not being shaken. Jesus is the victorious one who lives in us and He cannot be discouraged. His work is going quite well. We are steadfast in our pursuit of His glory, and our desire to know Him. His kingdom is advancing in Lichinga. Then I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; But, surely my just reward is with the LORD, And my work with my God. Indeed He says, … I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’’(parts of Isaiah 49:4,6)

In God we trust. We love you!

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: http://www.clgonline.net/blog/haynes