Jahswel & Cheyenne Mpagaja Newsletter (Spring 2024)

Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Greetings from the Mpagaja family! We hope you are enjoying the beauty of spring!

FAMILY OF FOUR
We are excited to introduce our second son, Lazarus Zozizwa Mpagaja, who was born at 6:42AM on April 2nd, 2024, weighing 10 lbs 3 oz and measuring 22 inches long! Lazarus means “God has helped” and Zozizwa is Chichewa for “miracles”. We have seen God perform miracle after miracle for our family to get us to where we are, two of those miracles being our beautiful sons. Labor and delivery with Lazarus was all that I had been praying for. After taking castor oil and cotton root at my midwife’s recommendation on April 1st, I went into labor that night and he was born the next morning! We are incredibly thankful for a quick, smooth delivery, and for the care we received at the birth center. I didn’t know giving birth could be such a peaceful and joyous experience. It was very different from Jedidiah’s birth. There are so many things that can go wrong during birth and we are blessed to have had no complications this time. Glory to God! Bringing new life into the world is such a humbling and incredible experience, and I’m thankful to have my husband by my side through it all. We are also very grateful to our friends here at Teen Missions and at First Baptist who provided meals for us the first four weeks. We are blessed!!!

BIG BROTHER
My mom flew down to be with us for two weeks, so Jedidiah stayed with Grandma while we were at the birth center. We got home at 1PM the same day, and it was the most precious moment seeing Jedidiah meet his baby brother for the first time, I thought my heart would burst! He is quite taken with Lazarus, and loves holding him and being close to him. We love our sweet boys! Pray for Jedidiah as he adjusts to sharing our attention with his brother and continues growing and learning as a strong and curious two-year-old boy. I am learning how to live life with two children, and every day is an adventure! These are the hardest and best days of my life and I’m just simply grateful for my babies.

MUD RUN
We had the Tough Gator Mud Run here at Teen Missions on May 4th, and it was a great success! There were over 600 runners, and all the proceeds go to Teen Missions’ ministry overseas. Jahswel was involved in setting up the obstacles for the course, and also got to run the course with the other staff and students for the “test run”. Then on Mud Run day, he was a judge for one of the obstacles directing people where to crawl through the mud. We praise God for the success of the Mud Run as it is always a big day for us here!

SUMMER IS COMING
Now that the Mud Run is done, the full focus of the staff is on preparations for the summer ministry. Jahswel got to play a part in putting up the Big Top tent for Boot Camp, and has been working hard building permanent tent pads for the tent sites. They have built about 15 of them and will continue building more throughout the year until each tent site has them. This is a great improvement that will prevent the tents from flooding when the rain comes during the summer.

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
It is 40+ days until Boot Camp and we are all very much looking forward to seeing what God is going to do this summer. Jahswel has been asked to lead a team to the Dominican Republic, and I am planning to go as a family member with Jedidiah and Lazarus. There are three other leaders besides Jahswel preparing to come, and there are 19 team members signed up. Our project will be to help run a children’s camp with Child Evangelism Fellowship, and to help construct a staff house on the CEF property. God has hand-picked each person who will be on this team and we are believing He will do a great work in each of our lives through this experience. We are also praising God that we applied for Lazarus’ passport and it came in the mail!

RAISING FUNDS
In order for the boys and me to go with Jahswel on the team, we need to cover the cost of our flights, food, transportation and sightseeing. We have $2,090 left to raise, and we ask for your prayers for the Lord to provide these funds. If you feel that the Lord is leading you to give, you can go to this link: teenmissions.org/involvement-detail/Jahswel-Mpagaja-1.

This will be Jahswel’s first time leading an American team, and my first team since 2015, and of course, our first time as a family! We are very excited! As leaders, our ministry will firstly be to our teen team members who will be coming from all over the US. There will be many opportunities to minister and disciple them throughout our time on the team and we ask for your prayers for that as well. We love the ministry that God has given us to do with Teen Missions!

Please let us know how we can pray for you. We are so grateful for your prayers for us and financial support, we couldn’t do it without you.

Blessings!

Jahswel, Cheyenne, Jedidiah, & Lazarus