My name is Joao Antonio Foriche. I was born on November 02/1994, within a polygamous family in Africa, Mozambique, Sussundenga district, Manica Province. My father was, and still is a leader of one of the country's most dominant religions called Zionism which is based on spiritism and allows polygamy, divorce, and remarriage.
When I was two years old, for unknown reasons, my parents divorced. I was forced to live with my two Stepmothers (my father’s two wives), and I was not given the freedom to visit my mother for more than five years. Those five years were the beginning of the worst years of my life, the beginning of troubles, I would say. I believe this is the age when many children are more vulnerable, and they need the love of a mother and the family at large. I never had this love in my childhood. I was living with my two stepmothers who were fighting for the love of one man. My stepmothers wanted nothing to do with me. They cared less about me. For them, I was just a left-behind child a woman who had lost the battles (of fighting the same husband). So, both of my stepmothers were busy caring for their own children.
Because of the situation I was in, I always had bitterness in my heart because of growing up around people who didn’t care about me and not having a parent to support me I had concluded that God does not care about me. It became normal for me to fail at school because of the work my stepmothers gave me. I was like a foreigner if not a slave to them. Therefore, I was given a lot of responsibilities to work as a house caregiver in my father’s house when I was just a boy who needed to go to school. As a result, I repeated the same classes for several years. I had too many responsibilities as a young boy. Due to these and other challenges, I got to know a lot of other children who were facing the same problems I was facing caused by extreme poverty, divorce, and the death of their parents.
These children had incredible talents and brilliant minds but ended up leaving school because of their lack of support or because of hunger. Many of them got sick and died prematurely! There were teenagers with abilities and great creativity who ended up leaving school because their parents had no financial means to help them keep studying and were forced into premature marriages. Others were abused sexually, and others were impregnated only because the parents wanted the dowry money (this is happening in Mozambique).
Some of the young adults engaged in drugs such as alcohol, and smoking marijuana, leading to bad examples in the community. After I found the love of Christ through the preaching of the gospel and decided to follow Christ in 2013, I decided to do something with my life instead of being sorrowful. I reflected on all the things I and people like me had passed though I saw a need to be fully involved in the sharing of the gospel to the younger generation. After committing myself to prayer for the mission, in 2019 God answered me by opening an opportunity to study His word at Ambassador International University in Zambia where I got my Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology on October 15-2022, where I was ordained and serve as a pastor, and where I met my dear wife Cassandra Foriche to whom I got married on October 28-2022 in Zambia.
Cassandra was born in the United States of America, but she grew up as a missionary kid in Togo, West Africa. Because of growing up in Togo, Cassandra has always considered Africa as her home. She grew up in a full-time ministry/mission family her whole life as her father is an ordained pastor and has served as a missionary in Africa since 2008. Cassandra has a heart for Africa and most importantly the people. Since she was a little girl, she has felt called to be a missionary in Africa. She has always had a passion and love for African children; especially the ones that need to be shown love the most. She moved to Zambia with her family in 2021 to be part of the ministry at Ambassador International University. She graduated from Liberty University Online Academy. She is working on her undergraduate degree.
Both of us as a couple believe that God put us together to share the gospel with underprivileged children in Mozambique, Africa. Right now, we are working on developing a children and young adults training center where we will be teaching them the Word of God as well as developing their talents and abilities. We desire to bring back the lost hope in their lives and show them the love of Christ, by developing their skills and raising them in the path of God’s word. Our future objectives are to see that center for training and support developed. In order to see the spiritual and material needs of those less privileged children and young adults met, we are looking for people who will stand with us in prayer and financial assistance.
Please, stand with us in prayer as we are working on raising financial support for this ministry so that God may bring people with the same vision and heart to stand with us in this journey.
