Salaama!!
Hello everyone!! I am happy to say that i arrive safetly to mozambique after nearly missing a correspondance i managed to get it, though i am still waiting to get my luggage!!!! yeah..its missing!!!
It so amazing here. Iris has 2 bases here in Pemba, one for the big boys and the bible students, i have yet to go visit that base, and base 1 where i am, is huge. it has an open church, prayer hut, a school, housing for 180 children, it has the kitchen that feeds thousands of people a day, it has the the harvest school students, me, and football pitch and sewing houses for the widows who are learning to sew so that they can sell their stuff ect......
its amazing!! its always bussling with so many people, the village children are allowed to come and eat and play in the day time too so lots come.
i was priveledged to be here last sunday and monday as they celebrate childrens day here. its more important than christmas.we expected about 3500 people to feed! we had a very lively african style church, everyone sweating and dancing and just having so much fun, and then queues to the kitchen started!! us students all had jobs to do.....i was to spread the love by blowing bubbles!! its actually more difficult than it sounds as the kids love bubbles so you find yourself surrounded by a huge crowd!! it was so much fun!!!
the children in Iris, are so open and friendly.they are teaching me to speak makua, the dialect spoken in pemba and portuguese. they are so so patient with me, though i think that i do supply them with enough errors for them to laugh for hours and hours!!
the weather hear is so hot, but its winter! its lovely!! oh did i tell you all that we are actually right be the sea! just hop over the road and there it is!! we are allowed to take children there and get icecreams and stuff with them so its really quite free and relaxed, the only condition is that we bring back the same number as we went out with!!
every day we have classes, they start at 8. so far we have had quite a few missionaries talk to us. its amazing the adventures that some have had, it just builds up the desire inside of me to just go out and do it as soon as possible!!! miracles happen every week,and on the outreaches we are to do, well people get healed and are blessed by the love that they receive from those who have gone and taken the time to just listen to them, hug them and pray for them. its not the power that is the most important, its love. if you pray for someone and they dont get healed....what do they go home with...nothing. but if you first love them, something inside of them is touched, they feel gods love and they understand what it is to be blessed.they go home with so much more. sometimes its just a hug that is necessary. the people here have had such hard lives, this used to also be a slave route, the boats would land here and take slaves. so there is a lot of hurt. but Heidi and her ministry have been reaching out to everyone, and in 5 years they have over 550 churches, and they are raising and equipping pastors to lead those churches so that they are not left with out someone to look after them. then we have speakers or activities in the afternoon, either with the children or in the village, and then in the evening we have intercession or prayer, or a speaker too. oh and in the mornings we have worship before the first class. so its quite busy and when we have free time we are to go and mix with the people.
there is so much to learn from these people, not just the missionaries.
hmm....cold showers, beautiful lizards....oh oh, i was talking to somepeople in my house the other day, and i felt something in my mouth, because i had just eaten i thought that it was rice, but then it bit my tongue and so i spat it out, and it was this big flying ant thing, it had the cheek to go in my mouth and bite me!! oh yeah, the diet here is rice and either...beans, this is my favourite, then there is like a cabbage sauce, and then a kind of peanut sauce. that is 2 times a day. we eat in the refectory on benches with all the children and the bible students. its really nice! i have met alot of people in there!! and for the childrens day i had to sit there for hours peeling and cutting onions with another friend of mine with the women and men from the kitchen, and that was the best time i had to be able to speak to them and get to know them!! its so much fun!! i think they think i am a little crazy!! still!!
i had better go now, i hope that you enjoy this little taste of what is here and what i am doing!!
bye for now!!