the weather's always hot. dirty is a way of life. the begging never ends. rice and beans gets old. our week's seem so busy we can't rest. everything starts late and nothing is done efficiently. living in a house full of guys gets...smelly.
there could be reasons to complain here in africa. it didnt' take me long to think of them. but honestly, all i can say is i love it here.
i love the bright sun and the beautiful indian ocean. i love the smiles on the kids faces. i love how they say my name "hea-da". i love getting to worship every morning at class. i love trying to speak portuguese and failing, and failing even more at learning Makua - but still learning from the mozambicans. i love hearing the kids from the village singing and yelling bible verses in Makua. i love that God is really changing a nation - the Makua tribe was one of the most unreached people groups in the world just 5 years ago when Iris planted the base here in Pemba. only about 200 christian makuas. today, i pass over 200 christian makuas every time i walk around the base, visit an Iris church and help at the village feeding program.
i see widows making a living sewing capulanas. i see kids saved from the dumps and poverty now learning life skills and artistic abiliites, and even going off to medical school. i see 100 mozambican men that are able to gain a biblical education to take back to their village and disciple more Makua christians in their local church. it's incredible what God's doing here.
last weekend was our outreach to the bush; we only traveled about 1 1/2 hours outside of Pemba to a small village that already had an Iris church planted. it was a warm and welcoming village (unlike others that teams travelled to the previous week. they're all different, some more resistant, some loving the guests). friday night we spent some time meeting the people, playing with the kids, and singing some good ole african worship songs. satruday morning the mozambican pastor in charge told us we'd be teaching the church members and village family for 4 hours. i took half our team to do children's and david went with the rest to teach adults. for me it was like 4 hour improv VBS - it was long, but it was awesome. we had a great translator and were able to do songs, games, lessons on not having fear, prayer, who they are in God... and do dramas of bible stories with them, even teach them a bible verse in Makua. God really gave us grace cause it was Hot and we were like uhh running out of ideas after 2 hours haha. but it was such an honor to pour into these kids. david and hte team with the adults shared messages to encourage the church about leadership and giving.
saturday night we did the Jesus film in Makua as a way to tell people mor eabou t who Jesus is. and then david was able to share the message of salvation and about 5 people gave their hearts to the lord! it's funny i am sometimes like , i dont know, i don't like how we use that same language like " he accepted Jesus into his heart" because its so muhc deepr and discipleship is so muhc more of a process than just counting converts. but i know that i've seen the seed of the Word realyl planted into these hearts and with the solid pastors that Iris plants into churches, they are able to connect and disciple people in how to grow in a relationship iwth a living God.
sorry if i'm goign on and on...we just had a realyl awesome outreach. i was so thankful we had a moz. pastor leading our group that had a heart of compassion for the poor - even though he would be considered "poor" himself. our outreach budget only provides food for our team (about 25 students and moz. pastors). so when we go into a village we're supposed to cook for oursevles only. well just picture the scenario of eating your spaghetti and tuna while 100 hungry eyes are 20 ft. away staring at you. how can you say you are preaching good news to the poor when you can't share your food with them?? so Pastor Chico and i talked and we decided we'd simply share our food with them evey meal, and if we ran out, we'd find a market and we'd buy more. so that's what we did and it was such a blessing to eat WITH this village that we're befriending and here to encourage. truly, i saw the simple statement 'its better to give than to recieve' ring true.
through our classes, guest speakrs, and God speaking to us, we've been really enocouiraged about the Kingdom of God. about the fullness of God's purposes here in earth, not just in the "great by and by in the sky". we encrouage you to read Acts and imagine that happening today.
now back to today (my sister's birthday!)... it was so nice to get a day off....we went snorkeling out with a group today! saw sooo many beautiful fish it was so enjoyable. i thought of Paw a lot (my grandpa who passed away last year after my wedding), and how much he would have loved to be in the water here in Pemba. i guess most of you are enjoying the snow and cold temperatures, huh? defintily not looking foward to that when i get back! ok GOd bless you all, we love you !
heather & david
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heather and david, your emails have been getting swept away by my junk filter!! i found them today and rescued them and have been so blessed by reading your blog and catching up just a little bit on your lives. i miss you here, but i'm also so encouraged to read about your lives in mozambique. you are difference makers. love you!
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