We got to Mozambique safely but along the way we had a crazy moment, funny and embarrassing moment, well for me (Keia) anyway. Well it was an 8 hour bus ride from South Africa to Mozambique with no bathroom. We were running late to the bus station and I already had to use the restroom but we had no time to find one before we got on the bus. I was doing my dance and everything I possibly could to get my mind off of my bladder. It was 3 hours until I couldn’t hold it any longer, and I let it all out on the bus. All we could do was laugh about it. Well that’s the first embarrassing thing to happen so far on this trip and it’s only the 2nd week so there could be many more!!!
Mozambique is quite different from South Africa; there is quite a lot of poverty here. As we drove in we were looking out the windows and the poverty was overwhelming it just goes and goes as you drive by. There were heaps and heaps of trash everywhere and people live in it. Everywhere you go there are people on the street begging, and looking for food. They speak Portuguese here, and not many people speak English, so there is kind of a communication barrier. The weather is much hotter here than in South Africa, and a lot of Malaria. It’s actually quite regular to get it here, but they treat it very fast, but don’t worry none of have gotten it. We thought we wouldn’t be able to drink any water here but they have a well here at the center so we can drink the water and not get sick. We eat rice for every meal, rice and beans, rice and spinach, and then rice and beans again. We probably won’t want to eat rice after this trip. We have cold showers but we are very thankful to have running water. And the kids here are amazing; we got mobbed by tons of them when we arrived. They are so welcoming, and just a blast to hang out with.
We are helping out with Iris Ministries in Maputo. There are close to 410 kids about 60 girls and 350 boys. The ages range from infant to 20 years old. Although most of the kids don’t speak English the kids that do are the one’s that get all the attention from all of the visitors, and Iris gets a lot of visitors. There are two other groups with us now. There heaps of things for us to do, they have different outreaches everyday for us to go on. The other day Melisa and I preached at a prison, and Jed and Leah went to another prison to preach to the inmates. Leah said, “We shared the gospel to the prisoners and fed them food. It wasn’t us doing the speaking it was all God, because it was outside of my comfort zone and the Holy Spirit took over.”
Paul, Jed, Rebecca, Becky, and I all went to the Congolito, which was an orphanage/school that was further in the bush. Rebecca said “It was a less than elaborate set-up with needs everywhere you looked, but their faith was huge and you could feel the glory of God in that place.” There are a lot of projects that they are trying to get done, but they have had to stop building because of lack of funds. Sometimes they don’t even have the money to by food to feed the children, but they have such a strong faith that God will provide for their needs. And we know He will!! The boys sang for us and then prayed and dude their prayers were absolutely touching!! At that moment I realized what God meant by having a child like faith. You could just feel the Holy Spirit in that place and you could see God in everyone one of those children. It was a great moment!
One prayer request we have is for our outreach ministry this weekend. People live at the dumps here, it’s called the Bocaria, and we’re going to be spending the weekend out there and will be holding a service. We just pray that we’ll be able to step outside of our comfort zones and just let the Holy Spirit speak through us. We would also love if you could pray for our health and energy, for this next week we’ll be running around everyday and we might not get a lot of rest, so yeah prayer for that would be great. And also continue praying for coverage of finances. Listening and being led by the spirit, and using this time as best as we can and really press into the word. And we just wanted to praise God that our border crossing went smoothly.
We haven't had the interent for the past 2 weeks so I'm trying to catch up with our updates, I will update you guys as soon as I can!! We're in South Africa right now and we're leaving for Kenya tomorrow, so prayers for safety would be GREAT!! God bless you guys!!
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