bon dia em mocambique

bon dia!

i'm here, safe and sound in mozambique! i left on sunday from DC, arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday morning. I spent the day in the airport in Brazil. Crazy experience to be all by yourself. God was awesome and I had some sweet Jesus time while I was waiting to fly to South Africa. I've met the nicest people while traveling. I was the first one to the gate at South African Airways--the airline didn't have anyone at their desk to take check boarding passes, but that might have been because i was about 8 hours early for the flight. I didn't get any sleep on the first flight and Sao Paulo's airport is not a good place to try to sleep.

While I was waiting I recognized some English...there were 2 women who were on their way to Kenya. We had a nice chat about what they were going to do (working with orphans for a non-profit, but not religiously affliated). Their boss gave them 80,000 miles each to volunteer for 2 weeks. How awesome is that?! They were nice enough to sit with me and talk about life for a while.

After I got my boarding pass for South Africa (about an hour before the actual flight) I sat with some guys from Angola who talked to me about Africa and life. I got to talk to them about Jesus, it was pretty sweet. They guy from Angola totally picked up on relationship vs. religion and I felt like he was really blessed. His name was Nico.

The flight to South Africa was super long and I didn't get any sleep. I sat next to Fernando--a Brazilian who was the kindest guy EVER. He showed me all kinds of things on the plane and described some differences about the African life vs. the Western life. He even gave me his card if I was ever in Sao Paulo to go and visit him. CRAZY! He prayed for me and everything. God's hands have seriously been on this trip. It's awesome.

I arrived in South Africa on the most beautiful morning--I saw more stars than I could ever have imagined and the sun shining. I can't describe the beauty in Africa. Something that you can't compare to.

The flight to Maputo was very short--only an hour. I met a guy who was an American traveling all over Africa and I also talked to him about Jesus. I prayed for moments like that. It was AWESOME. This was probably one of the first times I told somebody that I want to be the church and not go to church. He was pretty astonished but very accepting of the idea. He told me about how he grew up "hot-boxed" and since then has tried to find his way in other religions but holds his Bible in his backpack because "Jesus, he's a sweet dude." Yeah, that was my awesome flight.

Maputo is unlike anything I've ever seen before. You have huge buildings next to shanty-towns. Kids without shoes and women carrying babies permeate the metropolis. Pieter came to get me at the airport. When we drove to the orphange (which is a little outside the city) I thought I might die before I even got to the orphanage. The driving is like it is in Europe and it's as crazy as it is in Latin America. I probably almost peed my pants like 5 or 6 times.

We finally pulled into the house at mid-day on Tuesday. As we entered the driveway there were 20 kids who crowded the car to see the new visitor. I couldn't even open the door. When I finally got the chance to get out every limb of my body was covered with a hand or an arm. There was no free space. They all wanted a hug or a kiss. BEST GREETING EVERRRR!

Children in Mozambique are ridiculously precious. They have huge hearts but no one seems to want them. I do. They remind me so much of how we are with Jesus. They are the perfect example of open hearts to Christ. Constantly seeking love. I wish you could be here and see them. They are so wonderful and full of love. I think they are giving me more than I'm giving them.

There is much more to be said of Mozambique. The internet cafe only gives me about an hour--and my time is almost up. I will only give a short excerpt of the past couple of days--which have been extremely draining but rewarding.

Tuesday--we had a party for one of the kids who just turned 3. Probably one of the most precious moments of my life. They sang with each other and prayed together and he opened a present (a toy car and a football). We gave all the kids dolls that my mom made and they were overjoyed. It was amazing.

Wednesday--Woke up early and took the 6 year olds to school at 6 am. Told the kids a Jesus story--the one Meredith made me practice in front of the adults at SAMS. They sort of didn't understand even with translation. It's ok. They drew pictures. In the afternoon I went to the clinic with the women to pray for the newborns. They were so small. That was really rough. One of the babies had gone into shock and couldn't breathe. I prayed for him and God was totally healing him...more on that later.

Thursday--
Today I woke up at like 6 to go take 2 busses to the downtown area with 2 of our AIDS kids to get checked up. One of the kids who had just got reinserted into his family (some of the kids come from terrible families and when the family can provide for them they get the kids back but the Boersma's are still responsible for the child's health). This one child, Nichols, was just reinserted and we met him and his mom at the hospital to get checked up. Turns out he has malaria--along with AIDS. He looked awful. Apparently he had started getting a fever last Friday but the parents didn't think it was too big of a deal to take him to the doctor right away. That's how it is here...AIDS isn't seen as a huge deal neither is malaria. This poor kid. Usually you only last like 7-8 days with the Malaria without care...but he has AIDS. I had no idea what was going on until after we had left. I was praying for him silently while we were at the hospital but I'm praying that God will do a miracle. They might come back tonight to talk to Pieter and Rika about reinsertion and how it's going. Unfortunately when these kids get reinserted their health starts to dwindle. No surprise there. Children aren't allowed to have fun or do anything like that. I walked into the hospital and there was an empty playground but tons of kids sitting with moms. They didn't smile, talk, or do anything. They just sat. (an except from an email to my parents)

There's so much more but it's hard to sum up everything. I've seen a lot of fruit, especially with traveling. Prayer is becoming so important in this place. There's always something to pray for and always something to be thankful for. Today, we were offered a ride back to Matola from Maputo by an Indian man who saw that we couldn't get into a taxi. He worked for a Pepsi factory and drove us about 20 mins back to the orphanage. He gave us a package of Pepsi for the kids. Asked if I wanted to be taken around Maputo...we'll have to see about that...but he was such a nice man. The Boersma's (the missionaries) are starting to call me Pepsi now because they said taht it's unheard of for that to happen. In Mozambique you don't get anything for free.

God is awesome and he's totally blessing this place. Pray for us. Pray for Nichols.

Will try to update soon.