after 2 weeks in the most wonderful place in the world i have returned.
life is not what it was, and it will cease to be a mundane, rote experience. i'm sorry that i wasn't able to keep you all updated. i tried to write a blog but then was forced to unpublish due to electronic malfuntion at the internet cafe in mozambique.
i would give you a summary of what i experienced and saw in mozambique but i know i couldn't do it justice. i will say that what i've learned is very different than what i thought i would learn.
going out of my comfort zone to share jesus and serve others is something i know i was born to do. god has called me to be a missionary and i'm more sure of that now than i have been of anything in my life. i learned a lot about what that really means when i was with pieter and rika at all nations mozambique.
just a quick overview: all nations mozambique is located in matola, mozambique--just outside the capital of maputo. the once portuguese colony is poverty stricken and much of the destitute are the children. pieter and rika boersma head up an orphanage of sorts--2 houses that are full of children who have been abandoned, warring with AIDS and generally left to die. each house has between 10-20 kids all under the age of 6. they are fed, clothed, bathed, and they dare to dream of greater things than cleaning the front porch or begging on the streets.
enter: amy fleming. white. middle-class. grove city college student. no children or husband. loves jesus.
where do the dots connect? jesus. more than worlds apart, i found myself connecting more and more to these kids through the love of jesus. seeing him in each of those children. smiles and tears, laughter and games became the melody to my life for 2 weeks. i only wish it was longer. i went to serve, but really, jesus knew me better than that. i got served. i got served. the 4 year old with AIDS taught me more about life and loving the lord than any pastor, mentor, or friend that i've had. i thought i would help them, pray over them, ask for miracles of healing, and lives to be changed.
i got what i prayed for--but it came differently. i couldn't tell you if what i did for those kids did any of those things, but what they did for me answered all of those things.
Help--i've been looking to be a missionary since i was in high school. how do you do that? where do you go? who needs the most help? what would i do? here's what those kids taught me: "it doesn't matter. you don't need to know. Jesus gives us everything--and more. why wouldn't he give you what you need? why wouldn't he direct your path? would we be at this place if he weren't in control?" check. served.
prayer--"you go crying?" was the phrase i heard a lot on my last day in mozambique. yes, dear ones, i go crying. i prayed that god would work through me, that it wouldn't be about me but about them. and it was. "we cry for you." that was the response i heard after saying i would go crying. i feel as though the little i did--playing, cleaning diapers, singing songs, dancing, taking trips to the clinic, feeding--it didn't matter. it didn't matter what i did, but that i was there. i was present. that was enough. that was service to them. to be still, to listen to the birds, having 4 of them in my lap and looking at pictures of my family. that's where the service was done. but not for them. for me. love is a 2 way street. having 17 kids constantly want to sit in your lap and play bubbles is love to me. me doing it was love to them. but that's not what i thought service was. jesus knew better. check. served.
miracles of healing--i wanted to see kids cured of AIDS, and malaria disappear. those are wonderful things, and jesus heals. but that's not what he wanted me to see. he wanted me to see the daily grind, the miracle of life. the life led by 6 year old Telma with AIDS who jumps, runs, plays, smiles, and moves with ease. she lives. her life is a miracle. the life she lives is my miracle. god healed her of the devastation of living on her own, being by herself, not knowing his goodness. god healed and is healing all of those children--they are the miracle. disease does not define them. jesus does, and death has no place in them. they are the miracle. check. served.
lives changed?--i can't tell you if god working through me changed anybody's life, but i can tell you that those kids changed my life. check. served.
how blessed am i? going to serve, and instead, being served. the lord is working powerfully in that place. mozambique could be characterized as a dark, spiritual warzone, disease ridden and poverty stricken, but a ray of sunshine is growing in the All Nations orphanages in matola. "I'm not afraid for when Jesus comes back. I will go with Him. He is coming back." --Quiteria, 6 years.
Check. Served.
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