God is Amazing

I sit here on June 25^th, 2012 at 3:30 pm local time, 7:30 am back home, ready to write to you about how amazingly awesome God is. He really is so astounding, remarkable, wonderful, incredible, marvelous and miraculous. His ways are staggering, mind-boggling and astonishing. He knows us so well that we can be completely stunned and startled at the mere thought of who He is and what He really has done for all of us.

Yesterday, Mindy and I (you are now figuring out that it is Josh blogging this time) celebrated our 7^th wedding anniversary. The day started a bit rough as I have been battling a bit of fatigue and exhaustion. I haven’t slept well since we arrived. I think a combination of heat, change of culture, excitement and different sleeping arrangements has all played a part in my lack of sleep. I’ve also figured out that being in very close proximity to all of my children 24/7 is much more taxing than I realized. Regardless, we started our anniversary by wandering over to the church a bit late. Church starts at 9ish here in Pemba. It was exciting to see Papa Rolland here in Pemba. He arrived on Thursday in his new plane. Very cool!! As the service went on for a few hours, we left a bit early as Josiah was asleep in my arms and Gracie in Mindy’s arms. We arrived home, a short walk, to something new for lunch: rice and beans!! Ha! The meal didn’t appeal to me and my wonderful wife let me lie down in bed and brought me a lunch that was much more charming. I was able to get a bit of sleep but, more importantly, I rested kid-free for a few hours. My lovely wife is amazing for taking such good care of me. God has given me new vision for how much I have been blessed by such an extraordinary woman. 

The rest gave me new energy and after we fed the kids dinner and got them to bed, we were able to get out to the Clube Navale, a beautiful restaurant on the beach a short walk away. We enjoyed a great chicken salad, veggie pizza (much better than we thought), a Portuguese roll, and some French chips (fries). It was a wonderful meal. We sat outside in the dark with the waves crashing in the background. They also had a very large screen on the beach where many of us have been watching the soccer matches from Europe. Our anniversary ended with ZERO kids in our room – the first night this has happened since leaving Idaho (more details about a change in living conditions in Mindy’s next blog). Woohoo!! We also found out last night that we wouldn’t have any class today as it is a Mozambican national holiday. Although it was nice to have a morning off, I was looking forward to hearing Papa Rolland speak today. We’ve been waiting for him to arrive for a few weeks now, not that I’m complaining about the other amazing speakers. 

This morning we set off early to a private beach where we could relax and have fun with the kids. We arrived to a scene out of a movie. The white sand beach was gorgeous. The tide was just starting to go out and we were alone for quite some time. Christian and I were able to go exploring in the tide pools and found some cool blue crabs and some grey, spotted ones too. I took Jade out into the surf so she could learn to snorkel. We dodged the nasty black sea urchins and she was able to spot some cool fish. I headed into the tide pool on my own and spotted some of the most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen with the most amazing colors, as well as a few eels and some large urchins. I was able to see fish I’ve never seen before or only seen on TV or movies. God’s creation jumped out at me there on the rocks and I was overwhelmed by how amazing He is. We ended our beach time with some Orange Fanta from the restaurant. 

I say all of this to let you know a bit about our life here but also to ask you to look for God’s miraculous in your own life. I challenge you to find the amazing in your life and thank God today for all that He has blessed you with. Jesus is so alive in the Masonclan and I can’t wait to share our experiences with all of you. 

Blessings to you and your family,

Josh and Mindy Mason