God’s favor has been upon us the moment we stepped out of our
front door in Meridian, Idaho. Upon
arriving at the Boise airport, I laugh at the memory of Josiah leaking through
his diaper onto my shirt before even entering the security check. We, of course, forgot to change his diaper
before leaving the house… and so our travel journey with 4 kids begins! Our luggage fees through Alaska Airlines were
waived after the lady overrode their standard policy – thank you Jesus and to
those that were praying and standing in the gap for us. The kids enjoyed their first plane ride and
even got to experience a little turbulence.
They giggled at the roller coaster sensation in their tummies; although,
Christian kept asking when we were going to ‘crash.’ What he meant to say was ‘land’. Gotta love the innocent language of
kids. When we got to Seattle and were
carrying our 13 bags to the shuttle to head to our hotel, a guy happen to walk
by with a cart, hallelujah! What a blessing
because Josh was making multiple trips up and down the stairs with our luggage
while I stayed with the kids since there was no elevator. After going for a swim at our hotel, we
ordered pizza for dinner. Two hours
later, yes two hours, we finally got to enjoy our dinner around 9:30pm MST. Apparently they went to the wrong hotel. Gracie fell asleep waiting for it, but God
blessed us again with a 50% discount off our pizza for the long wait. The next day we flew out to Amsterdam, a
9-hour flight. We were blessed with the
fact that all of our luggage was going to be checked through to Pemba so no
more lugging it all around, praise God! The
kids all traveled well with no flight nausea and very little jet lag. LAM Airlines is notorious for losing luggage (or
having luggage broken into) so prior to our departure I just prayed that God’s
angels would link their arms around our entire luggage. Even after an overnight stay in Johannesburg
(without luggage in our possession), our entire luggage arrived safely in
Pemba. That is miraculous and we give
all the praise and glory to God!! Many
students arrived at the same time, and the IRIS staff was there to welcome all
of us. We were introduced to our “house
parents” from the UK and then took a ride to the Village of Joy where we are
living for the summer. Our wonderful
housemates, originally from Germany but live in South Africa, have two children
ages 2 and 3 ½. We have really enjoyed
getting to know them and may even come back speaking a little Portuguese AND
German. Our “house” is similar to the
size of our house in Idaho, but there are currently 12 people total living in
this one space. Our bedroom, which our
entire family shares, consists of a bunk bed, crib and full-sized bed. After a few nights of adjustment in our new
home and praying peace over the kids individually, they began sleeping through
the night and the 3AM prayer cries of the Imam – one of the Muslim leaders
directly outside of our village. Josiah
even lays down “awake” in his travel bed all by himself. Thank you God! We had a pet gecko and back porch banana
spider welcome us into our new home.
Stay tuned for pictures!
Fortunately, we haven’t found much else besides 1 dead cockroach and
some mysterious bugs that keep biting Josiah and Gracie – possibly bed bugs for
which we have sprayed their mattress.
Christian has experienced some bumps and bruises and got a good gash above
his right eye, but it has healed up nicely and did not require any stitches,
thank you Lord! Recently Josiah and
Gracie have been fighting fevers but no other symptoms have followed. We believe Josiah might be getting his molars
in but it’s difficult to tell.
Josh made a joke about gaining 20 lbs in weight prior to
leaving Idaho so that he could lose 40 lbs while in Africa. However, God may spoil that idea because we
are eating better than expected. Along
with our wonderful house parents and housemates, we’ve been able to come up
with some creative meals to make good use out of the rice that IRIS provides
us. We went to town and were able to
purchase things like peanut butter, jam, eggs (all of which IRIS provides for
free weekly now), milk (hallelujah!), veggies, oatmeal, pasta, bananas, etc. Cost of items is quite expensive compared to
Idaho so we limit our purchases to very little, but we also know the Lord is
asking us to truly live a simplified life while in Africa. He is showing us how little we CAN live off
of and how so much of what we are used to is based on the world’s standards. We are provided 2 rolls for breakfast, rice
and beans for lunch and then rice and a topping for dinner (i.e. beans,
cabbage, matapa aka “green slime” aka spinach, fish, cabbage or chicken). We do experience consistent crunching with
our meals due to the sand and rocks that end up in it, but we are just blessed
to have food on the table, and on multiple occasions Christian has given me the
arm/fist pump and said, “Yes, we’re having rice and beans today!!” Definitely God working on his sweet little
heart. Christian is the one who was most
rooted in his routine back in Idaho, but he has adjusted very well and God is
molding his little heart of clay into something special. The other day our housemates’ 3 ½ year old
daughter ate the entire fish head. Bless
her heart! Nonetheless, at the end of
the day our tummies are full and we feel very blessed.
On our first Friday in Pemba we had no water and that
continued for 2 whole days. This means
either no showers or showers by the bucket, no flushing the toilet, no drinking
water, etc. There is a saying at IRIS
Harvest that goes like this, “If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down.” Haha, I think you get the point! We did have large jugs full of water for such
occasions and were able to make due until the water turned back on Sunday
afternoon. We are grateful for the
donation of money to buy a water filter because it has come in very handy to
build up our drinking supply for when the water source is low or unavailable. There is no hot water on the base so we have
the joy of taking cold showers. A simple
prayer of, “I’m doing this all for you Jesus,” has helped me to rather enjoy
the shower now. The kids did great
taking their first cold shower, probably because they were exhausted and hot,
but now they take baths in a large tub and we fill it with cold shower water
and boiled water so that it’s more bearable for them. I also experienced the “washing station”
where it took me almost 2 hours to hand wash, rinse and hang our laundry. After the first week IRIS provided laundry
ladies for the families to do our laundry twice a week at the cost of 70 mets
each load + detergent, which is the equivalent of almost $4/load. I was planning on doing our second load of laundry
myself on the weekend, but Josh and others have talked me into receiving the
blessing of having laundry ladies and also blessing them for their
service. If we were to do our own
laundry, it would need to be washed, rinsed and hung prior to 8am so that it
can be drying while we’re attending class.
All clothes have to be taken down from the line by 5pm because of the
mosquitoes. That means I would need to
get up around 5am to complete laundry, shower, eat, get kids ready, etc. prior
to leaving for class. In the end, I’m
grateful for the healthy persuasion from Josh to receive the blessing of a
laundry lady. J
We got to love on the IRIS and village children at
Children’s Day, and as a family we got the joy of washing their hands prior to
eating. Christian absolutely loved it
and would get sad when the children didn’t enter into his line. He just wanted to bless them so much! He was also put in charge of blowing bubbles
as the children lined up. Most of these
children have never tasted chicken before, or only get it on Children’s Day and
Christmas, so the IRIS kitchen staff prepared chicken and rice to shower the
love of Jesus over them. We would see
young girls carrying babies on their backs or in slings with bright smiles on
their faces because they knew they were about to enjoy a feast.
We’ve been to the Indian Ocean a few times and saw many
hermit crabs, sea urchins and jelly fish.
Jade wanted to get baptized this summer on her birthday in the Indian
Ocean. However, we just found out that
we are leaving for our bush-bush weekend outreach on Thursday, July 5th
(Jade’s birthday) so we’ll see how the Lord guides her in this decision.
As a family we’ve walked into the village directly outside
of our base and had many Mozambican children follow us to the market and back
home. Many just wanted to hold our
hands, receive a smile or high-five and simply be noticed. They loved Gracie and her long, beautiful
blonde hair. At first Gracie was a bit
shy and probably intimidated, but after awhile she warmed up and began sharing
smiles and high-fives with them. She’s
even speaking a few words in Portuguese!
It amazes me the conditions that some people live in. Just walking through the village market, our
feet were saturated with garbage and stench.
We’ve made good friends with an IRIS boy named Bernardo. He’s even teaching me a little Portuguese and
wrote down my name in his school notebook so he could remember it. Wherever we go, he spots us out in the
crowd. One night while eating dinner
with all the children in the cafeteria (yes, I ate Mozambican style with my
hands), I asked him what he had planned for the next day. He said, “Me spend time with my Jesus. Me love my Jesus. Me spend 10 minutes with Him!” I love the passion that the children here
have for Jesus. It’s humbling to see
them seek Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit as their “entertainment”. At the end of these 11 weeks I will definitely
have learned how to spend more intimate time with Him. Josh and I have had some “intense fellowship”
at times, but God is cleansing our hearts and bringing us closer together and
one with Him. Please continue to pray
for unity over our family and that all attacks from the enemy would be severed.
We have completed our first 2 ½ weeks of school. We’ve encountered some challenges with going
to class together as a couple and family because of the kids and adjusting to
the new schedule. They are going to bed
around 7pm and waking around 6am. There
is an 8 hour difference between time here and in Idaho. 12pm MST equals 8pm in Pemba. It makes for a long morning stretch because
the kids eat at 6 or 6:30am, class goes until usually 1:30pm, and then they don’t
eat lunch until afterwards. As of
recently, one of us has been staying behind with the kids (or at least with
Josiah), but we are going to pray about this and try to continue to go as a
family. We will share more of what God
is placing on our hearts in a later post, but for now we just wanted to provide
a general update on our transition into Africa.
We are truly grateful for the ways in which God has opened
our eyes. We are learning to lay down
the ways of this world and focus on what’s really important – receiving and
sharing the love of Jesus with others!
Starting next week we will be participating in a weekly outreach. Josh will be teaching English to some
children in a village and I have my selections narrowed down to either helping
with the Children’s Ministry (arts & crafts) or a village outreach
(treasure hunts). This encompasses a lot
of evangelizing, healing, words of knowledge, prophesying – whatever the Holy
Spirit wants to do that day. We want God
to use our hands and feet as His own to reach those that need more of His
love. The gospel is really quite simple
– it’s all about the love of Jesus! As
said in 1 Corinthians 13 - without love there is no gain. Wherever you are in life, we pray that you
will experience His love in a new and deeper way today! Let Him take you deeper into His heart. Let Him free you of any walls or limits that
you have placed on Him. There is
nothing, absolutely nothing, that is impossible with God. I’ve heard this truth growing up but never
really experienced it until I put my full faith and trust in Him. Know who you are in Christ and walk in your
true identity!
