The past three days here in Pemba have been unreal. I want to tell you about all three as best as I can because to be honest they have been three of the best days of my time here this far just because of how wide my eyes have been opened.

Friday night we began 24/7 prayer. For one week there will be at least one person praying here on the base. Sometimes there are groups of people and sometimes there are only two but for seven days straight there will be constant prayer happening here on the Iris Base!

Friday night was kicked off in such an incredible way I wanted to share it with everyone I know because it was such an encouragement to me. It started off with two dances by some of the kids on Iris. The first song was in Portuguese but the second song was in English. The English song rocked me. Here were these beautiful children worshiping and dancing with no shoes on. They were all once orphans but now living here in this safe place where they are free to dance and smile any time they want. It really touched me to see them smiling and dancing in front of all of us. Children are so important to God and to start off a week of prayer with children dancing and singing was perfect.

The next thing we did was have a time of reconciliation. Three representatives from North, South and Central Mozambique were asked to come to the front. The North representative was a young girl and the South and Central representatives were both men. Each of them asked for forgiveness from the other for the war that went on for so long in Mozambique. They apologized for killing each others families and repented and truly asked for forgiveness for their whole provinces. It was so touching I was a basket case the whole way through…but then it got even better. After they were finished a representative from America and England were asked to come to the front to ask for forgiveness of past slavery that went on in America . They stood up there and asked the people of Mozambique to forgive them for taking their families in as slaves and for treating them as slaves were treated in the past. It was seriously unreal. Then, we made a human tunnel and every white person hugged every colored person in the hut, I have never experienced anything like this before, and this was only the beginning, the kick off of the 24/7 prayer, amazing.

Saturday was just another day to add to the days I will never forget. I was coming up from a morning at the beach and a land rover stopped as I was heading up the path, it was packed with amazing people that I love, including my friend Lindsey. She asked me if I would come and watch her be baptized in the Indian Ocean, ah! I jumped in the car with two missionaries, Lindsey, my friend Meg and Adam and a girl named Kasilma who is from Iris. We went to a private beach and it couldn’t have been more perfect. Adam had his guitar so we were all singing in the back of the land rover as we made our way up the bumpy road to the beach. The waves were unreal and the sun hit the water perfectly, it was beautiful. As we got in the water to baptize Lindsey, Kaslima asked if she could be baptized as well (I believe she is around 10) of course we said yes so both Kaslima and Lindsey were baptized in the Indian Ocean. It was one of the most amazing things to be apart of, Africa became even more beautiful.
Here I was on the Indian Ocean just looking out to water and it reminded me of what a mama of mine once told me, that the Lord has the Ocean for me, I am so out of the pond because I need more than what I am used to or comfortable with, I need the Ocean and that is what Lindsey and Kaslima have as well, its just so exciting!!!! We ended the day celebrating!!

Now for Sunday, Yesterday, I really don’t even know where to start. The Iris Base where I live is surrounded by what is called The Village, basically it’s where everyone lives. I have not been to the village once since I have been here so yesterday was my first time. There is a man who works at Iris and he asked one of my friends if she would like to come to his house to pray for his sick son, she of course said yes and asked a couple of us to go with her. Without even hesitating I went because I knew I needed to go. Stepping into the village was like stepping into a whole other world. There are no streets or sidewalks in this “neighborhood” it is simply dirt and hills but covering the dirt and hills are “houses” which are made of rocks, sticks and mud. Because most of us here at the school are white we are like celebrities in the village. People stop and stare, point and run up to touch us, that in itself was really hard for me to grasp. As we made our way to this mans house I saw people everywhere, mamas sitting in the dirt, kids running around playing with toys made out of leaves and string, its so hard to put everything I saw into words but I am really going to try and paint this picture for you.

When we arrived at his house I noticed it was made out of rocks, sticks and mud. There were three rooms and in each of them were mattresses (if you can even call them that) that were laid on the floor full of mud and dirt. This man has four kids and a beautiful wife who were full of HUGE smiles when we walked in. The baby was so sick as I held him I could feel the pain that he was in because every breath he took was a challenge. We prayed for the baby and then headed back outside. We sat on the ground and before we knew it plates and silverware were handed out to us. This man and his family made us lunch and brought each of us a coke. Now, they don’t have anything. They didn’t even have enough money to buy enough medicine for their sick baby and they gave all of us coke’s and beans and rice. They have nothing, but they wanted to bless us. I had to hold my breath the whole time I was there to stop myself from crying, I’m shaking right now even thinking about it. One more thing that really struck me was that Felipe, that’s his name I just remembered, was one of the happiest men I have ever seen. He walks 30 minutes everyday to work in the kitchen at Iris to support his family. He doesn’t wear a fancy suit or take his car to work, he walks shoeless, in the dirt with a smile on his face, everyday, wow.

I’m not telling you all this to make you feel sorry for what you have or make you feel guilty for having shoes but for me, it really challenged me to be thankful. The people here are not sad and they do not feel sorry for themselves they are some of the happiest people I have met but I know that they are happy because they have Jesus inside of them. Of course there are people in the village who are not saved and who are angry but their eyes tell me they are hungry, not just physically hungry but hungry for something more than what is in front of them. The poverty here is unreal to me and makes me want to come home and sell everything. I kept thinking about how I have TWO beds at home, one in Naperville and one at my apartment in Chicago, TWO. I have been blessed my whole life but I haven’t been thankful my whole life. I don’t believe I should feel bad about what I have but I do believe I should be thankful and I do believe that I can give more than I have in the past. Again I am truly sharing from my heart and I hope that this story blesses you and it isn’t a story that makes you feel bad, that is not my intention at all! Oh, and before I move on to this morning, the baby we prayed for yesterday was 100% better this morning, ha!

So this morning, I just wanted to mention two things one is, I heard this morning that there are over 300,000 child soldiers in Africa today and I don’t know how but I pray that in my lifetime I can see all of them healed, ah! Then, Joshua, he is a four year old boy that is here with his parents who are doing the school got up in front of the class today to talk about what he saw on his outreach this past weekend “I saw blood dripping from a tree so I told my dad. I said Dad, do you see the blood? (his dad didn’t but he asked what it was) It’s Jesus’ blood dad, and its dripping down onto everyone’s hearts that are here!” This precious little boy saw this moments before everyone there was asked if they wanted to know Jesus, ah! How awesome is that!?

Its only Monday today, and I believe that it is going to get even better as the days go on. AH! Ok, I am super sweaty now and am running out of time, but I am just so excited and I came into town just for this!! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and keeping updated on my life. I know that I am here because I am suppose to be but to be honest I feel like I am here to get others excited about what God has for their lives as well. Please be encouraged today and listen to what God has for you, because I know that it is huge and I know that not everyone is called to Africa, but you are called and when you are in the will of God you are in the best place!!!

Love you all

Then, cradling the little ones in his arms, he said, "Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me - God who sent me"

“Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.” Then, gathering the children in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.

I really can’t believe that it has already been another week. The days here go by so fast by the time it is 8pm I am ready for bed. This past week was really awesome. Everyday I am challenged but encouraged at the same time.

One of my highlights from this week happened on Tuesday. Every month Iris has a birthday party for the kids whose birthdays are during that month. All the Iris kids are invited but the kids whose birthdays are in June were celebrated. We went to this beautiful beach and celebrated each of these kids with presents and gifts it was so amazing. I feel so blessed because my color group got asked to come and we were the only ones that were able to be apart of this amazing celebration. It was beautiful and after the party our group got to spend time alone with Heidi. She is such a wonderful woman and her heart is like gold. She didn’t talk about what she does or what she plans to do, she simply asked about us and what we dream about. We were all able to tell her about our lives and how we got to Mozambique, she was encouraged by us! (For those of you who don’t know, Heidi Baker is who started Iris Ministries along side her husband Rolland, she is amazing) by the time we left the sun had set and we had to jump in a truck to get back to the base, it was such an wonderful day.

Yesterday I found myself extremely tired. I woke up and could not get out of bed. One new thing that I have done this week is each morning instead of waking up and quickly getting out of bed I have taken time to just soak. I turn on my ipod and just listen to worship music, it has really helped me start my day in a peaceful way. The first couple weeks I would be so pumped every morning to get ready real fast then go find people to be with, but I have been finding that it is so hard to just be still and quiet with God here because I am constantly surrounded by amazing people!! But I told myself yesterday morning that right after class at 1 I would head back and spend the afternoon just being still, I haven’t done that once since I have been here, ha! I was in my hammock for four hours, and it was perfect. I fell asleep for a little while but for the most part, I was able to just be still, read and pray it was wonderful and very much needed!

Today was an awesome day. We had two sessions this morning. The speaker for the first session was a lady named Patricia Bootsma, she is a pastor in Canada. She talked all about the end times. I have always had a hard time listening to speakers talk about the end times because it is a topic that I am uncomfortable with and I believe that is because I really don’t know a lot about it …because I choose not to ha. I think it makes me nervous because it makes me realize the importance of every day. Life goes by so fast and things on earth are only temporary but sometimes its hard to grasp the reality of eternity. I am really thankful for the session this morning, not because it scared me but more because it encouraged me. The choices I make now, today, will affect me later on and I know with all of my heart that we are called to love, that is what I have been learning from day one here. Life moves quick, so I constantly pray that each day I wake up I make the best out of every moment.

The second session was so amazing, Heidi’s daughter Crystalyn and her husband Brock were here and they simply just talked about their lives. I love hearing about other people’s journeys because it just encourages me to step out of the comfortable boat that I have been in for so long. They are both my age and they have already seen so much in their life so it was just fun to hear their hearts and what God is doing with them as a couple, loved it.

As for the rest of the day today, there was no hammock time, ha! I had a meeting with my group and straight after that I went to hang out with three of the boys that are at the school with their parents (all under the age of 8) I told their parents to take a break so we played some games, went to the chicken shack for a coke, played with the kids on the base then got some rice and beans for dinner! It was a great afternoon, but right when the sun went down there was a group heading out to a restaurant near by, and of course, I went. I just love everyone here and it is always so much fun to just be around such awesome people. It was a good day today.

Tomorrow my plan is to spend the morning in the baby house (my favorite place here) then head down to the beach! Yay!!

I hope that you have a wonderful day today. "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow, God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes" YA!

Yesterday was a good day. My favorite part of the day was the Back Porch Session. Back Porch Sessions are when missionaries come and talk about what they do and how people can get involved. There was a woman here yesterday that is a missionary who works with people who are coming out of sex slavery. It was a very impactful session. I took some notes that I thought I would share…

There are over 23 million people in slavery today
Sex slavery is a 600 billion dollar business
14 to 17 thousand sex slaves are in America

There are people around the world being taken and sold into a life of slavery. My heart broke during this session. There are boys and girls that are taken everyday and sold into a life where they have no control over anything, it’s heartbreaking. This lady that was talking yesterday told us stories about some of the women they had rescued, some women took years to recover and others went right back to prostitution because they didn’t know of any other lifestyle, some of these women were sold when they were 11 years old. The only way that the girls were set free from their horrible pasts was through prayer and deliverance.

Yesterday hit me hard. I really don’t know what I want to do when I graduate but I know I want to do missions, I have to. As of right now I want to drop everything and move to Thailand so that I can help rescue girls and children from this horrible lifestyle, but I know I have to wait and be patient. God is really opening my eyes everyday to the people in this world, the people that really need to be helped.

I feel like there are a lot of people here that are in the same boat as I am. We are in this place where we are surrounded by the poorest of poor but yet these people are the most amazing people I have ever met. All we want to do is be near these people and learn from these people who have lived lives that are so uncommon to so many. It is a wonderful feeling to be submersed in a culture that is so foreign but everyday becoming more and more familar.

Well anyways, on a lighter note…I went to the beach yesterday and was with one of the families that is doing the mission school, they are a family of 5, three boys and two really awesome parents (Lowry family do not worry you have not been replaced;) they live in China and at one point the mom asked me if I wanted to come live with them in China to nanny when I graduate from school haha…oh the opportunities that land in my lap. The people at this school amaze me everyday I already have friends in China, Australia, South Africa, Uganda, Hong Kong, Hawaii and even Finland! There are over 20 nations represented in our school which is so amazing, I am so blessed and like I’ve said before, most of my blessings come from people in my life. Here are just three of the wonderful family members I get to wake up to every morning...Molly, Madelyn and Masson:)Hurray!

Sorry this wasnt meant to be a short post but I wanted to add some pictures today!!!

Here are just a few of my journey thus far...

This is the Pemba Base!!! My Summer Home!!

Pemba Beach!! Right across the street:)

The Beautful People of Mozambique

Ok, so adding these pictures literally took me over an hour haha...hope you enjoy!

"Ministry with the poor not ministry to the poor because we are all the same"

"When God is concerned He acts- that is compassion"

"God wants everyone to see their inheritance"

"The journey never goes backwards"

"Our faith on earth will result in praise from our Father"

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal"

...Just a couple things I have been learning. Ya! Have a wonderful wonderful day!

I am so excited to be at the internet café right now!! It does get a little overwhelming because seriously, so many things happen in one day and by the time I get here all I want to do is talk about everything but its been seven days since my last post so I’m freaking out, only a little bit though! Ha!

This past week has been amazing, of course. I haven’t gotten sick this week which is awesome and the speakers that have come this week have been incredible. I have been hearing about how joy is so important in our everyday lives. It is a choice to wake up and be joyful, did you know that?? I literally wake up every morning here just overjoyed. I know I have said this before, but I love everything about being here.

This week was a little different from the others. On Thursday two groups left the compound to go to a different community to do an outreach. I was in this group, it was amazing. I packed my backpack with plenty of water and things that I would need for four days. We went with the green team and orange team (go green). The teams are a mixture or mission students and Bible students. The Bible students are all men from Mozambique who are training to become pastors.

There were about 50 of us from the Pemba base that left for four days. We jumped on two open trucks and drove about 30 minutes away. It was a beautiful ride and my favorite part about it was listening to the Mozambiquen men sing the whole way, I have videos…these men are amazing.

When we pulled around the corner to Miaze crowds of kids sprinted towards us, it was such a beautiful picture, and will stay in my mind for the rest of my life. We got to this new base and set up our tents, it was awesome and I am so thankful for growing up with a Dad that loves to camp because I was a pro at setting up my tent We were in Miaze for four days and honestly it was amazing but very tiring. We had no showers or clean water. The first time I used the hole in the ground to go to the bathroom I thought I was going to cry BUT I didn’t and to be honest by the last day I was pretty good at it! Every night when we went to bed the people would sleep right outside of where we were camped. Here we were sleeping in these nice tents from REI with our sleeping bags and huge pillows and the people just laid down in the dirt right outside our camp it was humbling.

The people here have really stretched me. I have always been comfortable and have always had everything given to me. I’ve grown up with two parents, which is very uncommon here. I grew up with my own room, a bed and a toilet and to be honest I had no idea how good I had it. I love being here, there is not one part of me that wants to come home to a nice bed and bathroom. The people here really have nothing, but they have a hunger for love. They want to be loved. A part of me wants to build myself a plane, train myself in flying a plane and fly all these people to America. I would love to build them houses and buy them dinner but I can’t and even if I did all of those things, it would mean nothing if they didn’t have love. These people know that they are poor and that they need more than things on earth, I’m not sure everyone in America has that concept down, I surely didn’t. It’s crazy to think that the people here would stay up all night just to be at church right when it started, or walk miles upon miles with no shoes just to hear about a man named Jesus who loves them. I feel honored to be around these people and every time I think about coming home I want to cry!

When we left Miaze yesterday and were driving back to our Pemba base I got so excited. I kept thinking to myself I can’t wait to get home I can’t wait to get home and it wasn’t home as in Chicago I was thinking about home as the Pemba base. I got back last night to the base with smiling faces and hugs. It’s very unique here. I walked into my house and Mary our house mom was making a cake for daughter Molly, her 8th birthday was yesterday. It’s really hard to explain the feeling of coming back from a long four days to people everywhere so excited to see you. Everyone was so excited for us all to be back and we were all excited to be back as well, especially to take a nice cold shower!!I am so comfortable here. I have new friends from all over the world that I already consider family and I was able to get closer to some of the Mozambique Bible students which was so amazing, their stories are like stories I have never heard before. I feel so blessed everyday.

I do have to say though, that I think about you all at home all the time. Please don’t think that I don’t because I do. There have been so many times where I have wished that you could just come for a day to see what happens here, it’s so hard to sit at a computer and type it out, but I am trying! I love you all back home so much and I am so happy that you all are staying updated with me. Coming home will be hard but I know that it will be amazing to be back with everyone in America that I love!! Even typing this out I feel silly since I still have two more months here but it’s just flying by!!

I also feel like these posts have been so scatterbrained because I never have enough time to just sit and type I am always under pressure haha so I apologize! Everything here is so good, no worries about anything on my side. Practical Missions begins on Friday which I am so excited about. We heard from over 15 missionaries about different ways that we can put what we love to do in action. My first choice was the baby house and I got it! There were only 5 spots for it and everyone wanted it so I feel beyond blessed to have gotten that position. I’m not sure what I will be doing but I know that I will be with babies and toddlers every Friday for my practical missions day!! These little boys and girls were rescued from horrible situations, they have no parents and live on the Pemba Base where I live. We don’t call the places where the kids live here orphanages because they are not orphans anymore they all know and believe that they have a Father who loves them, so we call them different houses such as house of peace or house of joy, its so awesome. I’ll make sure to talk more about that later on!!

Ok this is long, phew, my hands hurt!!! Thank you so much for reading today, I hope that your day today is filled with Joy, choose it!!! It’s the best way to go! Love love love to you all!!

Ok I have to tell you about my day yesterday…Let me set if up for you.

I wake up REALLY sick…like I will spare you the details but I was definitely struggling. Anyways, it was Sunday and I love Sunday’s in Chicago and In Africa, HA! So since my sleeping schedule is I wake up when the sun rises, I was up early! Church begins at 9 and so I told myself I would be better by then! Ya! I had three different groups of girls ask if they could pray for me and by the time everyone left for church I felt a little better, at least able to make it there. Once I got into church it was as if I was never sick, ha! I instantly found a little boy to hold, or he found me rather and I was able to dance around with him and have him fall asleep in my lap for the whole service! Ya ya ya!

But it gets better…My friend Lindsey is here (it’s a crazy story) So I sat with her and her friend Meg at church AND her other friend Ali who is a missionary here at Iris. I love them all. After church they invited me to go to a private beach with them!!! FAVOR? Yes. So I run to change (I am feeling great by the way) and as I come out Ali tells me she has to run some people to the hospital and asks me to come with. So here I am just a little mission student jumping in an old range rover and heading to the hospital with a packed truck sitting next to my new missionary friend..haha I love it. After we drop the people off at the hospital we head back to the base. The only way to get anywhere around here is to drive right on the ocean side, so all I see is beauty..ah ah ah.

We get back to base and pick up some kids and the two other girls then head over to Alis to get ready for a day at the beach! The missionaries that work for Iris live on another compound so I was able to see how they live, honestly I love it!! We then headed the beach which was about 20 minutes away and again traveling through the country side was magnificent. There was about eight of us all crowded in the back with little girls singing and so happy to be taken off the base. At one point I had to stop and just look at my surroundings. Here I was sitting in the back of a an old Range Rover with five little kids and three awesome girls singing and laughing our way to a beach that was only a hilly dirt ride away! I wish I could describe the way I felt all day yesterday. Everyday I am just in awe of the people here and what God is doing in my life, its just so good.

Last night I came back to the compound to find more awesome people to spend time with. I wake up every morning with a huge smile on my face because I wonder what kind of story I will hear today! I was finally able to eat again today for lunch and I feel so much better! I also did my laundry for the first time today and for all of you back at home, be thankful for your WASHER AND DRYER, man, my clothes will not be clean all summer if I keep going at the rate I am going, ha!

It is beautiful here in Mozambique today, already I have heard from two amazing speakers and had a powerful worship service  I usually go to bed every night with at least one person playing a guitar outside, I love it. The nights here are amazing, the sky is lit up constantly by the stars and the weather is perfect. I did get a little sun burnt yesterday but that’s ok!

Everything here is fabulous. Thanks for staying updated !!!

Ok, so all the days have been blending together. Tuesday was Children’s Day and it was amazing. We fed over 3500 kids!!! How awesome is that?! My mouth was in pain because of all the smiling I have been doing, I love every moment that I am here. For Children’s Day I was in charge of cleaning up after the kids ate. There were kids everywhere- on the floor at the tables it was covered with hungry children, and all I could really do was smile. You would think it would be a sad picture but it was more amazing than sad…these kids were being fed. Every portion that was handed out was packed full so no child left hungry. It was so awesome.

After I was finished there I went to help in other areas around the base. The kids here LOVE the hand game “double double” not only the Mozambique kids but the other kids that are here with their families as well…I am so back in childhood…its great. Later on I went with my new friend Caleb (he is 4) to hand out balloons to the kids as they left, balloons here are like treasures. It was beautiful to see how the faces changed when the balloons came into sight. The kids here will be happy for weeks after receiving only a balloon.

Later on that night I went down to the beach to watch the sunset, words cannot describe its beauty.

Yesterday was my first day of school and it was incredible. I am going to Missions School so I learn from other missionaries around the world. All I have been learning so far is what it takes to spread the love of Jesus to every nation, it really is life changing. The people of Mozambique have nothing but everything at the same time because they put their trust in Jesus. The stories I have heard here have been so horribly sad but amazing at the same time. If you are interested in reading a book that talks about what is happening here you should read Compelled To Love by Heidi Baker…the book alone will change you. When you are finished with that read There Is Always Enough by Heidi and Rolland Baker…ahh its just so good.

I am seriously having the most amazing time. I have new friends that live around the world, its so exciting. Last night we had a chicken feast (yes, I gave my chicken away) with Mozambique pastors that will take us out to the bush for a ministry opportunity. It was so amazing to just be with the people and hear different stories about how God moved in their lives. I also was able to talk to Heidi the other day about the kids here with special needs. There are only six kids here as of right now because at one point they had so many but no one who knew how to take care of them. I think I know why I am here… Friday is practical mission’s day where you can work in an area of interest. I plan to go to the toddler room and find those 6 kids:)

Life is good. My alarm clock every morning is the sunrise and it just makes me start the day with a smile. I can’t even believe it has only been 5 days…It feels like I have been here for forever.

Thanks for staying updated. It’s hard to come into town so I probably wont write again for a little while!

Have an amazing day!!!