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!!