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!