Days of Grace

Still in awe
It is only the second day of class and I have already been completely undone and seen so much. As I mentioned earlier, the trip here was a complete and total nightmare. But, as soon as we landed I knew that I was precisely where I was supposed to be.
As for Pemba, it is amazing. It is a beautiful place on the Indian Ocean. The Mozambicans are very friendly and kind. It is very African, with all the smells and lots of dirt. The water is clear and I hear there is a reef somewhere and am determined to find it for snorkeling. The Iris Base here in Pemba is beautiful. We have simple mud houses that are pretty primitive, no air conditioning and no water. It is a three bedroom house that will house 10 people. There are currently 9 of us and I am in a room with 4 girls. I got the top bunk. There is a center for orphaned children right behind our house and a large cafeteria. So, there are tons of kids running around all the time. Words cannot describe what the cafeteria is like. Well, maybe they can. Hot, loud, stinky and lots of flies. They weren’t kidding when they said every meal was rice and beans. That has been the staple so far. But it is really not that bad. Today we had rice and stinky boney fish.
Class has been amazing so far. Instead of being something you dread, it is really something I look forward to. We have Portuguese language instruction each morning. Yesterday the guest speaker was Bill Johnson, author of When Heaven Invades Earth and Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind. He spoke on the fullness of God and how “greater is He that is in me, than He that is in the world”.
Following class we went to town. I have so many new found friends. I went with Alon who is from Orlando, married and soon moving with his wife and son to Uganda. They have sold their belongings and are renting out their house and going straight to Uganda after the school. We took a little boy from Iris with us who speaks very good English, to help us with translation. It was a good thing. At the bank, the teller thought 20 dollar bills were 200’s and gave us thousands of dollars. We would not have known the difference unless Jamie had been with us. There are 27 Meticas in 1 US dollar. I bought a cell phone for really cheap so CALL ME!! You can get international calling cards anywhere, just make sure they include Mozambique, my number is 011 258 827415198. Cool huh? Or text messaging will work too. I am not sure how much it cost to send an international text message in the states, can’t be too bad and it is really cheap for me to get them.
Today was incredible. I got up at 5:00 to watch the sunrise and went snorkeling (still looking for the best spot). Classes started at 8:30. JoAnn McFadden is leading our music each morning for the next several weeks. She is supposedly someone well-known, but I have never heard of her. Leslie Ann Leighton is our main teacher and she spoke this morning. She spoke about the nature of the church being missions for all and that it should not just be a “tag on” as it is often considered. She also spoke about Israel in the wilderness and how it was designed by God to be an “inconvenient alter call”. The wilderness (and Africa) is a perfect place to become face to face with God because you cannot survive otherwise. Dr. Heidi Baker spoke after lunch. We dedicated a new medical truck donated by an American doctor and then she allowed us to ask her questions. She spoke about being yielded and having intimacy with God being the only way she can survive.
During our free time this afternoon I went to the Prayer House. It is a beautiful thatched roof hut that is large and open with a nice granite walkway and flooring. It is on top of the hill and overlooks the Pemba base and the ocean. The view is breathtaking. There was a constant breeze and for the first time in several days, I was not burning up. It is a beautiful place to go and soak and be alone with God, it is a presence and feeling that no one could escape.
As for me, I am loving it here. I know that this is where I am supposed to be and although I still have over two months to go, I know that I will not want to leave. I am getting to know my house mates and am enjoying having these young girls around. I am meeting so many people from all over the world. Even a couple from Dallas, Georgia! I am just completely and utterly content. I love this life of waking up in my little mud house, with all my roommates, sneaking outside at dusk to watch the sunrise and then walking down to the beach to swim out and snorkel. Then spending the afternoon under a huge striped tent, in the dirt before God. The students were all hand selected to be here. I have heard they have had 10,000 applicants. That sounds like a bit much, but that’s what I was told. So we all know that our applications were prayed over and that it was not by our words or random selection that we were chosen.
The orphans are a bit overwhelming. Just constantly kids everywhere, they crawl up in your lap and speak broken English with you. They just enjoy being held and hugged and I enjoy holding them. I hope in the future I will be better able to describe to you what all of this is like. I simply stand in awe. You just have to see this place yourself to understand. I am still trying to digest it all myself. I will try to do better and report more soon. I am dirty and sweaty and stinky, but so is everyone else. Email is terribly slow, but I would love to hear from you. Call if you can!
Love,
Jena

PSGod is living today expecially among the poor. The poor are close to God's heart and we need to get God's heart. If we are not physically poor, then we must enter the world of the poor, live with them and learn tosee with their eyes. Onc we hav made the 'option for the poor', it often is a surprise to find that the poor are our missionaries because they teachus with their lives what it is to be Christian. This is mission in reverse; so the masters become disciples, the speaker's hearers and the givers become receivers. - G. Campese