Groups from all over the world flock to Iris Ministries every week. We are housed in a separate area just for mission students, but there is housing here for visitors and hotels nearby for visitors as well. Just this week a group from Korea and a pastor of a large church in Los Angeles, California, Che Ahn, came to visit Iris. Also, as I mentioned, a documentary is being created by a group in California and well known producer Kit Carson. The intent of the documentary, from my understanding, is to reveal from a secular viewpoint, the changes that are occurring in Mozambique because of the impact of the move of God. God is moving in Mozambique and change is happening. That is also why these groups are visiting from around the world. They want to see these changes and witness the move of God. Yet ultimately they discover what love looks like. That is the simple message that is shown here. That is also the message in Isaiah 58. It tells us to clothe the naked, share your food with the hungry, provide the wanderer with shelter, set the oppressed free, untie the cords of the yoke and loose the chains of injustice. This is true missions. It is about disciplining others and showing them "incarnational" love. Others are coming here to see this in action.
Mozambique is the poorest country in the world and has been impoverished for generations. There is no concept of work ethic or any ethics for that matter. No one questions right from wrong. It is not wrong to lie or steal in their culture. This is what separates them for me. In my Western world, even those who do lie and steal, know that it is wrong. This cultural difference is a major hindrance. They need a moral compass. Even if you view it from a secular, economic standpoint, this nation needs a salvation from itself for it to survive. This is also seen by the way in many other nations, including India and China. The corruption forces them to remain in a vicious cycle of poverty.
It is our job to simply disciple them and show them in servant leadership the love of God. Love is not rude, and therefore, we are simply here to love them and learn from them. We are not here to ridicule or change their culture to look like ours. So we clothe the naked, share our food, and provide shelter. Here in Mozambique, visitors see this being done physically. But, it is also needed desperately at home in the spiritual.
Things are still good here. I have to admit that I was exhausted today and had to take a nap this afternoon. I think it was my first! I stay so incredibly busy and every day is full of so many activities and today I just needed to rest. The interesting details are, I have not bathed in a week. I did get to snorkel last night, but didn’t see a whole lot. I do at least know sort of where to find the reef and hope to find someone to go out with me this afternoon. We don’t have running water a lot of the time so I have been swimming in the ocean a few times and showering off with “fresh" water at the Pemba Dolphin restaurant. There are a few good places to eat around here and we all seem to have this survivor mentality and are eating every meal like it is our last. There is a great little Chinese place in town that is very popular. Entrées are 4 dollars or less and they have pineapple flavored Fanta! I have pretty much limited myself to eating out once a week and have purchased canned goods in town for other meals and still eat my share of the kitchen rice and topping of the day. I also have Clif bars and granola. And every morning they have fresh bread! It is really good. Of course we add peanut butter, bananas and honey and jam from the market. Groceries are expensive here. Most Mozambicans are unable to afford groceries from the markets here. They are expensive even by American standards. So I have my canned goods and peanut butter rolls keeping me always full. Boys sell huge chocolate bars along the beach and since we all have this survivor mentality I bought one last night.
Today we fed the village children. Iris feeds village children during the week. All children are welcome to come. It involves us going to the kitchen and loading up a truck with a large drum with rice and the topping of the day. Today’s topping was cabbage stuff. I think there had to have been about 100 kids there. The kitchen only gave us about 20 bowls so we had to keep washing the dishes and the kids actually sat pretty patiently as they waited for their peers to finish before they could be served.
I hope to get into a village soon and spend more time with the Mozambicans this week. My group is in charge of doing a service for the Iris kids tonight. The kids are well taken care of for the most part. They are good kids who have been loved on and you can tell. I hope to spend more time with them in the coming weeks as well. This service is designed especially for then. There are a good many of them who are early teens and they love, as any teenager, hanging out with their friends and music. So this service is an opportunity for them to all get together and play music and hang out. They love hip hop and American music and western clothing. The girls braid their hair and wear jeans and they boys wear t-shirts with American rappers on them. So we will do skits, share testimony, and worship with the youth tomorrow night. The Africans love to dance and it is fun to watch them all dance under our big green and white tent and see the cloud of red dust form. This is Africa.
A friend of mine told me about a possible opening here working in hospitality, coordinating these groups that come to visit. She may be applying for it and it would be a major stretch for me. However, it did peak my interest. I could sell my house. I could live here for about $1000 per month. It’s feasible and something I would consider…maybe not right away, but could see myself doing something like this in the future.
I am not sure what the coming week will bring. We are doing a group dinner Sunday night. There is a missionary here from India who is leaving in two weeks. She is preparing an Indian meal for all of us. We have not all eaten together yet and it will be fun for us to all be together like this for the first time and I am very excited about the Indian food! I also have to do laundry on Sunday. My sheets are orange. I don’t like doing laundry and am going to do as little as possible. It is rough on your hands.
The mosquitoes are out more and a friend, Mark, was diagnosed with malaria today. It is pretty bad here. I am on medications that are pretty reliable and don’t expect it to be a problem.
I am looking forward to the wedding this coming weekend. Teisa and Gene, missionaries with Iris are getting married by Heidi on the beach. It is going to be a huge deal here. As I mentioned, they expect to feed 2,000. They want the ceremony to be a testimony to the marriage of Christ to His bride and show the villagers the love of God. I am one of the photographers and am so excited! I will be following Gene around for the whole day, capturing the event.
I believe I only have about 47 more days here. It will all be over before I know it. I will write again as soon as possible. My weeks are busy and I will try to find time to write. I am learning the routine of getting into town and the internet café and such. I will be back to the hum drum of life in Atlanta all too soon. I do miss you, but I miss my bathtub more than anything else.
XOXO
Me
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