a boa noite for sure

Last night two of the long term missionaries came over for dinner! I made omelettes with feta and green peppers and onion. Tonya made hashbrowns that were way better than Waffle House and Antoinette made pancakes with frozen bananas, dipped in condensed milk and rolled in coconut. And then we had papaya and banana smoothies! We were sooo full. Little Paulina came over too and helped cook. It was fun watching her attempt to clean her plate with such a full tummy. Oh, how I love that little girl. I honestly cannot even let my mind go there...to that horrible place of reality that screams, "she has no parents, she has no parents, she has no parents". All I know to do is hug her tight and pray hard. Last night was to me, what I enjoy the most about this mission life, the community part of sharing what you have and having true relationship with one another...the sisterhood of mission life. We sat around and talked about our concerns and shared our dreams and visions and suddenly what had once seemed like a dying flame gets a wind upon it and it is soaring high again. Their faith and excitement and callings in life united with my little flame and suddenly we are all dreaming with God and planning a village and seeing what the future could look like and it is not bleak. It is a future of healthy villages, with clean water and gardens with vegetables and men and women who can read and write and study the Word and teach each other and disciple one another. It can be done. These two girls are AMAZING and make my little credentials seem so small. One lived in Hong Kong for three years. She just up and went and joined a ministry that worked with heroine addicts because God told her to go work with the poor. She learned to speak Chinese and watched men detox day after day after day. The other girl built a base in the middle of nowhere and lived there for three years with no water or electricity. The power went out for all of five minutes last night after dinner and I lit a candle and she was excited as it reminded her of her family time back on the base she built, in Lichinga. I was already wondering when the lights would come back on and was praying that it would and wondered what the heck I would do when the girls left and I was alone in the pitch black with my tiny little candle. These girls are so strong and resilient and simply amazing. It is an honor to be called their friend.