Walking Back...

Ahhhh! I'm almost at the 1/2 mark (I get back in Sept)!  I can't believe that I have already been here for five weeks. I still have moments where I'm just so surprised that I am here. It can be at any place... in worship under the school hut, walks along the beach, going into the village, listening to our speakers, walking up to people singing, or even watching an outdoor movie under the stars in our laundry area on a Sunday night. It has been such a wonderful experience.

The staff and long-term missionaries make us feel so a part of things and help us feel at home. We were invited to attend the welcome party of their new plane. They have been waiting/praying/hoping for a plane for the last eight years and finally it was brought home by "Poppa R." It was quite the event. People on the base were squishing into any vehicle that moved. Huge trucks were hauling us, and kids from the base were also coming with their welcome signs along with the pastors. I bet there were at least 200 of us that went to the airport to welcome the new plane. Once it landed everyone was cheering/jumping/dancing/singing as tons of pictures were taken. It was such an honor to be a part of this dream come true and to celebrate with them.

It's so fun to see what happens when you pray here. Ha! The spiritual side of things is so out in the open here. The testimonies that come in from the different teams are so encouraging. I go into the village weekly to see how His power moves. Over here, there really isn't another option. There just isn't help or support like people have it in other places. People get up and walk, people see again. It's so easy to lead people to the Father. You can hear popping noises as bones move back together.

One interesting observation I have noticed when a healing happens, whether it's a person's headache or someone getting out of a wheelchair, is there really isn't any emotion/party that happens afterwards. I don’t know if it's just such a given that this would happen or what. I heard one idea that when the people go to the witch doctors here for healing, if they show that they are happy/healed then they are charged more for the healings.

Once a week, I go out at night (Don't worry moos! We have boys that come along to watch over us.) to talk to the girls that are out. It's such an amazing time. They make about $8 USD on a good night which is like manual labor income per day. We form about 3 teams. One team stays in this baraka that will wash the girls feet, give them lollys and chocolate and paint their nails. The other two teams go out and invite the girls back to the baraka.

On our first night, we were warned that we might not be able to get any of the girls to come because it was our first night and here relationships are really important. I was on the team that went out to go talk to the girls and bring them back. With only one translator per team, I was pretty interested how this was going to go. Within the first five mins of being out there, we were already bringing back two girls. Then in the next twenty mins, we had brought back six girls. By the third time we went out, you could almost swim in the favor that we were receiving. Going up to the girls, I didn't care that we couldn't talk. I was just being a goof, signing to them about painting their nails, and the word for chocolate is...chocolate!  What girl doesn't like chocolate? (My house of 13 girls could talk about chocolate for hours.)

I would grab two girls with one hand and I could just feel His love for these precious treasures. One girl that night gave her life to the Father and a couple of them showed up to church that next Sunday. It was so much fun seeing a couple of the girls waddling out of the baraka with wet nail polish on their toes as they went to go get their friends. The girls were playing games and laughing by the end of the night. The hardest part? Watching them walking back into the darkness of the night.

My outreach to the bush bush has been 90% sure postponed for reason I can't really explain here. I will keep you updated when I go out.

Thanks for all your prayers and love!

Lovey yous!

If you want to get my blog delivered to your email address, just type in your address in the bar along the top of the blog page.