week as a visitor :o)

Regardless of what day I actually post this on, I'm writing on September 28th :o)

It’s Monday morning, the start of my fifth day at the center. I'm in love. With everything: the culture, the people, the customs, the missionaries and the children. It's all facsinating to me. Weird, definitely :o) but it's a good weird. Right now I'm sitting in the visitor's compound, laptop out, watching a little Swiss boy smack the tire swing with a stick... it's amazing the things little boys find fun. I spent the end of last week hanging out with the other visitors and going around to different ministries and communities Iris is connected to. Thursday night, my first night, we had a church service here on grounds for the children. Celia, on spoke about a trip **hah, well, I'm back at my computer two hours later :o) I stopped mid sentence to go over to Laura's dorm and play with her little boys, that was fun. Little boys are the same, cross country and world wide, it's lovely. All I could think about the first hour were Connor and Brayden.. I love them... I remember how they could talk me into pushing them on the swing for hours and I wouldn't even realize it. Not until the next day when my arms were sore and I had to figure out why.. well back to the present** Celia spoke at church about a visit she had to Northern Moz, and it was amazing because she preached to the children that they are rich and blessed. These children here at the center are so wonderfully blessed. They're safe, have regular meals, have friends their age and older and younger; they have a providing family here at Iris. It's so fascinating, beginning to understand just how blessed these children are.. it really puts into perspective how greedy the rest of the world is. I don't think greedy is the right word, but the rest of the world lives on a very different standard. We are even more blessed. Which means we have even more responsibility to the world. I'm okay with the responsibility.

I also visited the Borcaria, which is the dump (or kind of a landfill?) for the city... it's all the trash of the city.. but... there is a community living there. It's overwhelming. I can't even write much about it because I'm still trying to process and understand all that I saw. I have to go there many more times before I can expound on everything I felt. But it was wonderful because we had the opportunity to pray over a lot of people. A lot! There were about 250 children and parents in the little hut (exactly what you would imagine: a hut in Southern Africa) where we sang praise songs.

At the center I have played with the kids in the baby house and the kids at Laura's dorm. The baby house is hilarious. It's sooo cute and full of crazy/excited children! The house has about 40(?) kids ages one to five. You walk in and they run at you. Literally. It's a bit overwhelming because they all want to be held and some are quite insisting.. but you can't pull off holding more than two kids at once lol. It's crazy how they just want attention and couldn't care less what kind of attention it is.

Aside from my activites as a visitor here at the center, I've also been getting to know the other missionaries here. They. are. awesome! It's great here because the missionaries are always coming and going from trips to South Africa (for a new visa) and trips home on fur lough. I've gotten quite close with one girl already, who's from England. And I love her accent. I adore it, in fact, I love it so much I've noticed (it's really quite noticeable) that I've picked it up! I feel so silly but so many words fly out of my mouth and they're a weird morph between Southern and British! Haha, it's crazy. There is an awesome mix of cultures within the missionaries, some are from California and South Carolina, then there are English and Austrailians too. Also, this is my favorite, there are 7 Brazilians! Woot! I'm ready to learn Portuguese but I'm pretty sure I'm going to aim for Brazilian Portguese rather than Mozambiqucan... hehe.. it might be rude though, so we'll see how that works out! I'll be moving into the missionaries compound Oct 5th where my roommates will be Brazilian and English. Two of my favorite countries! :-)

I have two prayer requests tonight, one: that I learn the language quickly, and two: that I get more support and funding. I've had a lot of conversations about both with the missionaries here. Last night me and 3 other missionaries were hanging out and talking, we ended up praying over each other. The power of the Holy Spirit is grea :o) They each encouraged me greatly, in very different ways. We spent a lot of time in conversation and in prayer about living on faith and knowing God will provide. He wants me to depend on Him, He wants to be faithful to me. If you feel the Lord asking you to contribute to me, send me an email and I can let you know more specifically how you can help me out :o) As far as Portuguese goes, I've already tried to pick up a few words. I've found talking to five and six year old children is best because they tell you the words for everything but they don't laugh at your accent, it's a good age lol :o) Also, a missionary here has told me about a tutor who she uses. I'll be talking to the tutor tomorrow and hopefully starting tomorrow or Thursday. The price for the lessons is wonderfully cheap, it comes out to $24 a month for 8 hours (2 a week).

Well it's nearly dinner time so I'm off! I miss all of you so much :o) I think about each of you everyday! Truuuust me!