Mid-July happenings

Today is going to be mostly a photo blog. I've actually taken lots of pictures the last few days! Haha.

Ok, first order of business. Friday I went on "village immersion." As part of the Harvest school curriculum, they send students out in small groups one time to the villages to spend a day with a Mama (a woman connected with Iris, usually a widow) to be immersed in the culture and do everything they do in a day. They used to send people to spend a night, but for some reason the government will only permit us to spend the day now. I went with three other girls from my color group. We spent the day with a Mama from the church. We helped her wash some dishes, she wouldn't let us help her cook (she made us a delicious lunch). We spent most of the day sitting in the shade hanging out with her grandkids and other kids from the village. A woman who lived next door asked us to come and pray for her because she had pain in her head and felt some darkness in her home. Her daughter had also been having nightmares. After we prayed for her she said her head was better. Praise God! We had a great time hanging out and getting to know the people we stayed with that day and sharing and receiving God's love. We also took lots of fun pictures! ;)

Yesterday morning I had the great privilege of going to share Jesus' love in the garbage dump. It was such a crazy experience. For me it wasn't quite as shocking as I'm sure it was for some people, since I've been to the garbage dump in Guatemala which is like 10 (or more) times worse. It was heartbreaking to see the kids just hanging out in the dump and seeing people searching for some food or some scraps to sell. We were able to pray for some sick and injured people. Some we saw healed, some we didn't. That's always difficult, but I pray and believe they will all be healed. One amazing thing that happened was a young man came up to us and our translator told us he wanted us to pray for him because he was addicted to drugs and wanted to be free from it. Not sure how he felt or if he felt anything change, but I pray that God touches him and sets him free! As usual we had tons of kids following us everywhere. After awhile we had the kids sit down and we "had church." We sang some songs accompanied by a ukulele someone brought and we shared the gospel with them. We all took turns sharing bits and pieces of the gospel and our Mozambican friends translated. When we asked who wanted to receive Jesus, most, if not all of the hands went up and lwe led them in prayer laid hands on them and prayed for them to be filled with Jesus' love and the Holy Spirit. It was such a sweet time. Oh! I also got to hold a 2 week old baby who lived in the village next to the dump. He was so precious. I definitely hope to go back to the garbage dump. 

Yesterday all of us were invited to a wedding. The wedding was a American woman who was a former harvest student and a Mozambican man that had been raised in Iris by Heidi and Rolland. It was a beautiful wedding. We had a lot of fun "dressing up" (trying to at least). We are going through a water crisis so we aren't really allowed to use well water to shower, so we used water bottles, baby wipes, or bathed in the ocean and tried to clean up. I think we did pretty good for the circumstances. ;) My favorite part of the wedding was when the girl came down the aisle, she walked to Misty Edward's song "I will waste my life" which is a song that's kind of been "my song" for this summer and my life in general lately. It talks about leaving your mother and father and clinging to Jesus. I got chills, felt the Holy Spirit and almost started crying because the reality of that for her and her life was so heavy and yet so beautiful. She is giving up everything for the one she loves and the ONE she loves. It was a beautiful expression and example of love and sacrifice.

Another random subject is that I've been getting up early to spend time with Jesus and see the sunrise. I've actually really enjoyed it and found so much peace in it. It's actually quiet in the mornings! Haha. And the sunrises can't be beat. (Pictures don't do it justice at all though). 

Ok, I think that's all for now. Be blessed! And PLEASE pray for more water here. I don't even care about running water anymore, just an abundance of a water supply would be amazing. 

Pray for my hunger for Jesus to continue to grow and my intimacy with him to deepen. Pray that I am continually filled with more of the Holy Spirit and learn more each day how to listen and stay in tune with him.

Thanks! Much love! <3