Domingo

I love Sundays here. We go to the Igreja Aguas Vivas which is about two minutes away. Sometimes we will also go to church in Rovuma which is about 5 minutes away and then we will go to Igreja Aguas Vivas afterwards.
Church includes A LOT of singing. There isn't a 'worship leader' like we have at home. As far as I can tell, if you want to sing a song, whenever there is a lull, you just stand up and sing and everyone else will too. Some will stand and dance and sometimes everyone will. There are 4 or 5 boys who have their hand drums and another instrument made out of metal and wood. Nelson or Fred will get up and say something in between songs. For the offering, one of the children will stand and hold a basket and everyone comes to the front to put their offering in. Then the children's choirs will sing and dance for a while, without fail, there is a lot of enthusiasm and a bunch if adorable kids singing and dancing. Some if the mothers will join them. (I talked about the choirs and my brief stint in an earlier post).
All the while, Hannah and I have a bunch of kids sitting by and on us. And they all smile and wave as they make their way into the church and find their place. I don't prefer to be the center of attention, usually I like to fade into the background, but try as I might it's impossible. It's obvious that I'm white, almost as obvious that I can't dance and hopefully a little less obvious that I am slow in my Portuguese--I'm learning. I'm thankful to have a lot of people to practice with.
After the children's choirs have finished we go with all the kids to the center for escola dominical. They fight over who gets to hold our hands while we walk. Nelson, Bertino or Carlitos Gorge will do a Bible lesson with them. We will sing a few more songs. Then each child will receive a piece of candy before leaving.

Some Thoughts From Leviticus

A few weeks ago I set a goal to read through the Bible while in Moçambique. I have about a year so I can accomplish it.
It is so fun and interesting to read the accounts of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Joshua. People who found themselves in less than desirable circumstances but chose to listen to and obey God. They are people of faith and that's why they ended up in the Bible. But they weren't perfect and that's also why they ended up in the Bible. So we can relate but be inspired to live obedient to the call of God even if we have no idea why he would call us to do such crazy things. Because of these heroes of faith, we see what Gods plan was for their lives and we can trust that He has great things in store for us also.
Then I got to Leviticus. It can be a struggle to get through the next three chapters. It seems that the laws about unclean things and sacrificial offerings don't have much to do with us. Yet, as I read, I believe it does.
Then I got to a passage which I think is the key: 
"you shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgements, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you: for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. And you shall be holy to me, for I The Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine." Leviticus 20:22-23, 26.
He doesn't give a lot of rules just because. It's because all of the sleeping around, all of the worshipping of idols(which we still have, they are just called things like entertainment, money, success, etc), all of the injustice and selfishness are ways of the people who God abhors! That's about as bad as it can get. He calls them to be holy--different. How will anyone know that they follow Him if they do the same exact things as the people who He abhors?
But they weren't the only ones from whom God expected the first fruits and best of what they had. Whom He expected to be set apart and holy like Him. That stands for us too:
"So the scribe said to Him, 'well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love ones neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.'" Mark 12:32-33
So, today we don't offer sacrifices the same way, but we do live sacrificially by denying ourselves a complacent life,  the 'right' to always be right, to trample on others, to be selfish, to practice immorality., etc. because if we really do love God with our whole hearts we will obey the commands that he gives and we will seek to be holy like Him.

Don't Miss It

It's so easy to spend our lives looking and waiting for the next big thing. That's easy to do. And we are more likely to think that way when we compare our lives with others'... Look what so and so has, look how happy they are, look how successful my friend is, etc, etc. I think it was Theodore Roosevelt who said "comparison is the thief of joy." A good friend (Dave Sexton) used to challenge us after returning from mission trips which greatly increased our time with The Lord and consequently joy in Him--"don't let satan steal your joy." It's a fruit of the Spirit, and so are love, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I am convinced that having Joy in our hearts helps the others thrive though. (Galatians 5:22-23)
And so if we spend our lives looking for that next big thing, we miss out on a lot of little things. Or maybe even the little thing right in front of us that would turn into a big thing if you were paying attention.
And I would miss a million sweet moments during the days.
Like...
the mischevious smile of Patrito as we play keep away with two little girls during recess
the brilliant stars that shine even brighter when when the lights go out in the middle of the AWANA program
hearing the guards singing hymns outside in the afternoons
Paulino proudly showing off his cartwheels
Small sticky hands sliding into mine as I walk to church
Kicking the futebol back to four little boys individually because for some reason they want me to be the one kicking it to them
Devotions with the group of bicyclist pastors and local pastors in Makua

And so many more, but these are a few of the lovely moments that I savor and thank God for placing me here to enjoy.

Glimpse of a Wednesday

There are no two days alike, but just wanted you to kind of have an idea of what we do here.
We arrive in the kitchen at five o'clock every morning. We drink a cup of tea, hot cocoa or coffee. Then we go out to get job assignments. Usually the boys that live in the dorm lead all the workers in a song and a pastor will give a short devotional. It's always so fun and we love the boys in the dorm and we especially love it when they sing and dance. Sometimes Toto, our roaming guard dog, will join in on the dancing with Brenda and the guys love it, they laugh and laugh.
Thursday is food distribution so it's a given that the correct amounts food will all get organized on Wednesday. This includes sal(salt), feijão(beans), arroz(rice), açúcar(sugar), farinha(corn flour), batatas(potatoes), óleo(oil), manduin(peanuts), lenya(firewood) and sabão(soap).
Then Hannah and I went through the barrels of clothing to take inventory. Atemani is the resident tailor. He sews a LOT of clothes for the kids. Dresses, skirts, shorts, blouses, aprons, etc. He is really good and we were having fun admiring all the beautiful fabric as we counted the articles of clothing. After that task we went outside and I was so intent on wherever I was trying to go that I almost stepped on this guy!

It's the first unique animal we have seen and we decided after the fact that we should have made him our pet! Maybe he will still be in the tree tomorrow, the hard part will be trying to find him. Hannah searched that tree for thirty minutes earlier with no luck--I gave up after five. Diamantino, one of the guards walked by and asked what she was doing. When she said there was a chameleon in the tree he picked it out in five seconds.
A woman came with her week old orphaned grandson. Capena showed her how to make formula and explained the importance of cleaning the bottle out, using clean water and not storing the milk for more than an hour so it doesn't spoil and make the baby sick. The work crews had just finished and were waiting around for their next task. They were intrigued by this adorable little baby with a full head of hair and as Capena spoke with the lady they came closer and closer. At the end of the tutorial, there was an audience of 25 men. Good to know that if they ever need to know how to make baby formula they are set.
After our lunch of arvelia(kind of like green peas) and rice we went to Ravuma which is about 5km from here. We visited the goats.

This little guy is adorable but sadly, he has been sick. Brenda doctored him up.
Then we met a lady and her four orphaned grandchildren who Brenda also doctored up with some medicine and vitamins.
 Then we went to another home of a woman and her husband and their seven children. They just took in four orphaned children this weekend. We took them blankets, mats, pots and food yesterday and they were soo happy to have something to sleep on. The kids were a little shy at first but then so excited to shake our hands and give us high fives.
Hannah and I then went to visit three of the homes here in Balama. Our two buddies, Melito and Melito went with us.  The home mothers are so sweet. Ernestina likes to teach us words and we can get along pretty well in conversation. It's my favorite way to learn because we are building relationships at the same time as learning Portuguese. I can't wait to understand everything and to say everything I want to say--correctly. She also tells us words in Makua but they are a lot harder to remember!
We stopped off at the center and played with the kids for a little bit. Then it was time to come home and make dinner of salad(lettuce, salad and onions), corn, and goat with sautéed onion and green pepper. It gets light here at 5:30am and it gets dark at 5:30pm, so we take as much advantage of the light as possible. Up and ready to go by 5am, back to our homes at 5:30pm.
I continue to be so grateful for Gods faithfulness in providing the food for us to buy that we may share with the families here who have need of it. We will finish rice buying this week and then we start the July corn buying and processing in two weeks.
Thank you for continuing to pray for us.