A bunch of things

Hmmm… what to say after so many days? I wish I kept a daily journal so that everything could be recorded, so that I could remember it all. I don’t really have the time and discipline for that though. Sunday a friend of mine and I visited a student pastor’s house – he lived not far away. The view (on a hill) from the house – and the houses are all very close together with bamboo fences and tiny paths in the village which were steep because of the incline – the view was amazing, the place was surrounded (in the distance) by sea on three sides, and the water here is so blue it is just beautiful. Jordyn and I ended up missing church because of this visit… we left before so that we could invite the pastor’s mother to church, but she was at the market when we arrived so we waited for her return, which ended up being late morning. Artur (the 4th yr student pastor) and his brother (who is a 2nd yr student pastor) are 19 and 14 yrs old. Do any of you know any 14 year old pastors?!?! Their other siblings were waiting at home when we arrived – one girl and two boys. As we waited for their mother we communicated through broken Portuguese and English, and Artur taught us some Makua, the local tribal language, as well as the Mocambique hino nacional (national anthem). I found out it takes 1-2 months to build a Mozambican house (which is made of bamboo, mud, and has a grass roof); 1 day to weave and rope a Mozambican bed onto its frame; and 2-3 days to weave a basket that they sift beans and rice in. They have a papaya tree, a coconut tree, and bean vines. The babies have cords around their waists which I’m told are witchdoctor fetishes. The baby’s rattle – a ring of keys (at least not rusty ones – one of the older children (3 or 4?) kept putting dry beans into the baby’s hand [choking hazard?] – hey, there isn’t that kind of concern here, it’s like the children are born streetwise or something – when we were on outreach I saw a baby playing one foot away from an open cooking fire, with the mother right beside preparing the meal,… I digress). We plan on visiting again Wednesday, which is tomorrow.
This is the Makua I have down: Salama (Hello/How are you); Mohavo (How are you); Quihavo (I’m good); E Tu Eomana (Nice to meet you); Oquilevelele (I’m sorry).
I really shouldn’t start a third language when I don’t have the second one down yet….. (my first being English and I do believe that one is at least fluent=)).
When we returned from the village to the base for the lunch meal I lent my Portuguese-English phrasebook to Artur. Jordyn and I stopped in the kitchen after lunch and ended up washing 400+ places while they fed everyone (there is open invitation for lunch on Sundays for anyone who comes). Let’s just say we were rewashing and rewashing those plates=), well, some of them. I guess we didn’t wash fast enough, because they were only giving us half to wash and were just reusing the other dirty plates. We kind of felt like our washing them was pointless. Dinner that night was in our own home, by choice, we fried up plantains and carrots with salt and some with sugar (plantains with ketchup taste just like French fries!), and we also had popcorn and watched a movie on a laptop – the first movie that wasn’t curriculum since I’ve been here: Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Oh, to let you know, I started Malaria meds 6 days ago and have gotten better so one can only suppose that is what my sickness all these weeks has been, though a very low grade malaria because I wasn’t out of it like you’d think I would have been (I did get a blood test but it was negative, though they say the test isn’t very reliable).
I’m doing well and enjoying it all!
Also, if you’d like to see photos of our time here in Pemba my friends have a website with pics www.liquidmyrrh.org



I also wanted to write about something said in class since I keep saying I will…. One of the truths that has hit me since being here and hearing speakers (just a side: Stacey Campbell has been here the last few days and we’ve had her teaching, which has been really awesome; it’s more fun to hear her in Africa because… its Africa!) okay back to what I was saying, the truth that has hit me has to do with the freedom that I’ve always thought should have been within Christianity but never felt it was said. Let me explain. That you can only love when you know love, you don’t work to make yourself love someone – it’s called falling in love because that is the amount of effort it takes. And it is the same with you and Jesus. Next truth, that he is the perfect Savior. That means that if I am lacking in anything he will save me, he will give it to me. I don’t have to work really hard to muster up faith, that is a gift he will give me. He perfectly saves if we let him do the saving and wait for it with trust.
Also good to hear was another teacher’s talk about Hinduism; Hindus see so much supernatural – walking on water, levitation, and their response is: so what? To them, the action has to have a purpose otherwise it is pointless, and what is so great about that mindset (to me) is that it puts the supernatural – ‘the tricks that awe’- on the back burner to what God should and is really about: love. It is love that Jesus came and did what he did, it is love that he even gives miracles, or anything else. Rolland says it takes as much miraculous power to give someone the faith to believe as it does to raise a dead person to life. It is as much of a miracle. And as much of a gift. Faith isn’t something we ‘drum up’, it is given by God, we just ask for it. Sometimes we don’t even ask – surprise gifts are always the really fun ones to receive anyways=).
This, THIS, is what I really wanted the most in life, these truths – these confirmations, it is what I came looking for, truth that actually sets one free. I’m free, and I’m crying.