There's More

- Left: Hut where we had our classes Mon. - Thur. on the beautiful Pemba base -Right: The Church on the iris Base and the congregation plus us students.
Jan. 14 2011

I am incredibly behind with my blog. I'm beyond behind, in fact; It's almost a new season.
Yet, it has been on my heart to share more from my experiences this summer; I feel it's even a responsibility of mine to share some of the riches that were shared with me, and the life giving instruction that I have been entrusted with.
It's hard to know how little or how much to share. I feel as if I could spend a lifetime explaining all that I learned and experienced which resulted in changing my entire paradigm, and, in effect, me. In fact, I believe, I will be seeing and understanding all that happened in those three months that I was in Mozambique throughout the rest of my barely-begun lifetime.
I will start by trying to resolve some information about my school and Outreach, and then try to delve in a little deeper about what God did in me, and I learned overall, as well as discuss what it's been like after the fact here in the U.S. and what seems to be next for me.
-All of my classmates the day before Graduation!
Graduation from the Harvest Missions school came much more quickly than I thought it would, though I felt as if I had lived a long time in this new, strange, and important life that God had graciously brought me into. My last few weeks I spent trying to fit as much time in with the friends that I had made, and also seeking God with as much of me as I could so as to get ALL that He had for me. My roomate/best friend, Ruth, and I made a list of the people we needed to visit, and spend time with before leaving.
Ruth and I arranged so many get-togethers with our friends in those last 3 weeks, it was very complicated. We were incredibly busy, and would usually go straight from class to someone's house (though I hated missing lunch at our food hall, because I wouldn't see my friends, Filomena, Lurdish, and Marilia in the kitchen). We usually would buy groceries for our friends so that they wouldn't have to pay to feed us. We just wanted to be with them, but they usually would want to make us food - so, that was the compromise that Ruth and I figured out.

-Top: My friend Angelica, cooking us a dinner on one of our visits. - Chatting and visiting with my friend Amina, and Joanna's moher. -Walking abck from one of our many ventures into the surrounding villages. we are walking in from the back side of the base. - Breaking rocks with a big metal hammer to put in the walls of Marilia's house. -Ruth and I with Marilia and her family after helping put rocks in the walls of their house, i.e., building the house.

I was also working on a mural in the children's library, and needed to finish it. I visited Filomena one last time as well as her family. I also visited Lurdish, Anna and her family, Rosa, Joanna, and her family, and my friend Elena who was teaching me basket weaving. I also organized a day to go help build Marilia's house, and we had a big group do it. I will have to go into greater detail about these visits in this post and the next few. I also took my best little boy and girl friends from the Iris base out to the beach one last time, and a few out to ice cream. I gave out all my presents, and gave away my favorite dress, skirt and most of the rest of my clothes. I will also tell a particular story about God prompting me to give away some of my favorite pieces of jewelry. I also made sure to spend time with my house family, and the Russian friends I made, as well as friends from all over that were in the school with me.


- My friends and I getting ice cream at the resteraunt run by Iris young adults. - Iris boys enjoying their ice cream treat! - Some of the awesome Iris boys being silly. - Amina and Angelica wearing the presents that I had given them the day before (kercheifs); it was a delight to see! -Amina, Angelica, and their families. - Messiajse and Jalia: two of my best friends.
One of our visits was a day when our little friend, Anna, cooked a meal with her sisters just for us, without us knowing she was going to. It was such an amazing day. We brought nailpolish and painted all of the girls' fingernails that lived in that little area (Anna lives with her mom and sisters in a widows home very close to the base). We ended up getting our nails painted as well as our backs rubbed by the girls, and hair braided!

- Ruth and I eating the meal that Anna and her sisters prepared for us. -Anna and I trying out what she would look like with my hair ;) - Anna, her sisters and some of the girls that painted our nails and braided our hair at the widows hoe. -Anna's mom and little brother; she works on the Iris base. - Anna wearing my purse to protect it as we walk through the village.
We visited our friend Phillipe, the head cook in the Kitchen, and his amazing and beautiful family 2 or 3 times in the last 3 weeks of school. We would buy food for them in the market and they would cook it for all of us and their family would get to eat at least one or two meals out of it. And also my friends Joanna, Rosa, Amina, and Angelica who I talked about in m last blog. The ladies gave me necklaces, and fed us. We played cards, and had a lot of fun singing and trying to talk in portuguese and Makua.
On the last day that I had in Pemba before my 15 day outreach I had to pack and clean our little house and say goodbye to everyone I loved ( I was going to be back in Pemba for about 4 days when I was done with my outreach, but I had to say goodbye to many that I may not have gotten the chance to see). This was a terrible, but happy day. I cried so many times!! Ruth and I had gone to town to buy presents for all the workers in the kitchen (our house shared the payment for the presents): We got them each two cans of sardines, and a pack of spaghetti. This is enough for a few meals for them and their families. I had a terrible time saying goodbye to these ladies, and was a wreck. They sang a blessing song over us, which really got to me.

-ruth and I after we gave the presents of spaghetti and sardines to each of the kitchen workers (this is half of the kitchen workers; we gave the others later.) - Fileman, and I with her family at her house during a visit with her. - Saying goodbye to some of the ex-orphaned girls that I made friends with on the Iris Base.
Then Ruth and I (soooo busy that whole week, and always on the move!) went to visit Phillipe and his family again. Ruth had baked a chocolate cake in our crazy Pemba apartment oven with crazy Mozambican ingredients, and we went to the market with Phillipe's daughter and bought 2 whole chickens, potatoes, lettuce, tomato, onion, and cookies!! We bought Fantas and Cokes as we were waiting for the chicken to cook at their house. I was allowed to help fry the potatoes on their interesting little cooking stations that are on the ground. It was one that was inside the house, which seemed a bit dangerous to me! I was happy to get to though, because it's not often that our Mozambican friends let you help cook! I suppose that's because: 1. They are so polite and don't want you to have to do anything when you are a guest. 2. They dont trust us to know what we are doing! HA!

-Us visiting Phillipe and his family one of the last times; We had just sung many songs and eaten a good meal together and were about to pray for them. - Me cooking the french fries inside of their house on a small grill built into the floor holding their youngest son.
We had such an amazing time - one of the best times of my whole trip. We sang worship songs together, prayed for his whole family, and heard stories of their early missions that they did together and miracles that they had seen. Wow, it was so beautiful to see this amazing part of God's family, and to be connected to these beautiful ones by the bond of Jesus Christ. Something amazing that they did was pray over each of us! And they sang a song over each one of us that was going on outreaches that were blessings. I cried some more. Then, to top it off, Rita, Phillippe's wife, who is amazing and strong and so in love with God, went to her bedroom and brought out two sets of Kapulanas for Ruth and I. A Kapulana is a skirt and head wrap that is traditional Mozambican wear. It was such an honor to be given this. These are expensive gifts, and receiving it made us feel as if we were truly accepted into the Mozambican culture. I am crying right now, thinking about it. :) This was the final realization that we had actually gotten to delve into the culture and MAKE FRIENDS. We are loved in return for the love that we were trying so hard to give out. What a wonderful blessing. Ruth and I had tried so hard to give of ourselves, and had had many instances where we said to each other, "we have no idea what we are doing, but God has grace for us!" How awesome is it to be rewarded for trying, and giving so much emotion towards trying to share ourselves.

-Rita, Phillipe's amazing wife who blessed us so much with her friendship. She is very joyful, as you can see! - Ruth and I in our Kapulanas that Rita gave to us! We have just been crying from such a special gift, and are so full of joy!
That last week of school was incredibly amazing as well. god did so much in me, it's hard to relate in words. I was fasting for part of the week, because I wanted to be as ready to hear what He had to say to me as possible! I had a few amazing experiences with God that week, and the overall completion in whaT God had been doing was incredible.
David hogan was the speaker for the last week of school, as well as Georgian Banhov (He only spoke twice on the last day, but he is so wonderful as well). I believe that he, David Hogan, may have affected me more than any other speaker aside from Heidi. I highly recommend looking him up and listening to a sermon or watching a video - his life, his stories, and his personality are INCREDIBLE and so inspiring. Here's a little bit of info about this gentleman: He works as a Missionary in the mountains of Mexico with a people group that are very dangerous and originally hated and killed many Christians. He is a very large and almost scary man from Louisiana who would be a violent and harsh person if he weren't a christian. Instead he is incredibly intense about seeing people healed from diseases and delivered from their demons. He is incredibly loving, a pacifist, who cries when he talks about the children that he has housed, and families that have been injured during his time there. This guy has seen 27 people raised from the dead!!!! HA WOW!!! I know that that's a hard one to believe for many of us in the West. But that is why he goes after seeing those healings in particular ; He said that the other types of healings are easier to refute than someone who has actually been legally dead for a day or a few hours standing up and being better than new!!! HA!! This is the real deal, my friends and loved ones!!!
He told us STORIES of praying for a man that had throat cancer and part of his face and neck were actually gaping open. Hogan then saw this person the next week and didn't recognize him because he actually had a face and had been completely healed of the cancer!!! WOW Thank you Jesus! He also talked of coming into contact with a man who was completely out of his mind because of demon possession: He had been chained up in a room with a heavy door, he had long hair and long nails and had apparently been killing and eating people before he was chained up....?! Yes, you are right, this IS crazy. (That's why you should hear his stories; if you don't believe me, I think you would believe him. 1. You need to hear him, and understand his heart in order to trust him, which I definitely do. 2.There is no way he could make up the details to all these different stories! 3. He didn't see any miracles for the first 10 years that he was working there (he has been there over 30 years), and they are in huge volume now. If you simply have trouble believing in miracles, then this may be something you should ask the Lord about. He never gives us a stone if we ask for bread, and if this legitimately confuses you, then Lord will want to answer your questions). Davd Hogan explained being very afraid at first, as this creature of a man growled and his chains rattled while walking towards him. But David remembered Jesus' dealings with the demon possessed in the Bible (such as the man called "Legion" because there were "many inside this man" Luke 8:30), and started to walk towards the man remembering the power of the Holy Spirit being greater in Him. The possessed man started backing away, and soon David was able to lay his hand on this man who was completely delivered of the demons and was then a completely normal human. He got a haircut and nails trimmed, and started wearing clothes, stopped eating humans (ha!), and spread the word of Jesus being the only deliverer!!!!!!
-Some of my roomates, and my house mom right before I left for outreach.
I believe that one of the most affecting things about my time in Mozambique this summer was coming into contact with so many people that LIVE what they believe and live RADICALLY!!! David Hogan, Heidi and Rolland, Supresa Sithole, Jackie Pullinger - they are all Missionaries that truly live the way the first Christians did in Acts and the epistles. They believe in the miracles of healing, finances, and radically LOVING everyone that you encounter. And they SEE these things on a daily basis. It is NORMAL for Iris Ministries to see deaf ears opened through prayer - it's a weekly event. It's almost just as often that they see completely blind eyes be opened. And hearing these peoples' backstories makes me realize that they were once "normal". Ha. Hearing David Hogan's testimony, in particular, made realize that I know many American's that are similar in demeanor to who he was. If this quasi-violent man that loves to hunt can be utterly in love with Jesus and softened to the point of complete pacifism and saving hundreds and thousands of people from death, disease, and the inner death of not knowing the deep and fulfilling love of Jesus Christ, then anyone can. And If Heidi who came from Laguna Beach, very privelaged and wealthy, and could lose it all for the love of Jesus and radically follow Him at all costs, and see 10,000 people fed everyday by Faith without any of her own wealth to help, then anyone can do this!! I can do this stuff! YOU can do this stuff!!!!!!
I have started to really understand that the spirit that raised Lazarus from the dead and Jesus from the dead is INSIDE of you and I that believe! Did you know that Jesus said WE will do "even greater things" than the miracles that He did on the earth??! (John 14:12) Does anyone believe that?? Do any of us act on it? This is part of our inheritance through being a Son or Daughter of God!!
I will tell about some of the miracles that I, personally saw, and my roommate saw in the next post. I will talk about my outreach to Tete, as well as my outreach in the "bush bush".
Eventually I will have to come in with simply story after story that I haven't been able to include so far. I feel as if I could fill a book with stories from this experience.
Thank you for reading, and I can only ask that the Lord bless you, and make it real to you. Let me know if you have any questions - I love talking about Iris Ministries, and the people that I met, and the things that I have learned!!!




-A view of the wall surrounding the Iris Pemba base with a worker sitting on it. I saw this as I was reading and praying under a Baobab tree.
- Elena, my friend who taught me some basket weaving.

Love and joy and peace!
Tetra

I only have one week of school left. That is quite a surreal realization. My time here has been an amoebic mixture of smells, people, foods, and African gestures and ways of communicating; things that form your understanding of a culture and location that aren’t quite identifiable, but more atmospheric. I have learned how people show that they think something is funny: they laugh and sort of slap your hand as if to say, “You’re too much”.

top left: My friend Fatima; I will always remember the way she dances with her baby balanced on her back. She is a beautiful and happy woman who told me that I was special to her like a daughter even though we only spent one day together.
top right: women and children selling fried sweet bread and roasted nuts by road
Bottom left: My friend, Amina, (Rosa's Grandmother). She can not walk, and when she isn't in her wheel chair she crawls on the ground with protection for her knees and hands. She had just given us a bowl of oranges and we were about to play cards with her family.
Bottom right: Another friend named Fatima and her family, as well as a few neighbor friends in her house when we were over for a visit.

I’ve learned which corners it is that ladies and children tend to sell peanuts and strange sweet breads, and which ones of those little boys from Iris like to eat (also which ones my roommate and lovely friend, Ruth, likes). I’ve learned how to dance many different types of African dances, and also learned that I LOVE TO DANCE AFRICAN STYLE! Yes. I’ve learned and am figuring out how to find the balance of wanting to help and give gifts to my friends and how to handle these same friends at some point asking for money. I’ve learned how to shave a coconut and make coconut milk, and how to make pastry dough with a mortar and pestle that usually is used for making xima (cornmeal type of food).


top left: Our other friend named Amina cooking us an amazing dish of coconut rice and beans. In this picture she is squeezing the soaked and shredded coconut into a sieve and through to a pan of beans.
top right: Amina shredding the fresh coconut with a very interesting instrument specifically used to do this.
bottom left: amina's friend teaching me to shred coconut. I brought home a coconut shredder, and have made this dish at home!
bottom right:

And I know what it feels like for a family to share the small amount of food that they have with you and give you a larger portion than you need while they take a much smaller. I can tell you about different little children and their stories, like Rosa who lives with her Grandmother, Amina, who can’t walk, but crawl and use a wheelchair and has a mother that lives in another province and she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl.


top left: Rosa with our friends Angelica and Joanna sitting outside of her and Amina's house.
top right: One of our friends' daughter falling asleep in my lap. I'm getting overwhelmed with love for the little girl!
bottom left: Me and my friend Derefina sitting in her backyard when she invited me to come visit her.
bottom right:My feet and my friend Joanna's feet on the beach!

I have learned that a shaking pinkies with a kid means that you are no longer friends” and to restore this friendship, you must touch elbows. Haha! I have gotten to know some of the people from the 20 different nationalities in my school, like the group from Russia, who are so so beautiful. They are so encouraging, selfless, and so very…Russian! :) They love to lead worship, and it’s one of the loveliest things; I love their style. Eleyona has a beautiful high voice with a fast vibrato that sounds very classically Russian. Whenever you spend time with them, they offer you tea or a snack, though they don’t have much, or any spending money while they are here.

top left: Me learning how to basket weave from my friend Elena. top right: Me and my Russian friend, Tanya, keeping dry in the rain!
bottom left: Elena and I talking and basket weaving with the pile of reeds behind us as well as another friend who basket weaves.
bottomr right: village kid friends!


I’ve started to learn how to basket weave from some of the ladies that work here making purses, hats and grass mats (I know more than ever that I truly LOVE to make things with my hands and be creative, and I always will. Regardless of where I am and what I am doing, this will be a part of me!) I had a chance last week to teach some of the kids how to makes hemp necklaces att their children’s camp! That was an amazing, and trying opportunity. I couldn’t speak Portuguese that well, and the kids were somewhat difficult, but I loved it.

I am completely finished with the ordinary. I feel as if I am just now starting to walk in the path that God has for me. This is regardless of my location; It’s more of a state of mind that I have been blessed to find in which I am realizing that God is WITH me wherever I am. He has many plans, and He indeed moves today!!!
I have one week left here in Pemba. Then I will be going to Tete for my outreach. I will be working with a small church there that has just purchased a buildsing that WAS a brothel and is now becoming a children’s home. I’m excited about that, but I feel surreal. But I am happy. I am definitely sad to say goodbye to my little life here, my friends here, and my friends from the 20 other cultures that have been studying with me. I have been packing in last chance visits with the friends that I have made here, and I think Ruth and I are going to have a little birthday party for the little boys and girls that we have become friends with from Arco-Iris. I took kids to the beach for possibly the last time last Saturday, and I went to church for the second to last time here yesterday. It seems to have gone so quickly! I’m going to be taking a little more time getting my beans and rice this week so that I can see my lunch lady friends as much as I can. Ah!! How sad. But I am sure that I will visit her again. I don’t think that I am going to work here long-term. I am not sure where or when I will be, still. I have had some amazing different understandings of my destiny since I have been here, but the immediate next step is always the difficulty. But I love this life that God has made for me…so interesting, and it always keeps you in a place of reliance on Him.

top left: Playing cards with some of the Iris boy, Anselmo, and our village friends, Focas and Osamo. top right: ruth and I with our friends Joanna and Rosa (Rosa is the grandaughter of Amina). bottom left: Anselmo asleep in my lap. bottom right: Joanna and Rosa and their families outside of their house.

By the way, they are now accepting applications for the next school starting in October. Please please think about it if you want your life to change for the better, and have any interest in Ministry or Missions!!! (I’m specifically thinking of a couple people I know like…ASHELY TUTHILL!! Rachel Singleton!!! And maybe Tracey?? Or everyone I love!!! Hee hee – I highly recommend it!)
see you august 26th!
Love you all

Tetra

Ankunia Aqui

I will continue with my interrupted thoughts from the last blog, and hopefully they will lead to the next.
Visits into the village have increased since last I posted and are now a normality for me here. I have visited many of the women in the kitchen (they have proved to be some of my closest friends), friends who are sick, macua ladies that attend our church and others. I have also taken a few friends to Marilia's house to help her build her house (we put rocks in her bamboo walls) It has been wonderful to infiltrate the culture a bit more and scrape the surface of understanding these lovely people. My favorite times have involved being in these people's homes. Each visit could probably be described in greater detail to the effect of a blog post in and of itself.
The journey itself into the villages are pretty intrigiung as well, because we create a lot of excitement with our presence. We hear "Ankunia ankunia" everywhere we go, which means,
-top left: a normal alleyway through the villages.
-middle: little faces, excited and confused about us "Akunias"
-right: kids getting excited to see us and crowding at a doorway.
-bottom left: A lighting system for a house that is a tiny light bulb connected to a battery.
-bottom: a normal inside of a house in the village. The furniture in the back is a bed.

more or less, "whitey". Ha. Kids get so excited and either timidly run up to us, hug us or just stare at us as if we are majestic strange creatures. Though they are more or less used to seeing wqhite people because of Iris' existence, we are still an exciting sight. :) dyuring on e of my visits, I passed through an amazing market - really tight quarters, fish with flies all over them, kids all over. This time my friend, Filomena, who was with me was m,ore or less needing to protect me because the people were not as excited as malevolent towards my presence. People ask for money constantly - this is an issue which I wil delve into mroe in a bit. Regardless - the villages are fun and an adventure.

-Above: The open air market with fish, and many stares
my friendships with the Macua ladies in the kitchen have been wonderful. I love each of them and know their names, and they have been terachnig me a decent bit of macua. I've been realizing how much learning languages is a passion of mine - and this one is really intriguing. I've notioced that there is somehow a connection between music and language to me; I hear the languages rythyms and intonations sort of float through my head alot, and desire to know what they mean. This language is really interesting, in that it isn't written and most people speak slightly different versions, so that you can say the same phrase to different people, and some will understand and some won't.

-Above: My Makuan friends that work in the kitchen. From Left to right - Anisha, Fillipe, Me, Filomena, Lurdish, Maria. (Filomena in the pink striped shirt is one of my closest friends that I made)
Filomena has proved to be my most trustworthy and sweet friend tht I've made of the ladies. :) I say trustworthy because of the fact that at this point we have startd to realize who actually wants to eb our friends and who is just interested in our...stuff. She has turned down most of the gifts taht I HAVE tried to give here. :) She is a widow with 4 children, and she walks about half an hour to work monday through thrusday. She is always happy and my best teacher in Macua, becayuse she speaks protuguese as well. Thank you Lord for these ladies.
My classes, I have realizded are taking more of a role in my life here than I anticipated as far as tehir importance to shaping my life. Mon - thurs we worship and learn together from amazing people. I have been stretched and "wrecked" repeatedly. I can't begin to delve into the things God has been teaching me every day. We had a 24\7 prayer week last week, adn the difference that it made in all of us was evident. Oh my goodness - our hunger fior the Lord has just been getting stronger. It's obvious to me taht the Lord has me here not jsut to learn a lifestyle of service, but to draw me closer to Him and teach me how to drink. :) Heidi Baker is one of the absolutely most HAPPY missionaries I've ever known of, and all of Iris is similarly full of joy and expectation. This stems from their allowing God to take them away and spend time with just Him - they know how to put their burdens on Him. I've learned amazing things aboiut ministry from these people, and I can tell you 1. This is an AMAZING ministry 2. I trust them incredibly 3. They understand. truly, how to follow the Lord inm obedience. Even while we have been here, I have seen miracles for the ministry - they provide food for 10,000 people a day throughout their bases, and they usually dont hav ethe money until the very last minute - God [provides for them EVERY TIME. There has never been a day over the 15 or soe years where they haven't had food for the kids. WOW!
Anyway, I am just seeing more and more how much God wantsto do INSIDE of me in order to work through me. And our week of prayer also reminded me of the PRACTICALITY of christianty; spending time with the Lord, in Hios [prensece, praying, reading - it works. :) It CHANGES you.
We had Supresa Sithole speak last week and it was amazing. I have a cool story to share about this in just a minute. :) This week there are leaders ferom all the bases in the world here for a Global time of seeknig the Lord together. So we are having speakers from all over this week. So far we have had MEL TARI, Bill Johnson, and some of the leaders of the bases in Mozambique who are amazing. We also had patricia Bootsma from Toronto a few weeks ago and she taught a lot about prophecy. AMAZING> She is friends with Alyn and Aj jones, and thsi made me very happy .
Ok - cool story time:
-Last week when Supresa spoke about Spiritual Wisdom, He prayed for me. I started...jerking around a bit uncontrollably for about 40 minutes. It kind of hurt after a while, but I could not stop. :) During this time I was speaking in tongues inm a way taht I had never heard myself speak before. It sounded a bit like Macua to me, which was interesting. I asked the Lord what He was doing in me during this time which I had no control over myself, and I didn't really get and answer other than the fact that I was experiencing God's GLORY. I wrote in my journal ; " I don't know what He was doing, but I know this: I have seen and felt God's GLORY, and I am completely undone". A couple of days later I had the guts to repeat the phrase that I heard myself saying more than the other words in this weird tongue I was speaking. I was expectying it eitehr mean nothing or to mean somethign embarrassingly random. But she said that this phrase meant "Glory of the Lord". AH!!! WOW!!! haha - pretty amazing! This is the real thing - what a special gift the Lord gave me - He knows how much I love Macua.
-My friernds who have gone on outreac h have seen two blind people that were blind all their lives bvbe able to see, we have seen 8 or so deaf people be able to here , we have seen a guy with a tumopr DISSOLVE in front of them, we have seen a group have more bread to give out to the poor when they FINISHED than when they started (i.e. it multiplied!!!!) and on and on. :) This is just from ONE of the outreaches that happen every weekend.
I am going on an outreach this weekend to the bush. So I thoroughly expect to see amazing miracles as well. Not only this, but get to know beautiful people and have some wonderful stories.
-I have really enjoyed taking kids to the beach (they aren't able to go by themselves, so its a huge blessing to them to be taken. And we usually buy them a little snack too). They sometimes take...all of their clothes off to swim haha!! and these little babies will run around naked so excited about getting in the ocean. They have sucha great time - it's wonderful.




-top: Kids from Iris loving swimming in the Indian ocean! -second down: our Iris buddy, obviously excited to be at the beach! notice the beach attire! (usually they just wore their underwear)
-third down: one of my best friends Messiajse, who I regularly took to the beach.
bottom: We are tough! I love these boys!!

- I have also really loved getting to know the older Iris girls. They are shy, but love it when you spend time with them. I go to their dorm where they live, and just hang out. It's a wonderful place to be - they are just braiding each others' hair, sometimes cooking fish, sometimes playing strange games. :) I really like it.



I'm sorry, again, that I can't u[pdate more. I love you all very much!!!
I hope you are all really well, and are doing the practicaly things to make life more meaningful. :)
TEN MILLION TONS OF LOVE
tetra

Manchinana Jesu

Manchinana Jesu (Makua for the "In Jesus Name")

-top left picture: The pemba, Mozambique airport -top right picture: The Pemba Iris Ministries Base. The church is on the left. the road that the car on is the entrance in and out of the base. The beautiful beach is directly across the street from the base (from the direction the car is coming from)
-right:the tiny luggage belt in the Pemba airport.

The thought of trying to decide what to say and how to say it overwhelms me. There is too much!...An overwhelming amount of goodness and new life. And I am right where I’m supposed to be. At the end of this second week, my task has been not to miss anything due to weary mind and/or body. I will try to relay a bit for you, my dear friends.


I am full of joy and am eating gulping up all that I can – mentally, physically, and spiritually.
My initial reaction to life here has been that this is exactly the way I have been wanting to live. All of my normal ways of life are not only overshadowed but more or less made complete. I wake up in community – living simply (six girls in one small room. I have made little cabinet shelves to fit under my bunk bed in which I store my clothes but have no other room to myself.), then I walk out of my little house and am immediately surrounded by dirty little brown faces of beautiful wonderful, rascally, kids. There are Iris’ kids, who live on base; they are a little more shy and clean. But they are all beautiful and you can spend all of your day just spending time with and getting to know them. Then I sometimes walk to the beautiful Indian Ocean beach and read and talk with the Lord. I see fisherman, little crabs, and reflecting waters.
Then I have a class at 8 which has involved so far – Heidi sharing her heart with us and telling us about her adventures of living in China, Indonesia, England and here. She really did just come here by herself and sit on a streetcorner with children for months. She told us of how she ate cat. Haha – the children would share their food with her. Also we had Rolland Baker, Will Hart, Dan slade, and Don Weike (A Mozambican pastor who has prayed for people when they are dead and seen them rise) It has involved us getting to know the 200 or so pastors from all over Mozambique who speak only Portuguese and Makua.


-Above: Our little bedroom for 6 girls. These are two of my roomates, Laura and ruth. The blue in the background is the mosquito nets over our beds.
-Right: Ruth and I with the large Mozambican fruit that is quite delicious. behind us is an example of the houses that we lived in.

I am learning two languages at once. I have no books or even understand how to spell most of the Makua words I’m learning, but I have many lovely teachers. ( I will talk about my favorites of these teachers in a moment). So far with the pastors we have learned their Makua African songs and dance – we have had major amazing wonderful worship times – all of us in my school from 20 different nations (Australia, Finland, Belgium, South Africa are just a few) singing and dancing with African jimbae as our percussion. We have yet to hear their stories, but we do know that they are very poor and have walked or ridden on busses very far to get here. Their hearts are humble and beautiful (though there have been a few that seem to be looking for wives L ha – and I have had an interesting time trying to let them know that I am only a friend. Cultural understanding has been a small trial, but a necessary and good one).
After school every day I go the food hall which is one of my favorite places. The people that work in this place are my good friends:Widows who speak mostly Makua. I eat my little beans and rice and sit with these ladies who are my teachers! I have learned the word for friend, “ampwanaka”, and I wear it out with these ladies. One of them, Marilia, has invited me to her house twice, and I think it might be a regular outing for me. She has 8 children and they live in a bamboo house that is far from finished. You can see through the walls and it has no roof. She is a beautiful beautiful ampwanaka of mine. It is also great to eat with all of the Iris kids and pastors at meal times. There are 120-ish kids living on the base, and it has been quite an adventure to try and remember names of all the kids (Iris AND village) plus the pastors and the widows who are always on base. Just a few of the things that I do in the afternoons involve visiting the girls’ dorms (the girls that used to be orphans but are not longer!) They are shy, but they love visits. I have gone three times now, and have also visited the toddler house to hold children, and I am getting to know some the girls better. I love doing this. I think that soon I will bring some nail polish or a craft and do this with them.
Another option in the afternoons is to visit the house where the widows have sewing classes. They have a shop, which is where I will be doing most of my shopping. The money goes straight to them and their facility!!
There is also a children’s feeding and church that I have yet to visit because my class hasn’t been done in time, but I want to visit soon.
This base amazes me!! They are doing so much, and there is such love everywhere. I feel as if I am being stuffed with learning about God and the way He works, and also how to get lower and be more and more humble. I spend most of my time trying to walk from one part of the base to another and being bombarded with friends (kids, pastors, Makua ladies). Sometimes it takes me half an hour to walk a couple hundred feet.
-top picture: the hut that we had our classes in Monday through Thursday. These are some my classmates from 20 different nations!
-picture: My ampwanaka, Marilia, and her children in her house with Ruth, and I . We took this after helping her build her house (putting rocks in the walls)


Here are a couple extra highlights:

My first day of being here was a holiday,
"Un de Junio",which is basically a celebration of children! We had a lot to do – we made 1000 balloon animals :) little bags of candy, helped with the feeding of about 5000 children (…!!!...) (there was rice absolutely everywhere), washing dishes and cleaning.
-One night we had a huge worship night with the Mozambican pastors and the kids with Ben Dunn and a Makuan songwriter named Helder. We danced like crazy. Heidi was dancing holding hands with the children.So was I! It was a beautiful sight. And I believe it had deeper meaning in its unity.


- right: The children enjoying their chicken, rice and fanta soda. this is huge treat for most children.


I’ve run out of time. I have limited time to come into town and use the internet!
Two interesting facts just to throw in for fun: 1. one of my classmates is name Francis. He was murdered a couple of years ago. He was raised from the dead the day after. He is my classmate. More on that later. Please feel free to freak out, like I did.
2. (on a more silly and personal note) Heidi’s personal assistant, Helen Enga, is Bjork’s cousin. I was talking to her yesterday and she told me this. (ah!!)
I miss you all, but I'm mostly glad that I'm here. I hope that doesn't hurt your hearts.
I so want to share with you in the ways my hearty is changing. Please please RUN TO GOD - cling to Him! He is all that there is. I can see the apathy and commonplace in the U.S. lifestyle much more easily from here. :) And it is debilitating. Please get yourself desperate for more. For my sake. :)
Love you all so much
Tetra

Iris Ministries' Wish List for the orphans and schools

Ok Folks - here is a long wish list that Iris Ministries has. These things are going to the orphans, or the people they minister to. Take a look and let me know ASAP (today if possible) if you have or want to buy any of these things for me to bring. I am focusing on art and jewelry making supplies (duh ;) ) to bring!
I will let everyone know about my recent miracles and joys soon!!!!!
...I lave in four days. I feel surreal and elated.

Children

Clothing - all sizes 5 - 18

• Boys: shorts, tees and button down short-sleeve shirts, (dark colors please) and underwear (for ages 2-18).
• Girls: skirts (below knee), tees and shirts (especially for ages 12 - 18), dresses and underwear (for ages 2 – 18), girl’s hair stuff.
• Babies: girl’s preemie - 9 months.
• Shoes: sturdy sandals. Please, no flip-flops – Crocs, Tevas, Keens are great!

Infant supplies

• Crib sheets
• Cloth diapers
• Plastic pants (0 - 18 months)
• Bottles
• Wipes

Other

• Fleece blankets – all sizes!
• Feminine hygiene napkins (no tampons, please).
• Batteries
• Printer photo paper for the child care office
  

Gifts (a huge need for Children's Day, June 1st)

• Walkman CD players
• Christian/worship music CDs in Portuguese and English
• AA batteries
• Durable outdoor toys: slip n' slide, kites, baseballs and gloves, sports equipment, beach games, beach toys, building blocks, soccer balls (other sport balls, too)
• Legos (in small boxes)
• Jigsaw puzzles
• Nail polish
• Lip balm
• Earrings
• Small notebooks for journals
• Watches (for teen boys and girls)
• Water guns – etc.
• **Please no Frisbees or stuffed animals.

Medical

(If questioned by customs, please say that all items are for personal/private use only)

• Garbage/Rubbish bags: big and small
• Glass slides for under a microscope
• Children's chewable multivitamins
• Glue for wound closure
• Anti-fungal cream
• Iodine ointment
• Triple antibiotic ointment
• Chloramphenicol and erythromycin eye ointments
• Rolls of mefix tape
• Gauze bandages: 3, 5 and 10 cm wide
• Non-sterile gauze squares: 5 x 5cm
• Gauze balls (not cotton wool)
• Non-adherent dressings
• Flamazine and jelonet for burns dressings
• Non-absorbable nylon suture (2/0)
• Straight lancet blades; size 15 and 24
• Stitch cutter blades
• Non-sterile and sterile gloves; sizes medium and large only
• Oral rehydration sachets (ORS)... Ideally we would like the sachets that make a liter of solution rather than the more regular 200 mls sachets
• 5ml Medicine Spoons for children's medicines

General Center Needs

• USB Flash Drives (10)
• 30 similar Walkie-Talkies (that work together) to help our guards monitor security
• Small hand-held flashlights

Evangelism

• Keyboard cover for an Apple MacBook
• Microphones (corded and cordless)
• Guitar tuner
• 9V Batteries
• Digital camera
• Video camera
• Bass guitar
• Guitar strings
• Tents

Pastor’s Bible School

• Reading glasses (Can be bought at Wal-Mart, please keep prescription sticker attached)
• Portuguese-English Dictionaries (small pocket-sized ones are ideal)
• Men’s T-shirts (Small and Medium sizes)
• Flip-flops
• Hats

Sewing School

• Small sharp thread-cutting scissors
• Scissor for cutting fabric- 9inch in length or longer
• Shirring elastic-very fine elastic purchased by the spool able to be sewn into a zigzag stitch
• Large eye needles – require larger quality steel
• 6-8 inch zippers (dark colors) – quality
• Seam rippers
• Dressmaking pins- thicker quality long pins
• Seat belt webbing- able to be purchased by the yard- need 20 meters
• Universal sewing machine needles 80/90/100
• Simple children’s and adult sewing patterns-dresses
• Simple craft patterns
• 
  

Carpentry School

• Please bring brand name tools like Craftsmen or Snap On
• Industrial quality wood turning chisels – long handled set
• Wood turning sizing calipers- internal and external large and small
• Wood screws-40mm-75mm-1 ½ -3 inches
• 4 inch-100mm loose pin brass or zinc plated door hinges and screws
• 6inch-125mm double ended bench grinder with tool sharpening stones-
• Fine and coarse oil stones-for sharpening tools
• Bits for drill –mainly smaller sizes (phillips/regular, metric bits)
• 18-20 oz carpenters hammers – quality brands please
• Pop rivet gun and rivets aluminum
• Builders braided lines
• Long quality spirit levels-2 feet (600mm) and longer
• Chisel drills – flat high speed – range of sizes
• Metric builders tapes 5-8 meters
• Wood handsaws – sharp, hardened points, please not cheap brands-check sharpness
• Industrial quality hacksaw blades
• Leather work gloves for concrete work
• Ear protectors for noise control-earphone type
• Industrial quality wood turning chisels – long handled set
• Quality planes –“Bailey” or “Stanley” #4 or #5 size

Prayer Ministry

Prayer tools for children:

• Prayer spinner (see website: http://www.kidsprayer.com/02-grown_ups/listing/curriculum.htm)
• Squeezable globes, anywhere from several hand-held size ones to 1-2 soccer ball sized ones
• This may sound funny: cardboard swords. Not too giant but can be made by someone artsy or purchased if there is such a thing
• White roll paper to cover walls for 24-7 prayer (facilitates prophetic art in prayer room)

Curriculum for children’s prayer:

See website: http://www.kidsprayer.com/02-grown_ups/listing/curriculum.htm for ideas

• What About The Children? By Esther Ilnisky (need to search on web; may be out of print but used is okay)
• The 7 Essentials Of Kids’ Prayer
• An Hour Of Kids’ Prayer
• The Dream Giver in Portuguese (e-mail me for order info if can’t find it on web search)

Art Classes

• Ink pads (for stamp art) –qty. 20?
• Refill ink for stamp pads
• Brown paper lunch bags – qty 60
• Black construction paper
• Multi colored construction paper
• White drawing paper or copy paper
• Soft lead drawing pencils, 2b – 6b or ebony jet black extra smooth
• Blending stumps/tortillions for pencil drawing – qty. 30
• Kneaded erasers – qty 15
• Liquid glue – qty 20
• Glue sticks – qty 40
• Colored pencils – Crayola or Roseart or comparable – good quality please
• Markers –Crayola or Roseart or comparable brand – good quality please
• Watercolor paint pallets – prang or …? - good quality please
• Tissue paper – multicolored and white
• Sandpaper – variety of grades
• Yarn – variety of colors
• Wooden popsicle sticks
• Cookie cutters for use with clay/dough
• Seed beads and pony beads
• Hardware for jewelry –
• Earring wires
• Metal rings for key chains & etc.
• Necklace closures
• Cutting mat for use with x-acto knives
• X-acto knives and replacement blades
• Stapler - good quality please – the type that will open –(main use is for attaching
• Children’s artwork to bulletin boards)
• Staples – 2-3 boxes, (we go through them pretty fast)
• Pipe cleaners
• Masking tape
• Dry erase markers
• Special projects or kits—please take into account that the children come to the art room by dorms. The numbers can be upwards of 40 at one time but usually is under 30.

Art supplies we currently have plenty of:

• Tempera paints
• Paint brushes
• Foam shapes
• Pom-poms
• Crayons
• Coloring books
• Scissors
• Pencil sharpeners
• Erasers
• Rulers
• Plastic laces

Curnchtime!! - Crazy. busy. gooood!

Hello everyone!

BIGGEST ISSUE: My deadline for paying for my school is this Tuesday!!

I need to raise...about 2500 by then. Wow - that's alot, yes. But it is definitely not too much for God. And I truly trust Him to provide it even if out of thin air. :)

I am working a lot to get everything together right now. I have a fundraiser tommorrow night!! It is an interesting event, because I feel as if God has really wanted me to focus outside of myself, and downplay the fundraising itself!!! We are going to have a CRAFT FAIR from 4:30 - 7 in East Nashville - but then the rest of the evening we are going to spend seeking the Lord and worshipping. We are going to go into a neighborhood that has been hit hard by the flood and worship there. I think it will really please the Father's heart. :) It is really neat to me to see how He prompted me to do something that doesn't really make sense fundraising wise, but definitely in Nashville's current situation, and the way that the Lord works - it makes sense!! I so love the way the Lord chooses to do things. :) His ways are higher and greater than mine, and it makes me sooo excited to be a aprt of it.

Please be praying for me that I don't get overwhelemd or forget the point with all this business!!

I am going to also post a list of some Items that I am supposed to bring for those of you that are wanting to help practically (this was my friend Georgia's idea! thanks!!)

love

Tetra