This past fall I had the privilege to be part of Harvest School of Missions in Pemba, Mozambique. It was an incredible 10 weeks of being blessed and challenged by godly speakers, hands-on ministry to Mozambicans, Brazilian roommates, and a ton of new friends. First off: How can I say enough thanks to my supporters both in prayer and in giving? The generosity of so many made this life impacting experience possible and the prayers of so many carried me through. I'd like to mimic the apostle Paul and pray a blessing over you all that the Lords Love may manifest in your life as it did for me in Mozambique (Eph. 3:17-19). My heartbeat is to continue to live out the fruit of the seeds that were planted in me in Pemba.
A friend of mine had a phone call with her dad and he
asked: What did you learn in Mozambique that you couldn't have learned anywhere else? My answer would have been, "I was poured into daily by speakers, staff and
fellow students who had traveled half way across the world to talk with us, all
expressing the love and character of God. I learned that there is no fruitful ministry if not
first having true identity and intimacy with our Heavenly Father. Some of my favorite times was simply sitting in the dirt as the sky was a curtain of stars over me overwhelming me with the beauty of the Lord. Other favorite moments were when I had beautiful children
in my lap or laughing hysterically with friends or simply in conversation with
my Savior. I loved being in the red African dirt.
Heidi Baker, who founded this ministry with her husband, would
tell us a thousand times per class, “love looks like something”. I can no longer
just live for myself, something inside of me was stirred to revival where I seek to live a life of love that flows out of my love for Jesus. What will my life look like
if I obeyed the Lord fully; obeyed every conviction and challenge, responded to
every invitation to have time with him, and follow him when he invites me to love
others as he did? He tells us that “if you love me you will obey me.” I feel that I have
been listening to God but come up short in following him in areas of my life. I want to be an obedient
daughter in love, I will obey because I love him by the grace and power of the
Holy Spirit.
One morning I was exasperated with people (partly due
to the lack of coffee in my system) so while I was surrounded by people before
class I decided to close my eyes and be with the Lord for five minutes in silence,
ignoring those around. An image came to me; me having coffee with
Jesus (how I often picture my time with him), but this time sitting across from each other at this roughly made table that was made of oak. Then I got the revelation of what He was saying that this table is made out of the cross: his death on it was the price of my communion with Him. My prayer is that I will never devalue the cost of my relationship with Christ.
Hands on ministry that I was involved with was re-leaving the medical
staff in handing out medication to the
kids on the campus, to know and love these kids who struggled with chronic
illness. On Friday nights a group of us would go onto the streets and invite
women to come into our little store front, there we gave them chocolates,
manicures and pedicures. But most of all we laughed with them, looked at them
in the eye with respect, prayed for them, and butchered their language as we
tried to learn either Makua or Portuguese but in so humbling ourselves and
telling them that we want to know them and their language.
This is only a glimpse of what I did and am exited to continue to write my experiences.
Many blessings for your day!
