im a horrible blogger....ha

so its been nearly two months in mozambique, and how can my life not be changed by what is around me. much of my previous bitterness has melted away as God prunes me, gives me desire and purpose and a direction that focuses on him, his word, and his people, to turn a deaf ear to the negativity. the past month has been stellar. my and another girl have worked every day at a village feeding program that Iris puts on. with some 500 village kids every day, it can be kind of overwhelming but its always a blast, especially when the kids are behaving and singing and clapping to Jesus at the top of their lungs. the kids sit in the dirt/sand under a big tent and we lead them in songs, games go over the gospel every day, and then have a bible story to share with the kids, and then at the end kids who can answer questions about the story get wee prizes, and then we feed them, serving up 500 plates of rice and beans every day is so dirty, haha, but for most kids, this is the largest if only meal of the day for them. so thats village feeding, class is good, there are speakers from around the world, and they have just shared stories and taught about some funky mysteries of the lord. one day a fella spoke on Jesus command that we love our neighbor, free the oppressed, clothe the naked, plead for the orphans and the widows and tied it into the 8 millenium development goals set for 2025 to reduce poverty. development economics has really been laid deep on my heart. and the phrase the lord put in my heart, even though its super trendy is: there is too much capital in the west and too much potential in the rest, for the two not to meet. but, i've been reading jeffrey sachs "end of poverty" and it is phenomenal, and it is crazy for him to be talking about an impoverished substinence farming african community and then to go on outreach and be in the midst of poverty and extreme poverty. these villages which don't have access to clean water, good sanitation, soap, electricity, and they don't have enough capital to invest in better farming techniques (irrigation, fertilizer, better tools) because they don't produce to a surplus which would allow them to sell at a market and make a marginal income, but as it is, they spin about in the poverty trap and are economically unable to hoist themselves out without a strategically and carefully placed economic boost. i mean, the governments duty is too provide basic infrastructure to its citizens but this is not possible in a country that is either too corrupt or doesn't tax their citizens, thus the available capital is not present. anyways, i've been on two outreaches, basically we go into bush villages, and set up camp for a couple days, the first outreach, there was an established iris church, and we evangelised, showed the Jesus video, prayed for the sick, had the alter (altar?) call, anyways, kinda chill, the second night, these african witch doctors were banging on their drums just a few feet from where we were sleeping, and this was done in direct response to the "christian presence" that we carried with us, its a crazy world sometimes. second outreach was even better. the village kids are so curious/skittish around akuna's (white man) for many its the first time that a white person has been in close contact with them for a prolonged amount of time, a good game is just to chase the kids throughout the village, and its quite labryinth back there, but you do it with a smile and its agame for the kids, and the mamas all laugh, but you never catch them, in case they actually got scared, but after showing the jesus video they had us pray for like 150 sick people, and that is just exhausting, and my team and i were getting kinda fed up that the mozambican pastors were not preaching the word of God, just the video and then pray for healing, which are both good things, but we were insistent that we needed to preach the word to these people, so the next day with like 100 people, some team members and i preached on parts of the Word that were on our heart, and that we felt these people could benefit from, like, what the flip does it mean to live a christian lifestyle, what is grace, how do you love jesus, how do you love your neighbor/enemy, for me, this time of teaching was one of the hightlights of mozambique. later that day, we went around the village praying for the sick, and they brought this sick man to me, and he had an eye infection, the same infection i had had the week before, so i told him, i will definitely pray for you, but i am also going to treat you, so we scrounged together some gloves and 2 or 3 small med kits, and i cleaned out his eyes, then i did the same for 4 others, now there is a crowd, and this kid comes with infections all over his legs, so we clean it with what we have, antiseptic wipes, hand sanitizer and neosporin and bandaged it up, after about an hour its getting dark and this man walks up, and shows us a hole the size of an acorn and about 3/4 inch deep in the back of his leg, i couldn't really see, so i put a head lamp on, got close, and almost threw up, it was so gross and smelled so bad, so we laid him on a "bed" and i did my best to clean out the wound, then we dumped sanitizer in there, and his leg was shaking cause it must have hurt so bad, it was intense, at this point all the med kits are exhausted, but we have one roll of tape left, but no bandage, so i ask a girl if she had a sanitary pad, we took it cut it in half, put it over the wound and taped him up, it was definitely a unique way to spend my birthday, and i'll never forget it, so, after this short novella, there are two days left of class, graduation on monday, and then another 6 day outreach, and then on the 23rd of december i fly to kenya, for chapter two of this crazy/sexy adventure.....

back im pemba...

so, i write this for myself, because i need to...after driving 3 days back from beira to the iris base in pemba, i had time to think, pray, debate and discuss with my friends what we had been hearing and seeing. First, Beira was a brillant opportunity for 20 countries to come together, worship the Lord, dance with each other, share each others houses and food and intentionally love each other even with limited communication. i am becoming increasingly aware that for sustainable change in an area, you have to learn the language, regardless of the approach you are taking, missions, youth work, hotels, whatever, mastery of the language is essential if you wish to move past the hello how are you, what is your name stage. it is imperative to LIVE the gospel, and this can be done brillantly by playing games with kids, giving em high fives, sharing your food with them, praying with them, and joining in on all their crazy songs and chants. but true relationship is based in the ability to communicate. anyways, beira had a lot of good things, and a lot of things that i did not understand. On Miracles.........we brought the blind and deaf into church, and we prayed for them, i have no problem with this. I love that God chooses to pour out his love and mercy on people, however that manifests. We prayed for nearly an hour for 12 deaf children, towards the end, one could hear, i don't know how much he could hear before in comparision to now, but he could hear, so regardless it was good. but they were all up in the front, and there were some 80 of us surrounding them, praying, praying in tongues, yelling at demons of infirmity to come out, and i looked at one of the kids, and he looked scared, God nugded me, "your prayer for this child is humanity" i took his hand, and squeezed it, and each time he would squeeze back, then i just sat with him and cried, said i was sorry that he could not hear, that i loved him, that i was sorry he had never heard music or the voices of his family or the sound of water or a thousand other things....and i cried. and i wrestled, does God want/need to heal him of deafness, does God deem for His church to be edified through this child who is deaf, what if he was saved and then could preach the gospel in sign language to his friends, what a ministry that would be! i had no easy answer. the next morning, the pastor of the conference got in front and gloriously proclaimed that all 12 deaf children had been healed, and that was just not true, and this lie broke my heart. this chasing after signs and wonders, this falsity that does not spread Jesus, but almost a lust and frenzy, and a worship of the signs and fire of God, and not the God of love. I believe with all my heart, that God can move and do miracles, can raise the dead, he has done it before...but it is not based on our ability, and i've had many discussions about the nature of prayer, that i know it is effective, but how, it is not a chant or a mad lib to fill in, if God wants to move, then we need to be obedient, but we can shout for 8 hours and if God is not in it, then nothing will happen, but maybe make us believe that we need to try harder and they need to believe more. Woe to us if we overspiritualize the world, if every headache, cough, and flat tire is an attack from the enemy, there is physical life and then supernatural darkness whcih sometimes we give more credit than it deserves. I long to see the blind eyes opened, the love of God so overwhelm someone that they realize their life was bought, with love, and that their joy is to live a humbled life before the lord, i long to feel the fire of God and to have the Holy spirit manifest in me however he sees fit. i know God has given me/placed in me deep compassion for the broken, for children with nothing. i have had many remarkable moments here, was given a good teachable moment when i was able to describe to someone in favor of the death penalty the radical love and redemptive grace of jesus, and what it means to physically and emotionally, love the person in front of you, and consider them above you; and this was an Iris Student. she then went on to tell me that she loved angels, and had visions and loved all the crazy supernatural stuff of the bible. which is good. but if we have not love, then these are just a clanging gong or worthless prophesy if we have not love as the radical foundation. (radical, latin word: radix, which means root, thank you shane claiborne, haha). but, i am learning so much, we have organized a gentlemans debate panel, where the 20 guys from the school will meet weekly and discuss such issues as original sin, creationism/evolution, grace to the unreached, the answer to africa, the male role in church, and a myriad of other topics, then we'll drink cokes and tell fart jokes, can't be esoteric all the time. but, i am learning a lot, seeking discernment from the lord on what is Him, what is our emotions, and what is flat out wrong or a lie. Woe to us if we lie about the workings of God for the sake of presenting a miraculous or healing ministry, there is more to God then just the Fire of the Spirit, what about love, joy, peace, wisdom, discernment...of the Spirit. alright, my thoughts end here.
peace to all of you in the name of Jesus,

joe

Mozambique bro...

greetings to anyone and everyone checking into this blog. all 5 of you, haha. right now i am in Beira Mozambique, a city in the south, and we just finished attending a 5 day international super crazy church conference. It was nuts! over 20 nations attended and there was just wicked worship and teaching every day, it was stellar if not a little exhausting. The best part of the conference for me was when we did street outreach, which was awesome. we just went into this little village, with interpreters and told people about jesus, we had one fella, celino, give his life to the lord right on the spot, then he ended up attending the rest of the conference with us, but in the streets, when there is a big white thrombus there are bound to be kids, so we had like 30 kids and i got to sing some songs and do some dances and just get crazy with them, i loved it. my favorite part of the week. then we had a big crowd, we preached through our interpreter, prayed for people and then sang more songs, with a lot of hand motions, cause they really don't know what they are singing, haha! but, it took 3 days on the back of flatbead trucks to get here, man, that was exhausting and hot, but kinda forced you into community, in a good way. i have met loads of awesome people here from all over the world, the mission students are awesome, there are 20 guys or so and we are all really close, and about 70 girls, too many to handle. but, the base in pemba is awesome, there is a student compound, prayer gardens, cafeteria, orphanage, school, church, mozambican pastors school, its stellar, one day for class...which was just worship, the mozambican pastors came up and 200 of us in this tiny hut sang and dang mozambican worship songs to jesus. it was beautiful. after dinner every night, it gets dark at 5:30, the iris kids just grab a drum and in the dirt we all just dance together and get funky, its beautiful, that is definitely my favorite part of this whole experience. playing soccer or eating a meal or trying to learn Makua, the local language, and singing and dancing, and the crazier i dance, the more the kids get into it. so fun. iris has a cool village feeding every day, and thats cool to be a part of, some 200 village kids come in, we sing songs, there is a bible lesson and then they chow down on some stellar rice and beans. the kids are adorable, if not prematurely old, with having to deal with the pressures and harsh nature of life for impoverished mozambicans. anyways, there is just way too many things happening for me to write them all down, it would fill volumes, but this is a good time to soak in the Lord, he has given me a good and healthy hunger for his word, and to see the authentic gospel lived out, to learn what is God, what is hype, and what is the most effective and selfless way to live my life in such a way, so that children don't die, spiritually and physically. but, community is stellar, food is actually really good, teaching is stretching me, and God is good, and i want him so badly, i just want to search after the things of the lord, and its a good search. we spend our nights drinking coffee, sitting on each others porches, discussing the bible, philosophy of religion, ideas about creation, predestination, adam and eve, original sin, truth about the holy spirit....it is good stuff. so life is good, i'll try to blog more frequently, so its less scattered, but yeah....
"Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord?"
"Yes, we love the Lord!"

bandito for peace,

joe

3 days to go

i leave on friday morning at 1:20 pm.  the 10,000 needed for this trip has indeed come in in full.  Praise God! All my tickets, shots, visa's and such are all in order.  I can't believe it is so close.  Love on me Father so that I may love others well.  

bandito for peace, 

joe

one month to go

one month to go...still need to raise some $9,000...haha

T.I.A. Mate...