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.....