The Journey Ends

WOW WOW WOW!! Haha what a journey! I don't even know where to begin on this final blog. I first want to thank every single one of you who followed me on any part of this trip and especially if you read all of them. I hope that you were encouraged and blessed all throughout the messages and if any unnecessary negativity was put across i truly apologize. My heart has been for these blogs to open eyes and bless the people from my home land that I will always hold close to my heart no matter how far and long I travel for. So many of you have been such a part of where I am today and what I am going to do in the future. But for my last blog I want share my final feelings on Mozambique and what it was like and then go into my two weeks of Zimbabwe and all the amazing testimonies that occurred, and then finish with some final comments.

Mozambique was 10 of the most incredible weeks full of maturing and growth that I could never experience anywhere else in many ways. Some of it was difficult and some of it so amazing at the same time. Living in one of the most impoverished countries in the world will change you forever though no matter how hard or easy it was. I want to leave you with some thoughts that will most likely never leave my mind for as long as I live. One of them is of course the little children. Jesus is all over these little children it's amazing seeing them once orphans and now adopted into the kingdom and realizing that everything is now theres instead of having nothing. And just a reminder over half of the population is under the age of 12 i believe. Another memory with the children is that of the fighting over food. At least 5 times did I watch left over food be thrown in the middle of the kids because there wasn't enough and then see 50-100 kids kick punch scratch and throw each other to get to the box of bread or bag of chips. All bets of friendships were off when it came to this and never did my mind accept that it was okay even though I had seen it multiple times. I just got more pissed off at the devil every time it happened. Another one was eating the same 3 meals for 10 weeks. Two pieces of bread for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch, rice and a sauce for dinner (and a piece of chicken on wednesday dinner). I will also never forget the humility of the Mozambique pastors. I could go for pages on how they would never take credit for anything they did and never once puffed up there chests at anyone. They always took the lowest route without taking any credit, which is just what Jesus would have done. On the sad side I will never forget the lack of emotion many of them had due to the many tragedies and loss that they have had in their life. The only thing they knew for so many years was poverty and hunger which deadens life after a matter of time and before you know it it's easier to not let the good or bad stuff affect them so that it's easier when the bad stuff happens which was very sad at times. It's obvious that I will never forget the fact that over 90% of the people live in a hut made of mud and straw that contains a couple pots to cook and maybe a straw bed or two to sleep on. But with that comes the atmosphere of relationships and built on people instead of stuff like phones and tv like it is here. And most of all I will remember the verse "the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few." These people are so hungry for the true gospel and have the opportunity to be more prosperous if there were just more people in the world who wanted to see it change and decided to do something about it. Those are just a few nuggets I wanted to leave you with on my journey in Mozambique. A quick funny story before i go onto Zimbabwe.

I was determined to eat food like a king in the Johannesburg airport before going to Zimbabwe and it backfired on me real quick. Because my body was so use to bread and rice with beans the fruit and meat did not settle so well in my stomach. Haha within 48 hours I had stuff flowing from both the top and the bottom and was not able to keep anything down. I don't know if my stomach has ever felt so much pain before, and the funny thing is I would probably eat the same way even if I knew it was going to happen because it tasted that good haha!

But anyways, Zimbabwe was one of the coolest experiences if not the coolest I have ever been through. The spiritual atmosphere is very similar to that of the US in that 80% of the country sais there Christian and probably half of that walk in the love of Jesus. But let me just brag on the fact that everything, especially the food is so cheap it's amazing. Because the economy collapsed years ago they now use US dollars. I bought plenty of $3.50 chicken dinners with a drink and plenty of 25 cent bakery items. Not to mention I went on a $6 safari and got within 5 feet of a zebra and 5-10 yards of a giraffe and plenty of other amazing animals. Zimbabwe was once the power house of Africa along with South Africa until the government became corrupt and everything crashed. Now it's a law that a picture of the prime minister must be in every single building. The most amazing thing is that they SPEAK ENGLISH. Haha after 10 weeks of a language barrier it was so amazing to be able to minister to people without an interpreter. To give you an idea on the economy it's almost a perfect middle ground from Mozambique to America. Many people still didn't have electricity or cars but they had houses built of concrete and mattresses to sleep on. They still live on a month to month bases but for the most part people are able to feed there families and get by with a couch and mini TV in the living room. As we try to take in the change of culture we get a few days before we go into traveling mode and going out to the villages to have Christmas parties for all the kids. Not only did we drive about 30 hours in 4 days to get to the different villages but we did it with 4 people to one row of seats in a car. It wasn't the most comfortable but I tell you what if you want to get to know some people than just drive 30 hours and be squished right next to them, it was all worth it. Now onto the good stuff.

As i slowly through experience find out who I am as a son of the most high God I realize how little I have to do to see the most amazing works of my Father. The first testimony is that of a blind grandma that my friend James prayed for. She had been blind for 5 years and had never been able to see her grandchildren. As James prayed for her nothing happened until about 2 minutes after praying. The grandma then began to move her hands back and forth as if she was looking at them. She then started looking at everyones shirts and yelling out the color that they were. She was touched by the power of God and was forever changed. The best part for my friend James was to walk back a couple minutes after praying and seeing her rock her grandchild in her arms and looking at him/her for the first time in her life. If that doesn't hit you then this story might.

As we were leaving victoria falls, one of the seven wonders of the world we were laughing full of joy after enjoying one of our Father's greatest creation in the world. We were truly being kids! And that's when the power of God begins to manifest. As we left the park this man was asking us to sign this paper and my friend said no but what I can do is pray for you. This man had been deaf and mute for a number of years now. Four of us gathered around him and began to ask Jesus to touch this man with His love. After one minute of praying I look over and see a group of about 20 workers all making fun of us. They were laying hands on each other and laughing and mocking us because they thought we were just going to pray and see nothing happen and then give the man money (this is my favorite part of the story). Three of the workers were more curious and were standing right by us and finally after about 3 minutes of prayer the man begins to point to one of his ears telling us that he can hear slightly. My friend looks at the 3 workers and sais "has he ever been able to hear before?" He was so shocked that the man began to hear that all he could do was look at us in shock and say "no" hahahaha. I then look over at the group of about 20 workers and nobody was saying a word with there faces full of fear finally realizing they just made fun of an alive man named Jesus who still works miracles. A couple more minutes of prayer and he began to speak the first words out of his mouth in years. Before we were done he was now hearing out of both ears and speaking from his tribal language. I then walked over to the group of 20 workers and decided to do a quick preach and tell them that the power of God just touched that man and that Jesus loves every single one of them even if they did make fun of Him. The best part was seeing the smile on the mans face after being healed and watching his whole body light up with joy. It was truly amazing.

So our faith was high and we were ready for more haha. We then asked Jesus if we can run into a cripple before we left now that we have scene the deaf blind and mute healed. An hour later in the Chicken restaurant sure enough a man was sitting there with the bent type crutches that fit in the elbows sitting next to him. My friend James and I just begin to talk to him and love on him before we asked if we could pray for him. After a quick prayer we asked the man to stand up and try it out. He then began to slowly walk back and forth with no crutches and a smile on his face. Twenty minutes later we got to watch the man walk out of the restaurant with the crutches in his left hand hahahahaha GO JESUS!

I could go on and on of other testimonies and I know so many of you are wondering why doesn't it happen here in America? And there is many reasons but the main one is faith by the person being healed. Jesus said in scripture "Get up and walk your faith has healed you." These people truly believe that when we tell them Jesus is going to heal them that they are going to be healed. Here in America people say "oh that's so nice of you to want to pray but it's been like this for a while" or thinking "oh sure but nothing will happen". Jesus wants to heal in every situation I don't care what the situation is! He wants to bring heaven on earth! Here are some of my final thoughts.

The reason Christianity is dead and almost powerless today is because satan keeps the Children of God from knowing who they really are. If we really believed the bible when it sais "those who believe will lay the hands on the sick and they will be healed" and that Jesus is full of "love joy and peace" which is what every drug is a counterfeit of than everybody would want to be a Christian. As I fall more in love with Jesus and cut off more religion that has clung on to me I experience more pleasure than I ever have in my life even when I was on my highest of highs with weed and alcohol. Religion has so demonized the church it makes nobody want to join it. If i thought christianity was just going to church and following rules I definitely wouldn't want to do it either. Who wants to follow rules and get up early on Sunday to just fall back asleep. If this is the only thing that you take from all of this take that true Christianity is full of the greatest and most pleasurable love joy and peace. More pleasure than you can find anywhere in the world. The goal of Jesus dying on the cross was to restore us back to the garden of eden and right relationship with our Father. What does eden mean? It means pleasure. So for all of you who have been hurt by religion and the church or judged whatsoever I apologize. I don't care if you're sleeping with every girl or guy, an alcoholic or someone who just committed a mass murder and killed 50 kids Jesus loves you fully no matter what you do and I am going to do my best to love you as well. And I sit here and say out of love that when you truly meet the living man Jesus you will never be more satisfied in your life. Oh yea and you get to store up riches in heaven that will last forever that include real gold and a real house being built for you in heaven. Oh yea and you get to set people free from demons. Oh yea and you get to walk with no fear not afraid to die at any point.

In no way am I close to being holy or having anything straight all I can say is what the Lord has put on my heart. I am so far from being where I would like to be with Jesus and I mess up every day multiple times a day but that doesn't mean my goal isn't to still walk like Jesus walked anymore. That will always be my goal no matter how far I fall short. I love all of you and once again I am so thankful for you following me on this journey. If anyone at all would like to talk deeper or more about the trip I would love to anytime you can. Just send me a Facebook message or something. Have a wonderful merry Christmas with family and friends and may you be blessed times a million!

Bush Bush of Africa

What’s up guys! Another amazing week in Mozambique Africa! I hope all of you guys are enjoying the cooler weather while it gets hotter every day here. No longer is it a joke about going outside and cooking stuff on the pavement, because from 10-3pm I probably really could. This week I just want to purely tell about my experience in the bush bush of Africa. There are so many things to tell and explain but I really genuinely just want to tell you how amazing and fun it was and try to paint the picture of true Africa outside the city and city villages, otherwise known as the bush bush.

The bush bush is anything basically 2 hours drive or more outside of any city, which basically means that about 90% of Mozambique is considered bush bush. If you go about 10 hours drive or more from a city it’s called the bush bush bush haha. We only had a six hour ride to our destination which was very interesting. We managed to pack about 12 people in the back of a big truck and the roads are anything but paved haha. After about 3 hours it started to poor and it just so happened that our trucks cover was torn all over. Therefore we stopped and fit about 25 people in the back of one bigger truck. We were soaked and now standing or kneeling on the bumpiest ride ever haha it was quite exciting! The bush bush is like nothing I have ever seen before. Whoever said over population is going to happen is quite unintelligent because there was enough open land to fit millions and millions. Nothing but dead trees and dirt for hours everywhere around the village we arrived at. Now if you remember when I stayed in the village about 10 minutes from where I am staying kids were a little scared of white people. Some of the kids in the bush bush were literally scared to get within 10 yards of me until they got warmed up to me.

The kids were by far my favorite part by the end of the trip. Forget everything I have ever told you about poverty in Pemba (the city I am staying by). Being in true Africa amongst the village gave me a whole new idea of poverty. Some kids were walking around with no pants while others had rashes all over their head. I know I have mentioned poverty quite a bit but this last story changed me forever and thought it should be shared. After breakfast we had some left over rolls and thought it would be good to share it with the village kids. So one of the mommas of the village started handing out the rest of the bread rolls one by one. Everything was going smoothly until one person soon realized there wasn’t going to be enough for everybody. Madness broke out amongst the children and fights started everywhere as I literally saw the box fly in the air. Although it was over quick it seemed like it lasted forever. All I could do was look at the ground and try to process what I just saw. One moment they act like they are all related, and the next they are punching each other in the face for the last piece of bread. Even the Christian Mozambiquans take part in this and other situations similar. The Lord began speaking to me that it is because the principality of poverty that exists over these people, they may fight for a piece of bread when they have rice and beans waiting for them at home. It’s almost like the devil lies to them and sais they must steal and fight to survive when it’s not true in most cases.

After breakfast we split up into teams to go house to house and share the gospel or encourage other Christians. The first house we stopped at was 5 guys and a woman sitting outside the house hanging out. We soon figured out 3 were muslim and 3 were Christian. I learned so much from this house. The problem here in Africa if any of you come will soon find out is discipleship. Most of these Christians say they are Christians because they accepted Jesus as their savior and Lord one day a long time ago which definitely makes them saved. But after that day of being saved they were never once told how to live a life full of Jesus and living out the destiny that is prepared for them. And the majority of Muslims have never heard the true gospel. They only get the messed up version that their mosque feeds them. After about 45 minutes of talking the one Muslim wanted Jesus and the husband and wife of the house were going to go to church on Sunday but said they were not ready to accept Jesus. It amazed me how simple the questions these people were asking! Missionaries come here all the time and preach the gospel in huge meetings but no one ever stays to disciple the village. I am so serious when I say any of you who know Jesus that are reading this could easily come to a village that has about 1000 people and disciple the whole village to growing into intimacy with the Father. It’s not a joke. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few has become so real to me. We visited a couple other houses that ended in many simple questions and answers that I’m sure most of you could have answered. This is just an example that Jesus just wants us! These people just wanted us and the simple answers and friendship we had to offer. We weren’t some crazy bold people walking in with the anointing of apostle Paul. We just gave these people our time and lead at least 5 people to Jesus. Yea I guess that’s a decent morning.

After relaxing and hanging out with the kids for the rest of the day we began to get ready for the night. The whole night consists of us driving another hour to the other village, meeting the chief, king and elders of the village, play around with the kids for a couple hours and then show the famous Jesus Film on a projector screen for everyone to see. After arriving we all got on our knees and met the king who is basically the overseer of three different villages and this was one of them. He was a wonderful man that was full of laughter. It was funny to think that even the chief and elder had ripped up clothes. Before I knew it I found myself in front of about 200 kids imitating everything I did haha. If I raised my right hand they raised their right hand, if I jumped they jumped etc. It was basically a huge game of Simon Sais accept nobody gets out. They thought it was quite funny. About 30 minutes later I got asked to play in a soccer game against the villagers. I hate soccer and I am not going to explain how the one goal we lost was my fault ha. After all the playtime it was game time. Everybody started setting up the sound equipment and the film screen while the village began to crowd around.

Before I knew it there was about 4-500 people right in front of our faces ready to listen to whatever we had to say. At this moment things were shifting in the spirit all around us. Battle broke out that we couldn’t see but could feel all around us. One of our girls immediately started throwing up, and another one began to get severe attacks from the devil. Others noticed stuff happening all around the crowd that could easily be scene as schemes of satan. So they all began to intercede as me and the girl went up to share our testimonies before the film. I never enjoyed being in front of 4-500 people so much in my life. After sharing my story and giving a quick little preach it was time for the movie. Needless to say they love watching movies haha. After a 2 and a half hour movie of the life of Jesus and what he did the lead pastor came up and preached. After a quick sermon the entire team came forth and boldy told anybody with sickness to come down to the front to receive prayer, whether it be for a blessing which mostly was, or to be prayed for healing. I could sit here and say everybody got healed that I prayed for but here is the reality. Although many kids gave me thumbs up and smiled and did all sorts of things after being prayed for healing I don’t speak one bit of their language and their was no true way of knowing because most of their sicknesses were in their stomach and head, nothing physically scene. There was one momma though that couldn’t even raise her shoulder before me and two others started praying and by the end she was doing windmills with her shoulder and stretching it in every angle. Hundreds stormed the front to where literally bigger kids were shoving little kids out of the way to be prayed for first. I have never seen people so hungry in my life to receive prayer it was amazing.

The goal of the whole experience is to plant a church and disciple the village with a local pastor. This experience will be remembered for the rest of my life. To think I am going to be doing stuff like that for two weeks in Zimbabwe gets me pretty pumped! I only have 10 full class days left and a little over two weeks total before I go to Zimbabwe! I might not be able to post a blog next week just a heads up!

Thanks again for taking the time and reading what’s going on in my life and over here it really means a lot! And a special shout out to my bros from Allen you guys know who you are I love yall so much! Have a great week everybody may it be overflowing with joy like Paul spoke of!

Darkness in Absence of Light

Hey kunyas (it’s the new word for caucasion)! Haha it’s good to get back on here again and let you guys know what’s been happening. Jesus has been taking me on such an adventure the last two weeks on the inside of me for the most part, but it’s been amazing. I had one of the most amazing experiences going into the village and living with the family for a night! I also want to share some testimonies of experiences in town that occurred at night. One is positive and one isn’t so positive. And then I have a couple more stories in between. Get your popcorn ready because it’s about to be good!

Last Saturday was a night I will never forget. It was a night full of adversity, new beginnings for the future, and joy all mixed in with a dose of humility that would not exactly be seen in the Western World. It’s something that all the students go through called Immersion, where they drop three of us off at the village with a pastor and his family and we live with them for 24 hours. I have seen the village homes from afar and walked in through a few of them but never I have gone deep like I did this time. After getting dropped off as far as the car could go we had another 20 minute walk to get to her house. The walkways between the houses were narrow and filled with trash. As we began to go deeper and deeper being lead by the wife off the pastor, you could tell it got less and less common to see a white person. The houses were just as if on the commercials of third world countries and the way they live. Some lived in shacks but for the most part it was mud huts that consisted of 2-3 rooms and a little walkway to split the rooms. Most had straw roofs but some had tin. Mostly everybody sleeps on either mats or day beds, which is like straw made beds. I think very few actually had mattresses. With her lot and everything included on it everything could probably be bought for about 100 US dollars. And the only thing I am including is the bamboo sticks to help the mud stay, about 3 or 4 pots and then the day beds, along with 1 table.

After reading that you might think man what do they eat? Probably rice and maybe some beans and bread but probably not all the time. The rest of what I am about to share is going to be a testimony of how Jesus came to serve not to be served. And that doesn’t just mean letting someone borrow something. Jesus came as low as He could and gave the best that He could. Not only did I eat spaghetti and fish that night, but the next morning I had eggs with French fries, bread and tea(who knows how long they saved to do that). They also gave their bedroom up for the couple that I was with and let them sleep in their mattress and under their mosquito net while the pastor and his wife slept in the kitchen/kids room witch had no mosquito net. The momma would not let us do anything! Even if we tried sometimes she would not let us do it because in her eyes we were at her house and we were their to be served not to serve. It was probably the most relaxing enjoyable 24 hours I have ever experience. I just had to relax and rest in my Father’s hands while I was served.

The kids in the village were a whole different experience. We weren’t there for more than 30 minutes before 20 kids were outside the gate of the house looking in at the couple and me I was with. Haha most were too afraid to come into the gate. This was just too easy for me to have fun. Of course I went outside the gate and started chasing them around and watch them laugh hysterically while running away. Only a few were legitimately afraid of me haha the rest didn’t know what to do. But it’s funny because love transcends all languages and within 10 minutes we were all having a dance party in the middle of the houses. I never felt like a child of God more in my entire life! I knew that by me just being there and abiding in Jesus and being around these kids that heaven was being released. Us Christians have heaven inside of us, it’s just a matter of us releasing it so that His will could be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here is an example of heaven not being on earth.

I am beginning to realize that Satan is attacking the younger generation more and more not only because the majority of the population is under 20 but because the key to the future of the Kingdom lies heavily on the upcoming generation. To watch how violent many of these kids are is one of the most disturbing things I have witnessed since being here. As I was hanging out with some of the kids about 10 yards over I see two kids about 12 years old fighting as if they were two men at a bar. Both swinging as hard as they could with absolutely no rules. I helped separate the first one but after that I was in shock. As they continued to be separated they brought them back together to make peace as one of them got close enough to cheap shot him right in the face. This continued for about 15 minutes where they would break up and then one of them would break through the kids and cheap shot the other. Everything from kicking in the stomach to punching in the face. These 12-14 year old kids had more testosterone than most 17 year olds in America it seemed like. I was in such shock as I stood afar not knowing what to do anymore and seeing that the multitude of kids didn’t want me involved or help. The more I see the more it makes me want to destroy it. Last night was one example.

The Lord is really destroying the fear of man that is in me so that I can walk closer to his fullness. Last night me and two friends decided to go get some frango which means chicken at this restaurant. I say restaurant but it really turns into a bar at night flooded with darkness (prostitutes, pimps, and foreign men in town looking for sex). I believe I was told that the average prostitute is sold for 7 mets which is about 25 cents in US dollars. So anyways we were hungry for food and to release the kingdom of heaven on earth. After getting our food and eating my friend had a brilliant idea of starting a dance party in the middle of the place and worship Jesus through our dance to release heaven and angels in that place to replace the demons that had stronghold over that place. So while about 15-20 guys are playing pool and drinking beer and about 5-10 people eating we began to dance to the loud club music. Within minutes we had 3 to 4 others that were dancing with us. Two of which were drunk haha but that’s okay. All we could do was be faithful and worship Jesus in the midst of darkness the results are not our responsibility. Did half the place look at us like we were stupid, you bet your bottom dollar they did haha. But I am beginning to care more about saving souls and releasing heaven than what people think of me. On the way home we stopped off at the Rahab ministry that Iris does on Friday nights which takes in prostitutes and mommas that want their feet washed and to be prayed over and get their nails done and all that fun girly stuff. It didn’t take long while we were there for a pimp to come up screaming at us about why were here. Men literally come up to the stand that Iris has for the ministry and yells out at the girls how they want to have sex and explain it in the most vulgar language possible. Just being real with you guys.

As more and more darkness is being opened to my eyes more and more revelation about how to defeat it is coming. Romans 8:7-8 sais “[That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot. So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him” (Amplified). This is saying that when you are constantly thinking about things of the flesh like what you’re going to eat what you’re going to wear, what is your boyfriend or girlfriend going to think or anything that is not feeding your spirit, you cannot please God. Dying to self doesn’t just mean okay God I’ll get up early and read my bible it means literally yielding control of your whole body to the Holy Spirit so that you may experience the fruit of the Spirit which is love, peace, joy, kindness, patience and all the other cool things that people want. When possessed by the Holy Spirit all the joy peace and love comes from within and floods out. That’s why the world should look at Christians and says “why is he so happy or why does he have so much peace”. Where as when in the flesh things from the outside make you happy inside. This includes food, drinks, TV, sports, drugs, alcohol or anything else that was created to fulfill the pleasure that was designed to be fulfilled by Jesus. I realized that as more and more I live possessed by the Holy Spirit the Kingdom of Heaven flows from within into the world. You can still have the Holy Spirit and not be controlled by it because obviously we still sin and the Holy Spirit would not lead you to sin. But as the Spirit more and more controls us, the less we will sin, and the more light we will be to the world!

One way to do that is have a prayer meeting from 11pm-5am haha. We did it last night and it was very good. The more we soak with Jesus the more room the Spirit has to move. We have to understand that it is never God’s fault that evil is as prevalent as it is. I am sick of people in the West saying why would God let people suffer like that when their driving 10-30,000 dollar cars and could buy beds for an entire city with it. The reason there is so much evil is because the Church has not risen! He has chosen to use us!!!!! What an honor! It is possible in this moment right now for nobody in the world to be starving if the West would help. “Oh well it’s their fault they live like that.” Yea you’re right it’s all these hundreds of millions of kids fault they were born into a family with no money and no way of going to school and barely being able to find a job. I’m telling you right now the Kingdom of heaven is based on the talents. Some of these people who never get out of the village will be living in a mansion in heaven because of their humility, while many pastors houses will be half the size in heaven because of their selfish ambition and seeker friendly church that desires to please people. With much given much is expected. Just about all of you are in the top 10% richest in the world. Much is expected of all of us!

I go on outreach next weekend to the bush bush! Which is basically in the middle of no where. We will preach the gospel and pray for the sick! Be expecting some cool testimonies next week. Only two maybe three blogs left before I go to Zimbabwe for two weeks and then I will have one last one when I get home! Oh and I also found out more information about my trip to Zimbabwe! Wow I can’t wait to tell you what God does I already know it’s going to be amazing! I love all of you so much I know I might have come off a little harsh but my heart is to encourage that mustard seed in us all and not to condemn. We can all change the world!

A quick shout out to my family back home being supportive of me as well! I love you guys so much and I would never be able to do any of this without each of you!

The Pemba Special

Well hello again awesome people back home! We are just now finishing the fourth week and now have five more to go. It’s weird to think that I’m almost half way done with my trip in Mozambique before I go to Zimbabwe for two weeks then back to Texas. The trip has been more than I could have ever expected in so many ways. Through living with Mozambique pastors and other internationals, living on the base with so many kids, living in a third world country, and getting blasted by God I have learned so much. This week I want to talk to you guys about some more realities of what goes on here in the matter of homes, the living conditions and the families. Hopefully a few testimonies will help with what I am trying to get across. And yes we still don’t have running water. Going on 3 weeks I think beside a few moments when it turns back on and then off again.

Haha I will just start out by saying that this week was by far the hardest week! There is an optional corporate fast on Mondays like in acts. (The only way for the Church return to Acts is to regain the unity they had and they said they did it through prayer and fasting and devoting themselves to the apostles teachings! It confuses me why that sermon is never taught in church.) I was getting sick throughout the whole day but I didn’t know it was sickness, I just thought I maybe wasn’t drinking enough water or something. As soon as 5pm Monday hit I was out on the bed with a fever through the roof and a splitting head ach with body aches. Three hours later I was throwing up and just after that I had diarrhea. It was what they called the Pemba Special hahaha. They first thought I had malaria but we soon realized other people were getting similar symptoms so we knew it was just a bug going around. There was also rumors of witch doctors getting a hold of certain peoples clothes and putting curses on us but who knows. I do know that last Harvest School a witch doctor got a hold of a group of kids urine on outreach and they were all throwing up at the end of the trip. It’s not a joke, were in a war, it’s just that satan would rather the West not know about the actual battle so that they can just keep silent as they are and let the rest of the world struggle in darkness as they are. But to make a long story short because I could not even drink water without throwing up and I went to the bathroom at least once an hour I lost around 10 pounds in a matter of 35 hours. My stomach got so messed up I am now on my 5^th day without a normal you know what. Haha I’m not trying to grose yall out just trying to paint a picture of reality.

And it’s okay because what satan intends for evil God uses for good and I got plenty of revelation through it as well so I’m very thankful. It also puts it in reality when right down the street entire villages are living on absolutely no water because the wells are drying up. Most of them are drinking a half cup of water a day in severe heat. Mommas are then walking 10s of miles a day on that much water just to get the water for the rest of the family. That being said it leaves plenty of room for Jesus to come in and save the broken! Haha yesterday on the way to the hospital to pray for people my friend and a translator, plus I ran into a super super drunk guy that was all over the place. So we said haha what a perfect guy to give the love of Jesus. After about 5 minutes of random talk and him slurring his words to the translator all we really wanted to do is pray for him and release him of his drunken demon. We prayed for a couple of minutes and he then paused when we were done. He explained to the translator that before we prayed he drank many many drinks (not knowing we knew haha) and after we were done it was as if he had no drinks. We invited him to church got his number and then watched him walk away in a straight line with a smile on his face. We have to start looking at situations of darkness as situations as opportunity to bring the kingdom. We all have Jesus in us and Jesus is the kingdom! Just release it and stop holding onto it! Even the Muslims want it!

Haha when we were in the hospital praying for people there was a muslim father all dressed in his muslim clothes. Around here Christians are notorious for praying for people and seeing them get healed. I mean I guess the bible did say we will lay hands on the sick and they will be healed. So I stood there as the muslim man moved out of the way so that we could pray for the boy. When you have something that people want and it’s irresistible it’s a lot easier to spread the gospel than we think. I am not saying this stuff to ruffle peoples feathers and start debates. I am also not saying every person we pray for will be healed. I am saying we need to be good stewards with which we are given and be faithful. That means praying for the sick and actually believing for the healing! The rest is up to God! It's amazing what happens when we just show up and pray and be faithful.

I want to also tell you another two stories that have to do with my young Mozambique pastors. I know this isn’t the most uplifting blog but these things were really on my heart to share and to show the need of the Church stepping up INTO the darkness not AWAY. I found out the other night that two of my closest Mozambique buddies, one 22 and one 24 have been severely hurt in family situations. Both of their wives cheated on them with other men while they attended bible school the previous years. One of them is so bad the family won’t even accept clothes or anything from him because they want nothing to do with him and don’t want him contacting their daughter at all. At first I was disgusted that the women couldn’t wait for them while they were in bible school and then my heart sunk when they both said that the reason the wives left them was because they were too poor. Even though they are hardworking Godly men the families of the wives will have nothing to do with them because their financial status. I also found out that my other roommate was an alcoholic and beat up a cop when Jesus told him he needed to give his life, which after the next Sunday he never drank again.  The most amazing thing that blows my mind about these men and their stories is that they are the most humble joyful men I have ever been around! And yet we have families living in jumbo nice houses just making it by day by day hoping they don’t kill somebody out of frustration. Every relationship opens my eyes more and more to what really goes in this world.

On another note the Lord has been freeing my heart in so many ways throughout the first four weeks it has truly been a miracle. A part of that like I said is just hearing others stories whether it be Mozambique or the Internationals. It really is amazing what happens when I just sit down with somebody and not think about anything else and just hear their story. Anybody can go up to someone who is the awkward one or the one that no one likes and say hey “how’s your day doing?” I guarantee when we begin to sit and hear these peoples stories we won’t think so harshly of them. I guess the whole don’t judge a book by it’s cover is for real ha.

As I close I will be honest, after getting sick I really wanted some ice cream or chocolate haha. I had to make a little trip to the market and gather a stash for my room before I took somebody else’s. But anyways thanks again for everything I pray a special blessing over all of you as one of satan’s favorite holidays Halloween is here which is a special time to spread the light! And for anyone that wanted to give clothes or anything i was told it takes about 1 month for me to get something haha so that won't work too well, just go onto irismin.org if you would want to give something. Any and all of your prayers are so appreciated and I am so so thankful!!!!!!!

Love Peace Joy

Friends and Family! I know only four days have passed by since my last blog but some awesome things occurred so I thought I would post a short one with some more cool testimonies. My heart is sinking more and more into the Love of Jesus even though some of the lessons might not be so easy to learn. Many people are beginning to miss their homes already along with the comfort. We have basically been out of running water for ¾ of the time and having bread for breakfast and beans and rice for lunch and more rice for dinner everyday. I personally love rice and beans haha but others not so much. But anyways I am going to share about a cool experience with the Mozambique Pastors and then another testimony of a family, and then I will end with what Jesus is teaching me. And maybe one or two more cool things.

On Wednesday during our class period time, I experienced something I will never forget. They brought in the Mozambique Pastors from the Mozambique Bible School so that we could all participate in the washing of each other’s feet just like Jesus did with the disciples. It’s one thing to read the story and to actually do it your self. In Mozambique peoples feet are hard as rocks and always dirty which makes it very very honorable in their culture to wash another’s feet. They began to worship as we the Internationals washed the feet of the Mozambique’s first. As I began to wash these feet covered in callus my heart sunk deeper and deeper. To think that the King of the world that could strike the whole world dead in one second came and took the LOWEST role still blows my mind. He came to show his love and goodness, and I’m beginning to find it’s more and more irresistible. We then switched and they washed our feet. Let’s just say it hit me pretty hard haha. Tears began to roll down my eyes as I pictured Jesus the one washing the feet. It was an amazing experience. Later that night at our night class I heard two of the most amazing testimonies in my life, but I will only tell one.

           

They put two young men on the stage that had grown up through Iris at the base and are now amazing men of God. This story I will never forget for the rest of my life. He was now a 24 year old pastor/interpreter which began being abandoned as a baby. His mother could not afford to take care of him so just a few weeks after he was born his mother put him on the street to be ran over by a car, but God had other plans. The first truck that came was an army truck that stopped before killing him and picked him up to take care of them at one of their refuge bases. After 5 years there his grandmother showed up one day and took him to her home. Two years later his grandmother decided she can’t take care of him anymore and threw him on the streets at age 7. Only a few weeks went by before he heard a voice say that he loves him and he is sending someone to take care of him. The next week he met his first white person and it was Heidi who immediately invited him to the base and he obviously went. This was the hardest time of Iris ministry as it was in the beginning and there were only 90 or so kids. He went on explaining how they were beaten and persecuted, kicked out of their base and never had a steady home until a few years later in Pemba where they are currently. He has never met his mom or dad. When Jesus talks about building a house in heaven it’s people like these that have mansions waiting for them.

Thursday was a normal awesome day and then Friday came around which is where we do our practical mission jobs. I have intercession in the morning and then I went on outreach to the village with a Harvest School friend and a Mozambique friend to interpret. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into but God just showed me how easy it is to love people especially when they are hurt and in need right next to you. We walked maybe 200 yards away from the base as we stopped at a house with a family outside. We quickly found out that the mom was in severe pain. It didn’t take long to figure out that in a group of about 7 or 8 people, 1 mom was very sick, 1 kid had malaria, 1 baby was sick, 1 was pregnant and the other wanted us to pray for her to find a husband. Yes it was awesome to see the mom healed and be able to pray for the others but that was not the best thing about bringing the kingdom. Even though the kid with malaria was not healed we left that place 2 hours later with more joy in us and in every person there than what we came with. Both moms looked depressed when we were arrived and had huge smiles laughing by the time we left. There were also 3 to 4 more kids that were all having a blast with us playing around. Prayer might have only take 45 minutes total for everyone but the rest was just loving and hanging out with them. Restoring the kingdom is bringing his will on earth as it is in heaven, which includes joy peace and love. It was funny how I thought I was going to go through town praying for multiple people and Jesus just sais nope I want you to sit with this family the whole time and just love them!

It really is funny how much I have to learn and just how far I am from knowing the fullness that the Father is and what He has for me. I am learning sooooo much about being content wherever I am because of the culture and how long things can take and how late everything occurs. It’s like he brought me out here to sit me down and say stop all of your agendas and walk as I walked, which is loving people and loving God. I am almost fighting being at rest and thinking that I still have to be doing something “productive”. Of course there are always practical ways of love and living it out but a lot of times He just wants us to sit next to the person we are by even if we don’t know them and just love them. Not preach not condemn or judge but just love!

If I could encourage any of you guys back home to do anything it would be to do just that. I know everyone lives crazy lives and stuff needs to be done, but people are ALWAYS more important. I encourage you to stop by the people that are by themselves and just ask them how there day is going. It’s about being obedient to the gospel and if were really in love with Jesus these things should be done every day. People say “how can there be a God with so much evil and sadness and poverty” and the Father created the world to work with His sons and daughters. Stop excepting the evil and depression in this world and start to realize that we are the ones that need to stop it and make disciples. For you Jesus freaks I believe God is wanting to deposit a deeper hunger than we ever thought possible. That we would be so in love with the King that we would lay down our lives every day with more joy than we ever imagined. But I will go more on that later!

Went longer than I thought but that’s okay! Mary if you or anyone else would want to send clothes or anything like that I will get the info by next post! Again you guys are all amazing and can’t wait to share more! Until then I love you all and thanks again for reading!

Pictures!

Week 3 in Mozambique

What’s up everybody! I hope all of you are doing amazing and having a blast wherever you are! It is so good to be able to reach out to everyone again as we were out of power for a little while all over the city and I wasn’t able to connect anywhere haha. So sorry for the late post again but I am slowly learning to stop making plans and agendas in this culture, which I guess Jesus never did either. But anyways yea we also didn’t have running water for about a week too. Oh and yea I have more joy than I ever have it’s amazing what happens when it’s just you God and others. Especially the kids! I can't wait to get more in depth about the kids with you guys next week kid by kid and just let you know how they grew up and how they live now, but we will save that for next week!

This last Saturday we attended one of the most amazing weddings I have ever been to. It was filled with more glory and the presence of God than any other wedding I have been to as we just worshiped all throughout. The girl is a fourth generation missionary and the guy was also a missionary. Haha I guess their a cool couple. But yea it was so beautiful right on the beach by the ocean with a perfect breeze! Although I have never seen more chaos than at the end when cake was given out with over a hundred little kids running around. They were literally changing shirts and hiding in line trying to get another piece of cake. It was part hilarious and part sad. But yea I gave you guys a good idea of the surroundings last week, this week I wanted to share a couple of testimonies of not only what happens around here but what is happening in my heart as well. Lets hop back to the first week of school when my heart was absolutely wrecked over the topic of the Father’s heart.

Pastor Steve Long was the guest speaker for the first week. He was the pastor of a church called Catch the Fire in Toronto Canada that had a huge revival and many amazing moves of God during the late 1990’s. His messages were so simple it was hilarious. Everything in the bible was created to be understood by a child but man tries to make it all complicated. As we began to cover the Father Heart of God and getting rid of the orphan spirit it was amazing to me on how much I found I acted like an orphan instead of a child. As I slowly began to feel the love of God and experience his Presence (The presence that David in Psalms talks about every other Psalm almost) I was discovering on how to become and act like a child instead of orphan. Today the church sais to do this and do that and whoever works the hardest or whoever has the most bible degrees is the closest to God. I have finally figured out that being a child of the living God has ABSOLUTLY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU! By HIS grace you have been saved. Simple. I strived for the last 8 months not even knowing it trying to earn being a child of God until I finally realized there was nothing I was going to do for God to love me more! That is why the Bible sais he gave us a spirit that cries Abba Father which means Daddy. We are called to be more intimate and affectionate with our heavenly Father than our earthly father. If your mom and dad were decent at all they loved you no matter what you did. That doesn’t mean they didn’t discipline you but that means whether you were the best child in the world or worst they cared and had compassion on you.

Then last week Amy Lancaster came in for the next 20 days! Her ministry is called We Will Go in Jackson Mississippi where she lives in the red code district in an old Crack House reaching out to the drug addicts with her 3 kids and husband. If you think God’s greatest plan for you is to live in a nice brick house with a nice family and be comfortable while going to church on Sundays and Wednesdays and nothing else you’re serving a different God than me. But anyways she came and talked about cutting the devil’s head off with prayer and fasting last Wednesday. It gave me a whole new idea on making war with evil. Which brings me to my first testimony.

If demons scare you than you might not want to read this paragraph. But we were worshipping on Sunday at church and it was slowly dismissed. There were only a couple of us left there at the end when a man dropped to the floor and started to manifest a demonic spirit that was inside Him. A couple of us began to lay hands on him and pray as his eyes rolled back and began to scream like what you would see on an exorcism movie. I was at first a bit freaked out but than I shut my flesh up and realized that according to the Bible satan has been disarmed and has no power over me or anyone with Jesus. For many of us it was the first time dealing with a demon-possessed man but after talking with a local he kind of smiled like it was no big deal and it was common. We prayed for a while for the man and he was manifesting and shaking on the ground for quite some time so I took a video with my camera if any of you would like to see just face book message me or something. I don’t share this to be cool, I share this to let it be known that in the African and Easter World it is completely normal for demons to manifest and be set free by Jesus. I later found out the man’s family was involved in witchcraft, which is a huge problem here. To lighten things up here is a different testimony.

Every weekend a group of different students get to go on an outreach to certain unreached villages that may have a believer in it but have never been preached to. I don’t want to go too deep into details, as I will wait until I go on the outreach myself and give personal experiences. But after talking with many people there were many powerful moves of God that occurred. Blind men were given sight, deaf people received hearing, and most importantly many many people gave their lives to Jesus!!!!!!

The students are becoming more and more like family every day going through all the heart changes and experiences together, it is so awesome to see. I especially love hanging out with my two Mozambique Pastors Tarde and Omar! Haha Tarde is 58 years old about 5’3 and maybe 100 pounds and is one of the most lovely men of God I have ever met. He gets up at 4-4:30am every morning and reads his bible until about 8am. The hunger in some of these Mozambique people is amazing! Omar is 22 and speaks way more English than Tarde so me and him joke around all the time. Both of them wait for me to ask them if they want to listen to my Ipod everytime I come home. Hahaha Tarde will literally listen to the same song 50 times until the ipod dies and he loves it. They are so happy when they get to listen it’s amazing. They also where the same 2-3 shirts and 2-3 pants everyday, so if anyone would like to donate to men of God it’s a great opportunity! Tonight we have family dinner with our house and I am excited for some chicken haha!

As I begin to close this blog I just really wanted to take the time and honor you guys and thank you so much for reading this! I have plenty of open time here and if there is anything I can intercede for you or anything like that please let me know you guys are seriously all so awesome and I hope you can take just one thing from this. I still kept it quite vague this week letting you all in on more of the basics but I will get deeper and deeper as the weeks go on! I love all of you so much and I am so thankful for each and every one of you taking the time and reading this when you didn’t have to! Have a wonderful day!

OH AND PICTURES SHOULD BE ATTATCHED!!!!!