Road Journal: Arriving In Pemba

Greetings from the beautiful country of Mozambique,

 

I arrived at the Mission Base and was welcomed by hundreds of children.  The base camp is situated across the road from the ocean.  The view is breathtaking, but the children are even more beautiful.  There are 250 children here that have been taken in as orphans or rescued from the streets, children that where sick, dying, abused or just left behind.  Only a wall separates us from the local village to where we live so the villager kids integrate with the base kids.  Every day over 1,000 children get fed a hot meal. Over 700 children attend school for free because of donated money to the ministry.  There is a mission school here, housing for all the base children, a dining hall for the base kids and 4 feeding halls for the village kids, a school, mission housing and a medical clinic and offices.  The entire ministry is run on faith donations for they do not actively fund raise.  This place is a living testimony of God’s Love and Miracles.

 

I helped with the feeding today.  The ministry has a saying that with Jesus there is always enough.  I washed hundreds of village children’s hands today so they could eat.  Some of them as small as 3 or 4 years old will carry small plastic bags with them so they can take home half of their plate of food or whatever is left over on anyone’s plate, to help feed their family. I can’t even begin to explain how humbling and heart wrenching of an experience this was when I think that I come from a country where we have well more than enough that we throw away our leftovers.

 

I had my first opportunity to work in the clinic today as well.  I cleaned out my first wound here.  I have been trained in the US as an EMT and only have been able to train and watch.  I have been nervous about treating patients due to the fact that I get nauseous and dizzy at the sight of blood, but the Lord is faithful and we can know it is a miracle when we can do something not by our own strength.  Today as the doctor said the words “ does anyone want to clean out a wound?” I found myself looking around for someone to speak up, but I was it.   As I unwrapped the filthy bandage from the boy’s leg I began to pray, please Lord may it not be infected and full of puss.  And well, it was a large deep tissue burn that looked really bad that I needed to clean out, treat and rewrap.  For an instant I thought to myself I hope I don’t pass out, but before I knew it I was cleaning the wound.  By the time I was finished I was excited to see the next one and the next.  Only the Lord could have given me the strength and excitement to do what I thought I could not do, only the Lord.

 

Today as I worshiped in church 8 children crowded in on my pew to sit with me.  They began to fight with one another as to who would hold my hand.  One little girl from the village wrapped herself around my arm and laid down in my lap and fell asleep while the others grabbed for me to wrap my arms around them, as yet others braided my hair.  These children are starving for love and to be held.  There are just so many of them and I keep praying, “Lord let me love one more, one more and one more.”   I can only continue to pray that the Lord keeps pouring more love into me so that I can love even more, so that I can love the way Christ loves and I can heal with my hands and prayers the way Christ healed.  For today, my second day in Pemba, this is my prayer.

 

 

God Bless you all,

 

Anita In Africa