One week in Maputo!

Well to catch you up on some things lately... A lot has been going on. Well Saturday was definitely a challenging day for our team. I am not sure why exactly
but I feel like the unknown of the summer really hit us. We went to a district choir
contest. It was great to hear the kids sing and dance (especially our kids from the seminary.) I feel like they are my own children.
But after the first 2 hours (we were there a total of 5 hours) we were getting pretty tired and EXHAUSTED. and hot. on top of all that. Ha
Then after they served a BIG meal and we sat with the leaders of the church that could not speak English and they were
talking about our plans and what they wanted from us, and we could not communicate. Not to mention these people always want to make sure we eat and eat and eat. But anyways we don't know who is going to be transporting us to our destinations this summer since the Restricks are leaving in a week and a half, for 3 weeks. But when the Restricks finally
came to pick us up Rhoda spoke to them and they got some things figured out. Our team first of all feels like celebrities here. When we walk around the churches people tell us to stop to take our picture. It is weird. haha Today some kids pet my hair. Haha After we left the church we took a man home that owns a homeless shelter,It was Rhoda's idea. She really has such a heart. He gave us a tour of the house, and it seriously broke my heart. There were two rooms, and the house held 12 boys, and a couple of them had disabilities. In front of the house was a tent, where some of them slept. Dave gave them some money, but we're planning on sewing blankets for them and baking cakes and showing the Jesus video with the Restricks, which should be neat. When we came back, Rhoda insisted on relieving some of our stress when we, so we had tacos and watched The Gods Must Be Crazy, but I fell asleep.

Yesterday we visited Matola City Church of the Nazarene. This is outside of Maputo. The Restricks were kind enough to take us there. When we got there the NYI director of Matola met us and lead us into the church, and sat us at the front!!! We were sitting in like the thrones that the pastors sit in. Then they told Jerry that he was preaching. Jerry made up the sermon on the spot it was.... interesting. We also lead worship we taught them some songs that had motions, and they were a hit! We also learned one that was in Portuguese and Shangaan ( a local language) and they were all so impressed. After, I sang a duet with Jerry. In front of at least 200 people. I cannot believe I am saying that. We sang the song "House of God," and it went really well. Then we went to the kids sunday school and sang songs and they were jumping and singing, it was a lot of fun. Kristin is going to be a teacher and she is awesome with kids, so that is such a blessing. Then after the kids performed a skit and dance for the Youth (this is a very broad term in Africa) service. The kids all love to touch us and say hi to us, it is so funny. Then they led us back to the small sunday school room which held should hold 50 and held 120 kids. We sat there and they told us the Sunday school teacher had left to prepare something and we could not leave until she got back. After about 20 minutes in she walks with egg sandwhiches and cola. They were not bad, but we were all stuffed because Rhoda served us a huge breakfast to prepare us for the day. haha Then afterward Dave picked us up and took us back to their church because their service was still going. After it was over we danced (they love this) with the kids and left. Dave took us to see the city after the service, Maputo is probably one of the poorest cities I have ever seen. Then we came back to our safe little home and we moved into the nice guest homes. We are spoiled to live in these houses.

Today we woke up and met with Rhoda's English class who we are going to be helping tomorrow. They are going to be helping us with Portuguese and we're going to be helping with their English. After lunch we went to run errands with Dave. We got to exchange some currency and I also bought a capalana, which is a skirt/wrap! I am excited to wear them. Then we went to the store and bought some food for our team. After we ate dinner and helped Rhoda bake some cakes. Tomorrow we are going to the English class and then we are helping Rhoda with many of her to dos. We are helping her with her child sponsorship program, then we are putting medicines together for her clinic, and whatever else appears on her list. It is great to help her because she does so much yet she still has been so great with us.

Anyways that is all for now, I will try to update soon. Please pray that we will be able to figure some of the schedule complications out, and that our site-coordinator will be more present and available to us, since we have only seen him for about 30 minutes since we have been here. We really don't know what the expectations are for our time here. It is a quite interesting situation and a little stressful. But I know God has a plan, and that is very reassuring. Love you guys and thanks for your support.