God is present!

Thank you so much for your prayers during this challenging time. We are doing so much better. Although we have many unanswered questions, we know God has not forsaken us. He has definitely provided for us during this time. It is amazing how evident God is when you are challenged and weak. God is definitely my strength during times of limitation. I definitely believe that when I am weak, God is so strong.

We have had a very busy weekend. Saturday we attended the Maputo Youth District Concert. These are always fun because the people have such beautiful voices. I will definitely miss this when I am home. Not that people at home don't have beautiful voices, but these people just sing at the top of their lungs and it is so beautiful. At the end they sang "I want to march" and they started dancing and telling us (the three girls) to come up to the front and dance with them. Everyone loved that we joined in with them. It was a lot of fun. After the 5 hour event, we took the chappa with our friend Antonio to get us home (we were not sardines this time). When we got back the electricity was out (very typical) so we sat in the dark and looked at our wonderful pictures from the past months, and watched the funny videos we have made. We have been so blessed while being here, and I would not change my experience!

Sunday we had some miscommunication between the church districts, so Jerry attended a church in the Maputo district (the church we painted), and the girls attended the Mafuanine Nazarene Church which is in the Matola district. This church was almost to the Swaziland border, and it was a very pretty drive. We definitely got to see more African scernary. The church was the smallest hut we have been in. As we pulled up there were ladies outside working so hard to prepare a meal for us. The people were so welcoming to us. We sang "I love you Lord" and also "God is so Good." It was also fun because they had never heard of the God is good song, so we actually got to teach them it in Shangaan. Osvaldo spoke and he did a wonderful job. God really spoke to us today because we never can understand the service and we actually could understand it through translation. Not only that, the topic was perfect for us. God works in really creative ways. After the service we ate with the leaders of the church. Allyson got really lucky and got the head of the chicken on her plate. It is really hard to control your facial expressions in moments like this.

When we got home it was around 3 and Adimi called to say that his wife was preparing a meal for us, and he would pick us up shortly. He picked us up around 4 and we headed out to his house, which was also near the Swaziland border. As we were driving Adimi was asking us where each of us were from. I told him I was from Bethany, Oklahoma. He then asked me what church I attended. I told him I attended BFC and he interrupted me and said, "BETHANY FIRST CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE!!! Oh Kaylee this is just wonderful! I have met your Pastor David while he was in Swaziland and he is a wonderful man!" I was so shocked! What a small world! He then told me that he interpreted for him while Pastor Busic spoke at the church. He said it is a dream to visit the United States, and especially to visit my church! (I am determined to help him achieve this!) He told me he looks at our website once a month, and also was amazed that we have 10 pastors. It was really neat to make this connection with him.

His wife Celeste is really good friends with the Restricks and Rhoda taught her how to make pizza. So she made yummy pizza for us. Not only that, she made chicken that she cooked on coals. It was really neat to see that, and it was really delicious!! She also made coleslaw (with tuna), and potatoes. We were so stuffed but she made 6 pizzas so we had to stuff ourselves more so that we did not offend anyone. She also made cake and cut up huge pieces. We did not leave hungry! It was also wonderful to meet his children. It was the first African family that we have had the opportunity to be with. We enjoyed ourselves!

Monday we began our week of VBS and really was great! We went to two churches (one in the morning and one in the afternoon.) They both were in the Matola district and they were great churches. In the morning we worked with Adimi and helped teach a big group of children. We lead worship, taught a little bit about how they should take care of themselves (ex: brushing your teeth), we also helped with verse memorization, and had a competition at the end. It was a lot of fun! We had a little break and we went to eat at KFC! The only American place here. It was really good. In the afternoon we met with the youth and we had some group discussions. It went really well besides the fact that a man asked me if he could marry me. haha This is very common for us. (Watch out Seth, the men love American women!)

Today was one of my favorite days here, besides the fact that my stomach was not feeling good. We attended the Matola A church and the pastor was actually Adimi's mother in law. The kids were great and we did the same routine as yesterday. Then we met with the youth and they were all very interested in learning about us, and vice versa. After we were done we went again to KFC and the people who worked there acted like they were best friends with us because they recognized the Americans! After lunch we were supposed to go to the Liberdade church but the doors were locked, so we got to go home and set up for the birthday party. Kristin did an amazing job finishing the dresses in such a short amount of time. When we were all set up we brought 3 girls in at a time and changed them into their new dresses. Their faces were priceless. They looked so beautiful. After, we went outside to take pictures. Then the mothers of the girls started running up to us (we thought we might be in trouble) then they started telling us how beautiful they were. They started kissing their children. I seriously wanted to cry because this was the first time in almost 2 months that I had seen the mothers on campus truly interacting with their children. It was like the children had been awarded something, and the moms were congratulating them.

We brought the boys in and also gave them their shirts and they loved them! We sat everyone down and the loved all the decorations we had set up, especially the balloons.. We also made each one a cupcake so they enjoyed that. Then after we played pin the tale on the donkey. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed our time with them so much! We danced and played until it was time for dinner.

I know you all were praying for my team these past couple days, and it is so evident from the rewarding experiences we have had. Thank you so much for you faithfulness. I love you guys!

Can't wait to see you soon!
Kaylee Ann