Psalm 73: 21-28

21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish;you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

So we woke up WAY early and chuch isnt until 9am so I will try and explain more about how we got here and thoughts etc. We got the virgin flight from London to Joberg and then missed our connection to Maputo by five minutes thanks to some very helpful but confused porters! LOL. We remained in the airport and then got the flight to Maputo at 2pm. Once there...well. What a place! ROFL. The difference in obvious money and westernisation was immense and soon it became oh so familiar. I thought it would be different here to Ghana but it even smells the same! Talk about disorientating! Snaking through traffic with scary as you like driving in a beat up taxi, trash dumpsters overflowing, open sewers and houses destroyed by war, street sellers, people everywhere and I knew I was back in Africa!

We stayed in the Pestana Rovuma hotel, which was really nice, and watched the streets below and the sunset over the Indian ocean from our balcony. Oh, and my feet and ankles are swollen! I think its the heat! Its in the 80-90's with MUCHAS humidity and a ceiling fan (praise God for a fan!) that trundes round as it pleases ;)

So anyway, we awoke early and got our flight here to Pemba via Nampula (thats now FOUR take offs and landings for two people (mum is with me) who supposedly hate flying! LOL). The flood plain stretched out beneath us, lush forest and vast tributaries and river alongside the coast of the beautiful indian ocean. We really are in the middle of nowehere! Truly a stunning place displaying Gods creatvitiy and artistry. We are so blessed to be allowed to come here and see it for ourselves. Pemba airport is SO tiny! The rom where you pick up your luggage is the size of a living room and has the tiniest conveyor belt ever! heehee. made me giggle. We came out and Jessie and Joshan greeted us, two memeber of staff (brother and sister noless whch is kewl!) Heehee, mum is SO well, she has stunned me in fact! She has never done anything close to this in her entire life, Im so proud. We cam out of the place and they took us to a truck which they called a cameon and told us to hop in! HAHAHA, love it. It was like a giant pic up truck with benches in the open back with a tarp over it. We drove throough a truly truly frican village with mud huts and everything adn then we pulled into the compound...the kids clambered in the truck as it was still moving! Instanly they had no fear and they sat on us and climbed al over us and Jessie was just like 'love them!" They were everywhere from then on. After unpacking we spent al afternoon meeting the other visitors and playing with them, loving them, watching and enjoying such precious children! We took loadsa pics which I am sure wont capture anywhere close what I am seing here but will do better than nothing ;) Hahaha, and they all decided to braid our hair! highly amusing. There are tonnes of pastors here as well cos they are running a bible school for the pastors to train them before the Holy Given school which is th one a lot more internationals go to and is missions orientated. I would love to go to it, I shall see what the Lord says in the future :) The Lords timing is immaculate and this isnt about receiving frely and remaining, always just remaining, it is about receiving freely and carrying it, living it, applying it, preaching Christ and Christ crucified and risen again, its about catching the fire!

Makes me chuckle when I think about the fact that this is inherently just a two week bible camp in a way! who needs spring harvest eh?! ;) So I think we are up to date as i laze around in my bunk bed waiting for more church! WOOOT! OH, and we went to dinner last night at the hotel with the american guys and had an all you can eat FRESH SEAFOOD meal OMW OMW OMW.

So currently? After sleeping well I sit here on my bottom bunk listening to mum and Julia writing at the table, loraine humming worship above me. I look out our windown to the tent I have read about so many times in their book 'There is always enough' (please read it) The kids are at breakfast so there is a small lull of peace and quiet. I am gonna pray now...I shall write more here once I have experience church no doubt! Praise Jesus. Amen x