Outreach Amazingness!

The last few days have been full of outreaches in and out of the base. On Tuesday, Keisha, Shantae and I went on a street ministry to pray for people. Our first stop was two different jails. Keisha and Shantae went to one, and I was grouped with a team from South Africa to go to another jail. We sang a worship song and gave a short word on forgiveness and being loved by God. Afterward, we got to pray for each person in the jail. Some cried, some accepted Jesus as their Lord, and some just thanked up for the bread and beans. It was a powerful time though. The teams then joined together and we went to an abandoned house where teenagers and young adults live. The house did not have a roof and there was garbage everywhere. When we arrived, many came out to worship, dance, and pray with us. The Mozambiquans gave a word and again we prayed for them. They also received bread and beans. It was a great outreach.

Yesterday, Cheyenne and I went to a special needs center. When we first arrived, there were many children in wheelchairs, high chairs and beds facing a TV that had Smallville playing. The workers told us we could take the children on walks or play with them on a mattress they laid out for us. The children were so happy to get attention from people. Two young girls could not walk on their feet, but there were very proficient at getting around on their knees. They were chasing another girl that went with us that was from another team. Cheyenne held one little boy that could not walk and I also held a little girl that could not walk and was very scared of everything. By the end of the time though, I had her smiling and laughing. It seems that the workers care for their very basic needs, however, they do not provide any sort of physical therapy. The children were all very stiff. Please pray for this center to receive a physical therapist so they can gain use of their arms and legs.

Anna, Keisha, and Brieonna also went on a street ministry yesterday. They went to an a park in the middle of the city, Maputo. They had worship and prayed as well. Many people did not show up for a while. Near the end of their time there, they came out for the bread and beans. Pray for an outpouring of wanting to know Jesus in this area.

We have also had many fun time inside the base. Yesterday, we took visors, sidewalk chalk, and butterflies to the 4 - 6 year old house. They are transitioning from the baby house to the dorms. They were so happy for us to be here and were laughing and giggling with us as we did the crafts. There were about 12 children here and we were told about half of them are HIV positive. Pray for healing of these little children. They are so precious and wonderful!

The team also went into the girls dorm on Tuesday to do gimp with them. That was a CRAZY time. Every girl would take a few pieces, go hide them, and try to come back for more! They use gimp to make items to sell in the base shop, so I understand why they were so excited to get it, but at the same time is was very chaotic for us to hand out the gimp. We want to do this again, but we have to organize it a bit better.

We are all holding up very well, and God is using us in unique ways! We miss and love you all!

Prayer Requests:
Continued unity of the team
Cheyenne's Health
Obedience and taking risks to try something new
3 babies - they are in the hospital and very sick (one had heart surgery)
Divine healing of the HIV on the base

Zimpeto is full of joy!

So after two days of traveling and then sleeping for 14 hours straight, we finally are in the groove of ministries. It's been an amazing time so far. The six of us have met so many great children and missionaries.

We went to church yesterday. The worship was amazing. All the children and young adults get up and dance in the front and they have moves for many of the songs. Anna, Keisha, and Cheyenne jumped right in. There is so much joy in the hearts of the people here. The afternoon was spent playing with the kids and taking a walk to the local gas station to pick up some snacks (chocolate) and juice. We also bought a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. Its all so delicious!

Today we went to the staff worship and again everyone was dancing and singing with all their hearts. There is a special needs house here that has about 8 children in it. They come to this worship and they were dancing with us. There is a boy that was born without eyes and a few of the children can't walk or talk. We prayed over them and just loved on them during the worship. After worship, we played with bubbles and the two and three years olds were laughing and running around trying to pop them! It was a lot of fun. We then tried to teach the older boys and girls how to jump double dutch. I think a few of them are going to get it soon! We are having a blast playing with the kids, eating lots of rice and bread and just getting to know everyone here.

One funny story, after sleeping 14 hours we were still a little off. They have sirens here that signal what time it is for the kids (wake up, eat, and bed time). Well the bedtime one went off and Shantae and Brieonna were asleep. That siren woke them up, they got up, showered, and dressed and were waiting outside our room to go to breakfast. They were positive it was morning and time to get up!

Prayer requests:
Unity for the team
Continued health
Anna's hands (her exzema is acting up)
Adjustments to a new culture and activities
Listening to the Holy Spirit for guidance and being obedient

Thanks for reading! Comment so we know you're praying for us!

We leave on Wednesday!!

Freedom Outreach is sending 6 girls to Mozambique! We will be be heading to Zimpeto to work along side Iris Ministries. The team includes Anna Altemus, Keisha Jackson, Breiona Miller, Cheyenne Glasco, Shantae Hall and myself.

We have been preparing for this trip for two years. We had bi-weekly meetings, fundraisers, and outreaches to help get us to this point. God had provided and we are ready to go!

If you would like to know more about where we are going and what we will be doing check out the link:

http://www.irisminzimpeto.org/

I hope to be able to update weekly or twice a week. Check back often for updates and prayer requests! Thank you for your support and prayers.

Please pray for the following:
Safety as we travel for 2 days: We leave from Newark, NJ, head to Paris, France, then to Johannesburg   South Africa, and ending in Maputo, Mozambique.
Team Unity:  That we get along for three weeks, support each other, and love each other at all times.
Luggage: That it arrives with us and gets through customs with no problems.
Health: That we all stay healthy the whole time!

It was a hot one!

Sorry I didn't blog last. We had an extended worship time and they rushed us right to bed. However, yesterday was a hot one. At Belgica, we stained a fence all morning. And we were in the sun most of the time we were staining. All 5 of us worked on the fence while the 4 from Virginia installed the banister they made yesterday. Our staining turned out pretty good if you think using 3 different colored stains is the right way of staining. Our fence has a beautiful gradient of cherry, walnut, and oak. After lunch, our group had a lot of fun walking around the community handing out more rice and beans and invitations to the party in the park today. We practice our Spanish and we were laughed at many times and were extremely thankful when they spoke English. We talked with one man that had all of us say at least one thing in Spanish and another man that lived in Lancaster, PA for a part of his life! The meeting last night discussed "labels.". Labels we put on ourselves, labels others put on us, and how we should give them over to God. It was again another challenging message afterwards, all three groups had a fun extended worship and prayer time. We are having a blast! Thanks again and keep praying for us!

Professional Cleaners!

Today was a rainy day in Ponce. We woke up to the sound of rain banging on the rooftop of our room. This caused us to have to change our plans for the day. We got a late start but eventually ended up at a house is Bellica that was donated to TEAMefftort for storage and a place to make lunch. At te house we blessed the woman that donated the house by cleaning it. Katrina and Taliah scrub the bathroom, Elizabeth swept and mopped the floors and Becky helped fix the cranks on the windows. We then all scrubbed down the window panes and washed the windows. We made the home sparkle. Also at the house, the other half of our team built a banister for a woman that lived around the corner. We helped paint it white after they built it in the garage. We hope to install it tomorrow. We then went back to camp for lunch (that we helped make because we are awesome!) it was nice to be inside for a little to dry off. After lunch we went back to the house and finished up cleaning. After that, the five of us walked over to Luis' house an helped him carry wood out of his basement to a pile of wood at the end of the street. We were professional cleaners today. Tonights chapel was about pride. They discussed attributes that can be considered as pride such as wanting to win, not admitting when you wrong or making up reasons why you're not totally wrong and the need for attention. It was another challenging teaching that lead to great discussions. After chapel we prarticipates in the church's weekly prayer meeting. We prayed for the church, the community, and personal prayer requests. They also called all the missionaries to the front of the church and individually prayed over all of us. This was a first for me. Usually the missionaries pray over the people of the church but they blessed us. It was very moving and really showed us how much they appreciate what we are doing. Overall, we are all doing great, learning a lot about God and what He is revealing to us and meeting cool people from the other churches. We are known as the group the always has cards and spoons with us :-) Please pray for good weather the rest of the week. We are the last group of the summer and there are still lot of project that need to be completed but we can only do that if it's not raining! Thanks again for reading and please comment. We love to hear from you! The Puerto Rican Missionaries!

Professional Painters

Today was out first day at out work site. We worked at a man named Juan's house. He is an older man and his grandson comes to spend time with him often. He had asked for a railing to be built on his second story balcony so his grandson could safely play there. He also needed the rest of his downstairs entrance gate to be painted, so that's what we did! We spent the morning painting white onto the fence. It was a tight spit for some of us. Taliah and Katrina were wedged into an area about an little more than foot wide to paint. Becky and Elizabeth were inside the porch painting and I finished the outside part. We were joined with 4 other members of the group from Virgina, Dave, Jordan, Trip, and Sarah and our TEAMeffort leader Tim. Dave and Jordan built the railing and Sarah an Trip helped with the painting. It was a lot of fun. We then ate lunch in the local park and and prepared baggies of rice and beans to pass out to people in the neighborhood. After lunch Becky, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jordan, Trip, myself, and our translator Harold walked around and talked with some of the people that live where we are working. Many of them were elderly and had lived in the area for many many years. They also had lots of grandchildren they were very proud of. Everyone was friendly and loved the rice and beans. Taliah, Katrina and Dave went back to Juan's houseto finish the painting. Juan's grandson, John Micheal had come to visit and wanted someone to play Wii with him. Becky and Elizabeth both joined him bit he was not all impressed with their Wii skills and kicked them off :-) After our worked day we came back to camp, cleaned up, ate dinner, and went to chapel. Tonight's message was the about the "baggage" we carry through our need for materials. We had a great discussions about pratical ways we can loosen our hold on things by such things as putting your phone away when you spending time with people you love. We are having a great time and can't wait until tomorrow when we paint another fence! Keep us in your prayers!! Love and miss you, The Puerto Rico mission team :-)

We're here!

We made it to the base! All of our flights were on time, the rental car was ready, and the GPS didn't get us lost! Puerto Rico is a beautiful country. We had to drive through the mountains to get Ponce and the views were breathtaking. We pulled over for a quick photo shoot. We hit a little bit of traffic and had an interesting time ordering McDonalds in Spanish but we made it here. We are 1 of 3 groups and definitely the smallest. There are 49 people in total. The base is nice and the staff is great. The part of town we are in is very safe and colorful. Every house is a different color and the park is full of funny looking lion statues. We also stopped and ate some "ice cream" but it's more like a creamy water ice. It was refreshing since it's 91 degrees. Chapel was great as well. The message for the week is dealing with our "baggage." It's a challenging topic to talk about but Jesus is faithful and loving so it's going to be good! Pray for continued safety, open hearts, and God's will to be done! We are starting our project tomorrow so check back to read about it!! Love and miss you all! The Puerto Rico Mission Team :-)