Mozambicans love to dance!!!

Hey everybody!!

How are you?! I feel like it has been so long since I was last able to send out an update…

School has been awesome! We had class Monday through Thursday with some amazing speakers including Heidi and Rolland, Will Hart, and Ben Dunn. Ben is a super fun worship leader! If you get a chance, you should check him out on iTunes :o)

Friday we call “Practical missions” day. We have all been assigned a job or area on base to serve in order to learn more about some of the practicalities of missions. I have been given the opportunity with a couple of my classmates to help Naomi check the Iris kids’ eyes! So yesterday I learned how to give a vision test and then we called in some of the young boys and checked their vision to see if there were any problems, whether they might need glasses, etc. It is so cool to see how much goes on at Iris behind the scenes that most people do not see or think about.

Something I have quickly learned about Mozambican culture is that they love to dance!!! Every time we worship together, whether at church or during our multi-cultural classes or at night with special speakers, the Mozambicans are always dancing! And they’re really good too :o) We often will all end up on stage together just dancing our hearts out before the Lord! I love it!!

I have been spending a lot of time with my amazing friend Kasia! She is from Australia!!! I love her accent and her vocabulary :o) We often have to translate for each other from Australian to English or vice versa ;o) Did you know that Australians call rice krispies “rice bubbles” and flip flops “thongs”?! I still get confused when she asks if I want to go get tea when it’s actually time for dinner :o) But I love her!

One of the main things God has been teaching me this week is that I need the body of Christ. God told Heidi once, “You can do nothing without the body of Christ.” We are called to work together. I have really been missing my family and friends while I’ve been here. I feel like something is missing when my Antioch family isn’t here with me. The other day I was asking the Lord why and He said, “Because they’re your family.” So to my Antioch family, know that I miss you tons and that I wish with all my heart that you could be here with me! I think that through being here by myself, God is showing me how much I need you all. But He also wants me to bring what I get here back to Wheaton and share it with my family, so what I’m receiving here isn’t just for me, it’s for y’all too!!

I gotta go, but know that you all are in my heart and in my prayers. I don’t have access to internet often, but send me a quick message about how you are doing and how I can be praying for you!

Talk to you soon!
Love
Erica