9/26/07 Wednesday

Monday we had a staff worship service. Pastor Jose is such a joyous man, filled with laughter and praises for our Lord. He insisted that ALL of us needed to ask for more joy from the Lord and that we needed to dance in praise, along with the Mozambicans.....so we danced, traditional mozambican style. I have sense begun referring to it as mozambican aerobics, because that's what it feels like...we could hardly keep up....and they enjoyed laughing at us. That night I went into the city for the youth worship service that one of the smaller Iris bases hosts. Zimpeto brings a huge flatbed truck filled with the older kids from the center that want to attend. It was so encouraging to see the room filled with so many youth giving their lives tot he Lord, singing and praying. Most of these kids aren't from the center and haven't grown up with constant preaching and teaching, so it was refreshing to see how Iris is really moving through the community.

Tuesday was Mozambique's Independence Day so none of the kids were in school. I spent most of the day with the girls in their quarters watching movies, laughing, and allowing them to play with my hair (which they LOVE to do). They help me learn more portuguese and I help them learn more English....it's so cute they go around acting like parrots and repeating everything you say!

Today I spent the morning where my heart is the most....in the baby house. They have about 40 children 3 and under that live here. They are too precious! The toddlers hardly speak any English so it's always fun trying to understand what they are jabbering about and what they want you to do. The littlest are my most favorite....crawling around and just learning to walk. They quickly find their favorite visitor and latch on, all fighting for attention and love. With their being quite a few mouths to feed, I love going in when it's time for bottles or lunch/dinner time to help feed the tykes. They are so resiliant. They have pictures up of alot of the children from when they were brought to the center and to see them now is amazing. Today another baby was brought in. He was 18months old, but weighed about 8 lbs and looked like a 3-5 month old. He was abandoned by his mom because he has a disability and his grandmother who loves him so much is way to sick herself to care for him. She had been coming in weekly to the base to the milk program they run out of the clinic here. They had been following his progress and she finally tearfully decided it was time to hand him over. He hardly responds to anything, rarely cries, doesn't make or keep any form of eye contact, and barely moves his arms and legs (so they are all contracted and stiff), plus he is really malnourished. Today helped me realize how much I want to be here and help these sweet babies and their families!

This afternoon a team from South Africa brought bead supplies, so we all sat and made bracelets and necklaces. The kids really enjoyed it and went for 2 hrs making as many as they could. It was a neat treat for them!