Happy Sunday

The fact that I am posting this blog on Sunday is pretty ironic. I have never been one to religiously go to church and pray. In fact, religion and faith has been something I have struggled with for a long time. It was hard for me to believe in a higher power when there was so much hate and terrible things around the world. Why could a higher power make His people suffer so much if He had so much love for us? My experience here in Mozambique has really got me to stop and take a breath and reflect on my experiences. I think I talked about my experience in the catholic church my first weekend here at site. I took communion and it really was emotional experience for me. Here I was standing in line, a white girl from the midwest, with a bunch of Mozambicans taking communion. If you have been keeping up with my blog you will also know that we have had some major problems with safety and robbers. I think it was after the 4th time and a lot of our school administration were at our house well into the night supervising a guy reattaching the bars to my bedroom window. I had taken a call and left the yard to make my way to the front of the house. As I was talking with our Safety and Security person, the secretary of our school came out of the yard with a bucket of water. I had no idea what he was doing with our bucket. He then proceeded to take off his sandals and wash his hands and feet and began praying. This was my first up close experience with Islam. Living in the north part of Mozambique adds to the uniqueness of the PC experience. The northern part of Mozambique has a high population of Muslim. To be honest, it made me really nervous to know I was going to be living in such a high population of Muslim people, but watching that man pray for us right there on the spot opened my eyes and cleared my mind of a lot of the preconceived notions about Islam. It really was a beautiful moment despite the circumstances. One of our good friends here owns a shop that we frequent. He is from the middle east. His family is really wonderful. The family treats us like family and are very protective of us. I made a play date with the kids. The kids are super intelligent and unfortunately for them because of the school system, they are being severely held back and not really able to explore their potential. Fasal, the father, is trying to change that. He has a private tutor for them and has asked that Arden (my roommate) and I help out as well. They feed us soooooo well too. You have to roll us out their door and to our home. Fasal really believes in education and making sure his family gets the best. He even wants to go back to university and if his wife wants to go back to university then he wants to support her too. Arden was playing with the kids last weekend and it was getting time for them to pray. Arden politely asked if they would like her to leave. Fasal told her that it was no problem for her to stay. He told her that he respected all religions. We thought that was really great. Like I said his family is just great. We borrowed some books about Islam from him so that we could learn more about it. A friend of mine sent me some devotionals and they have really been aligning with my experiences here in Mozambique. Like I said before I haven't been able to really wrap my ahead around it all. Things are starting to become more clear for me though. I read a devotional recently that talked about the absence of God. It talked about the Katrina tragedy. "He said that God was invisibly present 'with the suffering and the dying. He was in the individuals, communities, churches, and schools that organized aid for the victims and took evacuees into their cities and homes. He was with the hundreds of thousands who showed compassion by prayer and financial assistance.'" This really resonated with me. I see some pretty bad things sometimes; people bed ridden with malaria, kids digging through trash piles, people with dirty, torn clothing. I read this passage a lot that day. Without the suffering and hardships, I would be out of a job. I wouldn't know the challenging, yet rewarding feeling of helping others, and in return, those suffering would not be able to experience the compassion of those who are helping. We don't know what the future holds, but if I can help someone and make a difference in a person's life, I will do it. I honestly think that He has been guiding for quite sometime now. I needed to figure this all out on my own time and in my own way. I still have a lot to work through and understand but I am on my way. "The storms of our life prove the strength of our Anchor." Thank you all for your continuous support!