10.18.07

hello friends

i have a feeling many of my day's subject lines could be "big day".

today we woke up - people slept! THANKS for your kind prayers. but all
are heading to bed exhausted after a full day today, so another set of
prayers for that again, please :) it is strange to hear women that i
admire as STRONG women sharing of their exhaustion and just being
plain SPENT at the end of their day. physically and emotionally. we
don't share that part of ourselves with each other in everyday life,
we are strong and put together for church and social times then we go
home and crash, by ourselves. it is a rare privlege to travel with a
group of people you don't know that well and get to see them at their
best and their worst, strongest and weakest. God pushes the 'weakest'
buttons a lot here. and gets us to His feet - exactly where He needs
us.

many of us spent the morning painting. it seemed like a
straightforward task that we americans like to knock out easily,
accomplish. well, as you might expect (i didn't) that wasn't the case.
all the paint buckets had the same color name printed on them. all
were opened and poured into different paint trays for the crew to use.
all were not the same color. we didn't discover this until different
areas had time to start drying and then we realized... it looked
terrible. splotchy. it challenged and aggrivated us, particularly our
team leader, bless her heart. but God had her there to teach her
something.. now THAT is already a common theme. others of us woek us
this morning thinking "YAY, WE'RE PAINTING TODAY" and ended up sharing
it as their "low" tonight, admitting they struggled with attitude all
morning. it's a hard thing. i want so much for them. but it was a hard
morning. the highlight was when we didn't have extensions and no
ladder tall enought to reach the peak. we wracked and wracked our
brains, finally took a break to eat what the 2 women who were cooking
for the preschool had cooked for us, by the time we turned around to
the painting project one of the nationals had wrigged a long stick
from.. a stick! and somehow screwed on the roller. it amazed and
humbled us :)

i just got a stern mothering from my host here (janine - i love her!)
to get to bed. but can't close without telling you she and i had quite
the afternoon in beira shopping and going to the airport - twice - to
retrieve the lost luggage. it did finally ALL arrive. praise God..
customs however gave us quite a lot of trouble before releasing it. i
stood in the office behind janine while she argued (gently) with
customs officials to let the medicines and batteries go through. she
would not give them what they really wanted (money). early on she
turned to me under breath and asked if i was praying. i don't remember
being in what felt like such a serious prayer situation. i prayed as
if the outcome of this depended on it. at one point they were holding
the bottle of vitamins from her and i just thought NO THESE ARE FOR
PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES WE MIGHT SAVE. ugh.

everything made it through. we scooted quickly out.

but then we got stopped not 2 miles down the road by a police officer.
doing random stops. i guess he claimed janine made an illegeal traffic
move. never once did i think that anyone was even watching that kind
of stuff the way peopel drive around here. it was so bogus. again she
turned in seriousness to me - "pray". again, what a privlege it was to
be that person at that time. to pray. again, we passed through with no
consequences after a bunch of talking in portugese.

i really must close. but thanks so much for yoru prayers. keep them
coming. many of the team members shared highs and lows that involved
"big stuff" too. seeing women waiting in the clinic for meds, sick.
waiting in line for food, taking 3 bites and giving the rest of the
plate to her five children. strong women. they are impacting us. cathy
and sharon shared their testimonies in the church service tonight.
POWERFUL. sorry to say i missed it because we had to wait for a second
plane to arrive as only 7 of the 9 lost bags came in this afternoon.
but they were SO pumped. a high for many tonight. God is so good. i
believe both of them had temporarily lost their testimonies due to
delayed luggage but prayed and stepped out in faith. God met them, and
the people in an awesome way. wow - praise god. gracas a Deus!!

must close. so much happens each day. but good night for now. have a
good evening, i think it's like 4:30pm there.

tomorrwo we start with painting again. pray for a fresh day :)

with love and amazment,
jen

p.s. we did not find a drum in beira today, but i thnk God is brewing
up a special one for me... we did make a connection with someone today
who says he can get me one.