When Everything is a Matter of Life or Death...

Hey friends!

It has been a few days since I last said anything on here and I am exhausted! Today was an end of the school year party for all of the teachers, cooks, secretaries, and project staff at Savane beach on the Indian Ocean (roughly 1.5 hours away on a very bumpy dirt road). You could see how much it meant for these people, who have very difficult lives, to get the opportunity to take a bus, play in the ocean, enjoy a delicious meal, and simply do something out of the ordinary. It was such a good day... I am still smiling... thankful I could partake in it all. On the way home we came across a family of 20 or so monkeys! Unfortunately, I didn't get very good picutres; they blended in too well with the trees.

I find my eyes brimming with tears several times a day... tears of sorrow and tears of joy.

On Thursday I went to the hospital to serve soup and pray for patients. Most of the people there have come to the hospital to die when they have used up all of their money on witch doctors and know they only have a few more days to live. Walking through those doors you smell death... I wish I could describe the smell of death. Emaciated bodies, covered with flies, or festering sores aren't the half of it... you see death in people's eyes-- physical death and spiritual death.

4 out of 5 people in Dondo are HIV positive. People live in fear-- fear of curses, fear of disease, fear starvation, fear of too much rain or too little rain, fear of tomorrow... Death is a lurking, unwanted guest that inhabits nearly every single home in this village.

YET, cutting through the pervasive stench of death, is a breeze that carries a sweet aroma-- the aroma of life. I have seen that LIFE!

I see life when I watch beaming school children at the Escola El Shaddai dance and sing the alphabet, line up-- crying and screaming-- for vaccinations, and gobble down nutritious porridge (for many their only meal all day). They have teachers who are instilling in them, from the start, that God has a plan for their lives-- plans to give them hope and a future (Jer. 29:11).

I see life in Getta, an 18 year old girl who is almost finished with the 12th grade and starting medical school in Beira next year so she can return to Dondo and be an agent of change in the name of Jesus.

I see eternal life at the Proyecto Vida (AIDS hospice care) Bible Study as I listen to those gathered on cardboard and straw mats sing praises to the Lord for the freedom they have found in through Christ and the glorious home that awaits them in heaven.

The best part is that this LIFE is so much stronger than the death and it is advancing and it WILL overtake this village!

So, that is what's on my mind right now:) Also, on a more shallow note, I am thinking about how good the mangoes are here and wondering if customs will hassle me for smuggling some back to the US;)

Thank you for your continued prayers and emails! More to come...

Deus te abençoe!

Steph