Arco Iris 1 - Salama!

I have officially arrived at Arco Iris in Pemba, Mozambique! While flying in and driving into the base, I was stunned by the absolute beauty of this continent that is nowhere close to anything else I’ve ever seen! It’s truly wild and exotic, and MASSIVE! Sunrises and sunsets paint the skies with the most brilliant shades of orange, yellow, pink, blue, and purple. The midnight sky is vast, where the moon and stars seem to have grown larger with the expansion of the sky. The roofs of the huts were an assortment of blue and turquoise that matched the shades of the ocean near by. Palm and baobab trees dominate the green plant-life, while the earth itself is red dirt. To top it all off, the whole scene is littered with exotic flowers of every shape and color. Arco Iris’s base is located just on the outside of the heart of the relatively large city of Pemba. It’s directly across the street from the Indian Ocean, and is in easy walking distance of nearby villages and baraccas (small hut shops). There is a constant cool breeze blowing inland that makes the summer days bearable, and nights absolute perfection. The base itself is so beautiful that everyone has been commenting on how it feels like we are living on a movie set. There are planted gardens with fruit trees surrounding our terra-cotta colored student houses, as well as a few friendly dogs, cats, and even kittens. Hammocks are hanging on the front and back porches of the student houses, as well as African beds. The beauty so captivated me, I felt like I finally reached my 10 week vacation destination for the year. As stunning as Mozambique is, so far it has had it’s fair share of both challenges and dreams come true. Each student house (like the one I’m in) is shared by about 13 to 14 girls with two bathrooms. Upon my arrival I noticed we had a house toilet pet (a GINORMOUS roach peeking it’s head out just above water level), making using the bathroom unnerving. I don’t like the feeling of being watched, especially from the angle from the inside of the toilet. So far we’ve been without running water for all but 2 days of our school in the past 2 weeks. Luckily, we have had the water come back on for about 30 minutes a few times, just long enough to fill our house reserves and used water bottles for use of bucket bathing, washing dishes, washing hands, etc. Of coarse with no running water, that means no showers, and even worse, no toilets. It’s challenging enough using the toilets here, constantly having to remember that you can’t flush even toilet paper at any time without clogging the entire over-sensi system, and when you do forget, having to pick bamboo to fish it out to dispose in a small waste bin in each bathroom, but now even worse is that we’ve been using latrines instead of toilets, which are about a 5 to 10 minute walk up the hill next to the student hut. Some get lazy or can’t make it, leaving our house smelling like a couple of hot portapotties until the toilets can be flushed again. The latrines are a tragic experience for most westerners. I never knew that a “poop stick” really existed until now, and I never would have imagined that I would ever have to step on many others’ smeared poo while pushing my own down a hole as flies buzz all around me with fury out of their excitement of their new food offering, aggressively possessing it before it even fully exits my body! It’s like you’re being forced out of their home before ever getting a chance to wipe! RUDE!! Gross. Sorry. Truth is that no missionary trip is complete until there has been a good bathroom story or two. My friend was using the latrine, concentrating on breathing through his mouth so he wouldn’t have to smell the hot stink, when a fly came up out the latrine hole and flew directly into his mouth and down his throat upon an inhale.. BAH! Did I mention that a germ-a-phoebe could never EVER make it here? (that would be you Katie) Other challenges include no air conditioning, sweating from being wrapped in hot stagnate air at night, sleeping under mosquito nets, taking expensive malaria meds every day, overall unsanitary conditions everywhere you go, worms that get in your feet that have to be cut and squeezed out, along with their eggs before they multiply and get in your bloodstream (very common), bedbugs in the houses, falling in through my bunk bed, living out of my luggage, rice and beans and beans and rice for food EVERY DAY, produce grown in human feces, heat exhaustion, jellyfish stings, extreme poverty, lack of bottled drinking water, lack of just about every creature comfort, no constant steam of phone or internet, villagers constantly begging for anything and everything, including the dinner just set before you in a restaurant, sharing everything you possess that hasn’t already disappeared, language barriers, an overall hatred of westerners from the locals, and everything being at least 3 times as hard as well as taking 3 times as long here, especially customer service.. just to name a a bit. Here it’s proper to say that one really has to learn to die to his or herself in order to survive the full 10 weeks, but with all that being said, my inner-hippie is really thriving here! It’s an incredible feeling waking up in a new place where you almost feel more at home than your own home. It’s like I almost make more sense to myself here than I do back there, excluding my fair skin, blonde hair, and green eyes. My heart is thriving, and I feel freedom in this place. I’m being dared to dream, and challenged to die as I cling to Jesus with every bit of strength I have. He is my everything right now. Intimacy with Him is top priority here, and the waves of refreshment to my soul have already begun, like parched land dying for a drink of water. Funny thing is that I never knew how thirsty I was in the first place, and it took something as drastic as being stripped bare from my long list of distractions and business back home that take over my life to make me see it. My heart had also died in many areas, and my loving King is reviving my passions and desires. I’m so thankful for this place. School has begun, and our practical missions is under way. I’d love to talk more about that later, but for now I’ll leave off with this.. “A king rules to promote righteousness; rulers govern to promote justice, each like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a wasteland, like the shade of a massive cliff in a worn out land. Then the eyes of those who can see will no longer be blind, the ears of those who can hear will listen, the minds of the rash will comprehend...” Isaiah 32: 1-4 This place, Arco Iris, is water in a wasteland, a wasteland filled with a beautiful and precious people, and a mostly beautiful culture with so much potential. The nation has been ravaged by death, sickness, extreme poverty, hunger, thirst, religion, witchcraft, and extreme injustice that chokes out the abundance of LIFE that is freely offered to them. I don’t want this place to look like the west, God forbid!!! I do want to see a healthy, living, thriving, joyful, just, spirit filled nation called Mozambique! Here at Arco Iris I’m seeing the first-fruits. I’m watching the hungry get fed, the unloved and unlovable being loved, the sick recovering, the naked being clothed, orphans being adopted, widows and their children being supported, the broken-hearted full of joy dancing, and lives being transformed every day. Here I like to say Iris is the full picture, the “wings and wheels.” Both the spiritual and practical are vital. Worship constantly permeates the air as those who call this home go about their daily business. The sick are prayed over, with ridiculous miracles being the norm, while they are also nurtured by a full time staff of missionary doctors and nurses at the hospital on our base. The hungry is being fed, but are even more excited for the presence of God. The abandoned dying are given homes, family, and education, but are even more eager to grow in the knowledge of God, and most choose to follow in the steps of the hero, Mama Aida, reaching out to their nation through their own passions and giftings. Nothing is ever forced here, it’s all voluntary, and I’m seeing an entire nation being turned completely upside down, slowly but surely. This is church. Love is church. Family is church. Lives radically transformed is church. Joy is church. Doing life together is church. Serving is church. Living in your hearts passions in church. Living is church. Church is getting outside ourselves, even in an imperfect condition, and choosing to go out with the love of Christ, as we are first filled by living in intimacy with Him and trusting in Him for everything. We are the church, and the church is meant to look like water in a wasteland. Come on! It’s time to shine, so eyes can finally be opened, ears can hear, and minds can finally comprehend the love of Christ and the truth of our Gospel! We can’t sit around and wait any longer for God to move and change everything, and we definitely can’t blame Him for the condition of this world. He has given US all authority! He has chosen US to be His hands and feet, as we are led my Him and are in unity with His heart!! I’m facing this challenge every day, so please be in prayer for me if I’m on your mind. Much love to all mi familia!! Kellie