yes we are still alive... and kickin

Sorry for the long delay... For the past 2 weeks we have been hosting a mission team from Bethel. We had 11 students from the school and it was sooo much fun!!! While they were here we had an overloaded schedule, so it was pretty impossible for me to get a minute to get online. But I am so excited to get to share about all the amazingness that hapenned while they were here!

The first few days they were here we took them to our Ndosho School and had them teach the children. They brought all sorts of fun props, costumes, activities, and games that it was so fun to see the children react to all of it. They are definitely not used to things that are staples in the US (colored paper, wall decorations, simple teaching tools) that they were having a blast.
Then they prophesied and encouraged the teachers. The culture in Congo is one that nobody says anything nice about another person unless they're dead. Not even a "You look nice today." It was such a beautiful moment to see some of these teachers crying when the team was loving on them. They had never heard some of these truths about themselves before. It was a great breakthrough moment.

We also went to Heal Africa a couple of times to pray for the sick. It was our group's first time going there as well... and it was AWESOME. The first day we split up into groups of two and went to different wards. I was in the Fistula Ward. There are about 150 women in this ward currently, and they all have broken fistulas. A lot of women get this from bad childbirthing, however, a lot also get this from really severe rapes. It was absolutely heart wrenching going from woman to woman hearing their stories of rape. What was even worse was seeing 12 to 15 year olds in this ward for rapes. The first two women we approached I was just sobbing listening to them. We went around with Pastor Euclide who translated for us, and prayed. It was amazing hearing them say that their pain went away, and seeing their countenance change as before we talked to them they were stone faced and cold, to after we prayed for them and they were smiling and joyful.
The second time we went to the hospital I was in a ward for random injuries. A group of 4 of us went around to pray. We saw a man who was in a full body cast have all of his pain go away, a woman with a bandaged head had been in a car accident, and she couldn't move her neck at all. But after we prayed she was moving her head and neck like crazy! A woman with a tumor on her neck could not breath well, but then she said she felt air coming in clearly! A woman in the fistula ward had heart and stomach problems as well. Her name was Rosetta. The first time she prayed she said she felt no difference, so we prayed again and she just started smiling and screamed that all the pain left. We told all of them not to tell us the pain left just to be nice, and she said "I don't lie!" It was hilarious, and so we had her come with us and she prayed over all the other women in the ward. We saw almost every woman's pain leave. We also saw a woman with malaria healed, plus a lady could not straighten her leg at all. After we prayed she said her leg felt really cold, so we continued to pray, and after a few times she could straighten her leg all the way. It was awesome. These are just a few stories of the amazing things that hapenned in the hospital. Every group had tons of healings. It was fun riding the mutatu home sharing the stories. A man in the hospital even told one of our pastors that they have tons of groups come to pray, but our group was different. Kyle, Cass, Daniel and I are going to continue going to Heal Africa at least once a week.

The Sunday the group was here, we split them up and took them to four different churches. I took a group to Pator Euclide's church. A kid Jeremy preached about healing, and then the last 45 minutes we prayed and healed about 20 or so people. It was super fun. I gave a word of knowledge about shoulders and two men stood up with shoulder pain. We had the church pray for them and their mobility returned to their shoulders! Another girl prayed for people's teeth that were hurting. We then heard that one man could no longer eat meat because it was too painful to chew, but that night he went home and told his wife to cook meat because all the pain was gone. haha.

Basically the whole trip was like that... just fun, miraculous things occurring all the time.

The team also really loved on the four of us... one girl gave me a pedicure and a massage, and brought us candy and slippers. It was so wonderful haha to get so much love! Plus, Kathryn sent me a bunch of PEOPLE magazines through her friend Richelle who was on the trip... so thank you thank you Kathryn, you know me well. Not only did they spoil us, but they brought such a refreshing perspective on Congo. I didn't even realize how just in one month I was starting to get down and have such a low viewpoint on the people here. Nothing major, but still not having God's perspective on this place. So hearing their joyful perspectives really allowed me to refresh my viewpoint. Ahhhh.... so to sum their trip up in one word, it would be... REFRESHING!!!!