Rachel's Reflections

The incredible, amazing Christmas Eve blessing that made this entire year, with all of the problems and hardships that have come up, worth it. One night, one blessing, the culmination of a year's work. Lauren and I had invited several Mwani neighbors to come with us to the Christmas Eve service. A few had promised to come. The day arrived and Mama J was at our house ready to come. Mama F had a family emergency and wasn't able to make it. I went to see if Mama I was ready to go and met her on the way to her house. She grinned at me and said "Let's go!" As I led them towards my church, with Lauren at the back, the call to prayer from another religion went off and I couldn't believe I was walking to the Christmas Eve service to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Messiah with two Mwani ladies who don't believe for themselves that Jesus is God. The service was beautiful, everyone was so happy, dancing and singing to the Lord, proclaiming Jesus, our Savior...

" Nikidili !"  I exclaimed exuberantly  and Mama R grinned back at me. I had successfully accomplished a difficult task in my language learning lesson and I had learned how to say " I did it " to express my joy. T wo months ago it would have been a completely different story. What has made that difference?  God Who would have guessed that by age 25 I'd be learning my third language? Not me It's been a challenge this year functioning in my second language (Portuguese) while trying to learn my third language (Kimwani). There are definitely times when I get discouraged. Days that I feel like I haven't learned anything. Moments where I stare at someone with a blank face because I have no idea what they said or how to respond. Lessons where my language teacher gets frustrated because I can't remember anything she has taught me. But this week has been such an encouragement! I've had several people comment on my Kimwani, that I'm le...

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for what we have, but for me it has also always been a time to be with family. This year I knew would be very different so I tried to plan ahead with my housemate Lauren.  We ended up going to another missionary families home with a few other Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner. ( thankful for all the delicious food and everyone who contributed) I'm thankful we were able to have that time of fellowship. It meant a lot to me, being away from physical family, to have that spiritual family united with one purpose: to serve our Lord where He has called us. One of the other families there that night have been working with the Mwani people in another town for around six years. It was captivating listening to their stories, their knowledge, their experience, and their heart for these people. I was encouraged to hear how God has been working and is continuing to work in their hearts and lives. I'm thankful  for ...

Wednesday: Just a regular team meeting, or so I thought. Suddenly my heart tightened as Ana told me they had already sold everything and would be leaving in less than a week. My closest friend in Pemba, the one who always understands how I'm feeling, who has always been there for me whenever I needed someone. Her son Theo, my favourite little boy to play with, who calls me "auntie". Her husband, Jhonatan who changed my flat tire when I got stuck and protected me from creepy guys. Leaving. On Tuesday. I had been trying to process the news of their decision to leave for family reasons back home. But thought I had more time to spend together before saying goodbye. I tried to hold it together during the team meeting, but during prayer time I couldn't do it. Here I am, responsible for the remaining team members who are still new and adjusting to life in Pemba and all I could do was weep. After everyone else left I went to my room and cried out to God. I can't do t...

I called out to Mama R as I walked into her yard my first day back in Pemba. She responded from inside her house, asking if it was one of the neighbors. As she came out the door and spotted me she said "it is you!" and gave me a hug (which I've never seen her do before). (the view from my first week back in Pemba) When the church service ended several of my friends came over to greet me, welcoming me back, and giving me hugs. Mama S sat up with a big grin on her face,  despite having a cold and a headache,  as she saw me coming.  Mama J was bubbling with excitement as I stopped in to visit her with Lauren. These are the reasons why I love living in Pemba. What makes it worth coming back after being gone for a month. What I miss when I'm away. What makes difficulties or unexpected leadership responsibilities easier to deal with. Yes, I said unexpected leadership responsibilities... My team leader and family are now in the U.S. raising support until the...

My heart was racing. My head was pounding. Dashing down the hall, up the stairs, and into my room, I grabbed my backpack and started throwing essentials in. Passport, money, change of clothes, good shoes, vaccine history card, other important documents, snacks, water, toiletries. Less than 6 minutes later I was racing back down the stairs to meet up with the rest of the group. That was a drill during our safety and security session at the Africa Based Orientation training I have been attending the past three weeks. I succeeded in grabbing almost everything our security officer had on her list of important things needed in a To Go Bag in case of emergency or evacuation. (A ready dad during our security drill) I tucked my hair underneath the scarf covering my head and shoulders as we walked toward the imposing building to observe a typical, afternoon prayer time and listen to the leader explain about his religion. Part of learning about one of the major world religions prevale...

I used to run into the back yard, straight to the bushes, and find my chameleon friends. I would laugh as they tickled their way up my arm, to my shoulder, and into my hair. Today, I got to relive that memory a little bit (see it on my hand?). It's our day off from training and we had fun hiking near a crater, stretching our legs after three straight days of sitting in "class." Day one of training we each shared our story of how God brought us to where we are today, being His ambassadors of the Gospel in Africa. It was interesting reflecting on how God brought me from Kenya as a child (bottom left), to the experiences and training I received with Child Evangelism Fellowship and Word of Life (near top), back to Africa with my internship (center of R), to Mozambique full-time with Africa Inland Mission, and everything in between. One other special rewind to childhood was visiting the airplane hangar my dad used to work at in Nairobi. After 17 years I still reme...