First Entry, Ive Made it!

 Hey everyone ,

It has been an intense first couple of days here.

First I would just like to let you all know that we made it fine and had absolutely no hitches in our travel whatsoever.  I left after my party on the 29^th where I said goodbye to a great many of you,  and drove down to Pasadena with my mom.  It was a very good drive and I enjoyed being able to get some really good quality time with her.  We just talked all the way down.  It didn’t even really set in that I was leaving and won’t see you guys for three months until just yesterday.  That made me really sad.  I miss you guys already…  So we got to Pasadena and stopped at my sister’s house where we camped for a few hours.  At about three in the morning I was picked up by Kim’s parents, because we had arranged to travel the whole way together.  Kim having never traveled, had parents that were grateful for her to be able to travel with someone else.  So we drove to the airport and went through our baggage check and customs without any problems at all.  We got to our gate and waited for about thirty minutes before they started to board our flight.  We weren’t able to reserve seats next to each other on this flight because it was over booked but that was ok because it was pretty short leg anyway.  Our flight left at 6:30 am and flew to New York.  From there we went immediately to our next gate and boarded our next flight to Dakar in Senegal.  There was no gimme time at all between these flights, and we were very relieved to make it on to that one.  On this flight Kim and I didn’t have seats next to each other either, but an African gentleman gave up his seat so that we could sit next to each other.  Unlike the flight from LA to New York,  this flight was actually decent.  You didn’t need to pay an arm and a leg for dinner,  or the movies.  Haha.  So after five hours from LA to New York, we flew about another eight from New York to Dakar,  Dakar is the very most western Tip of the hump of Africa.  We offloaded our flight and were ushered into a Delta lounge for about forty five minutes which was actually very nice because it was incredibly hot outside already.  It was about 4 in the morning and already pushing 85 degrees.  Dakar is Basically the bottom of the Sahara Desert.  From there we loaded on to our next flight which was a long one.  It flew All the way to Johannesburg South Africa.  This flight was either 9 or 10 hours.  I am not exactly sure which.  Needless to say it was an incredibly long flight.  And being as tall as I am I was especially miserable having nothing to lean my head against.  I Didn’t get much sleep on that flight.  As we were coming into Johannesburg I got a chance to talk to the guy across the aisle from me,  and it turns out he was Going to P. too.  Apparently there were about 50 people from something called Global Awakening on this flight.  They were all going with Randy C. to P. for two weeks.  So Randy C was on our flight.  That was pretty cool.  So we landed and outside of the deboarding area. Kim and I met up with a guy named Taylor Gonzales who was also on the same flight who was doing the harvest school.  He and I made arrangements to get a room together in Jo’berg.  He was also on the same flight from Dakar. We were walking out to catch a shuttle to the hotel when Robert found us  and he decided to come with us.  Apparently he had been in the airport for 10 hours having had a 23 hour layover in Jo’berg Airport.  We all go to our hotel and Kim got a room with another gal , Krista, from our school.  The next morning we all went back to the airport and at 8:40 caught our LAM flight to Mozambique.    W had a stop in Maputo and had to go through customs there.  I was issued a One month Visa because you cannot get a 3 month entry visa at the border.  And since the consulate denied my visa application It was the best I could do.  Now I have to go through the process of getting my visa renewed before the month runs out, because apparently if I stay beyond the limits they start charging 100 bucks per day.  Supposedly it can be a very complicated process to get a visa renewed.  So p. for big time favor.  Im not worried.  God has already shown that he is so in control of our situation it’s incredible.  We boarded our same plane and flew on to P.  Pretty much the entire flight was people going to the same place we were.  What between the Global Awakening People and the school, we pretty much swamped the P. airport with people and luggage.  Their one little baggage claim belt was having a very hard time handling all of the luggage for people that were planning on being there for quite some time.  It was interesting, all of the locals who flew, without exception every one of their bags were shrink wrapped.  One said it was to prevent people from opening your bags and stealing stuff.  I will have to do that in the future.

 There was a truck there to pick us up and take us to the base where we will be staying for the next three months.  It was great, all the way on the flight.  We talked with other people that were in the school and stuff.  Then we finally got there and were checked into our rooms and just started to socialize.  We pretty much had the whole day to ourselves other than just like a groundwork meeting at 6:30.  We met lots of people,  and we were hanging outside in our compound outside of one of the houses, when two girls Chelsiey and another gal busted out their guitars.  We just had an impromptu worship sesh on the spot and it was amazing.  It was incredibly anointed and people as soon as they started to hear the music just started to show up.  It was awesome.  After that it just turned into an all out spirit filled ministry time where people just started going crazy.  Getting gnarly p. and prophetic words.  It was awesome.  I ran into Christine again, who I had met back in LA then in AG who is also doing the school. That first Night we had rice and beans.  It was really good cause we were really hungry.  Apparently that is the staple here so I might not be as grateful for it in the future. 

                  The next day was ridiculous.  The first day we got there essentially,  happened to be the second biggest holiday in Mozambique other than Christmas.  Its called Children’s day.  It is a celebration of the children.  So the Compound was opened up to the public and the kids from the village.  Not only were the 500 or so orphans fed at the feast,  but about 2,500 kids from the nearby village came to eat.  It was a feast day,  and so the kids were coming in by the truckload.  It was really cool because all of the children were singing on their trucks as they were coming in.  I caught some of it on video thank goodness.  The day is really special because each kid got not only the normal beans and rice and cabbage,  but also got chicken and a soda.  Which is a HUGE deal here.  Like a once a year type deal.  I got some pretty amazing photos.  So all day we were incredibly booked with all the stuff we were doing,  trying to keep the kids organized and keep the chaos level down. I was on gate control where we managed the lines of kids at the front gate and tried to keep the flow of kids steady so as to not swamp the kitchen with a mob.  At the end,  we had to get all the kids out,  but the Global awakening people had something special in store.  In order to get out the kids had to go through a huge firetunnel of all the  staff, long term missionaries, and harvest students.  For those of you that don’t know a fire tunnel is basically a big long p. tunnel where everybody p. for people as they are walking through.  It was quite an ordeal as you can imagine.  It was by far the most nuts firetunnel ive ever seen.  After all the kids went through,  the staff and missionaries started to go through as well.  H. was there, and she went through,  it was hilarious because she got knocked over by Jesus at least 5 times.  Bummer to be the girl behind her huh?  But at that point the firetunnel just sort of collapsed ant turned into a holy spirit free for all, where all of us students were pretty much rolling around in the Mozambican dirt getting absolutely wrecked.  I have never seen such a high concentration of Sprit drunkies in one place.  It was kind of ridiculous and awesome.  We were there for a good 3 hours at least.  I took a very brief,  but very needed shower that night after we had some worship and went straight to bed. 

Only to be woken up at 5 in the morning by a bird chilling on the windowsill right next to my head.  There is no glass in the windows, only rebar grates, so the bird was like a foot and a half away from my face screaming its heart out.  I got up and decided to have a quiet time and watch the sun rise over the Indian ocean.  It was one of the most glorious quiet times ive ever had.  It was so peaceful,  it was cool because the sun hadn’t come up yet,  and I just stood there on the root of this huge tree crying out to the lord in thanks for bringing me this far.  I then flipped my ipod to my ‘anointed’ playlist  and just worshiped until the sun came up til about seven when it was time for breakfast.  Breakfast is a roll and a cup of tea, which will take some getting used to. Then we went to our ‘classroom’ which is actually a hut that is open on all sides so you can see the entire country side and the ocean.  We worshiped as a school for the first time which was pretty amazing.  There are some real fire bringers in our crew and it was awesome to be a part of what God is doing.  Then Randy C. came and gave us our first lecture,  it was pretty amazing.  He talked a little bit about m. and told some stories that were incredibly inspiring.  Then we had more worship where Randy and his team came around and ministered to each of us.  It was again pretty amazing. 

                  After a brief  break we were back in lecture only this time it was H. speaking.  She spoke on the Good Samaritan, and stopping for the one.  I have never heard the story of the Good Samaritan put in such light.  Itwas amazing.  She cast the three people in the story not as a priest and a levite, and a Samaritan, but as a pastor, a worship leader, and a normal person.  It was really good.  Amazing teaching.  After H. spoke we had another holy spirit party,  only this time the kids were a part of it.  Some little like seven year old kid came and laid hands on me and started p.ing for me, and completely laid me out.  I was shaking I was doin all sorts of stuff.  Its intresting,  God totally used this kid way more to touch me than Randy C.  Randy p.ed for me and almost nothing happened,  but this kid p.ed for me and I went ballistic.  God has been shattering my expectations and my preconceived ideas of what stuff is going to look like and man is it good! Then from there we had lunch then had the rest of the day off.  I went to town to try and find a jimbey but was unsuccessful.  I need to continue to pursue that tomorrow.  It was a long day in town for accomplishing nothing that I wanted.  So I came home and hung out with the kids. Then went to a meeting for people who want to be involved in worship.  I don’t really want to but God told me to so I guess that is what Im doing.    We had dinner and just hung out as a school some more which invariably means it turned into another j. party.  In three days it has had to have happened at least like 12 times already.  It is a little nuts.  Then I went to bed,  got up again at 5 this morning,  had another amazing quiet time, and went to breakfast.  After breakfast we had language class and worship, which was again nuts,  these people are always nuts.  Then we went and listened to another lecture by Randy C., which was really amazing, but it was kind of a bummer cause the guy translating wasn’t very good and always had to stop and ask randy to reword which totally diminished the power of the message I thought.  It was still amazing though. 

Anyway this is a lot of typing and I got other stuff to do,  so I am gonna jam.  Ill keep you guys posted.  In terms of p. requests.  Major favor as far as the visa goes, and just keep me in p. for the supernatural. We are gonna start going on outreaches to the bush bush soon so We are really pumped for that.  Robert is doing great, Jazz and Dana haven’t arrived yet,  but things are amazing.  All of us are basically a big family already. I have never connected with people so fast.  And from me that is actually saying something.  Keep us in p. for safety in health.  And that God would dump out his glory on us in exponential proportions, and that we might be able to receive every bit of it!  I am p.ing for you all back home, and am already missing you guys!! 

Salaama  (makua for hello,  I dunno what goodbye is so ill use this til I do.)B

 

Ben

 

Actually Jazz and Dana just showed up so Im gonna show ‘em the ropes!  Catch yall later!