Thoughts from Heather aka "Lena"

-Charles De Gaulle Airport - stuck in the revolving door!

- Mike, Jeff and Jonathan outside the Louvre Museum.

-PARIS!!!

What a great adventure this trip was! I would be hard pressed to pick out just one or two things that impressed me the most but since Jonathan set us homework I will try to narrow it down. The most fun part of the trip was....getting to know my teammates, the Mozambican teachers and staff at Bethel Center. It was good to make a connection with the teachers during our training and have them laughing and sharing stories. They were tough nuts to crack and it was difficult to break the ice at first. I also enjoyed speaking in Portuguese and being able to communicate a little without help from our interpreters. Of course being that I am an art teacher the stop in Paris was absolutely amazing! I am glad that we had the time to spend in the city and that my teammates were game for riding all over on buses all day long and for visiting the Louvre.

The hardest part of the trip was...traveling - as you may know, I did not fare well during our travels. The worst part was in the Jo-burgh airport when I got sick during dinner. The second hardest part of the trip would be learning to communicate with the very limited Portuguese that I knew. I did get a little better through the week and was able to understand more than I could speak but I am really glad that I took the lessons at church before we left. The third hardest part of the trip was...leaving! I wanted to stay longer and get to know the people better and do something more for them. I feel like I shared some good ideas with them and that they will use the ideas when they teach but I don't feel like I made that much of a tangible difference. Teaching someone to teach does not have the same results as building a school or digging a well. The seeds I helped to plant won't be evident for a long time and not seeing immediate results is hard.

The biggest thing I learned on this trip was to trust and have faith in God. I could feel him growing stronger in me while we were preparing for the trip and it was amazing to be a witness to the work he sent us to do. We had to learn to let go of our plans and let the Holy Spirit guide us and that started the moment we set foot on the continent. Our plans changed for the rental cars and without two cars we would not have been able to purchase all the supplies we needed for the teachers. God provided Sorau, a wonderful man, who was willing to act as interpreter and buying agent as well as tour guide for our team. Every little attack we felt on the trip was overcome by God and we were able to use the changes to our advantage. We also had some divine appointments and made connections with important people during our travel and our stay that will help with future trips. How amazing is that?