Last night in Moz.

HELLO HELLO HELLOOOOO!

So I am giving a pre-warning: This post is going to be sparatic and all over the place, but I'm just trying to get one last update out!

Things these past couple weeks have been CRA-ZAY!!!!  All the staff have been on holiday which means we have taken on all of their responsibilities... YIKES.  It has been so exhausting even with all of us working hard together, and has given me much respect for the women on staff here.  But this being said, I have had extremely little time on the computer.

The team from my home church Heartland had been here too during that time, and it was very fun getting to know them and hang out with them.  They were an awesome group and so helpful and fun!  But they just left :( 

Sarah also left a few days ago, and she has been very missed here!  It was so great having her here with me this summer.  The kids love her and still will go into our room and say "Saraaaaaaah" (Sarah they love you and miss you, come back).

Hawa has been doing so wonderful.  She has been gaining weight, and she laughs and smiles now.  She is actually sitting on my lap right now sleeping :)  I love her so much.  It's crazy how last summer Telma entered my life and I got to help nurse her back to health and this year is a similar experience with Hawa.

Seeing Telma this year has been so wonderful.  She is a normal little girl now: loud, beautiful smile and laugh, talks A LOT, throws temper tantrums, plays with the other kids... she is just so amazing, and it is so AWESOME to see how God has changed her and healed her this past year.  I cannot wait to see Hawa next year and how much she has grown in a year.

The other baby Antonio (Tony), that I had the picture and post about earlier is also a miracle baby.  He survived and a week or so later they decided to let us take him in for them.  He was very ill and the mother said she hadn't fed him in a few days, and she had given him diarrhea medicine as food!  He I am also happy to report is doing so much better and so healthy.

So I came here without my addiction to Diet Coke, but I am unfortunately returning back to the US with my addiction back.  I don't have any funny stories this summer but I have met a good friend at the store where I go to buy them every day, Florence.  She invited me to her house the other day and fed me and gave me a purse.  She is wonderful.  I have had a lot of interesting food experiences this year, but I'll have to share those at home.  I'll give you this tid bit though: Had to eat a whole small fish (multiple times), eyes, skin, bones and all was there before me.  One of them had very tiny bones that were hard to pick out and went a couple days with a bone stuck in my gum of my mouth... yes, my diet has definitely been expanded this month.

The same two boys will not leave me alone this summer :)  One has told me he is moving to America in a couple years and to please "give him hope" that there will be something between us, and the other told me he wanted to marry me last night.  I told him that you can't marry somebody you don't even know...

I leave tomorrow, and I absolutely cannot believe this month has flown by so fast.  I feel the Lord has blessed and grown me through this trip so much and am so thankful for all He has done for me.  This summer I've gotten to do even more here, and have seen His glory even stronger than last summer.  I just cannot even express how blessed I feel that he has let me experience this.  Although it has been tiring, and I've been sick off and on, it has been one of the best months of my life so far.  The Lord is Good.  I have grown so much closer to Him and have had to depend fully on him for so many things here this summer.  I just am so grateful.

I've had to say a lot of goodbyes and it has been very hard, and I'm not looking forward to tomorrow AT ALL.  I have especially gotten closer to Pieter and Rika and Allison this year, and it is going to be very hard leave them.  And obviously I do NOT want to leave the babies.  I don't want to leave... SHOCKER.  But I know without a doubt this time, that I will be back.  I know God has great plans for me here, and I cannot wait to see them revealed.

I love you all and am very excited to see and talk with you all when I return.  Thank you so much for all of your love and support and prayers and e-mails.  They have all been so encouraging.  Please pray for safe travels!  I will be home in 3 days!  Peace out.

~britt

Xenophobia and Hawa.

WOW. That is my word to describe what is going on here right now. So much has happened in the last week but two main topics: Xenophobia and Hawa.

Xenophobia: An unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different.

You may have heard about this on the news in America, but we're in the midst of it over in Africa. Recently in South Africa there has been a tragedy. Many of the South African people in the townships have gotten very upset over lack of jobs and so many foreigners in their country. They have been acting out against foreigners that have been living in their communities for many years. Mozambique and Zimbabwe people groups have been the targets. The S.Africans have been going into their homes at night and forcing them out, burning houses down, setting people on fire, cutting peoples limbs off... and the list goes on. There are tents set up for the refugees to live in but they are very overcrowded, toilets are overflowing, and people are getting very ill. Many Mozambicans are fleeing back to Mozambique for safety.

We were listening to the news during all of this but everything was going on in South Africa so we were not worried about our safety, just the safety of the people in South Africa. But then last Saturday, nearly a week ago, Pieter came into the room and said we needed to pack a bag because we were most likely leaving for South Africa very soon. Apparently there was much talk about the Mozambicans coming back and wanting to force the South Africans to leave their country. The people that we stay with are South Africans and many people in the community know of this, and even staff and friends of ours advised that we leave. I will admidt I was quite nervous. Along the way we received a great blessing and one of Pieter and Rika's friends runs a lodge and said we could stay there. And what turned out to be a scarey situation turned out to be a little vacation. We got to sleep in real beds (not air mattresses), eat good food, and relax. Another EXTREMELY exciting thing was that we got to go to Kruger National Park where we got to see giraffes, elephants, impala, kudu, lion, leopard, and so many AFRICAN animals. It was crazy! Finally on tuesday after things had settled down, and there had only been a couple acts against South Africans in Mozambique we decided to return.

PLEASE PLEASE keep these countries in your prayers that the Lord will continue providing peace to these countries, and for the people that have lost everything. All of us are realizing that in a country where there was already so much need, now has an even greater need. The family here is trying to figure out where our place is to help in all of this disaster.

HAWA.

We received a wonderful gift on Wednesday (the day after we returned to Mozambique). Her name is Hawa.

Luis and I went to a village on Wednesday with social services because there was a woman who was HIV positive and had two children she could not take care of. Hawa was one of those children and severely ill. She has AIDS, 3 years old, and 7.5 kilos (equals about 15 pounds). Telma when she got out of the hospital was 8 kilos. I thought Telma was so tiny last year. Hawa is even smaller, literally she looks like a skeleton with skin over it. Her hair is also completely the yellowy orange color coming from major nutrient deficiency. She has been consuming my time since I got back. Her brother was quite healthy and Pieter convinced the mother that if we aided her with food for him she could still take care of him, but Hawa was so close to death that we knew we needed to take her in. Pieter thinks what must have happened was the mom realized Hawa had AIDS and gave up hope on her and stopped feeding her.

We took her to a smaller clinic/hospital for a while yesterday and had tests run. We took her to this one because they don’t keep babies there and we wanted to be able to nurse Hawa back to health at the house. She slept with me the first night and I got to cuddle her all night long. You can tell that she has not received much affectionate touch because any time you rub her back she pushes your hand away. She also had a witch doctor necklace on her the day she arrived. This precious little girl needs so much love and support to make up for the lack there of in her life so far.

Have I found my calling in life? Working with the malnourished abandoned children? Only the Lord knows, but judging from the last two summers it will not come as a surprise, sorry mom and dad :)

Please be in prayer over Hawa, our special gift from the Lord: that the evils which have been placed over her will be broken, that she can learn to be loved and held, and that she will recover and get healthier day by day. This is a very critical time for her and any infection or too much wrong food could be detrimental.

I will post pictures of Hawa in a few days, so keep checking.

One last thing: Our friend that I had mentioned, Kali, passed away yesterday after an extreme up and down of hope and sadness to all who knew her. She is with the Lord now in a way better place than she was. But please pray for her family and friends who are still here and how they will cope with the loss from our lives.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and support. I love getting your e-mails that are so encouraging!

~britt

P.S. Justin and Christie (from my church in KC) are on their way to be with us in Mozambique. Please pray for their safe travels

Control.

The other day we were supposed to get a new baby boy for that house.  The mom (who was 16) and her cousin came to the baby house with him.  It was one of the hardest things I have seen since I've been back...  He was 3 months old and severely malnourished, so close to death, and had a horrible infected scab the size of a baseball or larger on the top of his head.  There was also many signs a witch doctor had been working on him because he had this weird string tied around his wrist and a weird necklace on that were signs of that.  The mom was so apathetic and almost laughed when we talked to her about what she wanted to do with the baby.  It was just a horrible situation and it is also pretty obvious that the whole family including the grandparents have AIDS and the baby as well.  But in the end the grandpa didn't want the baby to come stay at the house because he was worried about child trafficking (which is becoming more and more of an issue here).  It was just a horrible situation that we had no control over.  We have been praying for that sweet little life.  I just have to remember that his life is in the Lord's hands and His plans are perfect.  There is a reason that child did not come to us.  But we continue to pray over the baby for his health and the evils that are being placed on him.  Please remember to pray for him also.  This is him:

~britt

Lacerda.

A really wonderful thing that is happening here is that Allison (one of the girl's here long term who is 23) is trying to build relationships with young women and do a bible study and just teach them about self worth and purity.  

She met this girl named Lacerda at the market, and has been working on getting to that point with her.  The other night Sarah and I went with Allison for the first bible study.  It was at Lacerda's house with her 2 sisters and mother and their little kids were there also (who were so cute and sat on our laps and gave us kisses the whole time).

In Mozambican culture it is very traditional to prepare a meal for the guests... so guess what, that is what they did.  It was very interesting and different.  The hardest part for me was the little fish that you could still see it's eyes and had all its bones and skin still, blah I can't even believe I ate that thing!  But it would be very rude to not eat all of the food.  I was very proud of Sarah also for eating it all.

The bible study was so amazing and I was actually able to understand parts of what they were saying!  I'm so happy that I'm starting to pick up Portuguese again!  The mom is already a Christian, but the daughters have not accepted Christ yet.  Lacerda was saying she felt like she had too much stuff she had to deal with first before she could come to him.  Allison was trying to explain to her that is not how it has to be.  It was a very wonderful time and I cannot wait until we go back.

Be praying that through these relationships the women will come to know Christ the way we have the gift of knowing Him.

~britt

Return To The Village.

The other day we got to go to the grandparents house in the village that we worked a lot in last summer.  They take are very poor yet still take care of many of their grandchildren whose parents have died.  It was so exciting getting to go back and see the same kids like Nolia and Miliano and many others.  The grandparents were so glad to see us back too!  We are still working on getting running water to their house, please pray that issue gets finished this summer.

I gave out all my sweets that got sent with me for the kids at the village and they LOVED them (thank you Carol)!

I also saw Tiki, my little guy last summer who was SEVERELY malnourished (refresher on his story: his dad left and his mom still wants him but new man she's with refuses to take care of him so Tiki only gets fed scraps that are leftover food and is only allowed to sleep at the house at night).  He is now 15 and still looks like he's 7 and looked even worse, his skin even more scaley, but still had the most joyful personality.  It was very hard to see him again because I feel like nobody is doing anything to help him.  He has been on my heart ever since.  Pieter and I are trying to figure out what we can do to help him so please be praying for that.  

Overall, it was so fun and wonderful being back in the village!

~britt

Not so Short (the entry that is), but I'm still pretty Sweet :)

HELLO HELLO!!!

I hope that everyone is doing well in all of their places around the world!

I am doing so great!!!!!!! My only issue right now is that I don't even know where to start updating you all...

I guess I will start with the team here: Pieter and Rika and the boys are great... After being very ill with Hepatitis A this year Rika is finally doing a lot better, but still has hard days with her health. Please continue to pray that her health and liver will recover completely. Pieter and I still give each other a hard time... Somebody (thanks Justin) clued him in on Versace (I did not really tell them about how I had a little dog I dressed up in Africa last year) so that is his favorite topic currently to give me a hard time about. Sarah is also doing well. She is so good with the kids and they all LOVE her. Another thing I didn't tell you all about in my posts yet is Simone. He is here for 3 months and is from Germany. Craziest thing, we were sitting next to each other on the plane from Jo-Burg to Maputo and realized we were going to the same place then... small world! He is very fun! There are two other girls here who are here Allison from Colorado, who is here long term, and Anna from Hong Kong/London/California, who is here 2-3 months. They are both so wonderful, and I already LOVE them! They both dropped basically everything they had at home to be in Africa for a long time, and I admire them so much. Then there are all the educators and staff who are still so amazing and still sing the mozambique song "Photo" and make me dance to it (my fav song of last summer).

Sarah and I have gotten to go over to the new baby house a couple of times. The little boys there are absolutely ADORABLE! Daniel, Nichols, and Gercio. I also got to see Dulce and Jessica while I was over there (who lived at the baby house last summer), I love them so much! Dulce and the other staff is doing great at that house and are basically running it completely on their own.

Satan has still be trying very hard to hit me where my biggest struggles are. I have been praying over it constantly, and things are slowly getting better. Please continue to pray that the Lord will protect me and support me over this time. I know satan hates what I'm doing right now and wants to do anything to pull me away from the Lords plans, but he's not going to get me! It is so amazing to know that the Lord will let me endure nothing that he doesn't think I can handle, and with all the boulders satan is throwing, He must think I'm very strong.

It is so weird for me to think that if I hadn't come last summer my Mozambique family would not be part of my life. I love everyone here so much, and feel eternally blessed that I have gotten to experience this now two summers in a row. I am so grateful of all my support that I have received and how everything has fit into place so perfectly. I am so in awe of my heavenly Father.

It is crazy to watch the kids now. Their personalities are all SO SIMILAR to last year, basically the exact same but they're just a little bigger, and more of them are potty training... Yes we have many accidents around here with 4 kids potty training. By the time I have my own kids I will be a pro at potty training with all the kids I've helped to train! The only person who has changed significantly is Telma. It is actually so weird watching her play and talk with all the other kids. She truly is a miracle child. It is amazing to remember the first few times I went to the malnourishment ward to see her last summer and seeing her now. She is my baby and will always hold a special place in my heart. Please keep all the kids in your prayers so that they continue to grow and develop well and grow up loving the Lord.

One other thing you could be praying for is Sarah and I's friend/sorority sister Kali. We received news the other day that she was in a horrible car accident where 3 people have already died. She is in an induced coma and her skull was fractured and her she has bleeding on her brain. She could be in this coma for a few weeks or a month. But at least she is still with us. Be praying for her and all the people and families involved in this accident.

Sorry for the longest blog post ever! It is the first time I've had a long time to update you all. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. They are a huge help. I love and miss you all tons!!!!

~britt

Short and Sweet.

Hello hello!!!

Things are just so great here!!!! I don't have time to update much, but just wanted to let ya'll know I'm still alive :)  I will update more later, but here is a tiny sum-up:

Things with the kids are all back to normal!  

Many of their personalities are still very similar accept they all talk so much now!

Sarah and I are having a blast together, she is fabulous!

God is amazing for providing me with the opportunity of returning here.

If you are praying for me I could really use some prayer against satan and his lies and how he is trying to bring me down... that I will lay everything at the feet of the Lord.

Thank you all for your support.

~much love

      britt

Esto Aqui!!!

Hello all!!!

   I have finally arrived in Mozambique!  After 

three days of traveling I am actually here!  It still doesn't feel real, but at the same time it feels like I never left (except for the fact that all the kids seem so much older).

  First I'll start with my fabulous day in London:  I took a brief detour of my flying and spent the day in London with David Shewmaker.  He = best tour guide ever!  We decided that we pretty much demolished London that day.  He took me around SO many places, the Westminster Abbey, changing of the gaurds, the London Towers, famous gardens and shopping streets, and sooooo much more!  It was a very exciting day and I am so thankful to him for EVERYTHING, thanks David!  Also as we were walking along, craziest thing, we ran in to Cheyenne Christesson, Maggie Dietrich, and Danielle Daugherty (girls in my Pi Phi pledge class).  Who would've thought I'd run into people

 I know on the streets of London?  It was an amazing day, I couldn't have asked for a better time!  Here is a pic of David and I by Buckingham Palace:

   Then the journey continued.  I flew over night to Johannesburg and finally in the morning I arrived.  As I was walking into the Jo-burg airport I could not have asked for a better entrance song.  The song "Right foot left stomp, left foot left stomp, everybody clap your hands..."  was playing and I busted out the whole dance... no not really, but it would've been fun.  I just started laughing and then sat and WAITED the longest 5 hours of my life.  Finally my flight took off to Mozambique and I got there around 2:50 p.m. today.  Thank the Lord all of my bags made it (seriously, I've said so many prayers over it, due to one being lost for 2 weeks last summer).  A kinda hard thing that I had been preparing myself for happened.  The kids did not really recognize me.  I expected it cause they were so young, but it still stinks some.  But whatever, I'm here with my babies and they've already warmed up to me again.  Some of them I think may actually be remembering me (like Luis, Aninha, and Telma)?  One of the best moments of the day was when Telma walked over to me wanting me to hold her and she just pressed her cheek against mine and wrapped her arms and legs around me so tight.  AMAZING :)  I played with the kids for a little while and then we left to my Mozambique fav restaurant: Mimos!  And that has been my time so far in Moz.  Sarah Fess will be arriving here tomorrow, I CAN'T WAIT!  Be praying for her, she is having to stay the night in jo-burg by herself :/  yikes!  But she will do amazing, and I just want her here with me and the babies!

   I am absolutely EXHAUSTED, so I am done for now.  More to come on how the kids are and how they've grown.  My air mattress is screaming my name!!! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!

Much love!

~britt

p.s. Please e-mail me (bsiler@uark.edu) or facebook me to give me updates on ya'lls lives!

Departure.

Hello family and friends!

Sooooo it is about 1:00 a.m. and I am finally packed for Mozambique, phew! It does not seem real that I am getting to go back and will be there in 3 days!!!

My adventure begins tomorrow morning when I wake up at 3:45 a.m. (yes, that is less than 3 hours away from now). I will load my bags into the car and drive to the airport. My first flight leaves at 6:45. From there I will head to Chicago, then to London where I will spend the night. Thanks to an AMAZING family (aka the Shewmakers) I will be getting to spend the day in London touring the city with David Shewmaker, can't wait man!! Later on that day, around 7:00 p.m. my flight continues overnight to Johannesburg, South Africa. I have a layover for a bit there and then I will be on the last leg of my flight to MAPUTO where Papa Pieter will be waiting for me :) And that is where the time (round 2) of my life will begin.

Hopefully I will be able to update this blog frequently while I am in Mozambique so ya'll can get a glimpse of what is going on there. Please keep me in your prayers that the travels will be safe and my bags will actually both arrive there this time. Love ya'll and am so thankful for each of you!!!

~britt

p.s. the pics are some of my fav from last summer.