Salama!
I just got back from another bush outreach! This village we went to was about 2 hours away from Pemba. The ride there was smooth and we arrived before sundown. God did incredible miracles this weekend.
Our first night we showed the Jesus film and prayed for sick people. Many people received Jesus as their Saviour and Lord and many people were healed. My team performed a little skit that we made up and practiced behind the truck while the crowd was watching the Jesus film. It seems that we often just wing it and do things 'on the spot' around here. Which I don't mind at all.
What was most exciting for me personally was how God broke through in intercession. At the end of the film our team was praying for the people and then we ligned up at the front so people could come up and receive prayer. The Holy Spirit moved so powerfully in me that my stomach was moving in and out. I knew that God was up to something! We went up to pray for people and the prayers just shot out of me like I have never experienced before in my life! I would lay my hands on someone and start praying and immediately the power of God would move out of me that I forgot everything around me and myself.
A lady I prayed for who had a problem with her left foot was healed on the spot, her face lit up and she smiled at me and started dancing around. I was so excited in that moment I jumped in the air and shouted 'Jesus!! Jesus!! Jesus!!.......' She went up to the microphone and testified of the healing.
There were so many healings that night, we couldn't even keep track of the count! Two people I prayed for got their hearing back, a boy's stomach was healed, another foot was healed...Some people I prayed for didn't get healed but I kept on pressing in and believing. My faith has grown so much this weekend! There's nothing like seeing someone get healed on the spot. My team saw many more healings that I don't even know of. Almost everyone we prayed for received healing.
The next morning we went out into the village and visited with people. Each group had a translator and local people from Iris Ministries who knew the language. My team was able to show God's love to the people we saw. My friend Philip who is also on my YWAM team had a word of knowledge for an elderly lady that God wanted to give her good dreams at night. Then we found out that she had been having bad dreams. We prayed for her and visited with her for a little while. She was a believer and knows Jesus. We then went into her house and prayed over her house. We felt the spiritual atmosphere change immediately and started laughing and dancing with her outside her home. It was such a blessing to  love on this woman and encourage her.
Another man we prayed for had problems with his stomach and was healed. One man we prayed for had been cursed by a witch doctor with leprosy. He was a Catholic. After talking with him we sensed that he didn't know Jesus and who he can be as a child of God. The sickness did not break, but we 'sowed a seed of faith' in him and saw the Holy Spirit touching him personally. We encouraged the local people on our team to have the pastor of this village disciple this man.

Life in the village
The villages are not like anything we've ever seen in our Western world. There is dirt and dust everywhere. People live in small mud huts, chickens running around everywhere. The culture here is community oriented where the whole village raises everyone's kids. Women nurse each other's babies, not because they have any lack in milk, but because it's how it's done. The poverty is unthinkable. People do have their own gardens on occasion, but usually women live with their kids (5-6 of them) without any father,  and gather sticks to sell for an income. They earn about 3 dollars a week for their whole family. The huts are simple. There are a few bamboo beds and a little fire place. Kids don't have any toys, they play with each other or they make their own toys out of sticks or garbage bags.
This culture doesn't see the family the way we do in the Western world. Here, people hardly ever marry. They change partners frequently. Women raise the kids on their own and the fathers don't live with them. A man can simply sleep with a woman and she will become pregnant and he will move on while she raises the child. It's very common for a man to have multiple 'wives'.

Here at Iris we feed the village kids 6 days a week. They come by the hundreds and pick up a plate full of rice and beans every day. This is often their only meal. We also have a village feeding every second Monday. Here, the women come and pick up a bag of rice and a bag of beans. Women carry everything on their heads. I have carried a baby in a cloth tied around my shoulder! A 1 year old who hardly weighed anything. But I got tired after walking for half an hour. My friend Jane and I were visiting a woman in the village here this week and walked with her to her little hut. She served us lunch, Matapa, which is a traditional meal here. It's a green plant that looks like spinach when cooked. It's served with rice and it grows everywhere. We ended up praying for all her 5 kids and prophesying over them. We played Duck Duck Goose with them and a whole bunch of village kids joined us. Kids here love this game! We had so much fun.

Prayer requests
I'd love your prayers for my relationships with people here at Iris. Please pray that God will fill me more and more with His love so that I have more and more to give away.

My team is heading up a 12 hour worship session next weekend, and a 24 hour worship session on May 25th. We will be in the church building here at Iris. I don't know what God's going to do but I do know that God will 'open the heavens' and pour out his blessing.

I'd also love your prayers for financial provision. I need to buy some essential things like shampoo and laundry money as well as another $50 for my monthly support for April and $320 for June.

I will be back in Canada in about 6 weeks which means I will start a new chapter. As of now I don't know yet where I will live or work. I am praying about where God wants me to go next.

Blessings to you all in Jesus' name!! We have an amazing and wonderful God!
Until next time...