Dreams Do Come True

This past Friday, the Lord provided a way for Steve and I to take a day trip out to Mahafaly Land.  Our friend & teammate Tessa, volunteered to watch Ryleigh for the day, so off we went!  We left early Friday morning

and oh did the Lord start our morning off right!!

It's 4 hours of hard driving to get out to Kilimary & Besatra, these are the two villages with which we have the best relationship and there are now believers at both villages!!  I'm not sure I can acurately describe how I felt driving up to Besatra.  The Lord had already given me an unexplainable peace about leaving Ryleigh for the day and then He gave me an unexplainable joy as I was greeted by faces such as these...

I sat, surrounded by children who were getting the biggest kick out of my taking their picture and then letting them see it on the back of my camera.

I went and sat with the ladies for a while too and was pleasantly surprised that one lady, Filao, knew official Malagasy.  This means that she was able to understand me and I could actually follow what she was saying as well!  Praise Him for ears that understand!!  The rest of the ladies mostly spoke/understood Mahafaly dialect but Filao served as a translator.  The ladies decided that the next time I came out it would be necessary for them to sit and braid my hair like theirs...personally, I can't wait!

If you have known me for any length of time - you know how long I have desired to simply sit in an African village and share His love with them, however I can.  I still have so far to go with the language but there are no words to describe how evident His love was - in them through their welcoming of me to their village and hopefully through me and my eagerness to communicate with them as much as I could.

Oh how faithful our Savior is to give us the desires that He has placed in our hearts!!  The only thing in the world that could have made the day more perfect is to have our little girl out there with us.  However, we know that she will be one day soon - all in His timing.  It was a dream 20+ years in the making for me and I feel sure she'll be out there before she's 2, so it sounds like she has it made to me!!  Through this trip, He taught me so much - all of which I'm sure will make it's way into the blog sooner or later...but for now I'll leave you with a few of the precious faces that are living over here on this side of the world.  Eyes, smiles, people, souls...that had never heard of the faithfulness of our God, of His forgiveness, of His perfect plan, or of His love until just a few short years ago...