All is well here in Pemba. I am a little behind on updating you all and I am sorry about that. Staffing takes up lots of time and energy and I finally have the time to sit down and write a real update.

 School is already finished with its second week! Students are getting charged up and are very much ready for all God has for them in this season.

 Before the school started I was praying and asking God what He had in this season I heard Him say, “I am taking this school from “there is always enough” to there is more than enough!” I know the students feel it now and as they continue to grow and change they will see the “more than enough” so clear.

 The school has been divided into 21 one color groups and are being sent out weekly and daily into the bush, village, and to the one in front of them. The color group I am leading was just got back from something we call emersion. Which is where we send out students into the village with a “mama” or a Pastor to learn about the culture and live for 24 hours with a Mozambican Family. Recently the government has not been happy with the masses of people that come in from around the world to attend Harvest School and has set up many rules that the students are required to follow. Yesterday before my team was heading out on emersion the government called and permitted us from staying the night because they said it was a holiday and it was to dangerous. However, we had a blast made the best out of the situation. The Mama we went home with was named, Philomena, and she has 4 children. We walked about 20 minutes through the village to her house and then spent the day hanging out, chatting, painting nails, and playing many games. It was very disappointing for the students to not be able to stay the night and really experience daily life with the mama in the village, but we did our best bless their family as much as possible.

 Please be praying for rest for me… I am in a really unnecessarily difficult season with God right now. I am longing to just go away with Him and not do anything else, but am really feeling the wait of responsibility of running the school, being a house mom, and a color group leader. I could really use prayer in this area. I am still in process of learning how to Rest even in the work… One thing I die everyday to.

 Also God has handed me an amazing opportunity to go to Holland in about 8 days for the Mission Possible Conference. I wrote something about it a month or so ago. Within 42 hours of last school God had completely covered all of the expenses for the conference and flights there and back to Pemba! I was so blown away and I cannot wait to go and tell you all everything that happens!


 At the end of this school I will be headed to Thailand to lead outreach until the 30th of December. I am so extremely excited about this. I know and can feel God has so much in store for my time there. I am still waiting on the finances to come in to actually buy my plane tickets, which are going to cost roughly $900.00 dollars to get there one way. I am still praying about what will happen after that, but direction will come in the right time.

 My hope, after outreach, is to join a small team that will be heading to a closed Northern Asian country in mid January. I am really asking for your prayers in this time. North Korea has been a huge desire of my heart for the past three years. I believe I will see and be apart of a huge revival there. I was told about a few people planning a trip and was asked if I wanted to join. I said “of course!!” Since then I have not heard any plans, but I am still in contact with the other people and will see them in Holland in just 8 days!! I do believe I will still go. And I would really love your prayers and spiritual covering in this time. I have waited sometime to tell people about this part of my journey because of the heaviness this country has had on my heart for so long. I really hope you all will be partnering with me especially in prayer! I believe God has put that country on my heart for a reason and as I grow deeper into Him my heart gets bigger for them.

 My life has one direction and one plan and that is to run full force into my God’s arms everyday. Wherever He takes me from there is up to Him. I am willing and everyday becoming more and more able. I cannot wait to update you more! Right now I am just living the dream life in Pemba. Pouring into 300 students from 42 different nations of the world and watching as their lives are completely transformed! Everyday I am so thankful for the life God has given to me. With out Him I would never be where I am today. I miss you all and love you all… I think about you all everyday. I am always praying for the amazing community God blessed me with and the family I have been placed in. Love and Blessings, Rachael Michelle Singleton
 

Held Hostage In Jobeurg

9 days in Joberg and a few weeks in America. 

I am sorry I have not been better about writing this sooner. The time just escaped my grasp to quickly for me to keep up. 

After my 10 days in the bush I was really tired. Physically and mentally. I was ready to be home in America with friends and family and feeling very blessed that I even got the opportunity to do so. 

Finally out of Pemba I landed in Johannesburg. I had an over night layover until my next flight so I made plans to stay with another staff members family, who have a ministry in the city, over night.

The family was amazing and so generous! They drove me back to the airport the next night. Because it is so much cheaper I typically get buddy pass tickets when flying home from places. A buddy pass is acquired from someone who works for or is retired from certain airlines and are given extremely discounted prices on flights, but they are standby tickets. Before now I had never had a problem getting onto a flight and have even been given a first class a couple of times. However, a fire had broken out a month or so earlier In the Nairobi airport causing all flights through that airlines terminal to be redirected in Johannesburg. As well it was school starting season so many people were flying back to America to go back to school. Causing the air traffic from Joberg to America, specifically to ATL, to be extremely over crowded. Making everyone on standby the absolute last priority.  

I arrive at the airport that night very expectant to get on, but that is not what happened. And that was not what for 9 more nights.... 

The first night I ran into one of the students from my 10 day bush team, Julian. He was also flying standby back to ATL and it looked like we were stuck together. We called some friends we new and they were so kind to pick us. Day after day... After day we were so hopeful of getting home. Our friends picked us up and drove us back to the airport every night. Never complaining or asking us to get a taxi. Always willing and when we didn't get on they would pray with us and thank God for another night together.... It totally wrecked me. I have never felt so taken care of in the midst of such emotional trauma. I have also never lived out that verse in proverbs that says "hope differed makes the heart sick." I learned all to well exactly what that verse meant. 

God was totally teaching me something... I just had no clue what it was, but I also felt the peace in not knowing and that one day I would.

  

I was going stir crazy and my soul was just longing to be back in America.  I felt totally useless emotionally.  I was spent and really the only thing I had to lean on was God.  Every morning I would wake up and say “thank you God for this day, thank you that you are in control, and thank you that I can trust you.”  It was the only thing that kept me from going completely mental.  And I am not exaggerating on that.

While there, I didn’t just waste my time away.  I was given many opportunities to pour what little I had left into the city of Johannesburg.  The place where Julian and I stayed the majority of the nights was at a rehab ministry for people who had been hardcore drug addicts and are now clean, but struggling and who want to give a year to God to receive more healing and understanding.

Living with those people made my life seem so ridiculous and the way they were so generous with their space and time was completely the heart of God. Papa Dennis the father of my bush co-leader and the owner of the ministry let us come with him to share with the homeless and feed the men on the streets looking for work.  He also gave everything he had to us whenever he could.  He is such a beautiful man and it was an incredible honor to be with him and his family.

We also got to go to a lion park and pet lions! 

On that same day Bob Johnson (Bill Johnson’s brother) was doing a conference in a neighboring city.  We decided to go and they were going to go “treasure hunting” after Bob spoke.  Dennis, Julian, and I were hungry so we decided to go find something to eat and then go to the lion park. We were asking God where we should go and we landed at this strange gated German restaurant called “Marco Polo”.  

We drove in the gate and the first person to walk up to us was a prostitute.  Quickly we realized we had just driven into this brothel, bar, and restaurant, where all of the workers were in prostitution.  I sat down with the woman who first approached us and she began to tell me about her life and kept asking if I was okay.  I think she was concerned I was mixed up with the wrong crowd.  I told her I was great and very safe.  She told me how she wanted to quit drinking and smoking.  I was able to pray with her for that and chat with her for a bit before she wandered off to where the guys were looking at the menu.  Papa Dennis was able to release the Father’s love to her and really just be a papa to her when no one else ever had.  We also met the owner who was a very old rich German man and he was very confused by us which was funny, but he told us to come back anytime!

After 10 days and 9 nights in Johannesburg trying to get home I told God that if I didn’t get on this flight I would assume I wasn’t meant to go home and I would just get a new visa for Pemba and head back there.  Even though I knew God had told me I was to go home, I began to really second guess what I thought I had heard.  My body physically broke down that night at the airport.  I could no longer hold myself up on my feet.  Tears were flooding my eyes against my own will and my breathing increased drastically. I couldn’t take the stress of it all anymore and I was at my breaking point.  I pleaded that God would have mercy and do something, anything, to put me and the 20 others who had been waiting, on that flight.  And He did.  Everyone but 5 people got on that last flight.  I had never been so happy in my entire life, for anything.  I had never wanted to leave a country so badly.

I think God was really showing me that my home was in Him and nowhere else.  That He was my safety and my place of rest—no one else and nothing else.  No person, not even my own strength could get me where I needed to go without His hand on me.

I got less time at home than I thought I wanted, but it was exactly what I need.

10 Days in The bush

As Harvest School staff we are required to lead an outreach after the school. This school I co-lead with Some Mozambican pastors and another staff member a group of about 17 people into the Bush bush of Mozambique. 

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. To be Honest I feel like I never do. That is the cost of saying yes to God and it is so worth it even if it has its challenges. 

Bush bush was not my fist Choice, but after a very intense chain of events I felt most peace in it!

We saw many, many amazing things, but overall the outreach was very hard as a leader. Mozambican culture is very different from the "western, white man" culture and a lot of issues were formed between the Mozambican leaders and my Harvest School co-leader and I. There are many things I would do differently.  Our last night we stayed at a Longterm missionaries home in the Far north of Mozambique. Called Mocimba de Paria about 7 hours from Pemba. We stayed there our last night as a resting place before going back to Pemba. There in Mocimba we had a meeting with all the leaders. A lot of false accusations were made and the amount of miscommunication that we had no Idea was going on come out. I was not sure any of it was handled well during the trip from either side, but I learned a lot about myself and how much I need to only lean on God to show me how to handle situations and lead not lean on anyone else even if they have more experience. 

Despite my leadership abilities being thoroughly tested we had an incredible team. Everyone was always so willing to serve and bless and there was no complaining everyone was so passionate and understanding even when translation was lost and plans changed. And plans were changed, constantly. 

Being in the bush is not easy if you haven't lived in that environment before. You are sleeping on the ground in tents, you stay covered in dirt, a bamboo covered Latrin is the only bathroom options.... And showers.. Well it's almost easier not to even bother. The bucket part isn't what's hard it's worrying someone is gonna walk in on you at any moment or that they can see through the thin layer of grass, capulana, or tarp that is used to separate you from the many people standing around.  Also the packing up moving every other night can where are on you and if that doesn't the hours at a time truck rides on dusty bumpy roads, and the steady delicious menu of rice and beans or tuna spaghetti should do it, despite all of that not one complaint was made. 

That is why my team was amazing! 

 

      We stayed in 4 for different villages all in the far north of Mozambique only an hour drive to the Tanzania border. Villages that Iris Ministries has never been to, or have been denied access, Places where Heidi and Rolland have gone and been stoned for trying to share Jesus with them.  Everywhere we went was completely new territory. The hunger we saw from those people, after being allowed access from the chiefs of the villages, was the most humbling experience I have ever been honored to witness! 

 

    The first village we stayed in was called Matombalalay. Mama Rosa, a long term Iris Missionary who lives in Mocimba went to this village alone with a district pastor just a few weeks before we came. While there she simply shared to Gospel with the village and she saw over 130 people receive Jesus that night, including a witch doctor who threw up whole tree when prayed for!  When our team arrived, only a few weeks later the village had already built four walls for an Iris church to be planted. That kind of hunger is not as common in these areas of "people of another faith" and we were all very touched and decided to spend more time there than planned. 

The next couple of places we went were places that we had not planned to go before hand, but leaders from those villages came to us, traveling miles and miles at times, begging that we would come to there village and share. I wish I could express how huge that is. Every where we went we saw radical amounts of Salvations, witch craft being burned, people being healed, demons fleeing, churches being built up physically and spiritually. The breakthrough was amazing! We grew close as a team despite all of the drama between culture differences. We were so blessed everywhere we went! In the last village we went to, called Nemo, in the province Mueda we stayed for 3 nights. People flocked our camp sight night and day. People asking for Prayer and wanting to join our "church" the chief even offered up land for a very small price to build a church. How good is God!

Along the way in a village we stayed in for 2 nights we visited a historical Mozambique sight. A giant "hole" in the earth where during a war over 700 Mozambicans were slaughtered. Pushed down this hole to their death. We went there and rebuked the spirit of death in that place. Because Mozambicans still believe there is an evil spirit there that will push you down the hole if you get to close.

We also were able to visit the Tanzania river border and go for a swim! Which was a total blessing. We were pretty dirty at this point..

Over all the trip was an amazing learning experience! We were so blessed to be chosen to go to those places! And I do pray one day I will go back! 

I want to thank everyone who prayed for me during those 10 days. I and my team really felt your covering. Not once was there any fear invited in. A bit of a stomach bug was passed around, but other than that we really felt the spiritual covering as we went in for His glory. 

So thank you for your investment. You were definitely there with us and our stories are yours as well! 

Love and blessings,

Rachael Michelle 

Undone

Hello all of my beautiful friends and family. 

I figured I would write this now since August is coming fast and I will probably not have time to write one until the end of August. 

First and more most thank you all so much for how much you have believed in me, prayed for me and supported me as a take a step into my life as a missionary. I truly do believe this is the life God is calling me into.  Thank you for trusting that I do hear Gods voice even when I have no clue what He is doing. 

So as pure usual my plans have changed. As they tend to do when Holy Spirit is in charge. I am no longer leading the outreach team after this Harvest School to Peru. I will be leading a much bigger team into the bush bush of Mozambique for 10 days. This decision was one of the hardest ones I have had to make this year, but I feel complete peace in my spirit about it.  

     My team and I will be going to 3 different districts in Mocimboa De Paria, one of which is a completely un-reached village! One that Iris Ministries has never been to before! I would absolutely love to be cover in prayer for these 10 days. We leave on August 9th and will be back on the 18th. If you feel lead to cover me in prayer for these days please let me know!

An update on the Holland Mission Possible Conference in October. I initially wasn't sure if I was supposed to go to this conference. I had thought it sounded like an amazing opportunity and was right up my ally as far as the heart of it, but I decided to give it to God and if He wanted me to go He would have to take care of it, I wasn't going to stress over it. 

            The very next day after I told God I would go if He took care of it. A close friend sent me more than I needed to register (and registration is not cheap)! That was a complete and total blessing! Then just a few hours after that I had another friend offer to buy all of my air fair for the journey from Africa (which is where I will be staffing Harvest School 19) to Holland and back to Africa! That blew my mind! Within 24 hours I had the whole trip completely paid for! GOD IS SO GOOD! My first official time in Europe! 

Now here at Harvest School we are down to our last 2 weeks! Which is completely mental when you think about how fast 3 months has gone by! 

       Students are getting completely wrecked by God as well as us staff.

One day as I walk into class I was told I would be sharing my testimony and I would be doing it in 10 mins..... Naturally I was a little freaked, but I just began to pray and ask God what He wanted me to say. I asked him what the theme of my testimony was and I felt him say "My faithfulness." So I ran with that. I opened my Bible right to Romans 2:11 which says "there is no partiality with God." And right there was what I was gonna share on. Once I got up their my heart exploded and God filled my mouth. I was not even sure all that was said, but God used every bit and afterwards I had many people coming up and asking me to pray with them and people telling me that what I shared was really impactful for them. That was so encouraging. 

 

Here In Pemba the GTM (Global team meeting) is starting to today! Which basically means all of the leaders of Iris and partners with Iris from all around the world are all gathering here in one place for a meeting to talk about all that God is doing and dreams He has promised them. Which is an incredible honor to be in the same place as people who are literally changing the world.

 My girls in my room and I have become so close and I am really sad I have to see them leave! They have blessed me so much and I have learned so much from them. We have all become so close and I can not wait to see and hear how God uses them in their lives and their families. 

I feel like my life is getting ready to take off. Over the past year I have gotten so many words about country hopping Nd God sending em here then there... So far they have proven to be real. Also David Wagner was here 2 weeks ago and he prophesied over me that God was given me four hot spots in the spirit, but one Home. Which of course I feel is Tn and the hotspots could be a number of places and I can not wait to discover them! Bring it Lord.

There is so much more I would like to share about what God is doing, but I feel it is not the time or season to release anymore information about what is next. 

I love and miss you all so much! 

I would love to hear from any of you that is willing to share with me about your lives and I always love getting feed back. 

For more updates/quicker updates you can follow me on Instagram: IamRachaelMichelle

Twitter: Rooroorachu

Or find me on Facebook: Rachael Michelle Singleton

Love & Blessings, 

Rachael Michelle

To The Bush Bush!

I wanted to write you all an update specifically for my time leading my Color Group to the Bush Bush. So many wonderful things happened! A mere facebook status just wouldn’t suffice! Here in the Harvest school I have many roles of responsibilities and one of them is co-leading (with my great Partner Seth Cunningham) an amazing group of Harvest School students and Mozambican Bible School Students in different activities throughout the semester (color Groups)! One of those activities is leading them all out into the Bush Bush to share the Love of Jesus show the Jesus film to the more remote villages throughout Mozambique. For the Students it is an amazing time, but also very stretching. Many miracles happen and strong bonds in Christ are formed! It is our time to get off base, in my teams case a four-hour Camion (a big flat bed truck) ride into another village, and really experience what practically stopping for the one and sitting in the dirt looks like (Phrases commonly used by Mama Heidi and other speakers in the classes)! However, for Staff it tends to look a little different. I was informed 2 days before our team left for outreach we would be going to the “city” of Montepuez in the village of Manupupala (I have probably butchered that spelling). And that Mama Heidi, Georgian Banov, and Mattheus Van Der Steen and their teams of about 25 foreigners would all be on the outreach Seth and I were leading! Now on the outside this sounds so exciting and glamorous, but when you get down to the logistics…. It’s a whole lot more responsibility and pressure. I was not so happy when I found out, but God knew what He was doing and He absolutely taught me so much about myself through it and my leadership abilities! Thursday finally came around and our 23 excited Harvest schoolers and Mozambican Bible school students all pile into the Camion to begin our journey. Shortly after filling up on Gas we get pulled over by the Police for having to many foreigners in an open Camion. Iris is then fined 5,00 mets (about $400.00 USD) and an hour and a half later we are on our way! With much Joy and expectation. We arrive very late. Heidi, Georgian, and Mattheus (they flew in Iris’s new airplane) have already started the program and it is in full swing with a Holy Spirit Dance party. The blind see, the Deaf are hearing, a little boy with cerebral malaria was completely cured and many came to know Jesus as Their God. My team was amazing and jumped right into the chaos and were able to set up tents and put their stuff away, which in itself was a mad Tetris game in the dark as Georgian’s team Mattheus’s team and all of the people with Heidi have already pitched their tents in a very very tight space. Heidi and the crew are coming back to their tents just before the Jesus film started. I apologized for being late and told her I was sending my team out to Prayer walk during the film. The Filmed ended and the night was coming to a close we all ate together, the traditional tuna spaghetti and headed to bed. About 10:30pm is an early night for a bush bush outreach! The next morning we were not so sure what to expect as there was a lot planned for a short amount of time, but God knew and we trust Him! 5:30am we started our breakfast preparations! It is tradition for Heidi to serve all the visitors that come on the outreach she is on Starbucks coffee in the mornings. Other than the coffee breakfast consists of one bread role with Peanut butter and one with Jam. Breakfast started and Heidi greeted everyone. We prayed and sang together then Heidi Served her coffee and I served the Tea and bread roles. We had invited the Chiefs of the Village to come have breakfast with us and they show up! When you great a chief/King of a village there traditional way of honoring hand shakes, new Capulanas (traditional African fabric), and getting lower than they are sitting. Heidi wanted as many visitors to great him as possible so we got everyone rounded up we let him speak for a moment. He was very blessed and honored we came back to his Village and took us in as family! Right after we all greeted the Chief Heidi had heard we had a few nurses on our team so she asked if they would set up a Medical tent to treat people. My team was amazing and stepped right up into getting a medical tent prepared. Not really having sufficient supplies, but totally willing and ready to pray with people and treat whomever they could. Many people came to the tent and were prayed for including a Woman who was about 6 months pregnant and had not felt her baby move in over a month. So the team prayed for her and they felt the baby kicked several times pretty hard. The woman left in tears and her friend accepted Jesus into her heart because of it! HOW GOOD IS OUR GOD! Around the same time the medical tent was being set up we split everyone into teams of four to go out into the villages and sit with the people and pray with them. Invite them to the program that night. Many were healed and a few came to know Jesus. It is amazing how story after story like that can be the same when you just come in faith and in the name of LOVE! Heidi, Mattheus, and Georgian had gone off to find some potential pieces of land to build an iris church on. After visiting about 3 places they came across a woman who had some land right on the road and she agreed to sale it to Iris! It was only about 100 yards away from where we had already been doing the programs the night before. We wrote up the paper work and bought the land at an extremely reasonable price and spent time honoring the woman who agreed to sale it! Once that was finished we rounded everyone up and went out to see a well that Georgian’s ministry had paid to be dug. When we got there we learned it had been not giving out water for the last day and there was no explanation for it. So we gathered everyone to come pray, the village kids came and surrounded it they all laid hands on it and we praised God in faith for the water to spring up. After about 5 minutes of praying people began to walk away, but all of a sudden water began to pour from the pipe! Everyone cheered! The kids all fought for a hand full of water! GOD IS AMAZING!! Soon after that Heidi and the teams left in one of our camions and the airplane. Leaving me, Seth, and our team of 23 to run the show. Everything was amazing and went so smoothly. That night we prayed together, did a drama of the Good Samaritan we had prepared, a few people shared testimonies, and then showed the Jesus film. We then asked if any one else wanted to give there life to Jesus and about 30 of the local men raised their hands to accept Jesus into their lives! We made a big fire tunnel to fill them up and bless them. Then we played music had a fun dance party with the village until the night was over. I had prayed for a woman who was deaf in one ear and after praying. We tested out her ear and she was completely healed! I love how faithful God is! And how much he truly loves HIS people! He chases after us we don’t even have to do anything. His love is that great! He says if you ask in my name I will answer you! I had an amazing time! My team was incredible and so flexible and willing to just go with what Holy Spirit was doing! Blessed are the flexible for they will not break! Love you all, Many blessings, Rachael Michelle Singleton

HOUSE OF PEACE!

Hi my friends, I am so sorry it has been so long since I have last updated. As a staff member I have been given a lot of responsibilities and in order to do my best I feel like I do not have time to keep you all updated. That is one thing I have been learning a lot is the balance between getting things done and stay connected and not leaving my community behind. Please hear me. My heart is for and with you all. Some of my roles and responsibilities are or have been Getting all three hundred and twenty something students passports copies and visa copies Notarized and making sure their visas are correct, assigning all the students to their practical mission options on Fridays, as well as being apart of the Admin team. I also am now doing schedules for all the guest speakers, Mozambican Bible school students, and Harvest school students, but most importantly I am a house Mom to 4 Beautiful women! I leave in the dorms of House of peace (could that get more prophetic?). Being house mom has been amazing and at times challenging, but in the best ways. Ways that are causing me to grow and learn so much in leadership and tenderness. In my room I have 3 fellow Southern American women and one Amazing Brit. At times I have amazed myself in the amount of Love I have for these girls and how much I want to see God sweep them away in the things He has for them. Already I have been using things I have learned from my life to lead them into forgiveness and breaking off Ungodly beliefs and ungodly soul ties. I am so honored at times to be given this time to pour into these women who could literally change the world and whose destinies are so huge. Life here and the amount I am getting poured into in the midst of the craziness and responsibilities are like a complete paradox! As staff we all get to have time with the guest speakers to pour into us and encourage us. The most common theme for all of them thus far have been telling us to get into the word and into His presence or we will dry up. God has been so much so speaking exactly the same thing to me in my personal life! As well as so much more! A quick testimony I wanted to write down was from a older student Named Shelby. Who for Thirty years has had to wear hearing aids and without them is almost completely deaf. While packing for Harvest school her son (who did the previous Harvest school) Told Her that she didn’t need to bring her hearing aids because she would get healed, but she laughed it off and packed them anyway. However, in her travels here the hearing aids disappeared between her flight from Johannesburg to Pemba. And she was so upset because she couldn’t hear anything going on around her and reading peoples lips was becoming a hassle. So she went up to the prayer hut to pray with her husband about it. Then she heard a “pop” and it scared because she was afraid something was wrong, but all of a sudden she began to hear birds chirping and children running. Things she hasn’t heard for over 30 years! GOD IS SO good! This was all before the first day of Classes! She then walked up to a group of Women talking and was able to hear everyone speaking without having to read lips! That was just one of so many this school! I have so many things to update and I am sorry this is so brief! But I will try and get more consistent with my updates so they are shorter! Also I am sorry I didn’t have time to proof read this properly before posting it! P.S. Those of you who have been supporting me Via Miraculous Love Ministries in order to have a tax deduction at beginning of July First that will no longer be an option. I am so sorry for the inconvenience and I am working on having tax deduction as option again soon! You can still support me via Paypal:Rachaels7@gmail.com, to my home address: 1306 Robin Hill Rd Franklin TN 37064 Much Love and Many thanks, Rachael Michelle Singleton! For pictures or more frequent updates follow me on Instagram iamrachaelmichelle or Facebook Rachael Michelle Singleton

Preparation station.

I arrived in Pemba on Wednesday the 15th of May. I was able to have a day to settle in to my new home and rest. The next day, however, it was time to get busy. Some other staff had arrived much earlier this month to start the set up process, but there was and is still plenty to do. 

Time is flying by it has been nearly 2 weeks since I left home and I can not believe it! It is so surreal coming back to this place after almost 3 years! God is so good especially in the times when I was questioning if coming here to staff was really what was next. He knew this was exactly what I needed! 

          The minute I arrived I felt alive again there is something about this place that is just home to me. That is the only word I have for it. I think coming to this place for the the first time when I was 13 and the impression it left on me forever sank into my heart as home. And no matter who is around the new or the familiar they are family. 

Getting to know my co-staff members has been incredible. There are some amazing men in woman who have committed to being here and I know the students of Harvest School 18 are going to be so blessed!  We are the largest staff of any harvest school (40 people) and I feel so honored to have been chosen to be apart of this leadership team!

As a staff team we got the opportunity to have a fun day of rest on the beach where we were fed two amazing meals and spent to whole day just soaking in the sun, kayaking, and enjoying each others company al while on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. 

The students start arriving tomorrow! (Monday May 27). I was able to find out the names of the students that I will be a house mom to and give them there specific beds and as well to begin to pray and intercede for them before they arrive. To cover them and our house!  I am so very excited for this season I know God has so much in store not only for them, but for me. 

Some things I would really love prayer for:

1. Peace. And plenty of rest. 

2. Unity with my room and my co-staff

3. Protection & super natural health!

4. Finances!! The cost of living here in Pemba, because of western influence, has gone up a lot more since I was here last. Also, I still have not bought my flights for the Peru outreach I am leading at the end of school. 

5. That God would use me as His voice and to know who the "ones" are that He has prepared for me to stop for. 

6. For plenty of Grace. 

On a side note. My good friend Tetra, who is a long term missionary here in Pemba, and I have been able to spend some really great quality time together which has been such a blessing to just have a familiar face around. We were able to watch a tiny bit of the More Conference from our home Church which was so great!

You know me, I could write so much more and go into so much more detail, but I will keep it short for now. 

I love you all and I miss you and I am so very thankful for my community back home. 

Blessings to you all, 

Rachael Michelle Singleton

P.S. if you would like to get more updates of a smaller size! Follow me on Instagram: IamRachaelMichelle 

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