I realized the other day, that I never blogged about our second experience in the bush in Mozambique. We had gone into the bush earlier, which I blogged about, then we were trying to find more ministry. We tried to check with the schools and tried to check with the hospitals, but things continued to fall through. Finally, we connected with our local contact, Jaco, and he was able to connect us with more opportunities in the bush. My team and Team Yeti packed up our stuff and in usual World Race fashion, crammed into a small van with all our luggage tied to the top. We are quite the sight when we travel. Five hours later after bumping and all over the place, we arrived at our village in Mabote, Mozambique. The town looked like a deserted town in an old Western movie. We were dropped off with Team Yeti at an Assembly of God church. My team ended up working with the Zion Christian Church (ZCC).
In this area, they have started an association where there are twelve churches involved and the ZCC just recently joined. We are the first group that the ZCC has allowed to come in. It was an honor to begin paving the way. We knew little about ZCC except that they have a lot of ancestral worship so we were going in blindly. We felt that since we didn’t know what exactly their beliefs were, we were going to teach straight doctrine. In two days, we had five different sessions. We talked about creation and the Fall, sin and the Law, Jesus’s birth and baptism, miracles in Jesus life, and his death, resurrection, and eternal life. They were very attentive at each session. I was impressed by the number of men involved in the ZCC. Many of the countries we have been in, we have noticed a very small number of men in the church and this church had many men in leadership. We got to do many different things as well. We prayed with many people. We got to talk with a woman who was involved in witchcraft. We saw demons manifest themselves. We had a question and answer time with the women of the church. They had questions just like people do at home. How do we be heard in the church? What do we do if our teenage sons and daughters don’t want to go to church and want to go to the discothèque all the time? How do we pray? What do we do when we pray for healing and it doesn’t happen? Of course, we didn’t have all the answers, but we listened to them and felt that was a huge ministry in allowing them to be heard and giving them words of encouragement. I think sometimes we think that when we are at home in America, we often wonder how we could relate to people and the issues all the way across the world, but I am continuing to learn that although there are many different surface issues, the heart and the core issues are the same. We want to be loved, needed, and belong. Our time there went fast and although we presented the gospel, we’re not sure how many people came to know the Lord, but we were able to create connections and provide a positive experience where more groups can come in and reap the seeds that have been sown. They were telling us to tell people we know back home to send more teams.
On the lighter side, we were sitting with Team Yeti at our campsite when we saw a man walk up with a goat. He tied it to the tree and at first we thought, “Oh that’s cute, a pet goat.” That was before we realized that cute little goat was lunch. Yum! Yum! We then got to watch how they prepare the goat. To save you from the gory details, it was similar to dressing a dear. They took the goat away and then a few hours later, we had lunch. The interesting part is that at home, we don’t really eat the innards of things, but in Africa, they are a delicacy and since we are guests, we get to eat them. I really think we are perfecting the fake smile. There are many techniques you can use to “get them down.” I prefer the “try-not-to-look right-at-it, break-it-into-as-small-of-pieces-as-you-can, mix-it-with-a-big-spoonful-of-rice, and-not-really-chew-as-it-goes-down” method. I know that to take a goat and kill it for us, is a huge honor. I accept it gladly and am so blessed by them!
