After 48 hours of non-stop travel from London we arrived in Matchovane around 1:30 a.m. on 8 Jan. 2009.
Where/what is Matchovane? –> Matchovane is a rural farming community near the coast about 100 km outside of Maputo, the country’s capital. Most of its people are subsistence-oriented, with very little formal education. Most of the people speak the local dialect, Changana (with the Ch- sounding like Sh-). A few speak Portuguese, and even fewer speak Engligh. A very small percentage of the people, no more than 10%, could read and write. (at right–there were a couple of chameleons in the trees in our courtyard)
Living conditions? –> Were amazing! We slept in our tents outside, which were set up in the yard of an old colonial-era white-painted concrete farmhouse. We even had a proper toilet and a camp shower which we could fill with water nearly anytime, if the pump wasn’t out. During the day, when not at ministry, we hung out in a little tree-shaded courtyard of the house.
Food? –> Also amazing: it totally blew any low expectations we had out of the water. The man who led our mission is Jonathan Hart, a South African who’s been doing this for years who just happens to love to cook! We quickly learned that South Africans LOVE their meat, so there was no shortage of that. We also had plenty of vegetables and bread or other carbs. … Sometimes after our ministry/teaching time, our churches would feed us. Those meals usually included a cucumber & tomato salad, rice and/or shima (kind of like super-thick grits), a spinachy type dish, possibly a little chicken in some sort of sauce made from peanut plants, or fish. I ate everything they gave me and it honestly was not bad at all…then again, we were honored guests and they probably gave us the best of what they had.
(below–Tara and Krystle walking on a path through the bush)
Ministry? –> We worked with HIM Ministries, a church-planting and training missions program based out of South Africa that works primarily in SA and neighboring countries. As the first team sent to the area, we discovered that there are actually quite a few churches in Matchovane for such a sparse, rural farming population. Initially we were planning to train the church people on how to be evangelists: how to share the Gospel of Christ and plant & grow new churches. However, we soon discovered that the area was actually primarily a church-going, “Christian” area…but with somewhat disturbing traditionalist ideas mixed in. We ended up teaching “Gospel 101” with a little bit of everything mixed in. Each church was at different levels spiritually and educationally, so each ministry group of 2-3 Racers took a different approach.
(below–colorful batiks in the market in Maputo. I bought one, not pictured!)
Challenges? –> …Physical…Personally, my body is not built to withstand extreme temperatures! Thankfully, the two days I got heat exhaustion were non-ministry days, so I didn’t have to take time away from my church, and I had time to rest/recover. …Spiritual…well the answer to this one is the next blog, so stay tuned! 🙂
Highlights? –> Despite this being a personally very challenging time on the World Race, the joys matched the challenges. I had a blast dancing and singing at my church and earning a nickname (“Khanimambo”, which means thank you: my church members thought it hilarious when I said it on our first day, and referred to me as such for the rest of our ministry time!). But even more so, I love looking back and realizing the small victories we saw in our church…people finally understanding a basic concept, or remembering something we had taught previously. Finally, we had a big “revival” Mozambican worship service to bring together all the churches we were working with in unity under the name of Jesus Christ. It was so much fun and a much-needed move to break down walls between denominations! …More highlights to come in future blogs… 
