Last night we arrived in the small town of Machanga. It is the least reached of all of Jaco’s contacts. One World Race team came and established contact a while back, so we came to further that. We’ve run into a few problems in getting here and since arriving. First, travel (as always) did not go as planned. We were not able to go over a bridge, so we had to backtrack, which meant paying more money. Then after traveling about 200 Kilometers we had to walk to a river and get on boats that were actually trees that were carved out, it was very exciting! After we crossed we walked another 3K to our camping spot. While we set up, Jaco went to inform the government that we were there. That’s where the next problem came in. Because we came into the new province by river instead of by van we needed our passports and a letter of explanation as to what we are doing here. Unfortunately we had neither because we left our passports locked up at Jaco’s house. Jaco had to get up early this morning to drive all the way back to Vilanculos to get our passports, he took Tim with him.
Where we set up our tents is exactly how I pictured Africa. There ar grass roofed huts with dirt and tree branches contructed as the walls. We are in the middle of corn fields with dirt everywhere. Goats are tied up right by our tents and we have one palm tree for shade…which means we don’t really have any shade. The moment we arrived we had a swarm of children all around us. It was overwhelming because they followed us and watched us as we did everything. The sun sets at 5pm here, so night comes early. That doesn’t mean the kids go home though. They watched us as we cooked dinner and sat around and watched as we prayed. Some were around as we ate, though we tried to get away to eat. I got to talk to a couple of boys who knew some English. Even when they don’t know any English they just like being around us. We took some time to pray over the area and the squad. Each team has had a different team to pray for every day, so that every team is being prayed for every day. I went to sleep by 9pm, it was a long day and it is too dark to do anything else!
Since Jaco is gone today, we did not “go out for ministry.” Instead, ministry came to us…around 6am, maybe before, the kids were already outside our tents waiting for us to wake up. We slept in as much as we could. I am now used to waking up early, so 6am was when I started to stir, but I didn’t want to get up yet because no one else was awake. Around 7am I could not stay asleep any longer because I had to go to the “Bathroom.” The bathroom is one of two choices, 1) walk a good distance to the squatty potty or 2) find a place behind the corn stalks and hope that no one walks by. I choose to go to the squatty, but on my way I found the children. Then, as I was playing with them, the older boys came and we started talking in English. It wasn’t until 8am that others got up and I went with them to the bathroom…out in the bush it’s always a good idea for girls to go to the bathroom together:) After we got back, I had a two hour English class. It was so much fun! The older kids talked with Rachel and me while the little kids became our shade as they encircled us and watched. Our class was finally interrupted when some of the SKIM (Spectacle, Koinonia, Indelible, Manna) boys started playing a game with the kids. The rest of the day has been lounging with the kids surrounding us. They watch us read, write, play cards and talk. We are their entertainment and they are ours!
We have two opportunities while we are here that we are praying about. 1) Friday night and Saturday morning is going to be a woman’s conference. We will have the chance to speak or (if it’s like any other country) lead the conference. 2) Jaco is meeting with some people to pray about us going to an island that has had no one come to tell them about Jesus. There are about 5,000 people there. We need to find out if it is possible to get at least some of us out there.
God, thank you for this opportunity. These children are beautiful! They need your love;
they need your hope. Let us be your light!
