Looking back now on our time in Mozambique it seems like a dream, a vivid but complicated dream that will continue to be interpreted for a long time. Mozambique so far was my favorite and hardest month on the race. It’s so crazy how the hardest things in life turn out to be our favorite. Mozambique has some of the most amazing and humble people I have ever met. I blogged previously about Mama Rita, who’s husband was martyred this past year.
From the moment we arrived at Mama Rita’s they wanted to serve us. When we first met them we were literally on the road with our packs and they wanted to carry everything for us. At that point we were still so prideful we wouldn’t let them carry anything. We soon learned that they were relentless and they wanted to serve and we needed to let down our pride and allow them serve us. These people never stopped serving us their best even when their best meant they wouldn’t have any. I honestly can’t think of anyone other than my parents who has ever given me their best consistently like Mama Rita’s family.
We lived in Mama Rita’s home with her family and orphans for a week. We put up our tents in the two rooms they moved out of for us because the rats come out to play at night. Just in this one week of living with them I felt like I had known them for so long. This was the first time we had ever lived with the people we were ministering to and it was incredible! They speak Portuguese in Mozambique and we well… we don’t. It’s a strange thing to live with people and not be able to speak to them. Even despite our language barrier I felt like I knew them because of the understanding that we all love and serve the only living God. It was incredible!
The second week we ended up on a crazy Mozambican adventure. Peter is Ezekiel’s(Mama Rita’s late husband) nephew, he is 31 and teaches at a school for the blind. Peter and his wife are both blind. Since the death of Ezekiel, Peter and Mama Rita have split the orphans between their two homes, the older children with Peter and his wife and the younger at Mama Rita’s. Peter has also stepped up in the area of fathering the churches that Ezekiel planted all over Mozambique.
Peter, Mama Rita and another man named Dzanja led us to Muturara to visit. A team from the September 2007 World Race raised the money and started building an orphanage in Muturara which is about an 8 hour mini bus ride from Berea combined with a walk or a bicycle ride on a 7km bridge over the Zambezi River. Muturara cannot be reached by vehicles from the southern part of Mozambique. During our trip to Muturara we were able to also take a trip in a truck (I got to ride in the front but my team and the others were in the back) to visit two of the churches that Ezekiel had planted in the bush. It was an incredible experience to be welcomed into the primitive communities along the way. The people were all very welcoming and many were very interested in just watching us (they don’t see many white people that far out). We were given many opportunities to share a word of encouragement and pray for the believers. I really felt like Paul on his journeys being able to encourage believers along our journey, and to be welcomed into their homes like the Word of God tells us it should be. It was incredible to be able to meet the body of Christ in such a remote part of the world.
All in all we really only spent two weeks with Mama Rita and Peter and the children, but it was the most incredible experience. I know the Lord calls us give the best of what we have and to serve others and we sometimes do that, but this family is living it out. Some would think that because Ezekiel was killed that it would be hard for the family to continue on with caring for the orphans and the churches but it is quite the opposite. Since his death Mama Rita and Peter have risen up and claimed the ministry as their own. They are determined to provide the best for the children and they are confident the Lord will provide for them. Their faith and trust in the Lord is inspiring. I really wish I could put better words to describing them but it is virtually impossible; it’s like as if I was trying to describe Jesus Christ in a paragraph it’s just too complex.
Some of the biggest questions I have from my time with Mama Rita are: Am I giving the best of what I have to the Lord and to His people? I don’t mean am I tithing my 10 percent! Am I really giving the best of my time, energy and service to the Lord? Am I spending more time planning activities and events to serve the Lord than time actually serving him? If I see someone in need am I really willing to give them my best and not just my leftovers? Can we be selfless enough to serve others around us EVEN if it costs our comforts and security? These are some rough questions I am still battling with and I really hope you will battle with also.
God PLEASE teach us to give the BEST of what we have EVEN if that means selling or giving away everything we own(haha nothing is ours anyway it ALL belongs to Him). Transform all of us, reinvent the way we live our lives today. Save us from ourselves and the mediocrity we try to settle with everyday. We love you Lord!
