After a full month of being on The World Race, I wanted to update you all by first saying I’m doing great! Secondly, I wanted to share with you what our ministry looked like and lastly what God had laid on my heart during this month. I also apologize that I wasn’t able to upload photos yet. Wifi is very scarce here and it takes about a day for one picture to upload ( not kidding).
For the first couple of days the squad and I met up in Atlanta, Georgia for training. We were so amped to begin this journey but also a little nervous.
But we made it!
After traveling for four days – yes, FOUR DAYS – we finally arrived to Mozambique. Each team from the squad departed to their ministries in different parts of the country. My team went to a village called Guija. There we lived with a pastor named Tenny who had been working in the village for about eight years. His ministry is spreading the gospel through prison ministry, and working alongside the churches in Guija to help provide services and food for orphans, widows and families. He was a joy to partner with in this month and we miss him already!
This month my team and I were able to work with another team on our squad. In total there was twelve girls in two rooms. Yeah, talk about tight ! However, we made it work. Most of the girls including myself ended up tenting outside. Definitely quite an experience.
Oh and the bug life here is serious. There are A LOT OF BUGS. The team and I adjusted to our little “friends” crawling around, especially in the bathrooms. You get a little surprise every time you walk in like a cock-a-roach, a frog, a cricket and some millipedes. Oh, and there plague of flies that traveled with us daily. Day and night we heard them buzzing around. You get used to it after a while though. We also got to see herds of cows and goats roaming the fields right outside Tenny’s home, along with pigs and chickens. That was definitely a sight for this beach girl here.
Yes, it’s been so REAL in Africa, but I’ve found so much contentment in this month.Even in this new scenery, I would wake up just amazed at the fact that I could say I was in Africa. I am really here, guys !
Our schedule was pretty consistent throughout the weeks. Monday through Friday we would wake up and do chores at 7:30 am. We cleaned the bathrooms, did the dishes, swept and cleaned our rooms. Then, we would have breakfast around 8:30. We ate oatmeal every morning with peanut butter. Never had that combination before, but when in Africa, it just made sense and might I add – delicious! Each Sunday, we visited a church in the community. One of our teammates preached while another gave their testimony. The services were so empowering! From the way they prayed to the way they worshipped, it was absolutely amazing to see the passion they had for the Lord. Even with the language barrier, you could sense the presence of God in the way they danced and sang out to the Lord. We embraced our Mozambican brothers and sisters.
There are some things we noticed about the community of Guija. Tenny told us that Guija is ran by women. The women have a strong presence here over the men. The community prides itself in taking care of it’s women and children so much that if a woman or child is abused or violated that person will be executed. That gave us a little reprieve knowing that we would be in good hands here in this village.
Can I just mention, the women of Guija are strong ! The women carry large buckets of water on their head from a nearby well and sometimes basins of bread and other foods. I couldn’t even carry a bucket with both hands! They walked with so much grace and confidence. I was inspired just by their poise and the way they took care of their families. The women wear colorful skirts called capulanas that they wrap around their waists. Some of my teammates bought some and they are absolutely beautiful! We were also able to bless some of Tenny’s teammates with the skirts as well.
There are a lot of children in Guija. Many of them would run full force with arms wide open to embrace us. Anytime they saw us, they would shout hello with so much happiness! It was so encouraging to see their beautiful smiles every day. Their clothes were tarnished and dirty, and many were malnourished, however, this still didn’t stop them from experiencing tremendous joy.
Our ministry has consisted of praying for the people in Guija. Much of the people we have visited are HIV positive. The healthcare here is not very good. There is one doctor in the hospital here and a handful of nurses for a district of 45,000 people. The people have to wait for a long time to get treated and when they do they get treated for their symptoms. We found out that the people who stay in the hospital or are sent home will are prone to die because of their severe ailments. Our team was a little discouraged when we heard this. Staying in the hospitals in Guija are more like a death sentence then a place of healing.
On the spiritual side of things, the town is divided by those who practice witchcraft and those who practice Christianity. We heard drums sporadically throughout the day and night. Tenny told us those drums signify witchcraft rituals. The sounds were daunting because we could sense the spiritual warfare around us. At our base, I felt protected, but we could feel this strong opposition right outside of our camp. Our team and I prayed daily and worshipped throughout the week. As the days went on the sound of the drums started to lessen until we couldn’t hear them anymore. We don’t know why but we would like to think God was silencing them just for us. Still, our team prayed daily and invited the Lord to make his presence known in Guija. Our prayer that God would continue to expel the darkness that was hovering this village. We asked that God would redeem the community of Guija and that the people.
I will update you more on our travel to Mozambique on the next blog. Stay tuned !
