So, this month, we are in Mozambique, Africa for our month of ministry. And for ministry this month, we were matched up with a couple named Jason and Rachel Helm for our ministry contacts. Jason and Rachel were so gracious to take us on super short notice due to a few different situations. But we are in a city called Xai Xai (pronounced Shy Shy). It’s a beautiful city on the coast of Mozambique, and we are fortunate enough to have a house this month.
Jason and Rachel work with a Bible college here in Xai Xai, and so for ministry this month, we are helping them with some work around their house, around the farm and Bible school owns, and helping out around the Bible college wherever needed. That is the plan for the month, and for the most part that is what we have done.
Until we got hit by a tropical depression. For us, in our house, there wasn’t much that happened. We lost power and water for a couple of days. The worst of that inconvenience was that we didn’t get to shower (which is normal anyway), we had to do our dished in the rain water that ran off the roof, and we had to use our headlamps around the house. But the damage to town was much worse. A lot of houses here are made from reeds (tree branches) tied together. And with winds up to 65 miles per hour, a lot of these houses were completely flattened.
A couple of days after the storm, our contact took us to town and on our way, we saw churches with their roof completely ripped off, houses that were gone, power lines that were knocked down and laying all over peoples crops and yards, and people were scrambling to find clean drinking water.
One of the owners of a house that had been flattened was a worker at the Bible college’s farm. His name is Josepha. Josepha lives about a 3 hour drive from Xai Xai, and because cars here are so overpriced, he has to take public transportation. And instead of traveling every day, we lives at the farm for 3 weeks at a time, and travels back home for a week each month to spend with his wife and 7 kids. He is a sacrificing, hard working man, and he was one of the many unfortunate people whose house was destroyed in the storm.
So, Jason and another local missionary decided that we were going to help him out by buying him supplies and putting a roof on another brick house so his kids could have a place to sleep besides at his neighbor’s house.
So, yesterday morning, we packed up some metal roofing, some wood, a ladder and some tools and headed out towards his house. We traveled 2 hours on paved road, then we turned on a dirt/sand road and traveled for another 2 hours. We traveled through small villages along the way, across miles and miles of beautiful, never-ending African plains, and finally arrived at his house.
As we pulled up, we see his property. On his property is a small reed hut that is the cooking room, a reed house with no roof and that is partially destroyed by the storm, and another small, two room brick house that is unfinished. When we got there, we asked Josepha how long it has taken him to get this far in building this brick house. He told us he has been working on it for 7 years. He makes the brick himself, and only pays for parts of the house at a time, which is why he is 7 years in and is still unfinished.
Electricity ended miles and miles before we got to his house, so everything was to be done by hand. So, we unpacked our supplies and began working on the roof. We cut boards, cut slots in the bring to lay the beams in and laid out metal for the roof. We worked maybe 4 hours to complete his roof, and afterwards, his wife prepared a huge feast for all 9 of us workers to eat, plus him, his wife and a man from the neighborhood who was walking by (that’s how Africa works).
So, we had our small plastic table set up under the tree for our meal, but Josepha came out and said he wants to eat dinner in the new room we just finished. So, we pick up our table and move in the new room, a small bedroom size room that was the new pride of this family. A place to keep them dry from the elements and protection from the sun and wind. We packed all of us in there, and thanked Father for all His provision and the food and enjoyed fellowship with each other over a huge feast.
And after the meal, as it is custom in Africa, we invited the wife in to say our goodbyes before we left. She came in and told us how her family was doing, and asked how we were doing and how it went trying to get the roof up.
And after asking us how it all went and how we all are, Josepha’s wife said something that spoke so loudly and spoke so much truth in life that I will never forget. Just before we were about to head out, she said this:
“Most people are upset and sad by the storm, but I am extremely grateful for it, because if it had not come, you all would have never been brought here to us.”
Praising the Lord through every trial, even when their entire house and life had been ripped from them. There is a lot to learn from this amazing family.
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