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Last week we had an adventure! We left Tuesday morning at 3:30am in the back of a flat bed work truck to head north to the ‘land of good people’, or a city named: Inhambane. Our contact, Felito, is planting a church there in a small village. We arrived in Inhambane 10 hours later (we stopped to visit with people along the way in random villages) and were quite sunburned and wind burned!
Above: Our truck parked along the side of the road
The village looked like a tropical island, without the water! There were palm trees all around and cassava plants (like a potato) everywhere. It really was gorgeous. We put up our tents, tried to climb the palm tree’s for coconuts (fail), and then, once a villager climbed to the top of the tree, we ate fresh coconuts and drank the milk after it was cut open with a machete!
Above: This is the man who got our cocunuts and cut them open with the one item you need in your kitche here in Africa- a machete.
Above: Team picture with coconuts!
Above: We were enjoying the coconut milk!
There was no running water and no toilet, besides a hole in the sand with wooden boards where you stand. We had a service that night with singing and prayer and fell fast asleep under the stars in our tents. The next day, we were up very early with the sunshine. We had a breakfast of bread and bagia, which are like fried beans in a patty form.
Above: Our tents set up
We then walked around the village on the sandy paths thru the cassava plants to the homes of those in the village. They are made of Canis, which looks like bamboo (see pictures of small huts). We were inviting the people in the village to a service that night- where they would hear the gospel, hear about the new church that would be built on the land, and receive prayer. There was an older lady who we met during our walk that morning, who was ill on a mat under a tree. We of course, prayed for her, and she was able to walk to the prayer meeting that night- she was healed!
Above: Walking the sandy paths to visit homes
Above: Typical homes in the village. It really makes you think about how big a house you NEED.
Between the mornings walk around the village and the nighttime prayer meeting, we had the opportunity to spend 1 hour in the Indian Ocean! It was beautiful. The water was so blue and clear, we felt like we were in the Caribbean! It was very refreshing and we used that as an opportunity to “shower” since we had no running water in the village. Of course, we were salty, but it is better to be salty than to be super dirty!
Above: Jamos and I at the Indian Ocean! Free shower! Yippee!
Above: Team handstand picture at the Indian Ocean!
After the evening prayer meeting we packed up our tents and headed to a different woman’s home for dinner (around 10pm). We were SO tired and we were trying to set up our tents in the dark on a VERY slanted slope made of sand. We finally were in bed around 11pm and had to wake up at 4:30am to start our traveling journey to Chibuto before the sun got too hot in the afternoon (we were sunburned). Of course, it started to rain in the darkness on the back of the truck, so we were trying to stay positive! We arrived in Chibuto almost 9 hours later!
Here is where the cool story starts. It was around 8am and we stopped for some bread and bagia in a small town. Let’s be real, I also wanted a Coke Zero. Felito (our pastor) wanted to see a man who he met at an outreach event 10 years earlier, who was saved and now a pastor in the town. We met up with the elderly pastor and prayed for him before we left. When we were done praying for him in the street, there was a crowd gathered and they wanted prayer for themselves!
First, a lady, who was selling pineapples on a blanket on the roadside wanted prayer. She could not believe that we would pray for her – for FREE! We were like, ‘yes, of course, we would love to pray for you’. Each time we were in a circle praying, and when one person was done, another person made their way into the circle and we surrounded them in prayer! People would tell us if they were sick (most were) and one man had even visited a witch doctor to help with his arm, which he could not lift up at all. The witch doctor (who you pay money to) made small cuts in his skin and he had the scars to show us. We prayed over his arm and when we were done, he could lift it above his head! Another miracle!
The praying continued for nearly 2 hours and when we were done, another man who was healed, came up to the pastor, Felito, and said, “ I want to give you land to build a church in my village – so that my village may know God and be saved” So, he hopped on the back of our truck and we headed to his village to see the land he was going to give our pastor to plant a church.
AMAZING! God is always in control. Always. He moved in big and unexpected ways just in 2 hours on the side of the road! The people of Africa are desperate for hope. Life here is hard. They go to witch doctors for help and practice all sorts of witch craft- searching for health or peace.
Okay, back to the day. We were headed to Chibuto because Feltio (the pastor) has a huge ministry started there. It is called Africa on Fire. They were given nearly 100 acres of land with over 472 cashew nut trees. On this land, they have already built a church and some small dormitories, but they have big plans for this land. They are going to build a school for the community (there is a huge shortage of schools), a trade school, missionary homes, a clinic, an orphanage called Houses of Hope, a visitor center, a community well so villages can get clean drinking water, a play area for the school, crops so they can be self sufficient as well as tilapia farms in the river. It is amazing. Right now they are just waiting for funding before they can continue to build on the land and be located there full time.
If you are interested in learning more about this ministry Africa on Fire, check out their website: www.africaonfire.com
That night, we set up our tents again, slept for a short time, and at 4:30am we headed back to Maputo. We arrived back here at our ministry location around 10:30am which was just under 5 hours in the back of a truck. We had 4 days of no showers, no running water, sleeping in our tents in the sand, riding in the back of a truck with a minimum of 7-10 people at a time along with all of our bags and tents. We went to bed late and got up REALLY early. We saw miracles happening all around us. At times, it was hard. Probably some of the hardest moments for us on the race.- but, it was all worth it.
