It is absolutely beautiful here. Beautiful palm trees, beautiful sunsets, and (my favorite) beautiful starry night skies. Mozambique is what you would typically think Africa to look like. There are tons of hills and fields surrounding small villages with mud huts for houses. It’s so simple and yet so gorgeous.
Portugese is the national language of Mozambique, but in Dondo their heart language is Sena. Kind of like Pennsylvania Dutch is to my area in Kutztown, but everyone speaks it here. I love learning Sena! Once I heard that Sena's what they mainly speak here I ditched learning any kind of Portugese and focused on Sena. What a difference! Even just saying good morning to them in their heart language makes their smiles get ten times bigger. Most of the time they will laugh at me cause I probably botch it up a bit, but they appreciate it. It’s called the heart language for a reason! My favorite saying is God Bless You, “mulungo baco pedzeni” (Probably spelled completely wrong, but I love it!)
Everyone dances here! It’s absolutely incredible and speaks directly to my heart. I love the joy and life that it brings to any situation. The dancing during worship, by far, is the best. It’s like a country line dance, but ten times better and more energetic. No matter how hot it gets, they keep going and they give their all to Jesus through dancing. One time I was walking down the street with some of my team and we heard music playing; drums, horns, whistles, and singing. Once we rounded the corner we saw a big group of people surrounding the corner singing and dancing and playing music. It was amazing. I of course wanted to join in so I started dancing and they thought I was the funniest thing. This tiny white girl dancing looks very silly to them. This turned into me dancing with this one lady and it almost felt like a dance off. You’ll never guess who won… of course she did. We had a blast!
*Before I get to my final and favorite thing about Mozambique I need to address the elephant in the room. The darkness. Mozambique is filled with a lot of darkness. There are witch doctors in almost every village and most people still rely on them for healing and guidance. One witch doctor lives right behind our base and you can hear chanting sometimes all through the night. This place is filled with darkness and you can feel it instantly when it’s around. It’s unsettling, it brings a lot of fear, but it has no power!!
God is bigger and has all the power. Through God’s grace, Mozambique has so much life. There is light shining through and demolishing the darkness. You can feel it in the hospitals, you can feel it in the villages, and you can feel it on the streets. Life is everywhere here and God is really moving here. He loves his children and he is continuously blessing them. It’s amazing to see! Since being here I have seen people get healed (of joint aches, of vision problems, of heartaches). I know this is just the beginning and God is truly showing me big things when it comes to the power of healing. The people here just love Jesus. They love the Lord. They praise him with all they have. Not just a portion of what they feel like that day… no with everything they have. My favorite part of Mozambique is the people. Their life, their energy, their beauty!!! Everyone is beautiful here!!!!!! Their joy, their passion, their hearts, I can’t even begin to express how incredible they are.
