For 10 years I have dreamed about the day I would step foot in Africa. Three months ago that dream became a reality as we stepped off the plane into South Africa. What a beautiful first two months we had, but it was very different from the Africa I had always heard about and imagined. That all changed though as we crossed the border from South Africa to Mozambique.
As we drove into Mozambique our bus driver turned on the music and then the party lights. It was wild and oh so perfect. Late that night we unloaded our bags from the bus trailers. We ate a delicious dinner. And then an hour later we were loading our bags again, this time it was not on a bus but instead on the back of a large truck. My team and another team of 7 then squished into the little space that was left with our pile of bags next to us. I wish you could’ve seen our faces as we road to our host’s home in the bed of a truck. We knew it was going to be a good month.
Thirty or so minutes later we finally arrived at the place we would call home for the month. It was a small house in the middle of town. There wasn’t room for us to sleep inside so set up our tents in the yard. It was pitch dark as we set up our tents. By 1am we had everything set up and were ready to crash..for at least a couple hours.
The next morning we woke up early as our host had big plans for us: we were going to a wedding! What an exciting first day it was. We went to the church where they held a service for the couple. They had been officially married the day before, but Mozambique wedding celebrations last two days. After the church service we headed to the reception. It was such a beautiful reception. The tables were set up with centerpieces, drinks, and glassware. We were ushered to tables near the front. By the end of the wedding it became very clear how much we were honored guests. They ended up cutting the wedding cake just so we could have some before we left.
That first week we didn’t really know what we were doing. Our main host Felito didn’t arrive until that Thursday as he and his family are currently living in New Zealand. During the day our ministry ended up very much so being each other, then at night we went to church, which looked different every night.
Our first night of “church” was quite the shock. We thought we were just going to the church to pray…but alas we were wrong. We did go to the church, but only then to hop back in the truck after a short time of prayer and song. A few minutes later we were walking into someone’s home. That is when church really started. We went to five different homes that night to pray and worship with the members of the church.
We did life together with the people that surrounded us. In our home we had “the boys”: Antonio, Santos, and Nivenho, two of which were Felito’s nephews. They became our brothers, and our sister was Felito’s 16 year old daughter, Paulina. Our “mom” was Felito’s sister Julia who took care of us so well and made us some seriously delicious food. We also had our “grandpa”,Collin. He had come from New Zealand to help Felito out that month. Then there was our team and one other, which made 14 girls total. Our little family was absolutely beautiful.
Together we did life. We went to church, we dug trenches to fix our water line, and we did a crusade in an unreached village. Together we danced, prayed, and supported each other the best we knew how. This was our month, and it couldn’t have been more perfect.
