This month in Mozambique has taught me so much more about what it means to truly love someone with the love of Christ.
The day before we hopped on a bus in Swaziland to head to Mozambique all of our plans were changed.
We woke up that morning expecting to go to Quilamane with two other teams, work in a school, and camp for a month, then we were told that instead we will be going to Maputo, alone, staying in host homes, and had no idea what ministry was going to look like.
Talk about a change of plans!
So we walked into this month having no idea what to expect, but the people who welcomed us made us feel immediately at home.
Our hosts: Inoque and Mfiona, Oracia and Lino, Abdul and Emma, Adelson and Etelvina, and Norte welcomed strangers into their homes as if we were family. They loved us not because we did something to deserve their love, but simply because it is what God calls us to do. They didn’t know us or our stories, but they knew that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and that was enough.
This month these beautiful people taught me what Christ’s love looks like. They truly took on the call of Matthew 25: 34-40.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father: take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you gave done for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “
Walking into Mozambique we were part of the “least of these.” We were strangers in a foreign land, but they treated us as family.
When we left we were family. I will never forget the people of Mozambique and their lessons in Love.
May God bless them two-fold for how they blessed us.
