After two days of non-stop travel from South Africa to Mozambique, Team Healing Hurricane finally arrived in the city of Machava. Travel days have gotten a lot easier, as far as getting from one place to another. However, there are always unexpected hiccups that we have learned to simply shrug off and label as “World Race-isms”; such as, the backs of the chairs being 90 degrees vertical with no possibility of reclining for the 48-hour bus ride, or stopping at border control at 1:00AM and having to wait for five hours while 50 people were scanned into one faulty computer.
Some things I will never understand, but I think it’s better that way.
For our seventh month on the Race, we are working with another World Race team alongside the ministry called “Beacon of Hope”. One Texas-born woman, Angie, and her Mozambican staff started this ministry over ten years ago with the vision of helping local teenage boys become men. Each January, Angie welcomes ten boys into the Hope House to participate in a three-year program that trains them in academics, skills, and the Bible.
Most teenage boys in this area depend a lot on their families for their living: food, schooling, accommodations, etc. These boys aren’t taught what it’s like to become a man and provide for themselves and eventually for a family. Local churches and missionaries inform Angie of potential boys. Instead of having aspirations of being a taxi driver or a farmer, they now graduate and become businessmen or pastors.
Our job this month is to embrace our inner teacher. After their morning chores, we hold classes Monday through Friday afternoons from 2:00-4:00. The classes include Bible, Math, English, and Science, with extra classes to open their minds about journaling, art, God’s World, and etiquette.
Unlike any ministry before, I’m particularly excited about this month because we get to be the helping hands in enhancing dreams and broadening horizons. We are born and bread on “living the American dream,” but to us it’s inevitable that it will happen one way or another. To be able to open eyes that have never seen before is one gift that I’m sure I will never forget.
We had a night of worship with the boys.
Our mango tree of hammocks!
Our room. Air mattresses and mosquito nets.
