Eyes closing, head bobbing, headache pounding, I prayed one simple prayer: “Lord, please show me where I can get coffee.” I was sitting in Life Church on our first Sunday in Chimoio, Mozambique, and while it was wonderful to meet the beautiful community and be at the church, we were exhausted after 36 hours on a bus. Though strength can be found in the Lord, it can also be found in the beautiful elixir that is caffeine. We walked out of the church and went on a hunt for a café of any sort, as we had hours to kill before a church potluck. It was a divine appointment, because in our time of need, God provided Café Chimoio.
We met Yasmin, the owner’s brother who was temporarily in charge of the café, who was welcoming and kind to us from the moment we walked in. He was a Muslim originally from Kenya, and throughout our 21 days in Mozambique, we visited Café Chimoio more than a few times (and drank an embarrassing amount of cappuccinos). We became great friends with him, and we even visited the local mosque with him one day (dressed appropriately with our make-shift hijabs) and were led in a tour by the Imam (the head honcho).
Everyone in the café knew that we loved Jesus, from our conversations and from our prayers for many people in the café. It was such a blessing to show love and to, in turn, be shown SO much kindness by every single employee of that café. We developed a great friendship with Yasmin, and he provided a free lunch for 13 American girls. My team was paired with another team throughout the month, Team Raj, and so the 13 of us were ecstatic to eat free pizza, drink many cappuccinos, have free water, and receive many generous treats.
God is funny and wonderful in His timing- though we had said good-bye on the day of the free lunch, Yasmin ended up on the bus with us going to Maputo (where we were going before heading back to South Africa for Leadership Development Weekend). There were issues with the café (he said that someone was spreading a bad word about him because they were jealous and he was being very prosperous in his business), so he was leaving and going back to Durban in South Africa. He told us that it was God’s work that we were on the same bus, which was definitely true; it was not a coincidence. Even as we were leaving, he never stopped blessing us: our bus broke down for a few hours, and he bought us all waters and sodas from a nearby restaurant. He told me: “You were the first person that talked to me and opened my heart.” He was such a safe place, a blessing in so many ways, and now a good friend that is forever in my prayers. We asked if we could pray for him, and he said yes. It was amazing to pray for favor over him, blessings, and for him to know Jesus one day- I will never stop praying for him to fall in love with the Lord.
Though we didn’t get to see Yasmin come to know the Lord (and I pray with all of my heart that he will one day), I had the AMAZING, life-changing opportunity to see others proclaim Jesus’ name in Mozambique. Throughout our month, we would walk around the city and invite people to church. The only problem: the language barrier. They spoke Portuguese, and none of us speak Portuguese. I could understand about 60% of what they said because I speak Spanish, and I could sort of communicate broad concepts by speaking in Spanish, but we definitely didn’t know enough to share the gospel with people. So, we had the pastor write down the directions, times, and info about the church on a card, and we made 100’s to hand out to people.
One day, some of the church members joined us, which was wonderful because we actually had translators. Kacy and I were paired with 3 Mozambican men from the church, and as we were walking, Kacy felt the Lord telling her to pray for a woman on the street. As she started to pray, a small crowd began gathering. There, she was able to share the gospel (with our translators), and most of the men decided to accept Jesus as their Savior! Then, one of the men who had just accepted Jesus got so excited that he ran ahead to another group of men and told them to listen to us because we had something very important to say. I told them about Jesus and shared the gospel, and when many of them said that they wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior, I lead them in a prayer. That moment was easily one of the highlights of my life. Further than that, one of the men who had just accepted Jesus said that he wanted to stop drinking. I told him that Jesus breaks the chains of addiction, and he need not fear the bondage of sin anymore because we have victory in Jesus! We prayed over him, proclaimed freedom over him, and went on to tell even more people about Jesus.
My 21 days in Mozambique were far from what I expected. We slept in tents in a front yard, where all the people in the surrounding area constantly watched us through the fence. We were working with a new church plant of Life Church (which has many plants throughout Africa), and the pastor was pretty disorganized and did not communicate with us clearly. We painted walls at an orphanage for a few days, but besides that we didn’t have a lot of structured ministry. However, the people were nice, our host family was very sweet and generous (even with the wife 9 months pregnant and about to pop), the caretaker at the house was truly a man of peace and constantly served us, and our experiences that God provided around the city were amazing. Though the ministry was not what I expected, God definitely provided opportunities that made my time in Mozambique my favorite experience in Africa on the World Race.
Prayers would be appreciated for:
-Yasmin: that he would come to know the Lord
-Chapepa, his wife (Marcella), and his children (the family we stayed with): that they continue to be blessed and that their newborn baby is healthy
-All the men who accepted Jesus as their Savior: that they would grow in their relationships with God
-Life Church in Chimoio: that they would continue to grow and be blessed
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” –Isaiah 40: 28-29
