I feel like I was finally welcomed into the World Race conditions I thought I would have all along: a cement squatty potty standing two feet above the concrete floor that manages to spew its lovely fragrance throughout the entire house. Bucket showers (I can bathe in less than a gallon of water!). Sleeping in my tent on a dirt floor in a home made solely of concrete walls. Jugs of water lugged in from the pump in the front yard early in the morning, because the government only turns the water on for a couple hours a day, if you're lucky. None of it fit for drinking without a boil- even the drum that holds it is filled with mold. Without refrigeration, our meal option are rice, beans, cabbage, and peanut butter and jelly. And add some extra time to the cooking plans too because first you have to make a fire. Daily fresh bread A long piece of fabric tucked around our waist to function as a skirt that must cover the knees at all times. Diarrhea. Nothing ever seems to be clean.
Our first day in Dondo, Mozambique we headed to the church, all the girls in their new dress. We were assigned water duty for the church construction. I watched as the boys carried their two by fours breathlessly to their needed places as the girls picked up their 20L jugs and walked 100 yards away to retrieve the water to make cement…it was our day to do the heavy lifting. Walking back, the locals laughed as a bunch of foreigners stumbled 50 feet and then had to set the water on the ground for a rest. I had never done such a work out in a long dress before!
Our ministry this month is a variety of things, but primarily going door to door ministry to offer prayer or invite people to a church service. On my list of missionary responsibilities, door to door evangelism was always on the bottom. Walking down the freshly swept dirt paths, with firm ground pressed down by thousands of bare feet passing each day and tightly packing the dirt, we dart the occasional chicken as we search for the next person to pray for.
A man with Tuberculosis.
A 22 year old woman with 11 children, her first at age 13. She is one of her husband's two wives. The women here are strong in ways I'm not sure American women would ever have to be.
We help a family by using an oversized mortar and pestle to separate rice from it's chaff and separate the pieces by sifting it in a basket. It's a much more pleasant job than beheading a chicken with a dull knife.
We add more and more children to our convoy as we walk down the path, all interested to see what the Zungu (white person) is going to do next. Some of them smile, others just watch intently.
I try to make conversation with some who have joined our daily venture using my Spanish, and I'm surprised at how much Portuguese I understand.
We attended yet another funeral (I keep praying that I get to go to a wedding on the Race).
I think my favorite times so far have been when we stopped in to a church. I've never felt so much joy or energy for the Lord as in some of these churches. We dance. We sing (I learned two songs and was in their choir).
I delivered my testimony and the words God gave me left some with goose bumps. I spoke what I see they needed: As much as we have the impression that Africa is a very Christian continent, I've seen that Christianity here is perverted. They call themselves Christians simply because they go to church, yet they still turn to witch craft to solve problems. The pastors are often poorly educated, some of them don't even have a Bible. People still don't know the full love of Christ, they are jipt of the best parts of relationship with Him. My talk was calling them into relationship with Christ: encouraging them to pray, read the Bible, turn to Him with their desires and struggles, and accept God as not just their first God but their ONLY God. This is what breaks my heart here, and so that is what I press into. But it's the same thing that breaks my heart for America too.
Watching the people here has taught me an important lesson too:
There is nothing I can do to be love by God more, but there is plenty
I could do to better love Him.
