As I mentioned in my last blog (sorry for the delay), Tikvah spent three weeks of June in Dondo, Mozambique. We lived at an Iris Ministries base there with a team of three girls from the U.S. named Sam, Amanda, and Megan. There was a girl named Shara with us for the month as well. Thirty or so boys lived at the orphanage there, and there were dozens of men attending the Bible school on the base. There are also 8 foreign missionaries living on the base currently. It was a blessing and an honor to serve in ministry with these people. We were able to go on weekend outreaches to nearby villages/towns and spread God’s truth, as well as dancing for hours upon end. We were able to teach in the Bible school. We got to visit the Dondo hospital, the jail, and individuals’ homes. We also got to bust up some latrines and dig up the foundations! There was plenty to do and plenty of people who needed to hear the Word of God. Tikvah is happy to have been a part of that ministry, even for just a short time.
   I will recount to you a few stories from our month. One day, Natalie, Jessica, Shara, and I went for a walk with our translator Lovemore. After a good amount of walking we come to the home of a pastor at the Bible school, his wife and children inside. We got the honor of being served food, and then took some time to pray and give some small gifts to the kids. Afterwards we visited the local secondary school. On our walk back we walked by the house of Lovemore’s pastor, who has only been living in Dondo for about 3 months now. As we stopped and went inside, meeting the pastor and his wife, we sat down and talked about the culture in Dondo, the people, and how it has been for them since arriving. The recounted stories of growth, even though there are less than a dozen people attending church at their house right now. They told us of how fearful the people in Dondo are. The told us of the hold that witchcraft has on many of the people, and how if you wanted to build a road, it wouldn’t be absurd to clear it with the witchdoctors before even the government. The people there are fearful of witchcraft, don’t want themselves or their families to be cursed, and therefore do what the witchdoctors want, whether that means taking orders, or just never having any aspirations for anything, giving witchcraft control. It hurts to hear about young people who may want to be medical doctors but will never try because the witchdoctors have spoken out against becoming doctors (or becoming anything significant really), and so they go on never trying to fulfill their dreams, out of a fear of man. It was a struggle to know that kind of thing went on, but all we could do is pray for the people there, that faith would be loosed in that place and fears would fade away, and that a fear of the loving, true, and Living God would take hold.
   During our time we were able to visit the jail in Dondo, which was rather small, the prisoners just lived inside the gates, not locked in cells, but all together, and from what we know, the poor living conditions have led to several unecessary deaths (which is especially unfortunate because the maximum sentence there does not exceed a year). Despite all of this, when we walked into a side room and between 70 to 90 men and a couple women gathered together to hear our message, I was blown away by their joy in worship and singing to God. It helped me to give a message of encouragement to them, stressing that God is worthy to be praised at all times, whether we are healthy or sick, imprisoned or “free,” rich or poor, old or young, happy or sad. God is good all the time. We may be discouraged because we see the world around us is broken and sinful, but that is our nature and a result of our choosing ourselves over God. He is so loving that he worked salvation for us, because we cannot do it on our own. He became a man, lived a perfect life in the eyes of God, was brutally killed, and raised from the dead. All for our sakes. All for our forgivness and redemption, so that we can live a full life, reunited with the Living God who loves us. God is worthy to be praised because he created us, gave us a beautiful world to be in charge of, blessed us beyond measure, and when we screwed things up, he gave us a way back to him. Even these men and women who were in jail were shouting, dancing, and praising God, despite their circumstances.
   Their is so much that could be said here, yet so much that I don’t know if I can express. I know that our month was good, that God loves you, and that he is beyond measure in his goodness, love, faithfulness, forgiveness, beauty, sacrifice, grace, and so much more.