MINISTRY AND LIVING QUARTERS:
After almost 72 hours of travel, we have finally arrived to Fancy Land, Mozambique… at least compared to what we thought it would be like considering that we have showers, sinks, and flushing toilets!!! You bet your bottom dollar we do! I sleep in my tent, but it's pitched up inside of a room for the sole purpose of fending off mosquitoes, wasps, bats, and bugs. They're not horrible here, but we're not taking any chances. We're staying with our contact, Teeny, at his home/compound and we spend our days living his daily missionary life: visiting the elderly with no family, the blind, the lame, the sick, the bed-ridden, the lonely and paralyzed, as well as orphaned children. Many of them are also “on the program”, meaning they have HIV or full-blown AIDS.(Although my heart breaks as I see loneliness and abandonment written on so many of their faces since the family unit hardly exists here, I have not broken down in tears every day, (only a few times). So that's good news. ) We've visited the people living in a refugee camp who've been displaced due to flooding and natural disasters in the area as well as the refugee camp school where we told them about Jesus and performed a skit of David and Goliath. We are joining Teeny as he begins an action plan to build up a church in the bush which has little leadership. The first order of business… Rachel and I preachedat a service, outside, under a tree in the cool of the day on what the Kingdom of Heaven and the church are.
THE ROUTINE:
Every morning begins the same… I am up at 5am still to have my morning time with Jesus and coffee. Except now there are new sounds… I hear the witch doctor welcoming in the sun and the new day, sometimes she's joined by other people. Rebekah and I go for a run, then the work begins. We work together to fill up about 50 large buckets from the town well and wheel barrow them back to the base we live on for our water needs each day. So in the bible, there's references to the conversations and meetings that took place at the wells… that's real life for me now. I get it. We talk to the same people and play with the same kids every morning while pumping out water. We work with Teeny's team of 3 people; Flora (25 yr old woman), Silverton (70 yr old man), and Weldon (30 year old man fluent in English and our primary translator). We then eat oatmeal and drink coffee or tea together and someone does a devotional (an encouraging word from the bible or thoughts about something they've been pondering). We go to the super small outside market to buy our fresh fruits and veggies and food for the day, then we set off to the mud built homes with their tin roofs and doors. We are done by early afternoon and the rest of the day is ours. You might find us doing lice picking sessions for the two girls on my team with lice (praise the Lord I think we've almost conquered the beasts), doing bible study together, napping, reading, doing laundry, or making our music video. That's right, I said it… making a music video. An ode to the lice. (Stay tuned to know when it's posted so you can go on the MTV website to vote for it.) Since it starts to get dark around 5, Teeny turns on the generator to keep lights going and we prepare dinner for him and us. Then we do dishes, followed by showers, feedback time for my team and I where we talk about the day and how we're doing and get anything off our chest that may be bothering us, and relax. I know some of you don't necessarily need a play-by-play, but there ya go anyways. So just enjoy.
“Le sheelay”, “bon dia”, and kalimambo” have become our most spoken words since most people speak Shangon and some Portuguese. Being white, we are automatically associated with wealth so that's interesting. Kids and adults alive wave, smile, and yell “allo” to us in the morning when we're out running. After 4 months and 4 countries of little responses and interactions, we finally have all the greetings that we could ask for. The community we are in is so friendly and warm and we love it here. It's the beginning of winter, but that means it only gets to be 85, 90 degrees instead of 120 😉 My favorite quote of Mozambique so far came the first day we got here. Teeny said, “I'm not so worried about the spiders as I am the snakes, mice, and rats.” Thanks Teeny, that's encouraging.
CHALLENGING PRAYERS
“Would you like to pray for this person?” Teeny always asks us at each person's home. Since we've been doing a lot of praying, I have been asking more questions about it. I feel like in Romania I started asking a lot of questions about prayer. Why pray? Pray for what? Is what I'm praying for God's will? Even though I know that He can heal people, will he heal this person that I am praying for? Is there more glory that can be given to Him by not healing this person? Many questions. I've been wrestling with them for a while now, and they are still great in my mind. But they're good. No matter how much I search in the bible and seek wisdom from others that have it, I have peace even without answers. Where my faith does not depend on if God answers my prayer in the way that I think He should. I don't know if these people will be healed, but I know that if it's God's will to heal them, He will. And if it's not, He won't. I am finding a place of peace in knowing that prayer is my part. There are many verses about prayer and about God answering prayers. Some I understand, some I don't. But I know that Philippians says by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, I am to make my requests known to God. It doesn't say “and He will answer all of them exactly as you ask.” It just says that when I do this, the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. My part is to do the asking. My peace is in leaving it in His hands, the One who created the person I'm praying for. The One who is powerful to do what I'm asking if He so chooses to. The One who loves the person I'm praying for way more than I do. So I'm striving every day to have peace in the asking and leaving it up to Him. My part is to pray. His part is to do. Whatever His will is to do.
So even though I still have questions about prayer…
I'm praying for Raymond who lost his eyesight at 20 to see again… if it's God's will.
I'm praying for Francisco to regain use of his legs after paralysis believed to be related to witchcraft… if it's God's will.
I'm praying for Laura to be healed of AIDS… if it's His will.
I'm praying for Old Man August to walk again and become more than “the man who slithers”… if it's God's will.
I'm praying for the man in the refugee camp who has HIV and an infection in his recently amputated arm which started as a simple infection from a cut that wasn't treated properly to be pain free and healed… if it's His will.
I'm praying for people of the church to actually have bibles.
I'm praying for everyone to have enough to eat and to drink.
I'm praying for the people of the church to rise up in place of demonic practices and ancestral worship.
I'm praying for honest HIV/AIDS education for the people because there is so much misinformation and religious practices that contribute to the rapid spread of the disease.
I'm praying for the community to have a stronger family bond where the husband if faithful to one wife and children.
I'm praying for the community of believers here to grow, rise up, and meet each others needs.
I'm praying for the family of children who have been orphaned three times.
I'm praying for the patients who wait outside of the witch doctor's home in hopes to be healed that they'll know that the only real healer is Jesus.
I'm still praying for my friends and family back home.
More than anything, I find myself praying for the children. As I hold them. As I play with them. I pray for them out loud, regardless of my language that they don't understand. I pray that they will grow up to know who Jesus is and love Him. I pray that they will learn how to read so they can be educated, have more opportunities, and be able to read the Bible. I pray that they will know the truth about HIV and how it's spread and how to prevent it. I pray for protection for their little bodies from people who would harm them, hurt them, and take advantage of them. I pray for their purity. I pray for them to grow up to be hard workers. For the boys to grow up to be men that take care of their families and are faithful. For the women to grow up to be hard workers and be a good example for their children. My ministry this month is to have compassion and encourage the dying and broken and pray. This is Africa.
And you can pray for these things too.
 |
