You Know You Are In Africa

You know you are in Africa when...

.....you are giving a Bible study and a chicken runs through your translator's legs with a dog chasing right after it!

....you are sitting in your living room conversing with fellow CRI staffers and you look up to see a monkey's face in your window!

....you awaken in the middle of the night to loud thunder and noise and see the same monkey looking at you in a different window!

With the temps soaring in the high 90's, I was tempted to
do exactly what most Mozambican children do after it rains.

Children are precious in His sight.

The children are always so ingenious
about creating toys.  I love this swing.

Life here for a Wyoming girl is always filled with surreal moments.  This week one of the children in our creche passed away because while home she accidentally fell into a fire. One of our activistas and his family were robbed in their home by four men with machetes and knives. The darkness is always here, but it makes God's light shine even brighter.

In the Bible study, we huddle under the shade on these steamy,
hot days like we huddle around the fire in Wyoming on a
 blustery winter morn.

Everyone is always attentive to the Bible studies...well, maybe
not everyone.

This is one of our Green Door house recipients.
She is faithful, in spite of her age, to come to
the Bible study in the hot weather.

During one of our Bible studies we got to talking about the value of reading (especially your Bible!) and how it gives independence and the freedom to learn. The current illiteracy rate in Mozambique is 51%.  It is my heart to see more Mozambicans find this freedom to learn.  But along with that, is the need for libraries.  There are 121,785 in the United States. On the other hand, our translator had to explain to the people in our PL Bible study the definition of a library.  The infrastructure here does not bestow libraries except in the universities and schools. The average citizen has no access to such a treasure. And if they did, there is a possibility the books would never stay on the shelves.

Women eating our soup at the hospital. It feels cooler
to sit on the floor rather than in the beds.

A mother is feeding her sick child some soup.

I am so thankful for the soup ministry.  We bring soup as a calling card of God's love to the sick and dying. This last week we were in one room serving soup and sharing Christ's message of hope. The next day we walked through the same room and found out everyone in that room had passed away.

We are thankful for the donors who choose recipients to
receive a new cement block house in the Green Door ministry.

One requirement for us to be able to build a house is that
each recipient has land to build on.

A Green Door House can be built in three weeks.

We have two houses waiting to be painted and two more
are being built since we arrived in March.  God is good!

Ice Cream Sundae

Some of the women listening to the Bible study in Mafarinha this morning.

Many people in Project Life do not own a Bible. Many cannot read, but even those that can have not had the opportunity to own their own Bible. Any of their Biblical training and teaching comes from outside sources. For one who grew up on a daily diet of the Bible, it is hard to comprehend the impoverishment of this spiritual dependency. I really can't imagine not being able to grab my Bible and scarf down the precious truths like an ice cream sundae. We were blessed recently by a missionary friend who received a huge shipment of Bibles. He graciously gave us a Bible for each person able to read in PL.

Knowing it was the week to receive their Bibles, the people came anxiously expectant. After receiving his Bible, one man gingerly wrapped it in a piece of paper to protect it. I thought about all the times I had dropped my Bible, scribbled all over it or used it as a fan when the church got too hot. They, on the other hand, kept thanking me like I had given them a ticket to the lottery. Wanting to encourage their new-found freedom, I judiciously began to voice my opinion about what books, chapters and verses would be best to read first. ( Do you devour the whipping cream, bananas, chocolate, ice cream or cherry on top first?) After all, reading the Psalms is so uplifting yet the meat of Romans produces growth, while the book of James is challenging and then there is the love chapter of I Corinthians 13... Impossible. All I could say was, “dig in!”

* * * * * * *

It was hot this morning in Mafarinha as we began to dance and sing. It was more than hot. These days the extreme heat finds me being creative in how to overcome it. Not wanting to encourage more moisture than was already drowning me I chose to keep my body more still than moving. Then dear Emilia stopped the praise and worship and addressed this group suffering from AIDS.

“Just yesterday,” she began, “I visited a woman whom I hadn't seen in a while. This woman had come to our Bible studies quite regularly. She had danced and sang and worshiped God. Then one day she quit coming. I heard she was sick. When I saw her, she was so sick she could no longer move anything but a part of her arms.” There was a knowing silence among us.

Emilia continued. “Now is the time that you are able to worship God with everything you have. Use your gifts, whatever He has given you, to praise and worship Him before you can no longer do it.”

The singing quickly became louder and more intentional. Somehow the heat surrounding me seemed to disperse into the morning air.

Dondo Again!

We are back in Dondo. It's easy for time and distance to camouflage and numb the reality of life here. But like a splash of cold water in your face on a hot day, so was our arrival at the airport. The heat and humidity were as intense as a charcoal stove boiling water. There was loud wailing as we slipped through the airport crowd. A funeral was emerging straight from the plane. An accident in Maputo leaving 16 dead brought a loved one home on the plane before us so a lamenting crowd was increasing their volume of sorrow. We slipped through the crowds incognito thankful that customs did not scrutinize our suitcases. Prayers answered once again, we stepped outside ready to greet Mozambique.

It is good to see our family of friends and bring them good gifts. Although it was 100 degrees, the activistas slipped on their new coats with big grins! I couldn't even look at them for fear it would double the digits of the heat already melting me. Just seeing them again, hugging and laughing brought back into focus our joy in this mission to share Christ's love to a hurting world.

I visited four bairros this first week for the Bible studies and after the dancing and singing and Bible story, the Project Life patients voiced their prayer requests. My world will never comprehend the every day challenges these people face. More than one complained of robbers entering their small, vulnerable houses and taking what little they owned; two praised God that the snakes that woke them in their separate houses weren't able to bite them before they could kill them; one man in another house was bit, but God spared his life; another woman shared with me later that her sister was killed on Monday as she was tending her machamba (garden) from a lightening strike – her sister's baby on her back also died; many named their numerous ailments that AIDS patients suffer; they expressed their fears that the rice fields had suffered drought and several asked for prayer that their children would follow God.

It is with a thankful heart that we are here to share their burdens. As the Green Door moves forward to build safe homes, we realize that we come not on our own, but as representatives of a merciful God who really does care and love them. Thank you to all of you who have made our return possible!