Loving the People of Mozambique

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The Risk

Sitting for weeks in hospitals keeping a vigil eye on my husband led me to read almost every book in my husband's Kindle while he was entertained by nurses and doctors, IV's and catheters.  Three hospitals in three countries in three weeks is probably not something either one of us want to repeat very soon. Today he was released from the Powell hospital in our home town of Wyoming and we are encouraged that Phil is truly on the mend. We are so thankful for God's care and everyone's prayers and words of encouragement. In all of this, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the risks of serving in a third-world country.

Without a doubt when we serve we take risks. Those risks come in all shapes and sizes and can be costly. God doesn't promise when we serve we won't get malaria, we won't have accidents, or we won't be put in prison and beaten for our faith like Saeed Abenini in Iran. There is no written contract that we sign on the designated line that guarantees our safety nor our success. But there is one guarantee. God promises His presence. He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. I can honestly say we felt His presence and His care in the last 8 years that we served in Mozambique. And what if we hadn't taken risks?

I look back over the years and have a lot of memories of opportunities that God gave us to make a difference.  There were those that accepted Christ in the last hours of their lives such as the truck driver who had AIDS and little orphan Eva who had been abandoned by her family. There are those who were given a chance to start a business like Manuel who now can afford to put all six of his children in the government school.  Then there was Ana, whose mentally disabled son destroyed her mud home so she had to sleep outside on the ground in a dangerous situation. She and 86 other families received a safe, cement block home through the Green Door ministry. I could go on....the Savane church plant who were blessed with a beautiful cement block church to replace their building of stick and mud. The 180 families now in Project Life, our AIDS hospice who receive the Word each week through our Bible studies and have accepted Christ as their Savior. Even as I say these things, only God knows for sure the eternal consequences of two people choosing to take the risks in serving Him in Dondo. But even if just one person came to faith in Jesus....wasn't it worth the risk?

I have found in the midst of all the discomforts, disappointments and difficulties in serving that there is no greater joy for me than to share the Word of God with eager ears who have never heard the Truth before. To see the Light go on in their hearts and minds is my passion. We have been thankful for the unique opportunity during this window of time to serve Christ in a difficult and dark country.  Any risk pales in comparison to Christ who left the comfort of His perfect home knowing He would suffer hell's wrath for a people who didn't care.

For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!] 2 Corinthians 4:17  Amplified Bible (AMP)

While waiting at Marben Manor for arrangements
for our return to the States I decided to take
pictures of the flowers and insects. I was amazed
at the wonderful birds that South Africa has
compared to Mozambique.  Often birds are eaten
in Mozambique for want of affordable meat. So it
was a pleasure to hear the birds and see the
wonderful varieties God has given them. I wanted
to photograph the birds but they were too fast
for my tired legs! The flowers and butterflies
were more my speed and some of them
actually looked like they were posing for me!

The Longest Trip Home...

We did not expect to leave Mozambique in such style.  Not everyone (except maybe Michele Obama) has their own private jet to escort you out of a country! Often, even with our best planning, things just don’t turn out like we imagined, or perhaps wanted.

I was shopping in Beira with two fellow missionaries trying to buy groceries in the expectation that our son Ben would be arriving in two days with CRI staffers, John and Cindy.  My husband called and casually said in an unusually slow manner (even for him) that he should probably update me.  He went on to explain that he was at Central Hospital in Beira and not as a visitor.  With a heavy heart I sent my car, friends and groceries back to Dondo and settled on the curb by the store we had last patronized.  I knew my husband didn’t admit himself to third-world hospitals unless the reason was quite serious.  I sorted out my thoughts as I waited for Phil’s right-hand man, Manuel, to leave the hospital and come retrieve me.  It eerily took me back to the phone call we received when our youngest fractured her skull from a cheering leading accident. There is a deep sense within that says a major change is about to take place.

But changes don’t surprise God, only us mortals who only see the small light in front of us. As I was praying for grace for the road ahead, my thoughts were interrupted by a bicycle whizzing by.  The man recognized me with a huge grin.  It was a different Manuel, not the one I was expecting. A year ago I had helped a beggar in a dilapidated wheelchair outside of the grocery store.  Normally, I don’t help people outside the ROL Project let alone outside of Dondo. But I had felt the Holy Spirit nudge me that day to talk to him and listen to his story.  Taking him to his home, Simone and I had investigated the squalor of his environment. He had six children and a partially blind wife.  In spite of what I saw, I felt we were to help him more than with a couple of metcais coins shoved in his hand. We started him in a business of selling small grocery items of his choosing. He opened up his little “kiosk” in the middle of the slums. We left him with a prayer and a Bible and I returned to the States.  I had hoped to check up on him when I returned this year but time constraints kept me away.  Now here he was…surprised to see me as I was to see him.

Manuel looked happy and healthy as he related his successes.  He had been doing well and could now afford to put all of his children in school. He had bought this three wheel bike with his own earnings and was saving now for a refrigerator so he could sell cold items. I was amazed that such a small amount invested could change things so dramatically for him. He is no longer a beggar. But I knew God had been in it. It was my only chance to see Manuel before we left Moz. He bicycled away as I marveled at such a bizarre chance meeting considering my own circumstances.  But deep down I knew it was neither chance nor bizarre.  It was more than a “the rest of the story” sequel.  It was God wanting to assure me of His presence and His divine care in what we were about to face. 

The rest of the day and the days ahead all became a blur of evacuating my husband to another African country and hospital.  The neck of his femur had been broken and the ball joint torn away from the socket. His acrobatics off the Green Door truck won him a new hip in South Africa. What should have been a relatively short stay became two weeks because of post-op issues like blood clots and UTI’s.  Finally, after 14 days in African hospitals, we are at the Marben Manor!  We hope to fly back to the States and be home before the end of the week. Never has the word home sounded so sweet.  

I was fortunate I had a small camera in my purse

and could take a picture of Manuel before he

bicycled away. God is good!

The Mennonites up the road helped us buy this 

three-wheel bicycle for Benjamin to replace

his two-wheel bicycle.  He can't walk so Inacio

had been walking for miles each week to give

Benjamin his own Bible study. Now he can join

the rest of the Bairro 25th for their Bible study.

I just can't end a blog without a picture

of the children. This was the last picture

I took of children before we had to leave.

God's Riches....

This week was busy but sandwiched between our food distribution and the Green Door dedications I decided to go out into the bairros and find three of our former recipients of our Green Door houses. I wanted to create a video explaining the blessing of owning a safe, cement block home.  I had chosen these people randomly because I wanted to interview a widow, a blind person and an orphan. Often I intend one thing, and God shows me something completely different.

My first stop was to the house of the orphan. He readily agreed to the interview. As he was trying to articulate his feelings about his Green Door home, he stopped abruptly and his tears started flowing. Surprised at this, I asked what was wrong.  He explained that his feet were in such pain and no one had helped him get better. I looked down at his swollen feet oozing with sores. I had known he had a problem with his feet but had assumed he was getting help. I asked if he had been to the doctor lately. He had not. So I stopped the interview and took him right away to see the doctor at our clinic.  We were blessed that the doctor was "in" because he only comes twice a week for part of the day. What we found out shocked me. This orphan had been diagnosed a few years ago with skin cancer and was supposed to have been receiving treatments in Beira. The grandfather didn't have the money to take him to Beira for the treatments so he was left untreated. Now the skin cancer had spread unmercifully.  It just costs $1.50 to get to Beira but when you live in extreme poverty, even that amount to the poor seems insurmountable. So his grandfather gave up.

My second stop was to the blind man's Green Door home. He was not home but his wife said he would be there shortly. We waited outside with his wife and children so I decided to strike up a conversation. I wondered if her husband had been blind all his life or had developed some kind of infection that caused his blindness. Often in poor countries a simple infection left untreated can cause blindness.  She responded that he was blind because he had developed cataracts at age 10.  I looked at her in surprise and explained that cataracts can be removed surgically.  She said she knew.  The blind man arrived at that moment and we continued with the conversation.  I reiterated that cataracts can be removed.  He agreed.  He said he had gone to two different doctors, one in Beira and one in Chimoio and they had assured him that if he received surgery he would see again.  I asked why he had not gotten it done.  He very matter-of-factly explained that it would cost 2100mt ($67.74) and he did not have the money. So he gave up.

How does one get out of this puddle of poverty? Both stories were so hard to accept. My thoughts brought me back to a couple in the small town we live in Wyoming. The husband was diagnosed with leukemia last year. He was not able to work and help support his wife and children. Added to this was the extreme expense of our American healthcare system and the fight for a transplant. It would mean he would have to go to Denver and stay for three months. The expenses seemed insurmountable. But many Christians surrounded them with love meeting their needs in a variety of ways:  rent payments, food, medical expenses, gas, a place to live and furniture in Denver and lots of prayers. He came through with flying colors and is home now recuperating.

Needs are relative. Poverty doesn't end just because a rich man helps a poor man. How I wish it were that simple! Poverty begins in the heart. Its panacea also begins in the heart. The Holy Spirit is the catalyst to move men's hearts to give whether they are rich or poor. He empowers them to give because of love. He empowers them with a faith that says God blesses the giving of the rich and the poor and He meets needs beyond anything we could have imagined.

He empowers us not to give up.

2 Corinthians 8: 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

We were so blessed this week from donors from our church 

in Wyoming to be enabled to give this distribution this week.

Oil, flour, beans and blankets!

The people in Project Life, our AIDS hospice were 

the recipients of this distribution. We also were able 

to bless the widows and visitors that come to our

weekly Bible studies in the bairros.

We do, however, have to make sure that we only

let in those on our list of names. Otherwise, all 

of Dondo would show up!

We use this time as a church service.

We also give instructions on the distribution.

It tickled me when I heard Carlitos explaining

what it would feel like to use a blanket.  It has been

my heart to see each one own a blanket because many

of them sleep on dirt floors and just use capalanas (or

a thin material) for a blanket. It does get down to 55 degrees

at night during the winter. I had never thought of the concept

that they had never used a blanket before and needed to

know what to expect!

I have mentioned before that many women

do not read and those that read do not read well.

This lady was practicing her scripture I had

given her to read during the church service.

The activistas help distribute the food. I had

chosen purple for their uniforms because it

represents royalty. I constantly remind them 

that they are employees of the King of Kings.

The food was a handful but such a blessing.

Although the distribution went very smoothly, I cannot say buying the food in Beira went so well! In order to find each product, we had to hunt around Beira and find the right seller. I gave each businessman two weeks warning about the number we would need and they assured us it would be there. A Pakistani businessman sold us our flour and oil. He had promised 185 individual sacks of 10 kilos of flour. He only produced 80 after we had already paid him. Then he ran around to other shops looking for larger bags. It would mean we would have to divide up

the flour in our own bags - lots of work but better than no bags. Eventually when we got home in Dondo, we discovered he had shortchanged us 5 large bags and 11 bottles of oil. So we had to return the next day to claim the rest. We bought our blankets at a Chinese store where they assured us they would have all 200 blankets individually packaged up and ready. When we arrived to pick up the blankets we discovered they were in a warehouse in one huge pile several miles from Beira. We had to go there and package each blanket up while our truck driver that we had hired was counting the minutes up on his bill. Oh my...Walmart - where are you when we need you?

Huge smile!  I don't think anyone

was frowning that day. :-)

One of our Macharote ladies.

Everyone packaged up their blessings

in a capalana...

put them on their heads...

and took off for the long walk home.

Did you ever wonder what bananas look like

growing?  This banana tree was by the

house we dedicated this week in Mafarinha.

Luisa and her family were blessed with a Green

Door home this week. We have six color schemes

to choose from and they keep choosing blue!!

I keep thinking everyone is going to think I am

showing the same house over and over again

on the blog!  For some reason, they really like blue.

This is Maria Luisa.  She is an activista and lost

her husband this year.  She is signing her

inheritance rights papers so her children will

receive her Green Door home in the event of her death.

Little Antónia is watching her mom sign the paper.

You can see Maria Luisa's mud home in 

the background - it was sinking on one

side and getting ready to collapse. Did

I say that Green Door homes are a blessing?

I can't put a blog up without taking

pictures of the children hanging

 out at a Green Door dedication.

They were patiently waiting for

the time that the cookies get

passed out. 

We were blessed this week to have Todd Bush

and Anita Frederick from CRI join us at our 

house dedications. Anita brought me some M&Ms

so I can bake more cookies!  The kids will be

impressed. :-)

Happy Easter Card

Happy Easter from Mozambique! This is my creative way to send my grandchildren an Easter basket full of love.  And the rest of you can enjoy too!  I took these pictures this morning since it is Good Friday to make a "blog Easter Card." Some of these pictures I took behind our house and some a few miles from Dondo. (Don't worry...the croc was NOT behind my house!) I have always loved God's creation because it displays many of His attributes. It doesn't matter how dark the darkness is - God's love always is on display and He is always calling men to Himself. His love is so visual in creation in the details of beauty and how each creature is designed to survive. It all displays His glory!

Enjoy the beauty of Africa!

I love you Jadyn, Dominik, Megan, Averee, Jackson, Micah, Raquelle, Nyah, Ty, Max and Knox!! Have a happy Easter from Grandpa and Grandma J.!