Along with teaching TLW, students lead worship, preached during the Sunday church services, showed the "Jesus Video", and played with the local children. Below are the blogs from that trip, along with some of my pictures...
Day 1
Well, after many hours of traveling and some really bad airplane food the whole team is now at our second home. No major problems at the airports, and everybody managed to get their luggage in one piece. We just got done having dinner, and the legend of Wanna's cooking is now a reality in our lives. We were also privileged to meet a British nurse working for "Save the Children" here in Mozambique, an organization that helps children under 5yrs deal with the HIV virus.
Tomorrow we will be leaving early in the morning to our first village. We'll be leading worship, I'll be preaching, and then after lunch the youth will be presenting "True Love Waits". John is expecting around 400-500 people, and most of those will be teens. Please pray for us as we are VERY tired, and anxious to see what God is going to do tomorrow. All the team sends their love and thanks for your prayers.
Days 2-3
I don't even know where to begin on this update...
On Sunday we left in the early morning to the Napiz Village to lead Sunday worship and begin our True Love Waits seminary. After a very long, and very "cozy" truck ride down a bumpy road, we arrived to a sea of Mozambique people. When we first arrived, there were about 800 people waiting for us. Things started off slow at first between groups, but after Daniel broke out the hackie-sack and we got in the crowds, we warmed up to them.
We meet Olympio and Sabrino, two local pastors and translators that will be with us for the whole trip, and we love them. Sabrino has a great sense of humor and is a loving father of four (had his fourth kid about three weeks ago). Olympio is a strong leader that is very well respected, and we are learning from John that he's lead hundreds to Christ.
The worship service started around 9am (I think), and ended at about noon. We sang and lead worship, and all of the Napiz churches that were present also lead in songs, and even a skit. I learned that I don't hold a candle to a 5 year old African on the drum...they thought I was hilarious. They loved Daniel's guitar playing though, you could see all of their faces light up when he pulled it out.
I gave my sermon, and was surprise to find myself very relaxed. I talked about the three types of love we find in the Bible: God's love for us, our love for God, and the outpouring of love for people. I would speak, then John would translate in Portuguese, and then Sabrino would translate that into Malawi. During the message I gave an illustration about "masks", which made an impact on several people. We had four re-dedications at that service. Immediately after the worship service we began teaching TLW to the people because lunch was ready(lunch was goat on rice. The goat was alive in the morning, and we watched it become lunch; Jeremy threw up, everyone laughed)
The next day we woke up early, ate breakfast and spent the whole day teaching TLW, and leading in worship. Daniel, Jeremy, Anthony, and Lexie all did a fantastic job. I can't really explain just how proud I was of them when I was sitting and listening to your kids spreading the gospel and reaching a foreign people. Ha, I'm almost crying now :.)
It was amazing...simply amazing. They even came up with a skit on the spot to help illustrate their points, and it was fantastic.
Ask Jana what a fly taste like in her throat...she'll love telling you ;)
No TLW pledges were made, but John said we differently got some stuff stirring and he was excited to see the local pastors jump in and start teaching TLW themselves. Through out the day we played around some, kicked the soccer ball around, took a tour, and the kids love getting their picture taken. After lunch, we packed up and headed pack home. On the way back we stopped for some Fanta's in town, and John & Wanne showed us the teaching center that LBC helped fund.
That's it for now, thank you soo much for your prayers and comments. We read them all, and appreciate every one of them. All of us send love to all of you and we'll keep you posted!
Day 4
Nothing too much to report from today. We woke up late, which shockingly enough is 7am, had breakfast and spent most of the day hanging out around the house. We meet a wonderful missionary family that were stopping by to visit the Dina's and we pretty much it off with them right away. Played hacky-sack, basketball, xbox, and pretty much goofed off till about noon. After John took care of a few chores, we headed out to the Indian ocean. The drive was really rough, and about 45 minutes away from the Dina's house. The ocean is nothing like I've seen, which is mostly Cali shores. The waves were strong, yet little. The water was brown, and very warm even during the winter. We spent the day playing in the beach, throwing the frisbee around, finding sea shells, and eating while watching the tide come in.
Tomorrow we'll be heading out to Raposo Baptist Church for two days, so no blog update until late Thursday night. Pray for us as we once again present the Gospel and TLW to these people.
Uh-oh...Wanne is telling me it's dinner time, gotta go!
Days 5-6
Sorry for the long delay in updates...but we were tired!!
On Wednesday packed up and drove to Raposo Baptist church, which was about a 3 hour drive into the forest of Africa. Along the way we snacked on some "Matago", rice pounded flat and baked in the sun, along with some fruit. As we got further into the forest, we could see the scenery change. Large trees with huge leaves were everywhere, along with a thick grass. In the distance we could see what looked like smoke, only to discover it was spider web. John showed us tracks of some local wild life that he hunts and has promised to show us a very large, and very dangerous spider. He also promised that he would find me a Chameleon...so that go me excited. No black or green mamba's though.
When we arrived to the village, all the villagers were out singing. It started out much like it did Napiz, awkward at first but once we broke out the sports equipment and cameras the people warmed up to us. This 2 day event wasn't as big as Napiz was, but when we first arrived there was about 200-300 people, however there were more youth at this event then at Napiz. While John got the kitchen and program figured out with the local pastors, we played with the crowd. They LOVED the little red footballs that we brought and the frisbees, but nothing compared the brand new soccer balls that we brought out. Our group did well on spreading out and keeping the crowd under control, some organized games with the footballs, others started a soccer circle, and a couple showed the locals how to throw a frisbee. After what seemed like hours playing with the kids, we were invited into the church for a snack before TLW began. We had more Matago and super fresh bananas, all while introduced to Pastor Dino and Pastor Orlando.
The next day, we woke early due to the kitchen getting to work. Here, the kitchen is just a few pots and pans on some wood in the ground. We quickly drew a crowd by having foot races with the children. They loved it, and we exhausted ourselves within the first 30 minutes of being awake. Jeremy sweat so much he had to change shirts, literally he looked like he jumped in the ocean. Luckly, Wanna had breakfast prepared and it gave us the energy for the day. We presented the last three sections of TLW, along with our "Masks" skits, and lots of singing. Jeremy, Anthony, and Lexie all did amazing jobs and I was so blown away by how refined their lessons now where. We even had enough time for Daniel and Denisse to give their personal testimonies. After everything was said and done, it was time for the pledge. The pledge that said, "I will follow God's plan for purity and remain sexual abstinent until marriage". John had told me moment's before the pledge, that last year only one young man stood, and was soon ridiculed by his friends.
It was Paul-o's birthday today! He's 53 years young, haha. He was presented with a HUGE bushel of bananas, and a live rooster. Then John had all the village sing a version of "Happy birthday" to him. He hated every moment of it, but loved it all at the same time. The village presented us with gift; a Yambie. It's a shaker instrument made from small bamboo sticks, tire string, and beans. It's very hard to play. We left them some sports equipment in return. At lunch (chicken w/rice) Wanna brought out a chocolate cake for Paul's birthday and we celebrated in style in the shade of the church. After lunch, we played some more sports and then packed up and headed back home.
Other highlights that come to mind...
Sabrino gave Daniel the African nickname, "Daniel Forte", because his preaching is "very strong".
Jeremy and Anthony learned that spraying bug spray IN their tent wasn't the brightest idea.
Knives were VERY popular in this village, especially with little boys.
Being squished with Daniel and all our camping gear in the back of a hot truck, along a very bumpy road
The bathroom's here are fun, for soo many reasons...haha
Day 7
Hard to believe we are already 7 days into our trip...
Today we woke up early to make the 3 hour drive to Mazoao Village. The village is actually within a mile a where we were swimming at the Indian Ocean, but because of roads here we had to take a very long route to get there. Mazoao village is a very small village, and on the edge of the mission work here in Mozambique. It's hidden within a fairly large coconut plantation, so the scenery to get there was very nice. Currently there is a disease that is killing off coconut trees that is carried in the air, so on one side of the road we saw healthy, fruitful, trees and on the other side we saw nothing but dead palms, brown, and bent over.
Everyone will enjoy the video we have of that, haha
Once the break was over, we got right back to teaching and the remaining three students presented all their lessons amazingly. Lexie ended with asking the people to take the TLW pledge and we had 6 people make that commitment. There were 5 men, one of which was a youth, and one woman. It was amazing to see so many take the pledge, and we are praying that those people stay faithful to it and teach it to others. We prayed for them, gave them some workbooks, and hooked them up with the local pastors.
The ride home was long and rough so we were eager to get home, eat, and rest.
Today (which is your tomorrow) we are off to a close by village to teach TLW for the day, pray for us!!
Day 8
Today we were able to sleep in a little since our destination was only about a half hour away. Madal is a new mission, and another smaller village. In order to get there we had to cross the river on a bridge that has been sinking into the river. Something a little unnerving about a bridge that is slanted sideways and almost in the river. Along the way we saw many markets, and tons of salt fields. Here, when they make salt, they flood a large amount of land and then let the water seep down in the ground. When that's done there are large chunks of salt left on the ground, and then somebody just sweeps it up. Needless to say the salt here is a little more brown, and certainly not kosher.
When we got the village, we could tell it was much smaller than any of the previous ones we had been to. We broke out the sports equipment and began to play, but it took much longer than usual for the people to warm up to us. Several of us decided that this was because not a lot of youth were here yet, just older people and children. Both are mostly afraid of us. We played for quite a awhile since we were kinda early for this village, and we wanted to wait until we had more youth at the event.
When we did get started, we were moved into the church building to teach TLW. This was our first time teaching inside a church building, normally everything is outside. The building was made out of mostly tied wood, and mud. No "floor" by American standards and the roof was simply tin. We were happy to be in the cool shade though, it was really hot and humid that day.
The teaching went really well again. The students have really honed down their lessons and barley use their notes now. The teaching this time went by so quick that we were able to do both skits, and have some extra worship time. It was really neat. We had a short break in between, which was more sports time, and then back to teaching. When we gave the opportunity to take the TLW pledge, only one youth guy and a church leaders wife stood up. However, there was confusion over if the invitation was only for youth, so once we cleared that up and said that it was open to everyone 11 more people came forward and took the pledge. Of those 13 people, 3 were women, 2 were youth boys, and the rest were men. The church leader and his wife were among those that pledged, so it was good to see them leading by example. After that we ate lunch (fresh chicken with rice)played more with the kids, and got back to the Dina's fairly early.
Some of us went shopping, while others rested but we mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the evening.
Other highlights...
Me, Anthony, and Jeremy asked Sabrino to dance...and he did!!
Jeremy teaching the night guard English and basketball (he actually calls Jeremy "teacher")
John introduced me to African hot peppers, and they are HOT!
Day 9
Yesterday we journeyed to Iregele, which was along about 30 minutes away on a smooth dirt road. Iregele is a very new mission area, so there is no church at this site yet but there is a "preaching point". A family is allowing the church to use their abandoned house for cooking, and a small teaching area is just outside of it made from some wood pillars and lots of palm branches. The whole area was surrounded by rice fields, so it really was a beautiful site.
After the worship service was done, there was no break, we got right into TLW. So, church started at about 9:30am and ended about 2:00pm. All of the students did an amazing job, once again, and we even did all of our skits and had time for more worship. 4 people made the TLW pledge, 3 of which were young men and the other was a young woman. They stood with another 13 people who had already made the commitment in the past, which goes to show that the work Royal Palms is doing along with the local pastors, Dina's, and others is really producing fruit. It's amazing working alongside so many people :)
I talked to a lot of people that knew Jeremiah, with some help from a translator. He truly had an impact on these people, and is continuing to have an impact on them today.
It was great being able to talk to everyone at the church, and I'm glad all of you got to see our faces. Please note that my beard is now full and majestic...the very peak of manly-ness in my opinion.
Tomorrow (or today as I'm tying this) we are heading to Sophino, which has a very high Islamic influence and has no local church support yet. We're not sure what to expect when we get there. Please be in prayer!!!
Other highlights that come to mind...
Jana held a millipede, everyone in the village was aware of it. (screaming)
Jeremy and Anthony made ants fight
Jeremy and I made future pictures of ourselves (it's what we do when we're bored)
Daniel trying to play basketball
All girls have some weird pimple popping addiction; it's really disturbing.
Chicken butt...not going to expound on that one.
Day 10
After a early rise, and a good breakfast we packed up and headed down the bumpy road to Sophinho. As I said in the previous post, this village is the newest mission so there is no church building or local church support. The Sopinho church actually meets at a house of a Muslim convert who built a small shade just outside his house with palm leaves. The village is made mostly of fisherman, since this village is only about 50k from the beach.
It was a exciting, yet somber journey. John stopped us at the exact place where Jeremiah had his accident. We were reminded of the cost of doing God's work, and even though I don't speak Chauvo or Portuguese I could tell that Sabrino (the pastor that was with Jeremiah), and Olympio were still in morning. For John & Wanne, and all the people here, it is a very deep hurt.
However, after about a half-an-hour, we saw the reward of doing God's work. We saw Jeremiah's fruit. The church is growing, gaining leaders, and keeping standing strong in this village and it's all from Jeremiah one day saying, "I will go" and then never looking back.
Jeremiah was just one person, sowing seeds...and now he's collecting the harvest.
The little church gave us coconuts, duck eggs......and a puppy. No joke, we were given a puppy. Here, if somebody like a church leader gives you a gift you can't say "no". Even if the excuse (like getting it through customs) is a good one, you can't refuse. It's a HUGE cultural no-no. Needless to say the girls immediately feel in love with the lil' mutt and begin grooming it right away. They named it...get this...Daisy Lu-lu Laveen. What does a dog need a middle name for? Anyways, Daisy will remain here at the Dina's and she'll be in good hands. The local pastors where teasing John about the dog all day. In exchange for the dog, we gave the church the sports equipment we brought which included a brand new soccer ball. They were very pleased.
Once back we ate another delicious meal, and hung out for the rest of the evening. This marked our last day of teaching, and tomorrow is our last full day here in Mozambique. We'll sleep in, relax, do some shopping, pack up, and just kind of take it easy.
Other highlights...
Jeremy & Jana must have bumped their heads very hard at least a dozen times
Sabrino actually held Ernie (the chameleon), and it was the first time I think I saw Sabrino freak out.
Jeremy and Anthony gave their "testimonies" at dinner. Apparently Jeremy is a former gang member from Compton, and Anthony lived in a park where he grazed on the grass. John loved it.
Day 11
Well, sadly I don't think I have too much to write about today :)
Today, we rested. We all slept in and were very grateful for a good nights sleep. It wasn't until 11am that we were finally out the door to go check out the curio shops downtown. The curio shops are like little street vendors back in the states, they sell little souvenirs like earnings, hairpins, bracelets, wooden statues, etc. Most of us found our souvenirs and gifts at those. Jeremy, Daniel, and I bought capalanos and they are currently being made into some pretty sweet Africa pants. Let's just say the girls are not looking forward to being around us in public. Here, around lunch time, almost everything closes so people can go home and have lunch. It's not until 2:30-3:00 that most stores re-open for the day. So, some of us went back home with Wanne but Paul, Daniel, Linda, and myself went with John to go see the open market. John treated us to some short of fire roasted sugar log...it tasted really sweet, and like smoke all at the same time. We also got some African doughnuts, yum. Paul and Linda found what they were looking for; a coal iron and got a few of them.
After the market, Daniel and I needed to get up the curio shops one more time but were soon distracted by an old abandoned cathedral that was build in 1418. We must have spent over an hour taking pictures of the place...it was every photographer's dream (if I can even call myself one)
We returned home at around 1:30pm, and from then on spent the whole day relaxing with the Dina's. John introduced me to Mymbela wood, and showed me some woodworking tricks. I'm proud to say that Kathleen's gift from me is hand made. After that John, Paul, and I spent the early evening eating the freshly grilled rybuck (resembles the antelope) drizzled in coconut oil around the BBQ. I think it was the best steak I have ever ate, the fork just fell through the meat it was soo moist.
After dinner (which was amazing) John & Wanne pulled us all together and talked to us about their impression of the trip, and our lil' group. We shared scripture, compliments, and worshiped...I think it will be one of my more cherished memories from this trip. They gave each of us a gift, blankets from west Africa and they are very cozy.
After that it was sadly time for us to pack up, and get ready for the morning.
Other highlights...
Lexie looks funny walking around with a spear
Long talks with John about Jeremiah around the BBQ
Setting Ernie free
Linda, "I've seen enough human poop for one day!" I almost died laughing.
Daniel and I totally settled an argument between Paul & John (it was friendly)
Wanne, of all people, burned Jana about three times
Denisse's "intruder"
Puppy vs. Chameleon
Talking w/ Tim Bond on Skype
Day 12
As I type this we are about to head out the door. This will probably be my last post, unless internet is working at our hotel in Johannesburg. Please be in prayer for us as we travel! Once we hit Atlanta, I will send a text out to a few people and update my facebook account with news that we landed safely.
Also, Anthony is sick and needs prayer that all the travel will not make it worse. No fever or anything, just a bad cough and congestion.
See you all, very soon.
Day 13
Well, we had lots of trouble getting out of Mozambique but we have all arrived in Johannesburg safe and sound with all our luggage. Tomorrow we'll be resting, and shopping in downtown Jo-burg, and then it's on our way back to the States
Delacruz in African airports translates "trouble"
