Mozambique 2014

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Day 3 - DNOW in the City - All day

We had a busy day starting at 7:30 in the morning. The first item on the schedule was breakfast. Since the devotion and first session were split boys/girls we also did breakfast separate. We provided boiled eggs, bread with jam and tea for the all the youth.

Once we were done with breakfast, all 90 bread rolls and 50 or so boiled eggs, the guys had a devotion lead by Caleb on accountability. Caleb shared a passage from Colosians and challenged each of them to join a fellow brother in Christ in an accountability group to change them to pray, read the bible and go to church more often. At the same time down the street, Caroline led the girls devotion at the Harrell's church.

Next was game time... soccer time. We left for the field and split up and played full field soccer. As you can imagine 50 guys (with 4 white guys) draw a crowd so we had plenty of spectators. We played shirts and skins so Caleb and I had the pleasure of going shirtless after we only applied sunscreen to our heads. The score ended up 1-0 with John and Joseph's team winning. John played goalie and Joseph was his sidekick backing up the defense.

After soccer all the guys walked back soaked in sweat to pile back into the small church down the street for the first lesson on purity. Garrett taught the guys while Whitney taught the girls at the Harrell's church. These were the first of 3 sessions out of the book of Daniel. This one focusing on Daniels desire not to defile himself with the Kings food. The guys session was great and really brought to the surface that the youth of Mozambique struggle with the same problems concerning sexual purity as American youth.

The youth are also like American youth in their cell phone usage. Here is a photo of 1 of the 2 outlets in the church

Lunch was next and was cooked by the ladies in the church. We had rice and beans with cabbage and onions. Overall it was similar to rice and pinto beans you would have for New Years dinner, minus the porkchop and collards.

Once everyone was full from lunch, we had the other 2 sessions focusing on peer pressure (taught by Caroline and John) and spiritual growth (taught by Jorden and Caleb). Both of these lessons were also out of the book of Daniel with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego focusing on peer pressure and Daniel in the Lions Den relating to spiritual growth.

All of the lessons went extremely well were followed by discussion or small group time. We challenged the youth to make a commitment to sexual purity, time in the word of God and prayer and also a challenge to join or create an accountability group in their church.

After the last session we were all wiped out and some were even dosing off (AC). The youth on the other hand were organizing a presentation of their worship teams. We were able to experience almost 2 hours of singing, drums and clapping of young believers in worship (even got to bust a few dance moves).

Dinner followed with a meal of Xema (Shema) and Chicken. Everyone took part (with the exception of JOHN) including firsttimers in Caleb, Jorden, Whitney and Caroline. The girls shared a plate (but at least they tried, John). We will get another chance in the Bush, but there is almost no way of backing out there.

As I am writing this it is 9:43 and we have been going since 6:30. There is a Jesus Film playing in Makuwa (with Portuguese subtitles). We are waiting till it is complete and we can walk back with the guys to the church down the street.

Bucket baths hopefully in the morning, Sunday school starts at 9:30 and we need to pack up out of the church down the street.

So far it has been a great trip. It is different than I expected compared the trip last April, but it is great to see the fruits of our labor and the dedication that Becky and Brian have for their church. This is no small task to put on a conference like this in this city where you are the organizer, the transportation, the delivery truck, the translators, and the host to name a few.

We will make it back to the house after church tomorrow for real showers and pack up for the Bush leaving earlyThursday morning (7:00am).

On another note:

So far I have only recognized one child from our trip last time. She is a special needs girl and her parents send her our each day to beg for food. Last year Melissa Guinn took to her and this year she found comfort in Whitney, Caroline, Megan McDaniel and especially Jorden. Jorden is currently attending Liberty with a degree in special needs education and was great with her over the last two days.

Day 2 - July 4th on the Dhow and start of DNOW in the city

I think this was everyone's first July 4th out if the country. We had a great one. We started the day with one of the Harrells exercises, Bouy and back.

The buoy and Back consists of a ½ mile run followed by a ¼ mile swim and then a ½ mile run back to the house. Most everyone too part with Joseph taking the top spot. A few of didn't do the swim and a group of us turned the ½ mile run back into a ½ mile walk.

After the exercise we packed up for a day on the Dhow. This is a type of sailboat found in Mozambique. We had a great morning of relaxing on the beach and snorkeling. Caleb even got a change to go spear fishing with Andrew (oldest son). Luckily Brian brought fish since they came up empty handed. We had lunch and even a birthday cake for Brian. His birthday is actually the 5th.

After lunch we set sail back to the house and made preparations to go to the church to start the DNOW Conference. Since we were going to be at the church for 3 days we all had to pack our clothes (and snacks) for 2 nights. We arrived at the church around 4:30 and started to register he youth.

The first night included worship lead by the youth and we even taught them the words and the motions to "Oh, Happy Day!" The worship was great and we followed by giving our testimonies. Each of us gave a short testimony of our acceptance of Christ and our life in service to Him.

Saranya is also with us this week. She is from Tennessee and is in Mozambique with the Peace Corps. She teaches computers and in her off time serves as a missionary. Saranya also gave her testimony in Portuguese, but you could feel her story in her face. Later she told is she grew up Hindu and it want until college that she became a Christian from her roommate witnessing to her.

After all of our testimonies, Brian gave a gospel presentation and an invitation. 19 people rises their hands and came forward with a decision. 4 were new believers and the others were recommitting their lives to Christ.

For dinner we ate ham sandwiches and the youth who traveled were prepared a traditional meal of Xema and beans. Below is a picture of the church courtyard with the kitchen in the background.

That concluded the first night of DNOW and we were all ready for "bed". Bed for is the guys involved walking down to the next church and sleeping with the other 55 guys. We came in the church last and had the awkward situation of blowing up our air mattresses in a church where most were going to sleep on bare concrete. Luckily they brought in some straw mats for the other guys and we gained the confidence to run the mini blower to pump up our mats. We still drew the attention of the entire church when we turned on the blower.

The evening was also an experience to write home about. Like most sleepover/lock-ins it takes a while to calm everyone down to go to sleep. Luckily they had a laptop to play a movie. Unfortunately they used that laptop throughout the night to play songs. Needless to say we didn't get a great nights sleep.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Day 1 in Mozambique - Ilah de Moçambique

Everyone today woke up much better rested than we arrived. Most of us were in bed by 8:30-9:00pm and up between 5:30 and 7:00am. We had a great breakfast of omelets, coffee cake and banana mango smoothies.

After breakfast we left for the Ilah de Moçambique (Island of Mozambique). This was the first area settled by the Portuguese and contains the first European building in the Southern Hemisphere. We were able visit this building which is a chapel adjacent to a large fort on the island. The fort was similar to one I had visited in St. Augustine.

After we had lunch we split up and prayer walked half of the island with the guys walking one way and the girls the other. The island is probably 99% Muslim and Hindu with less than 20 or 30 total Christians. Brian and Becky took language in one of the full time missionaries home when they first became missionaries with the IMB. We were also able to deliver several MP3 players with audio copies of the Bible in Makuwa (the local language) to a couple of the Christians families that the Harrells know.

We also had the opportunity to film "Messing with Joseph part deux" coming soon to a YouTube channel near you.

On the way back from the llah we stopped and the guys played soccer with the local people group. Caleb was the MVP for our team (including Garrett, Andrew and Caleb) with 4 goals scored against the other team (including Brian, Joseph and John)

Tomorrow is July 4th and we are going to celebrate with a run and swim around the buoy followed by a day on the boat.

Later in the day we will kick off DNOW in the city with registration and our first night sleeping in the church. We will be there until Sunday evening, sleeping and showering in the church facilities.