June 25 – We were up at 5:00 this morning and headed out onto the highway around 6:00, our first destination being the town of Catandica on the road heading north to Tete. We arrived there around 8:00am and made contact with our district superintendent, Rev. João Crosse, another former student (graduated in 1998), along with his wife, Argentina. He had planted the church in Catandica after graduation and when he was named superintendent two years ago, he turned the church over to another of our graduates who unfortunately was not home that day oweing to it being Mozambique’s Independence Day. We visited with the Crosse family for about an hour before heading back to the highway and making our way north again, the next destination being the village of Nhacolo on the banks of the Zambezi River. The turn off to Nhacolo was about 80km (50 miles) north of Catandica, and although Rev. Crosse told us what to look for, we still went right past the turn off before we realized we’d missed it. We turned around and sure enough, there was a small sign indicating the direction we wanted to go. For the next three hour or so, we drove along what was little more than a one-lane sand track through the Mozambican bush. We passed one small village with some old, run down buildings from the colonial period, and some newly built government buildings and a school, but mostly what we saw were mud-brick houses with grass roofs. We passed many stately baobab trees along the way, crossed through dry steam beds and even crossed one completely dry river that was at last 400 meters wide – and not a drop of water seen until we got within a few kilometers of Nhacolo where we had to ford a stream lined with people taking baths and washing their clothes and kids just generally having a good time in the water. Of course, they all stopped what they were doing to watch us pass through. We were going to visit the Dias family. José Manuel Dias was a 2003 graduate and had worked in our yard when we moved to the house on the Seminary campus. We had gone through reconstructive surgery on their son’s hands while here (all of his fingers on both hands were joined with webs of skin) and they also had a little girl that they named after Rhoda, so we wanted to see them if we could. By the time we had reached Nhacolo, we had traveled just over 130 kilometers (81 miles) over that sand track, and we were going to have to repeat it to get back to the main highway!
We had a lovely but short visit with Mama Rosalina and the children, but Rev. Dias had gone to a family’s house where there had been a death. She gave us directions on where to find him – we had passed that way on the road to their home – so we set off on the return trip hoping to find him, and sure enough, just before passing through the water, we found the turn off and found Dias sitting under some trees with the bereaved family. He was overjoyed to see us and we had an all too brief reunion there under the trees, and then we had to set off again over the dirt track. We were impressed by the large number of homesteads that we passed that had no signs of anyone living there – no chickens, no signs of fires for cooking, no implements lying around the yard, thatched roofs in disrepair. We could only come up with two possible reasons – the families had moved closer to the villages to have access to schools, or the parents had died of AIDS and the children had gone to live with relatives. The later is often the case these days all over Africa.
Before we got back to the main highway night had set in and we finished the last few kilometers on the dirt road in the dark. We turned north again and headed for Tete – 150 kilometers (95 miles) on up the road. The first 35 miles were atrocious as we had to cross over a range of mountains with a highway that was full of craters filled with dirt that produced clouds of dust as the huge tractor trailers headed toward Malawi. The edges of the highway were crumbling and we had to make our way very carefully along. It seemed like the experience would never end. Finally, at the bottom of a long grade we reached the town of Changara with its turn-off to Zimbabwe to the west. We continued on north, now on good highway and able to do about 60 mph with very little traffic until we reached the outskirts of the city of Tete. Here we contacted the wife of our Area Coordinator for Tete Province, Agnes Banda, (she and her husband Albino were 2000 graduates) and got directions to their church and home where we would be staying for the next few days. They had a lovely dinner all prepared for us with chicken, rice, fried potatoes, meat curry and salad. It was wonderful! After dinner and a good wash, we were shown to our room, complete with air conditioner! However, being winter, there was no need for any air conditioner! Blankets were more the order of the day, even for Tete, notoriously the hottest place in Mozambique; in summer it often reaches 50oC (120 oF).
26 June – It was an early morning wake-up call today as we were planning to head to our district center on the Furuncungo-Macanga District, about 180km (115 miles) north of Tete city. After a breakfast of bread and fried eggs and tossed salad, we headed north crossing the Zambezi River on the only highway bridge across the river in Mozambique. It was built in the 1930’s and is not in the greatest condition. They only allow one heavy tractor trailer on the bridge at a time, and their speed is limited to 15mph. After 25 miles on the tar road, we turned off and again were traveling on dirt and gravel roads. This was going to be a much more troublesome road than the previous day’s dirt road. The road had not been worked on since the rainy season and so there were many places with deep ruts and exposed rocks and pot holes and craters to be avoided and driven around. There was much jostling in the pick-up as we made our way up and over the mountains and then down through lush green valleys. Frequently we were in thick forests on the mountain slopes with beautiful vistas seen from among the trees. Finally, after about three hours on the road, we made it to the mission at Furuncungo. The last missionaries to have served there were Oscar and Marjorie Stockwell who were forced to leave during the war for independence back in the early 1970’s.
We were welcomed by the wife of the district superintendent, Graciosa Derezina (1999 graduates). Her husband, Elias, was attending the General Assembly in Florida so was not there. (He’d been in Maputo when we departed on this epic journey!) A service had been planned and about 12 former students from all over the district had come in to welcome us, one even riding his bicycle for two days and 200 kilometers (125 miles) to be there. We understood why his wife wasn’t there too! Other pastors from nearby churches also came along with a number of church members. It wasn’t every day that a missionary came to visit in Macanga, and those who could, wanted to be there. We were also there to give a report on the Seminary. We had a lovely service with special music, and choirs. We showed our display boards with photos of the Seminary and Dave preached a message about Zacchaeus. The real surprise was when Mama Derezina presented us with a live goat in gratitude for Dave’s intercession with the American embassy in Maputo when Rev. Elias had a problem getting his visa to go to general assembly. We were must humbled by the warm and gracious reception we received there in Macanga.
After the service were fed a lovely dinner at the Derezina’s home before starting our trip back to Tete. The big question was how to best deal with the goat? Agnes Banda and Pastor Rosário from Tete who had accompanied suggested that the pastors butcher the poor thing right there on the spot and then we could take the meat with us in a cooler, so that is what was done. We got everything packed up and about 3pm we headed back down the hill to start our trip back to Tete. We were anxious to get off the dirt road before dark, or at least to get off the mountains. The roads were not conducive to hurrying, however, and they seemed to have gotten worse after we passed over them in the morning. In one particularly awkward place there was a huge rock right in the middle of the road. I thought we could straddle it, but didn’t see the rut to one side and we hit it square on with a loud THUD and a whopping jolt to the front of the truck. It shook us all, but we passed over it and the engine kept running, so we just carried on. We went for about five minutes more and with another shake of the truck and the engine abruptly died. What do we do now, out in the middle of nowhere? I got out and opened the hood (bonnet) and saw that the battery had come loose from its normal position (the bar holding it in place had come loose) and slide over against the air conditioning pipes shorting out the whole electrical system. I pushed the battery back into place, tightened down the securing bar, checked underneath to make sure no oil was leaking (none was) and then checked the oil level in the engine – normal – got back in behind the wheel and tried to start the engine. She fired up as if nothing had happened. Everything seemed normal, and off we went. There were some funny things happening along the way but they were sporadic so we just continued on, taking it easy and carefully. Soon we were off the mountains onto more level terrain and the road got better and soon we were back out to the tar. Whew! By now it was dark and we finally made it to the Tete bridge, crossed the wide Zambezi, filled up the tank for the next day’s journey out to Fingoe, and then made our way back to the Banda’s house for a dinner of chicken and rice, fried potatoes, curry and salad. We were glad to roll into bed that night, and didn’t know a thing until 4am the next morning when it was time to get up and get ready for another day on the road.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Our Trip to Northern Mozambique - 23 June to 16 July
Report of Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 23 June to 16 July, 2009
June 23rd. We were up early on Tuesday morning. The pick-up was packed the night before with everything but our suitcases. Orlando Siapange, one of our students who we were taking home for the term break, was waiting eagerly to leave, and as soon as Mama Uate, one of our Bible school teachers, arrived, we had a prayer and we set out on our nearly four week adventure. After filling up the fuel tank, we were headed north.
The trip was uneventful as we crossed into Gaza Province and made our way up to Xai Xai. We crossed the Limpopo River around 9am and continued on through the town of Xai Xai. Half way through the town we encountered our first dose of bad roads – pot holes and narrow pavements and drop-offs on the edge of the road made progress slow and a bit risky. Eventually we were out of town and things improved a little, though preparations were underway for highway repairs kept us from making rapid progress. For the next 80 kilometers (50 miles) we had poor road surfaces, and then we crossed into Inhambane Province and the road improved drastically! In Quissico, we pulled into a filling station to look for toilets and there was our former student, Zacarias Mutombene, just coming out of the local administrator’s offices next door. We had planned to visit him and his family at the church they are pasturing but had not phoned ahead. We followed him down the hill to the church and had a lovely visit for about 40 minutes or so before continuing through coconut palm plantations on to our next stop in Massingue.
As we entered Massingue, we phone another former student, Helder Zimba, who is planting a church there in the town. He came out to the highway to meet us and we followed him back about 200 meters off the main highway to the church. The current church is made of woven palm leaves and thatched roof, but they are starting construction on a block building that, when finished, will accommodate about 300 persons easily. Mama Zimba was visiting family in Maputo with their new baby daughter so we only got to see Helder and his son, Josué.
We left Massingue around 2pm and headed north again for our destination of the day, Vilanculos, and the home of our district superintendent, Rev. Simeão Mulhanga, a 1996 graduate of the seminary. The first 80 kilometers were pretty rough with more potholes, but that smoothed out into a beautiful highway, lined with baobab trees and coconut palms. The closer we got to Vilanculos, the fewer were the palms and other trees took their place. Finally, a large number of heavy trucks parked on the roadside, and a sudden appearance of potholes, told us we were at the turnoff for Vilanculos. We left the main highway and headed toward the coast, driving another 15 kilometers in rapidly fading daylight until we arrived at our church just outside the main town. Here we were warmly welcomed by the Mulhanga family and treated to a lovely dinner of bean soup followed by chicken and rice and fried potatoes. Orlando spent the night with the Mulhangas, but we and Mama Uate had a cottage reserved at a nearby holiday location. It wasn’t the fanciest place we ever stayed in, but it was adequate for one night. On the way there, we thought we had a flat tire from a thumping noise we heard, but all the tires were fine.
June 24th – We were up early and returned to the Mulhanga’s house to get Orlando. Driving back to the Mulhanga’s house, we could hear none of the noise we had heard the night before. After breakfast and filling up on fuel, we were off again heading north. As we turned onto the main highway, the thumping noise returned. We checked the wheels, could see nothing out of the ordinary, and so continued on. It was another 400 kilometers to our next destination and the more we drove, the worse and more worrying the noise became. We made it to Inchope, the cross-roads of Mozambique, where we dropped Orlando off to get a bus to his home town about 30 kilometers east toward Beira. We also met another former student, Jorge Macherenga, a 2001 graduate, who is pastoring there at Inchope and caring for about 70 AIDS orphans.
Jorge showed us the way to the church where he and his family are serving, and the kids were there that afternoon. They children living with older siblings or with aunts and uncles or neighbors, and they come to the church several afternoons a week for activities, lessons, and a basic meal. This ministry is receiving about $300 a month from Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, but he has been told that this help will end in August. Jorge has started raising chickens to sell to help fund this ministry when the NCM help comes to an end. One of the things that we did here at Inchope was to deliver several boxes of handmade quilts that had been sent by the ladies of the Vancouver, WA Church of the Nazarene specifically for AIDS orphans. We also left some candies for the kids that were there. Our hearts were touched as they all lined up and held out their hands to receive the little that we had to give them. We couldn’t help but think of the words of Jesus in Luke 18:16, “Let the little children come to me and do not prevent them coming, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”
After our visit with the children, we continued on to a mission just outside the town of Gondola on the main road to Zimbabwe. Here we were to spend the night with missionaries who had stayed with us in Maputo on their way to South Africa several weeks before. I had phoned ahead to see if they could help with finding a mechanic who could look at our truck, but as we pulled into the mission, Carlos took a look at our left front wheel and said, “I think I found your problem.” Four of the six lug nuts holding the wheel on were only half tightened. We tightened them up, when for a test drive, and the loud thumping noise was gone! Praise the Lord! It was only the Lord who kept that wheel from coming off as we traveling the nearly 1200 kilometers from Maputo! There at the mission we unloaded our luggage and got a cup of tea, and after a brief visit headed the short drive into Chimoio to visit with Murombo and Ana Moises, 2007 graduates from the Seminary. They are pastoring the main Central Church of the Nazarene in Chimoio. We had a lovely but too short visit with them before heading back to the mission in Gondola. It was then that our next adventure began and we saw another answer to prayer.
Being in a hurry to visit with the Moises family, I had passed several filling stations on the way into town figuring we’d fill up on the way back. But, the first station we came to was closed already at 7:30pm, and when I pulled into the next one, they informed me that they had no diesel. We continued on down the road toward the mission and the next station had the same problem – no diesel! I asked where the next station was and was told it was in Gondola. That’s where we were heading, but by now my fuel gauge was below empty! We were coasting down hills so as not to use up the fuel we had. Finally, the lights of Gondola appeared in the distance and we coasted down the hill into the first filling station we came to. Two mini-bus taxis were there and so we had hope. I pulled up to the pump and asked if they had diesel. The attended said he did and we began to fill up. As he pumped the fuel he asked me, “Are you a missionary?” “Yes, I am,” I replied. Then he asked, “What church are you from?” “Church of the Nazarene,” I said. “Well, I am too!”, he exclaimed. I then asked him, “Do you know Agosto Castelo and Nsolo Castelo?” (They were two former students from that very town.) Rather surprise, he replied, “They’re my brothers!” I told him to give them my greetings when he next saw them and to tell the folks at the church that he’d been an answer to prayer that evening. Our fuel tank holds 60 litres; we pumped 60.2 litres into the tank. We made it back to the mission guest house greatly relieved and praising the Lord for His protection and provision during the day. We a cup of soup and some crackers for our dinner and had a lovely nights rest in preparation for our next day’s travel.
PS - Since preparing this first installment, our computer was stolen in a house breakin. As a result, we lost all the photos we took on this trip. We hope you'll be able to "image" the trip with your imagination and our descriptions. More installments will be forthcoming in the week ahead. Dave
June 23rd. We were up early on Tuesday morning. The pick-up was packed the night before with everything but our suitcases. Orlando Siapange, one of our students who we were taking home for the term break, was waiting eagerly to leave, and as soon as Mama Uate, one of our Bible school teachers, arrived, we had a prayer and we set out on our nearly four week adventure. After filling up the fuel tank, we were headed north.
The trip was uneventful as we crossed into Gaza Province and made our way up to Xai Xai. We crossed the Limpopo River around 9am and continued on through the town of Xai Xai. Half way through the town we encountered our first dose of bad roads – pot holes and narrow pavements and drop-offs on the edge of the road made progress slow and a bit risky. Eventually we were out of town and things improved a little, though preparations were underway for highway repairs kept us from making rapid progress. For the next 80 kilometers (50 miles) we had poor road surfaces, and then we crossed into Inhambane Province and the road improved drastically! In Quissico, we pulled into a filling station to look for toilets and there was our former student, Zacarias Mutombene, just coming out of the local administrator’s offices next door. We had planned to visit him and his family at the church they are pasturing but had not phoned ahead. We followed him down the hill to the church and had a lovely visit for about 40 minutes or so before continuing through coconut palm plantations on to our next stop in Massingue.
As we entered Massingue, we phone another former student, Helder Zimba, who is planting a church there in the town. He came out to the highway to meet us and we followed him back about 200 meters off the main highway to the church. The current church is made of woven palm leaves and thatched roof, but they are starting construction on a block building that, when finished, will accommodate about 300 persons easily. Mama Zimba was visiting family in Maputo with their new baby daughter so we only got to see Helder and his son, Josué.
We left Massingue around 2pm and headed north again for our destination of the day, Vilanculos, and the home of our district superintendent, Rev. Simeão Mulhanga, a 1996 graduate of the seminary. The first 80 kilometers were pretty rough with more potholes, but that smoothed out into a beautiful highway, lined with baobab trees and coconut palms. The closer we got to Vilanculos, the fewer were the palms and other trees took their place. Finally, a large number of heavy trucks parked on the roadside, and a sudden appearance of potholes, told us we were at the turnoff for Vilanculos. We left the main highway and headed toward the coast, driving another 15 kilometers in rapidly fading daylight until we arrived at our church just outside the main town. Here we were warmly welcomed by the Mulhanga family and treated to a lovely dinner of bean soup followed by chicken and rice and fried potatoes. Orlando spent the night with the Mulhangas, but we and Mama Uate had a cottage reserved at a nearby holiday location. It wasn’t the fanciest place we ever stayed in, but it was adequate for one night. On the way there, we thought we had a flat tire from a thumping noise we heard, but all the tires were fine.
June 24th – We were up early and returned to the Mulhanga’s house to get Orlando. Driving back to the Mulhanga’s house, we could hear none of the noise we had heard the night before. After breakfast and filling up on fuel, we were off again heading north. As we turned onto the main highway, the thumping noise returned. We checked the wheels, could see nothing out of the ordinary, and so continued on. It was another 400 kilometers to our next destination and the more we drove, the worse and more worrying the noise became. We made it to Inchope, the cross-roads of Mozambique, where we dropped Orlando off to get a bus to his home town about 30 kilometers east toward Beira. We also met another former student, Jorge Macherenga, a 2001 graduate, who is pastoring there at Inchope and caring for about 70 AIDS orphans.
Jorge showed us the way to the church where he and his family are serving, and the kids were there that afternoon. They children living with older siblings or with aunts and uncles or neighbors, and they come to the church several afternoons a week for activities, lessons, and a basic meal. This ministry is receiving about $300 a month from Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, but he has been told that this help will end in August. Jorge has started raising chickens to sell to help fund this ministry when the NCM help comes to an end. One of the things that we did here at Inchope was to deliver several boxes of handmade quilts that had been sent by the ladies of the Vancouver, WA Church of the Nazarene specifically for AIDS orphans. We also left some candies for the kids that were there. Our hearts were touched as they all lined up and held out their hands to receive the little that we had to give them. We couldn’t help but think of the words of Jesus in Luke 18:16, “Let the little children come to me and do not prevent them coming, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”
After our visit with the children, we continued on to a mission just outside the town of Gondola on the main road to Zimbabwe. Here we were to spend the night with missionaries who had stayed with us in Maputo on their way to South Africa several weeks before. I had phoned ahead to see if they could help with finding a mechanic who could look at our truck, but as we pulled into the mission, Carlos took a look at our left front wheel and said, “I think I found your problem.” Four of the six lug nuts holding the wheel on were only half tightened. We tightened them up, when for a test drive, and the loud thumping noise was gone! Praise the Lord! It was only the Lord who kept that wheel from coming off as we traveling the nearly 1200 kilometers from Maputo! There at the mission we unloaded our luggage and got a cup of tea, and after a brief visit headed the short drive into Chimoio to visit with Murombo and Ana Moises, 2007 graduates from the Seminary. They are pastoring the main Central Church of the Nazarene in Chimoio. We had a lovely but too short visit with them before heading back to the mission in Gondola. It was then that our next adventure began and we saw another answer to prayer.
Being in a hurry to visit with the Moises family, I had passed several filling stations on the way into town figuring we’d fill up on the way back. But, the first station we came to was closed already at 7:30pm, and when I pulled into the next one, they informed me that they had no diesel. We continued on down the road toward the mission and the next station had the same problem – no diesel! I asked where the next station was and was told it was in Gondola. That’s where we were heading, but by now my fuel gauge was below empty! We were coasting down hills so as not to use up the fuel we had. Finally, the lights of Gondola appeared in the distance and we coasted down the hill into the first filling station we came to. Two mini-bus taxis were there and so we had hope. I pulled up to the pump and asked if they had diesel. The attended said he did and we began to fill up. As he pumped the fuel he asked me, “Are you a missionary?” “Yes, I am,” I replied. Then he asked, “What church are you from?” “Church of the Nazarene,” I said. “Well, I am too!”, he exclaimed. I then asked him, “Do you know Agosto Castelo and Nsolo Castelo?” (They were two former students from that very town.) Rather surprise, he replied, “They’re my brothers!” I told him to give them my greetings when he next saw them and to tell the folks at the church that he’d been an answer to prayer that evening. Our fuel tank holds 60 litres; we pumped 60.2 litres into the tank. We made it back to the mission guest house greatly relieved and praising the Lord for His protection and provision during the day. We a cup of soup and some crackers for our dinner and had a lovely nights rest in preparation for our next day’s travel.
PS - Since preparing this first installment, our computer was stolen in a house breakin. As a result, we lost all the photos we took on this trip. We hope you'll be able to "image" the trip with your imagination and our descriptions. More installments will be forthcoming in the week ahead. Dave
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