Greetings again from Mozambique! The busy-ness of everyday life has kept me from working on the story of the trip north. There are two more installments to go. Here is installment No. 7.

Installment 7 of THE JOURNEY: Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 23 June to 16 July, 2009

Wednesday, July 8th – We had an early morning wake-up call this morning – around 4am – and by 5:15am we were heading out the door for our trip to the district assembly at Moma. This would be an overnight trip as the distance was about 250 kilometers (160 miles) over terrible dirt roads. We headed southeast out of Nampula and then turned off on the road south and then the fun began. The road was full of potholes and corrugations that made the trip one of constant bumping and jostling as we made our way along. About the fastest we could manage was about 25 miles per hour. The sun came up as we made our way along and we eventually came to the town of Nametil. There we met the district superintendent’s wife and continued on another 150 or so kilometers to the site of the district assembly, just south of the village of Metil.

As we continued, we crossed over a long, single lane bridge that looked rather worse for the wear. The route we were following passed through fairly densely populated areas but the road continued to get more and more narrow as we proceeded south. We passed homesteads with cassava plants growing in the fields, and corn and beans peanuts. There were also substantial stands of tall trees along the way. Along the road, the grass got higher and higher and since there obviously was not much traffic on this route, the road seemed to be a bit smoother than earlier. Still, we could not travel at much more than about 40km per hour because we never knew when we would come upon a substantial pothole. Finally, around 9:30am we came to the little village of Metil. Metil was a sorry looking little village. Along the main road were number of concrete buildings that obviously dated from the colonial period. None of them had any glass windows and all looked like they had not seen paint in ages. Interspersed among them were tall palm trees and other broad-leafed trees. From the looks of things, it had once been a lovely and thriving village, and there were still lots of people around, but poverty was plainly visible here. We thought that we had arrived at the venue for our assembly, but we still had about 20 kilometers more to go.

We continued out of the village along the dirt road, though not too dense forested areas. Here and there were clearings along the road where people had built their houses and planted gardens. We curved around through the trees and activity seemed to increase along the road. There were more and more people moving about, and people on bicycles were headed somewhere, and then we came upon a big clearing. There against the trees was a mud-brick church with thatched roof, and off to the side a large shelter had been erected with poles and reeds and palm leaves arranged for a roof. As we drove into the clearing, several hundred people emerged from the surrounding trees and the shelter and began singing and dancing to welcome us. The district superintendent, Rev. José Amisse, one of our graduates from 1995, came to meet us – and his wife – and he was quickly joined by the only other trained pastor, António Caivano, also one of our graduates from 2004.

We were graciously welcomed to the district assembly, but before we could do anything at all, we had to be served a meal. We were ushered into the church building where a table had been prepared and spread with plates and cups and pans of food. There were beans, porridge, and chicken stew all ready to feed to the visitors. We enjoyed the food and the fellowship, but were all too aware that time was fleeting and we needed to get the assembly underway. Eventually, we adjourned our time of fellowship and headed to the shelter for the assembly. The head table was prepared with chairs and we took our places. The rest of the shelter was prepared with grass mats and at least 200 people crowded into the shelter and took their places seated on the mats on the floor.

We started with a service of praise and the people raised their voices in celebration. Some could not remain seated and had to get up to dance and rejoice. The service lasted about an hour and then we proceeded to the business of the assembly. Reports from the district superintendent and other district officers indicated that there were 115 churches on this district and they had experienced 15% growth over the past year! I was reminded that when José Amisse arrived in Moma after graduating from the Seminary in 1995, there was no district here and there was only the one church in Moma, a largely Moslem town here on the south coast of Nampula Province. Lay pastors gave their reports and the celebrations continued. This assembly was a great contrast to the others we attended. On the other districts, those who lived nearby came out to attend, but here in Moma church members came from all over the district. Whereas on the other districts the assembly was a time for doing the church business, here in Moma we got the impression that the assembly was a time for a district-wide celebration, and people came dressed in their finest to take part. It was a great experience for us all.

The assembly find wound up around 3pm and we were again ushered back to the church building for yet another meal. The menu was the same as before, but everything was prepared fresh. No leftovers here! After eating our fill, it was time to say our good-byes and prepare for the rest of the trip on to the town of Moma, about 40 kilometers on to the south. But on the way, we were going to stop and see a new church building under construction.

It was close to 4pm before we finally pulled away from the church and headed down the narrow lane through the trees. We followed the district superintendent on his motorbike as he led the way to the new church. It was not too far – maybe three kilometers – to the place where we turned off the road. I must confess, I had doubts about where he was leading us because we were primarily following tracks through the grass and gardens of cassava plants. Back into the bush we went, through fields and past homesteads. Finally we came to a school building and a large cleared area with small houses neatly arranged among a grove of eucalyptus trees. Here we parked the truck and got out to walk the remaining 200 meters to the church building site. The people were building the church themselves and making the blocks and when finished, it would be a nice, substantial building. We rejoiced in what the Lord was helping them to do, and then headed back to the truck to continue our trip on to Moma.

By the time we got back out to the main road it was starting to get dark. Night falls quickly in Mozambique in July and soon we were picking our way along the single lane road with high beams on. Occasionally someone on a bicycle would emerge from the shadows and pass us going the other way, or we would overtake someone making his way in the direction we were heading, taking momentary advantage of the beam of light our headlights shown up the road. We would never have known that there were houses along the road except for the cook fires that we saw burning in front of houses that we passed by in the dark. It started raining lightly as we continued on our way. The road we were following crossed a couple of shallow streams with rocky fords and it seemed we were getting farther and farther from civilization (we were far enough from civilization as it was!) when the road began to climb higher and it got wider and then it was no longer a track but a proper roadway. We were able to increase our speed to about 50km per hour and then we were entering into the town of Moma. By now it was raining quite steadily.

I asked Bonifácio if the superintendent had arranged for our accommodation here in town and he said that he had not. But that was no concern because there were several places in town and we would go to the place where they had stayed the year before. We made our way up the main street and then turned off to the left onto one of the side streets. Just a short way down the street, we pulled up in front of what looked to us like a little shop, come snack bar. Bonifácio mentioned that this was where they had stayed the year before. To us, it looked like another case of “condições minimas” ( minimal conditions). After a few minutes he came back to the truck to tell us that they only had two rooms available. The owner said that there were some other places down the road and that we could check there, so off we went. We found the place, and Bonifácio went in again. They only had one room available. After a brief discussion, we decided that he would stay there, and we would go back and take the other two rooms for Mama Uate and ourselves. So, we turned around and headed back to the first place. However, when we got there, one of the rooms had already been occupied for the night in our absence. By now it was 8pm, raining hard, we only had two rooms available, and those were not the greatest. I said to Bonifácio, “I know where there are some nice comfortable beds, and one of them you can share with your wife, and if we leave now, we can be there by midnight!” He didn’t need much convincing and so we set off for Nampula, stopping along the way to retrieve his suitcase and inform the owners where he had planned to stay that he would not be staying after all.

We headed down the road out of town, making sure not to go back the way we had come. After about fifteen minutes, we drove out of the rain and the road surface was dry. The first 30 kilometers or so the road was in fairly good condition, but then it deteriorated quickly and we had to reduce our speed. Traffic was very light and we made good progress. At one point, another vehicle came over a rise with high beams turned on and not matter how much flashing I did, he refused to dim his lights. We just nicely passed him when we saw right in front of us rocks across the road blocking the way. The low-level bridge was out and there was a detour around it. We stopped abruptly and had to back up to the detour to get around the obstacle. Just a few seconds more and we would have been in the middle of it! Thank the Lord for His protection!

From there on, the trip seemed to never end. We passed through the village of Chalaua and joined the road we had followed in the morning. Up and down hills, through and around potholes, we continued on the journey. We crossed the single lane bridge again, this time going the other way. It did not look any better at night than it did during the day! Finally, we arrived in the town of Nametil – only 75 kilometers to go to Nampula! Now the road was wider and there was more traffic. We could follow the tracks made by other vehicles but it seemed that no matter which tracks we followed, there were always potholes and corrugations to deal with. After about an hour, we began to see the glow in the sky from the lights of Nampula but it took us another good half hour before we finally came to the intersection where we would turn to go into the city. At midnight, on the dot, we pulled up to the gate of Bonifácio and Busi’s driveway. The guard opened the gate, we pulled up to the front of the garage, switched off the engine, and heaved a huge sigh of relief! We made it! We were back! Praise the Lord!

Thursday, July 9th – According to the original schedule, we were to have been in Moma this morning and would have visited pastors and churches on the way back to Nampula. But we were already IN Nampula and so there was nothing special on the schedule for us to do today. Also, we didn’t realize how tired we had become. Either we had been traveling or in meetings, or both, since we left Maputo sixteen days earlier. This was our first day with nothing specific that we had to do. Consequently, this became a rest day for us, and much needed it was, too! We spent the day reading, resting, drinking tea, enjoying visiting with Busi and the kids, and generally just doing nothing.

Late in the afternoon Bonifácio took us to visit the offices of SIL – better known as Wycliffe Translators in the USA. Bonifácio works part time with them on several translation projects in the Macua language which is Bonifácio’s mother language. The director of their work here in Mozambique is John Isseminger who we knew when we were doing Portuguese language study in Lisbon back in 1991. They were in Maputo in the early 1990’s when we arrived in Mozambique. Soon after that they were transferred to the north where the major part of Wycliffe’s work is being done today.

After that visit, we headed back to the house for a bite of supper. In spite of all the rest we had today, we were ready to go to sleep when bedtime arrived. The rest would be needed because tomorrow we had another district assembly to attend, though the drive there was only about an hour away.

Friday, July 10th – Today’s district assembly was about an hour’s drive north of Nampula in the village of Mecuburi. We left Nampula around 8am after a nice breakfast, and headed first to Rapale and then turned north for about another 60 kilometers. We arrived in Mecuburi around 9:30am and found the church people all gathered and ready for the assembly. The crowd was considerably smaller than at Moma on Wednesday, but this district was also smaller, and there had been some problems with the leadership. The former district superintendent’s wife had been ill for some time and had died about four months ago. He had left the district and the leadership had been passed to a recent Seminary graduate, Dionísio Varque.

The assembly was well organized and we had the usual service and sermon and heard the usual reports. The assembly was held in the church that I can best describe as an “open plan” building. Basically, the church had everything but walls and windows. It had been built with a steel structure with pillars, trusses and the traditional corrugated steel sheeting for a roof. The floor was cemented and the cement block walls had been built up to a level of about 5 feet. The rest of the space between the wall and the roof was all open. It was great for lighting and it also permitted a steady breeze.

After the assembly, we were served a traditional meal. Once again it was chicken with rice, millet porridge, and beans. It is simple fare, but it is filling and also satisfying. Once the meal was finished, we made our way back to the truck that was parked around the front of the old mud-brick church under a grove of trees. Some of the people were still eating their meal, but the crowd gathered to give us a farewell. We could not believe our eyes when people began to bring things for us to take with us – sacks of rice, sacks of beans, peanuts, bunches of bananas, pumpkins, cassava roots, and various other gifts of produce. It nearly filled the back of the truck! We were humbled by the generosity of these good people who, by worldly standards, have so little, and yet they were giving us so much. We received their gifts graciously and “with both hands” (the traditional way of showing respect and thankfulness in African culture). After a few words of thanks and a parting prayer, we gave our farewells and climbed into the truck for our return trip to Nampula. This time we were back in Nampula before dark arriving around 5pm or so.

Saturday, July 11th – Today was to be the last of our district assemblies. It was also to be the closest requiring the shortest travel time. It was for the Nampula Central District and it was being held in the Nampula Central Church, just a five minute drive from Bonifácio and Busi’s house! We arrived at the church around 8:30am and the assembly started at 9am. Bonifácio is the district superintendent of this district as well as being the area coordinator for the three northern-most provinces so he was busy getting ready for the meeting while we were able to visit with former students who are pastoring there on that district. We also got to see some of the children of these former students, but now they are all grown up. It kind of made us feel old to see these kids who we know as 5 or 6 or 7 year olds, now in their early 20’s. It was also a blessing to see them taking an active part in the life of the church.

The assembly was chaired by one of the other district superintendents, Rev. Gervasio Raimundo. He was one of my first students when we came to Maputo back in 1992. The assembly followed the general format for all assemblies – worship service, greetings of visitors, reports of district officials, elections, and then reports of the pastors. Nampula Central District is one of the smaller districts in northern Mozambique so there were not so many pastors’ reports to hear as on other districts. It was a good assembly, though, and we enjoyed learning about all that is taking place there. Being a city district, things were much more formal and organized and less spontaneous. The assembly finished up around 3pm and as is the custom, we had a time of food and fellowship to finish the day. It was about 5pm or so that we returned to Bonifácio and Busi’s house to relax and prepare for Sunday’s activities. It was also time to celebrate the birthday of Bonifácio and Busi’s second daughter, Paula, who was 7 today. We had a little party and she received some gifts and we had a nice time together before the day came to an end and we headed to bed.

Sunday, July 12th - We were up early this morning and around 8:30am headed back to Nampula Central Church for Sunday School and the morning service. I was the preacher for the morning service in addition to bringing greetings from the Seminary. We had a good time in the Sunday School class and then the service began at 10am. There were a number of special songs from various persons, and an especially good presentation by the young people of the church. The sermon was from the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19, and there was a good response at the close of the message.

After greeting everyone after the service, we returned to Bonifácio and Busi’s house to change clothes and to go out for lunch to celebrate Paula’s birthday with a missionary family from another mission. We went to a nice place a bit outside of Nampula where there is also a swimming pool. It was quite warm today and the kids enjoyed going in the pool while the adults enjoyed visiting in the shade of the thatched shelter that comprised the main part of the restaurant. It is actually more than a restaurant. They also have cottages and motel type rooms available and they host conferences and parties such as wedding receptions. These kinds of places are fairly common here in Mozambique. We had a lovely time together, and then John Isseminger came to meet Bonifácio. They were traveling together to Zambezia Province where they were going to do a translation workshop for several days. We bid farewell to Bonifácio and thanked him for all his help during our time in the north, and then he and John were off. Soon after they left, we too left the restaurant and returned to the house. The rest of the afternoon and evening we spent sorting through all the things we had been given along the way, got the bulk of our things packed in the back of the truck, packed up our suitcases and got our personal stuff organized, and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow we’d turn the pick-up south an