Finally, the end of the saga of the trip north. Here is the last installment.

Installment 8 of THE JOURNEY: Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 23 June to 16 July, 2009

Monday, July 13th – We were up around 5am this morning to get ready for our departure for points south, specifically, Mocuba, in Zambézia Province. We hoped to be there around 1pm at the latest. We had a bite of breakfast with Busi and the kids. Since we had packed most of the things the night before, all we had to do this morning was to load the luggage in the back of the truck in preparation to leave.

It was about 6am that we backed out of the driveway and headed toward the main road south. On the way, we stopped briefly to visit one of our former student families, António and Benilta Sariava and their kids. We met them out near their home where they had come out to the highway to see us. We had seen António at the district assembly, but we had not seen Mama Saraiva or the children, and they had all wanted to see us as well. We took some pictures of the family and chatted briefly, and then we were back on the road headed south.

About 10 kilometers out of the town of Murrupula, we telephoned to another of our former students that we had not been able to see. Alberto Samuel had been in the hospital with an abscess on his leg during the assembly and had been able to be there. We called to see if he was at home and if it would be convenient to stop briefly to visit. Of course, he would be delighted to see us and we arranged a place to meet on the main highway so he could show us the way to their home. A few minutes later we met at the designated place and after a few minutes later, Alberto appeared and we made our way to their home and the church in Murrupula. We had a lovely visit with the Samuel family. Their kids are all grown up now and we would not have known them they have changed so much. We walked the short distance to see the church building – another mud brick building with thatched roof. Before we left them, they insisted on giving us a bag of peanuts and some pumpkins to take along with us. We had a word of prayer together and then we were on our way back out to the main highway to continue our way south.

It was about 9:30am that we turned onto the main road and headed south again with another 300 kilometers to travel to reach our destination. The highway was quite good for most of the journey. It had been rebuilt in the previous year and so the surface was good an the bridges were new. We passed the town of Alto Molócué and the road through town left a lot to be desired, but outside town, the road improved. About 20km south of Alto Molócué, we saw something we’ve never seen before. Trundling up the highway headed the opposite direction was a bicycle with a platform built across the back with a mattress. Someone was lying on the mattress, obviously ill, and the guy was evidently heading for the hospital in town. This was another of the strange loads we saw being carried on bicycles during this trip to the North.

About 80 kilometers out of Mocuba, the good road “died”. The renovation project had come to an end and we were back onto old road, which meant part pavement and part potholes. I wouldn’t say it was 50/50; sometimes there were more potholes than pavement. About the best we could was 30 kilometers an hour and it really slowed us down. We had hoped to reach Mocuba by noon but at noon we were still about 40 kilometers out of town. We were encouraged to see that they were working on this part of the highway, but it meant that we had detours to the right and left and back again at times as we slowly made our way through the red dust thrown up by others who were also headed south. Eventually, we reached the outskirts of Mocuba and the road surface improved measurably. We were back onto a solid tarmac highway and were able to pick up the speed to about 90 kilometers per hour. We crossed the bridge over the Lugela River and were surprised to see a brand new, wide, paved street rising up through the center of town from the bridge to the central plaza of the town! We were in Mocuba in January of 2006 when one of our students from that district died shortly after arriving at the Seminary. Along with another faculty couple, we had transported the coffin and the family of the deceased student back to Mocuba in a marathon 72 hour journey. At that time, the main street was little more than broken pieces of pavement and potholes. Now it was like driving on a carpet!

Our district center is just off the main central plaza and we pulled into the yard just after 1pm. Manuel Vale and Lidia were expecting us along with some of the pastors. We had a lovely lunch together and then headed back through town and out to our church at Cruzamento Bive for a district pastors’ meeting. On the way, we stopped to fill up with diesel – get while the getting is good! (We didn’t want a repeat of Chimoio!). At the church we met a number of our former students, now pastors here in the Mocuba area, as well as a number of lay pastors from around the district. We had a lovely time of praise and celebration together, and we also were able to share some of the news from the Seminary with our former students.
After the service we drove another 7 kilometers out into the country side to see the home of one of our graduate families from last year, Afonso and Rosa Chaves. In the middle of their senior year, they got word that they house and everything they had left behind had been destroyed in a fire. Naturally, they were shattered to receive that news. We contacted the district superintendent, Manuel Vale Afonso, to see if there was anything we could do to help rebuild the house. He told us that the district was able to rebuild the walls (made of clay bricks which they make and fire themselves) but that they could use some help with the roof. We took a collection among the students and faculty here at the Seminary, and members of a visiting Work & Witness contributed, and we were able to raise enough to put a proper corrugated steel roof on the house. We got to there house about 5pm and although it was starting to get dark, we were able to see it and all of their kids, except for one son who was off visiting friends. He did not know we were coming to the house after the pastors meeting.

After a brief word of prayer, we headed back to the district center for dinner and a time of fellowship with former students. We stayed till about 9pm visiting and then made our way just up the street to the home of missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church in Holland, Gus and Laura Vos, who are doing theological education in the area. They have a small guest flat made from a 40-foot shipping container. We have stayed there before and had arranged to stay there again on this trip. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom with shower, and a little kitchenette – just enough for a couple and a single lady traveling around Mozambique together!
After a quick cup of tea to end the day, the lights were turned out, and so were we all.

Tuesday, July 14th – We were up and loaded to go at 6am this morning, and after a brief breakfast with Manuel Vale Afonso and Lidia, we were headed south out of town making for the Zambezi River, about 250 kilometers away. We wanted to be across the river and in the village of Caia by 1pm if possible so that we could get a place to stay for the night. Accommodation is scarce in Caia, and with the building of the new bridge across the river, business was booming. The road south of Mocuba has been improved over the past couple of years so we were able to make good time. We did stop briefly in Namacurra to try to see former students, Evaristo and Lucia Branquinho, and their family. The kids were at home and seemed a bit stunned to have us drive into the yard, but mom and dad were not at home. They did not know that we were going to be passing through and we had not phoned ahead as we did not know how much time we would have.

After a brief stop, we continued on toward the river. A we made just a quick stop for fuel at Nicuadala – you never know if there will be fuel ahead, so you take every opportunity to fill up the tank when you get it.. Then we were off on the next leg of the journey. This route passes through some desolate territory. Although you see occasional homesteads along the way, most of the people in this area of Zambezia Province live along the coast or along the river, and we were cutting cross-country toward the river. We could tell we were getting near the river as population density increased. Finally, coming around a bend, we caught sight of the flood plains on the other side of the river and then the main channel below. The road was much improved here and then around another bend, there was the newly built Armando Quebuza Bridge stretching off in the distance and crossing the Zambezi River. It looked like we could just go right on across the river! I slowed down to figure out what would be the best thing to do – previously there was a slip road off to the right leading down to the ferryboat landings. I was ready to proceed, when there in the middle of the road was a little “Do Not Enter” sign, all of eight inches in diameter, perched on top of a little thin post with a tripod at its base. It would have been so nice to just sail right on over the river across that bridge, but we obeyed the sign, took the dirt lane off to the right, and descended down to the makeshift wooden stalls toward the ferry slip. The ferry had just come in and was unloading vehicles. We passed a couple of huge tractor trailer rigs parked along the side and following instructions from the ferry guides, took up a position for smaller vehicles near the loading area. As far as we could see, there was only one other small vehicle waiting to cross. It was 11:30am and we were sure we would be across to the other side by 1pm. The other small vehicle in front of us was signaled to proceed and onto the boat he went. A couple of medium sized lorries were instructed to follow, then a big semi-trailer truck. And then the ferry left! Hey, what about us?!

We were sure it would be back and that we’d go on the next trip, but the ferry did not return. We sat in the hot sun waiting and waiting and waiting, but no ferryboat. There was another ferry running back and forth across the river but it was only carrying construction vehicles. It was interesting to watch it, but it was not any help in our getting across. There were also construction and official looking vehicles crossing the bridge up above us, and seeing them only made us wish we had continued straight across, claiming that we never did see that little sign in the middle of the road! We finally learned that the ferryboat stops running every day from noon to 2:30pm for lunch. Ah, those Portuguese traditions die hard! There can 200 vehicles lined up and waiting to cross the river, but if you get there between noon and 2:30pm, it’s just too bad. Trucks have been known to spend a week there at the river waiting for their turn in the queue to get across the river. And this is the ONLY place to cross the river other than at Tete, about 500 kilometers up-river from Caia.

Watching through our binoculars, we saw vehicles on the other side of the river start to move onto the ferry, and then it was coming out of the dock and heading to our side. Another smaller vehicle tired to move on ahead of us, but the load master signaled for him to stay put and motioned for us to head onto the ferry, right up to the front. Rhoda and Mama Uate had to get out and wait on the stern of the boat, but I was to stay in the vehicle for the ride across. About 15 minutes later, we were making our way into the dock and then driving off the ferry and up the bank to a waiting area. After a few minutes, Rhoda and Mama Uate arrived and we were off into Caia. It was 3pm.

The district superintendent, Fernando Gimo, was waiting for us at the main turn-off into town. We stopped and greeted him and he said he had arranged for a place for us to stay and that we should follow him on his motorcycle. He led us down a narrow lane for about 2 kilometers and finally we came to the parking area of a lovely, newly built guest lodge. He dashed inside and we followed, desperate for the restrooms, and we were soon more desperate when the owner said, “I’m sorry, but others from the government came ahead of you and we gave the rooms to them.” So many government officials were coming to town to see the new bridge that guest rooms were at a premium, or non-existent. There was nothing else for us to do but follow the superintendent back into town. We made our way to his home that is right next to the church. He did made visits to several other places in town that rent rooms, but everything was filled up. We told him not to worry. He had done the very best that he could do. We would just sleep in the car that night and we would be fine.

We met with a small group of former students that had come from some distance away, and there were some lay pastors and folk from the local church. We opened the board shutters on the windows of the church to let more light in, and started a service. The sun goes down quickly in Mozambique in mid-winter and by 5:30pm the church was dark, so the service did not last that long. We adjourned to the yard in front of the superintendent’s house and enjoyed visiting with our former students and getting caught up to date on what their children were doing. Around 7pm we were called into the house for a meal of stewed chicken, rice and corn meal porridge. We enjoyed the food and the fellowship and then returned outside for more visiting.

By 9pm people were getting tired and some of the visitors made moves to call it a day. Some were going to sleep in the church. Some of the kids occupied a tent that had been set up outside the church. We used the “casa de banho” – a reed enclosure that doubles as a toilet and a place to wash, brushed our teeth with some bottled water that we had in the car, and then took our places in the car for the night. The two front seats of our pick-up recline so we made ourselves as comfortable as we could, and Mama Uate stretched out on the back seat. We had our pillows with us, and some blankets, but it was not cold at all. If anything, it was quite warm from our heavy breathing with the windows closed. I did try to open the windows some during the night, but the mosquitoes were waiting to come in, so I closed them back up again. We were asleep in no time, but the time did seem to pass rather slowly, at least for me.

Wednesday, July 15th - Surprisingly, the time passed quicker than I realized. It seemed like very little time had passed when the sky was getting light in the east. I looked at my watch and it was about 5:45am. Soon the light turned to orange and yellow and with that there was movement in the yard as ladies began to built a fire and heat water. We finally rolled out of the car, a bit bleary eyed and wrinkled from sleeping in our clothes. The inside of the windows was all fogged up and we used some paper towels to wipe them off. We greeted the folks as more and more began to appear from their places of rest. After a short while, the water was hot and we were served some tea and bread for breakfast. Some thought we would be staying until mid-morning but we assured them that we had a service scheduled for about 10:30am a Inhaminga, about half way between Caia and Beira. So after the bread and tea, we gathered together in a circle in the church yard and had a word of prayer together and made arrangements to get on our way.

Two of our former students, Joãozinho Domingos, who pastors in Beira, and Enoque Sombrero, pastoring in Lamego west of Beira, were visiting in Caia to meet with pastors. They asked if they could get a ride with us to Beira and so we made room and they climbed in the back with Mama Uate. It was a bit before 7am that we pulled out of the churchyard there in Caia and made our way out to the main highway. Just near the intersection there was a brand new petrol station, opened 24 hours a day, and we took advantage of the availability to fill the tank up before heading on to Inhaminga. We sure could have used that filling station back in 2006 when we made our marathon trip from Maputo to Mocuba and back!

After filling up, we got on the highway headed south. We were looking for a road off to the left at about 20 kilometers out of Caia. According to the map, there should be a highway there. But 20km came and went, and 30km came and went, and there was still no highway. I checked with Joãozinho and Enoque and they said, “No, it is still farther on.” Obviously, the map was a liar! Finally, at about 45 kilometers, there was a signpost indicating the highway to Inhaminga – the famous, or maybe I should say, infamous, Dondo road! Until about five years ago, this was the only highway north to the ferry crossing over the Zambezi River at Caia, and half of the year, it was impassible due to water and mud and half-buried trucks. I must say, after all I had heard about this road, I was pleasantly surprised by its condition. It was a dirt road, but it was wide and recently graded and fairly smooth as dirt roads go. We were able to make good time and before we knew it, we were approaching the town of Inhaminga where we were to meet our former students, António and Afélia Mucano. They had also worked for us while they were students, and we had not seen them since they graduated in 2005.

The church is located on the south side of town and so we had to pass through the whole town before coming to the church. It seemed that the whole town was in a grove of trees – soaring high hardwoods and eucalyptus trees lined the streets. In the colonial era, this was a major center between Beira and the Zambezi River, and it was a major junction on the rail line between Beira and Tete to the north, and the branch line to Marromeu, a major sugar producing area near the mouth of the Zambezi River. During the civil war lasting from 1976 to 1992, Inhaminga saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war and the reminders of those days were still visible as we passed through the town. A number of buildings had no roof and there were overturned railway cars along parts of the railway line. There were also some signs of progress. The railway line has been refurbished and is now opened to Marromeu and they are working on the line as far as Tete. A number of buildings had been painted and there was a healthy hustle and bustle about the town.

As we neared the south edge of the town, there was the church. It was a lovely cement block building, nicely painted, neatly trimmed hedges around the property and flowering trees planted around the church and the yard. It was immaculately clean – just what we would have expected from the Mucanos. We pulled into the churchyard and parked under a tree. Before we could get out and walk around, here came Pastor Mucano running from his house at the back of the property! After a hearty welcome, he showed us around the church and the property and then took us back to the house he had built for their parsonage. It was of typical construction for the area with fired mud-bricks and thatched roof, but neat, tidy, and very functional. He also showed us the fruit trees he had planted and the garden he had under cultivation. He had a “green thumb” which he had used when a student and he had not lost his talent.

He had announced to his congregation that we would be coming and they planned for a special service for that morning. They had estimated that we would be there at 11am, but because of the night in the car in Caia, we actually arrived earlier at 10am. By 10:30am, about half of their congregation was already there and so we began the service. As the service progressed, more and more people arrived and by 11am, there were about 50 or so present. We had a lovely service with the folks there and I time of prayer around the altar at the close, and then we began to make moves to head on down the road. We were presented with several pumpkins from the Mucano’s garden and some other produce as well. We got it loaded into the back of the truck and after a final farewell, set off on the way. As we pulled back onto the highway, I thought to myself, “Well, this road isn’t as bad as everyone made it out to be.”

For about the next 30 kilometers, the road was pretty good and we were able to make good time. The road paralleled the railway line and we zigged and zagged back and forth over the rails as the road got deeper and deeper into the tropical forest that covers central Sofala Province. The road got progressively worse and narrower as we proceeded and we had to reduce our speed to about 30 kilometers per hour, never going more than 40 kph. We passed through the small village of Muanza where a turn trail led west off to the Gorongosa National Park. We kept moving south, now and then catching sight of the railway line. This road was famous as the haunt of lions back about ten years ago. Our missionary colleagues, Dave and Marquita Mosher had seen a pride of lions along this road on one trip, just about 100 yards from where they had set up their table and chairs for a picnic lunch. All we saw were several troops of baboons.

About 40 kilometers out of Dondo, the road emerged from the forests and the landscape was more like the African bush we knew from the south of Mozambique. The population seemed to get denser too as we saw more and more homesteads along the way. The condition of the road also got progressively worse. There were large dips and water holes and muddy patches that we had to navigate around. Deep ruts marked the places where trucks and made their way through muddy patches before the rains stopped and the sun had baked the road with the ruts still in place. We crossed narrow little bridges at the foot of steep hills, with a sharp curve thrown in for good measure to make the crossing that much more difficult. We could see how this road could provoke nightmares, and get its bad reputation.

As we made our way along, we passed many people coming and going, some on foot but many on bicycles. If we passed one, we passed a hundred bicycles on the last 20 kilometers of the road. The bicycles were not just carrying their drivers, but some carried families as well. Most, however, were loaded down with cargo – sacks of corn, beans, or peanuts. Some carried building materials. Some carried wood. Others were loaded with three of four large bags of charcoal being taken to Dondo to be sold for fuel for cooking in the city. Finally, the highway got smooth, and wide, and obviously a grader had been down this road recently. We were able to increase our speed – 100 kilometers per hour! And then all to soon, or not soon enough, we found ourselves on the main tarred highway – the Beira Corredor.

We dropped Enoque off so he could get a ride heading west toward his village, and we continued toward Beira, another 35 kilometers further on to the east. As we approached the city, Joãozinho directed us off onto an alternative route that would take us past the church he is pastoring. They were just about finished with a new church building and we wanted to see the church and get a feel for where he is serving. It was a beautiful cement blocking building with corrugated steel sheets for a roof. We stretched our legs looking around the building and the property, and then continued on to the city center and then out along the beach to the home of missionary colleagues, Carlos and Silvia Bauzá.

We arrived at the Bauza’s house around 4pm, anxious to get a shower and change clothes! Once we were clean again, we enjoyed having fellowship and just relaxing a bit. Silvia prepared us a lovely dinner and we heard from Carlos all the news, and saw lots of pictures, from the General Assembly. We could have talked and talked until after midnight, but we needed to continue our journey in the morning and we wanted to get an early start. With that in mind, we finally headed down the hallway a bit past 10pm and headed to bed.

It was great to stretch out for a night’s rest, but before we could go to sleep, we had to make a choice: battle the buzzing of mosquitoes, or put up with the slight roar and wind of an electric fan. We opted for the fan. In spite of being tired, we didn’t sleep all that well, and before we knew it, it was time to get up and get ready to leave on the last leg of our journey.

Thursday, July 16th – The alarm went off at 4am. By 4:30am we had the car packed and ready to go. Silvia had breakfast on the table for us so we could eat something before we headed on our way. A bit past 5am, we bade our farewells, climbed into the pick-up and headed out into some of the densest fog I have ever seen. We could see maybe 30 yards in front of us and almost nothing out to the side. In addition, there was a light mist falling so we had to have the windscreen wipers going most of the time as well. We could just barely make out landmarks along the way as we headed to the main highway out of town. We knew we were passing the airport, but we could not see anything of it. When vehicles came at us from the other direction, we almost had to stop dead in the road because we could not see a thing ahead of us. Finally, we made it to the main highway.

The main highway was smoother and there was more traffic, but the fog was not any better. All the way to Dondo we were in thick fog, but after Dondo it got more patchy, though there was still mist in the air. After we crossed the Pungoe River conditions improved, but it was still foggy. In Lamego we stopped briefly to see Enoque Sombrero and his family. They had walked out to the main highway to greet us as we passed by. Enoque had been single when he was a student at the seminary and we had never met his wife or seen his children. We had about five minutes to visit with them along the way, had a word of prayer, and continued on our way. About fifteen minutes later, we came to the village of Nhamatanda. At the petrol station, we pulled off to pick up Orlando Siapange, our student who we had brought with us from Maputo at the beginning of our trip. Now he would be going back with us as well. We took advantage of this stop to “inspect the facilities” before continuing on the journey. We knew that this would be the last opportunity to “inspect the facilities” for some time to come! About 10 kilometers on down the road, we pulled off again, this time to meet Joãozinho and his wife. She had been visiting relatives while her husband was away and he had got a bus out to be with her after accompanying us to Beira the day before. It was nice to be able to meet her, also for the first time. Another 5 kilometers beyond that stop, we came to the crossroads of Mozambique – Inchope! Here we turned south and headed for Maputo. By now it was about 9:30am and we were an hour and a half behind schedule, thanks to the fog and the visits along the way. At least now we were out of the fog and could make better time.

From this point on we were on familiar highway that we had traveled before. The road was in good condition all the way to the Save River at the border between Sofala and Inhambane Provinces. Except for emergency pit stops along the way, our next stop would be the village of Muchungue where we would fill up with diesel fuel. The route was not overly populated and passed through forested areas. We were able to make good time and we were in Muchungue at around 11:30am. We got fuel - and pineapples! - before continuing south.

The next major objective was the bridge across the Save River – about 150 kilometers further south. We crossed the rive a bit before 1pm and kept moving. Here the road surface was a bit older and in less good condition with the occasional pothole to negotiate. We were still able to keep the speed to about 50 miles per hour, but had to slow down from time to time. We passed several other landmarks – the turn to Inhasorro, a village on the beach, and the turn to Vilankulos where we had spent the first night of our trip. After Vilankulos, the road surface improved for about another 100 kilometers, and then it got back again for another 70 kilometers until we reached Massinga.

In Massinga, we had planned to stop again and visit our pastor there, Helder Zimba, but when we phoned ahead we learned that he’d gone to Maputo to join his wife and her family. So there was no stop in Massinga. We just continued on the way. About an hour later we came to Maxixe where we filled up with fuel again and found some clean restrooms. The stop here was only about 15 minutes, and then we were on our way again. We wanted to reach Xai Xai, three hundred kilometers further south, before dark, but it did not look like we were going to make it. On the road again and the ladies decided it would be nice to get some coconuts and some tangerines; coconuts to take home and tangerines to eat along the way. We finally found a stall along the way selling both and made a quick stop. Then we were off again.

We passed through the small village of Inharrime. Here the road gets really narrow as it passes between shops and buildings that come right up to the edge of the road. The speed limit is only 20 kilometers per hour, and there are people everywhere. Fortunately, it’s only about a kilometer from one edge of town to the other, so we were through there in short order. About 5 kilometers out of town, the highway crosses a little bridge over a tidal lagoon that is marvelously beautiful. The blue of the water is tremendous, and it is surrounded by white sand dunes. About 35 kilometers on we came to Quissico. We sent a message ahead to the pastor and his wife, the Mutombenes, asking them to meet us along the highway. We had a bag of peanuts from her sister in Mocuba to drop off for them, but we did not have much time to stop. As we rounded the bend and started up the hill into Quissico, there on the left side of the highway they were, ready and waiting for us! We stopped for all of about 5 minutes. We unloaded their bag of peanuts (about 25 kilograms) and gave a brief report of our trip and visit with their relatives, and we were off. It was 4:30pm as we passed through Quissico. We would not make Xai Xai before dark!

A half an hour and about 60 kilometers west of Quissico, we watched the sun slip below the horizon. In another fifteen minutes it was dark, and the road surface deteriorated. This stretch, the last 100 kilometers into Xai Xai, was the last section of the highway between Maputo in the south and Pemba in the north, to be rebuilt. They were just getting started on it when we had made our way north several weeks earlier. Now they were a bit more advanced. At least the edges of the highway had been cleared of brush, and some of the worst potholes had been filled in. As we got closer to the town, however, it seemed that the potholes got deeper and more numerous. At 6:30pm as we passed through Xai Xai, we finally said good-bye to the potholes and started the homeward stretch for home.

The road from here on was like a carpet and once we were over the Limpopo River bridge, we could make 120 kilometers an hour (except for speed zones) all the way to Maputo. We ticked off the villages as we passed through – Chicumbane, Chipenhe, Chissano, Chimondzo, Incaia, Macie, Xinavane, 3 de Fevereiro, Palmeiras, Macie, Bovole, Mbulaze, Marracuene – now we were only 25 kilometers out of town! At 9:15pm we passed the police traffic control point on the outskirts of Maputo. Traffic was now typical city traffic, heavy and slow moving. We made it along the main road and finally to the turn off to the Uate’s house. We pulled up in front and unloaded all of Mama Uate’s the things that we easily accessible. We went inside where her family had a lovely dinner prepared for us. I am not sure we really wanted to eat that much at that time of night, but we did enjoy the chicken and rice, fried potatoes and meat curry. I think we were there only 30 or 40 minutes, and then it was only 5 kilometers more to get home. Finally, at 10:30pm, we passed through the gates of the Seminary and made our way up the drive to our gate. We were home! We had traveled 8000 kilometers (5000 miles), visited nearly 100 of our former students, seen places we had only thought we might see, and done some things we never thought we would do, and now we were home again. It was a marvelous trip. Thank the Lord.

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

Latest News and Addition to Trip North Saga

It’s been too long since I was able to get another installment written and posted telling about our trip north. We’ve been really busy with all kinds of things going on. In addition to our regular work at the Seminary, I (Dave), along with two other of our faculty members, have been doing two online courses with Nazarene Bible College in the hopes one day participating as teachers in an online degree program in Portuguese that will be available to our people here in Mozambique.

We have also been visiting new preaching points, and future churches, being supervised by our Matola City Church. It has been a blessing to visit these new congregations and to see some of our graduates in action, and to see what the Lord is doing. We have appreciated these experiences a great deal.

We also had the privilege to make a flying trip to Johannesburg, South Africa on September 18th and 19th to attend the induction service of our new Regional Director, Dr. Filimão Chambo. Fili, as we know him, was our Seminary director here in Maputo from 2002 to 2005, and is greatly loved by all of us here in Mozambique.

Now I have finally had a few minutes to continue the story of our trip north, so here comes installment number 6.

Installment 6 of THE JOURNEY: Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 23 June to 16 July, 2009

Sunday, July 5th - We were up at a good hour this morning – about 6am I guess it was – and had a nice breakfast. We piled into the pick-up, along with all the Mirashi family, for the trip out to Rapale where we were to attend church this morning and where I was to preach. It was about 20km back the same way we had come last night. At least on this trip we would be doing it in daylight.

We got to the church by 9:30am and Sunday school was already in session. We waited outside and then when it was over, we greeted our former students, Rev. Costa Martins Noventa and his wife, Laura. We also got to see his uncle, Albino Noventa, who is also one of our graduates, though he is not pastoring now. The service was very inspiring with about a hundred in attendance. There were a lot of young people and children and that is the norm in most services here in Mozambique. We followed our usual routine with Rhoda and Mama Uate bringing greetings and I gave a brief report on the Seminary as well as preaching what was my usual sermon on the trip – Zacchaeus up the Tree!

After the service we were invited to walk to the pastor’s house, just a short walk from the church. There we were presented with several gifts – a live chicken, and big bag of beans. We gratefully received both gifts and took a number of photographs and then we were escorted back to the church from where we bid farewell and set off back to Nampula.

Back in Nampula, Busi Mirashi fixed us a nice lunch and then we packed up our bags and got ready to leave for our last of ten provinces in Mozambique, Cabo Delgado. About 3:30pm we loaded up the car and with Bonifácio guiding the way we headed east out of town. We filled up with diesel just outside town and then continued toward the coast, delighted to be traveling on a paved highway for a change – our first in a week. About 85 kilometers from Nampula we came to the town of Namialo where we turned north toward Cabo Delagado. We still had about 200km yet to travel and it was already going dark. We passed through places we’d only heard about and as night drew in the road kept taking us north. We crossed the Lúrio River into Cabo Delgado and at the end of the bridge we were stopped by the traffic police. They are an ever-present feature of passing from one province to another. We exchanged greetings and explained we were heading to church meetings and that was enough for them. They waved us off with a “boa viagem” (have a good trip).

We kept pressing on and came to the major junction – right and east to Pemba, the provincial capital and fast developing seaside resort for the well off; left and west to Montepuez and the northern interior. We went left and headed on toward Montepuez. There was almost no traffic on the road and by now the stars were shining overhead. Now and then we passed clusters of houses along the road and saw people gathered around low cook fires. We passed through a couple of small villages with electric lights burning brightly. They were the few bright spots in an otherwise totally dark landscape. We had the impression that we were traveling along the edge of a ridge with the land sloping off on both sides, but we could not tell if it really was that way or if it was just an illusion. There were few trees and vegetation consisted of grass and low bushes, at least what we could see of it along the road in the light of our headlights.

Around 8pm we began to see more and more houses along the road, a sign that we were approaching a larger town. Finally we were nearing Montepuez. As we entered town we reduced speed and just on the edge of town we came to our church. It was a good sized building facing right onto the main road as we entered town, a terrific strategic location! The pastor/district superintendent was there waiting for us along with some folk from the church. They had a light supper prepared for us and after eating and a short visit, the pastor went ahead of us on his motorcycle to show us the way to the place where we were to spend the night.

It was the only guest accommodation in town. It could call it a motel, but that would be stretching it a bit. It looked like it had once been quite a nice place with lounge, game room, restaurant, and about 100 guest rooms. Now it was quite run down with nothing much in operation except a reception area where an aged color TV was showing a soccer match being played somewhere in Africa. We were shown to our rooms down a veranda that looked out onto a grassy courtyard area with another veranda opposite, also with rooms. The rooms had obviously seen better days. The bathrooms left much to be desired, though they did have toilets and sinks with running water, though it was cold water only. The mattresses were lumpy and we were glad to have our own pillows with us. The one redeeming factor was that the room had a mosquito net, and it was relatively clean. We were dying for a cup of tea before we went to bed and I went to the reception desk to see if there was any possibility of getting some hot water in our thermos, but unfortunately they were not tea drinkers and they could not help us. We ended up just having some juice in cartons that we had brought along with us for just such and occasion as this.

Monday - July 6th - We were up the next morning around 6am and we were out and on our way by 7am. The assembly was scheduled for 9am with breakfast before that at the pastor’s house. We filled up with diesel on the way and made a call at the local bank’s ATM before making our way to the pastor’s house. We had tea and bread with honey, and then headed to the church. The assembly started on time but the congregation was small. There were about 20 people present, but there were only ten churches and preaching points on the predominantly Moslem Cabo Delgado District. For us one of the high points of this assembly was seeing the Uantes, although Mrs. Uante was not present having gone to Nampula for medical treatment. They had a new baby when they were at Seminary with us in Maputo in 2001 and we’d not seen her since they graduated in 2002. She is quite a grown little girl now. We also saw the Pinto and Ersilia Hariri who graduated in December last year. We had sent a suitcase to them after they left and it had made it as far as the district superintendent’s house in Nampula, and he’d not had opportunity to send it on. He gave it to us and we were able to deliver it to drop it and them off at their house after the assembly on our way to the next assembly in Nacaroa.

After the assembly session was over, we returned to the Uantes’ house for lunch with the other pastors. It was a bit rushed because we needed to get on the road to the next assembly. We left Montepuez around 3pm with the Hariris and dropped them off at home about 30km out from Montepuez. We got to see their kids and gave them some candies. Then we continued on to our next stop. We retraced our steps of the night before and discovered that our impressions had been wrong. We had not been on a ridge but had been driving through savanna bushveld country. We approached the police check point at the Lurio River at a pretty good clip and as it was at the bottom of a curing slope, the police officers didn’t see us coming, and I didn’t see them either. They were standing along the road with their backs to us and were in deep conversation as we breezed by. They jumped with startled looks on their faces and waved in a half-hearted attempt to get us to stop, and then their faces turned into grins and their waves to waves of farewell as we just continued across the bridge without even slowing down.

We arrived in the town of Nacaroa around 5pm. The sun was already starting to set and proceeded through town as Bonifácio phoned the district secretary who was making arrangements for our accommodation. He said to wait at a specific place and when we got there, here he came from another direction on his bicycle. We followed him a short distance down a lane and then in a gate and between some buildings that obviously appeared to be some sort of accommodation. No one was around and a thatch roofed reception area with a kitchen to one side looked rather deserted. Finally, a lady with a baby emerged onto the veranda from a room at the far end of the building. She was the caretaker. The district secretary spoke to her and after some discussion as it was going dark, it was agreed that we could spend the night there. Suddenly, at exactly 6pm, the lights all came on. We discovered that Nacaroa has its own generating station that runs every night from 6pm to 10pm. Then it is turned off again!

The rooms were clean and well taken care of, though not fancy by any stretch of the imagination, and it was obvious that they had been there for some time. The district had not arranged for any meal for us so we asked the caretaker if she could get some hot water for us. A little girl of about 10 appeared a few minutes later and prepared to make a fire at the edge of the reception area and put a kettle over it to boil. We opened up our cold box and brought out our standby meal supplies. We had instant soup packets, cups and spoons, crackers, peanut butter, tea bags and instant milk powder. With that, we made ourselves a fairly decent supper. At least we felt satisfied, and with more than a couple of cups of tea, what more could we want? About 9pm we turned in for the night. We were all well and truly sound asleep by the time the power went off and the lights went out.

Tuesday - July 7th - We were up around 6am. Again, the caretaker lady had a fire going and water was already hot by the time we emerged from our rooms. We made ourselves some tea and coffee and had some hot, freshly cooked manioc (cassava) for breakfast. As we ate we discussed plans for the day and by 8am we were packed up and ready to leave. We met our district superintendent, Rev. Gervásio Raimundo, one of our first graduates in 1993, who had come down the night before from Nampula and together we went to see a plot of ground in the town where a new church and district center was to be built. It was a lovely piece of land, a short distance off the main street through town, measuring about 100 meters by 100 meters. From there we headed out of town to the church where the assembly was to be held. We drove about two kilometers down the road toward Nampula where we came to a large crowd of people gather beside the road in front of a long, narrow, low thatched building. It was our district assembly! We parked in the shade of a couple of huge, towering fig trees and got out of the truck to greet everyone who had begun crowding around. We greeted everyone and made our way over to the church. We had to stoop to get through the narrow doorway and once inside, it was so dark we could hardly see a thing. There was one window at the platform end of the building, and a few small windows down both sides of the long, narrow mud-brick building. It was obvious that this was not the best place to hold a district assembly so the decision was quickly made to hold the assembly outside under the trees.

The assembly proceeded according to plan with lovely shade and a nice breeze to keep everyone alert. Reports were given and we did our report from the Seminary along with testimonies. During the assembly, in full view of the highway, we were able to witness some of the many and varied forms of transportation that people use in northern Mozambique. There were bicycles by the hundreds that passed, many of them laden down with heavy loads – sacks of grain, bags of charcoal, timber, persons, even a live pig! There were also buses and trucks. Most of the trucks, in addition to their regular cargos, also carried passengers perched precariously on top of whatever else the trucks were hauling. It was very entertaining, and at times frightening, to see all that was passing by. It is no wonder than many traffic accidents result in multiple deaths.

Business was finally concluded around 2pm and then it was time for lunch. We had our lunch served in the church. A table was spread and food that had been cooking during the assembly was brought in a variety of pans and dishes. We were served rice and a white porridge made from millet along with beans and curried chicken. Once we had eaten to our satisfaction, it was time to express our thanks to all and then to pack up and prepare for the journey back to Nampula – about a three-hour drive. We got our things loaded into the car, and then we climbed in to get ready to go. Along with the four of us, we were also taking the district superintendent back to Nampula with us. And one of the delegates asked if we could give her a ride as far as Namialo, about 60 kilometers to the junction with the main road to Nampula. We squeezed her into the back of the truck with the baggage and we took off for Namialo. About an hour later we arrived at her dropping off place and then we continued on to Nampula. About half way there we came upon a convoy of vehicles returning from a political rally. There were about five vehicles, several pick-up trucks with people riding in the back and waving flags and singing and having a great time. They were traveling at about 80 kilometers per hour and blocking the road preventing anyone from passing them. We could have done, and wanted to do, about 100kph but there was no getting around them. Before long we had our own convoy of vehicles backed up behind them cruising up the road. Several impatient motorists tried to get around them but were blocked from passing, although one brave guy managed to squeeze past on a long straight stretch. We followed them for about 30 kilometers when they finally got to where they were going and pulled off to highway. We were relieved to get past them. By the time we got into Nampula it was getting dark. We took our superintendent home and then made our way to Bonifácio’s house. Busi had a lovely dinner ready for us that we thoroughly enjoyed. With dinner over, and after a nice warm wash, we called it a day. Wednesday would be another adventure with a trip to the southern corner of Nampula Province, to the district assembly at Moma.

Installment 5 of THE JOURNEY: Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 23 June to 16 July, 2009

July 2– We were up at 4:30am this morning and aiming to get on the road by 5:30am. We didn’t quite make it, but we were out the gates of the Catholic compound before 6am. It was still dark but the town of Gurué was already coming to life. We made a quick stop at bank with its ATM machines and were able to restock our supply of cash before leaving town.

Our destination was Cuambe, the principal town in the south of Niassa Province, where we were to attend the first of eight district assemblies. There were two possible routes. The long way around was estimated to take between 4 and 5 hours due to road conditions. The other was a possible short-cut across the Lúrio River separating Zambézia from Niassa. We had heard that some missionaries had used the short-cut several weeks before and so we were going to try it. We missed the turn off – it was only a dirt road after all – and only realized it when we arrived in the town of Lioma and had to turn around and go back to try to find it. When we got there it was obvious, but when we’d passed the first time a truck was stopped in front of the sign. Oh well.

The road had been recently graded and the sign had indicated that a new bridge across the river was being built. We made good time and covered the 30 some kilometers in about 20 minutes. The closer we got to the river, the road got more and more narrow and winding and then we came up short as we rounded a curve and there was the new bridge! The only problem was, there was no way onto or off of the bridge. There had obviously been a ford below and beside the bridge where vehicles had crossed, but the people of the area had made a small dam to make the water deeper for washing clothes and taking baths. They had taken into consideration that some missionaries on their way to district assembly might want to try to cross their bathing area! There was nothing to do but turn around and back track the way we had come and then take the long way to Cuamba.

The highway, although dirt and gravel, was not all that bad. After all, it was the main route to the northwestern area of the country. It was bumpy in places and the pick-up started acting up a bit so I stopped to check and sure enough, the battery cable had come loose. I tightened it back up and we were back to normal and on our way, passing beside a range of huge granite monoliths that rose dramatically from the savannah land of northern Zambézia. The landscapes were beautiful and so impressive. The sky was a deep blue and the sun shone off the granite slopes adding to the majesty of the scenery. There were also large, impressive trees growing on the slopes with tall, straight, pale yellow trunks, topped by a large dark green canopy of leaves. They were reminiscent of the classic fever trees that we have in southern Mozambique and South Africa, but these were much taller, with straight trunks. There were surrounded by other trees and bush which added to the beauty.

We finally came to the village of Mutuali and turned toward the west and Cuamba. The road deteriorated rapidly and we had to poke along to keep from damaging the pick-up, and ourselves! The road seemed to go on and on forever until finally we came to a long bridge over the Lúrio River, the border between Nampula and Niassa Province. Once on the other side, the road widened out, had obviously been graded recently and we were able to more than double our speed, except when we came to the numerous railway crossings along the way. This road parallels the main railway line from Nacala on the coast to Lilongwe, Malawi. It was still about 40 kilometers into Cuamba, but we wouldn’t be as late as we thought we’d be.

Finally we arrived in the town of Cuamba and were able to phone our area coordinator, Rev. Bonifácio Mirashi, who was to chair the district assembly. We got directions to a meeting place, and then the local district superintendent, former student Júlio Carlos Américo, met us on his motorcycle. We followed him a short distance, but with numerous turns, to the church where a number of the pastors and some lay delegates had already arrived for the assembly.

The church was made of plastered mud bricks and it had a typical dried, thatched roof. Inside the floor was dirt and but there were a number of wooden benches to accommodate the members. We had chairs on the platform and after greeting a couple of our former students, the assembly began. The total attendance was only about 25 or so, and that was including the children that wandered in and out. Bonifácio preached the opening message and called the assembly to order and various persons were called on to give their reports – district superintendent, district secretary and district treasurer. We were introduced as the representatives of the Seminary and after Rhoda and Mama Uate gave their greetings and testimonies; I proceeded to give a report from the Seminary and to speak about the need for pastors to be trained for ministry, either by coming to Maputo to the Seminary or by studying through the extension program. Once we were finished, the local pastors began to give their reports – district licensed pastors first, followed by lay pastors. This was to be our regular routine for the next 10 days.
After the assembly was over, we spent some time visiting with former students. Two had come from Lichinga, nearly 300 kilometers (190 miles) to the north of Cuamba where the assembly was held. It had taken them about six hours to make the journey and it would be another six hours back. I gave them a ride to the place where they were to meet their “taxi” back to Lichinga and they told me they would be lucky to make it home by 11pm that night. We returned to the home of the district superintendent for a meal together with the pastors. We had rice and chicken as well as xima (she-mah) – a white starch porridge - made from millet. In the south, our xima is made from corn, or maize, meal, but here in the north they use millet as it is more readily available. There were some other dishes as well, but the main part of the meal was the rice and chicken.

By 5pm things were winding up and it was time to get on the way to Malema where we would stay the night. We bid our farewells and before leaving town filled up with diesel fuel. This tank of fuel would have to last us until Sunday and take us all the way into Nampula, about 300 kilometers to the east. One of the pastors who lived along the way asked for a ride and so we squeezed him in with the ladies in the back seat. By the time we got back to Mutuali, it was dark and we still had another 60 kilometers to go. It was almost easier driving at night because the holes in the road were picked up by the headlights. During the daytime, you couldn’t see the potholes until you were right on top of them, but at night they showed up with the dark shadows. We finally pulled into the town of Malema around 7pm. This was where we were to have the first half of the assembly for the Nampula West District. The district is so large that they divide the assembly into two sessions, one in the western area of the district, at Malema, and the other in the eastern part of the district near the town of Ribaué. When we arrived at the church, there was a large number of pastors and their wives already there, along with people from the local church. While dinner was being prepared, everyone sang and had a good time crowded around the cooking fires. It was a good way to keep warm in the chill of the early evening. Once again we were cared for with gracious hospitality. We were served a lovely meal of grilled chicken and rice and millet xima and chicken curry. We met our district superintendent here, Rev. José Zacarias, as well as one of our recent graduates, Heroi Naconaca. He surprised us with the news that he was to be married in a month’s time! Finally, with dinner over and arrangements made for the next morning’s assembly, we made our way up the road a short distance to a “complexo turístico” where we would spend the night. Never having been in this area we weren’t sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a place with very comfortable and clean accommodation. There was running water, but we had to heat water ourselves by putting an electric immersion coil into a basin of water. It was a bit risky, though. If you put your finger in the water to check the temperature, you’d get a shock! We quickly learned to remove the coil first before checking the water temperature! The room was also furnished with a mosquito net which we were very glad to have. I thought it would be rather claustrophobic, but in fact it was more like being in a tent, only indoors. We were glad to get cleaned up and to stretch out and get some rest. It had been a long, but a good day!

July 3 – We needed to be at the church by 8am for breakfast so we were up at 6am to get ready for the day and to get the car packed. Having been on dirt roads for a couple of days now, it was surprise to come out of our room and discovered that the pick-up had been washed! The man who did it had done his work in faith that the grateful owner would find him and “thank” him for his efforts, and we did thank him appropriately before heading off to the church. When we got to the church breakfast was nearly ready. Some of the best bread rolls we’ve ever eaten, some fried eggs and hot water. They had no tea bags or coffee, but we did, so we shared it with the others at the table and we enjoyed our breakfast together.

Around 8:45am we adjourned to the church to begin the assembly. The church building in Malema was much like the church in Cuamba – plastered mud bricks with thatched roof. The “benches” here were plastered rows of mud bricks and spaced about a foot and half apart. There was no concern about benches being stolen here! The assembly was called to order and welcomes were said and introductions made. We followed the same format as the day before in Cuamba – sermon, district superintendent’s report, secretary and treasurer’s reports, Seminary and pastors reports and then adjournment and lunch. All was concluded by about 3pm, and with Rev. Zacarias now traveling with us, we loaded up and then we headed east to Ribaué.

It was another plus or minus 100 kilometers to Ribaué and with road conditions as they were, we estimated about two and a half hours driving time. This was the main east-west highway across Nampula Province and when we asked Bonifácio why the road was not in better condition, he told us that the railway carried the major part of the passenger and freight traffic so there wasn’t a real sense of urgency on the part of the provincial administrators to do much about improving the highway (I’ve since learned that there is a plan underway to rebuild the whole highway from Nacala on the coast to Lilongwe in Malawi, and on to Zambia. Environmental and social impact studies were done early this year).

On the way we were entranced by the many large rock formations that seemed for form a chain all along the route to Nampula, and extending to the north as well. These inselbergs (granite projections from rolling plains) projected several hundreds of feet into the air and dominated the surrounding countryside. On the way to Ribaué, we made a stop at our church in the area of Natete. We greeted the lay pastor’s wife and some children. Neighbors came to see who these strange people were stopping late in the afternoon. While Bonifacio talked with the lay pastor’s family, Rhoda and Mama Uate and I looked in the church – dirt floor, mud-brick construction including the “benches”, rather thin thatched roof, and chickens coming and going through the door openings on either side of the building. It was obvious to us that the people in this area were extremely poor, and the condition of the children who gathered around us confirmed our assessment.

We arrived in Ribaué, a substantial town, around 5pm. A new church is being planted in the town and we made our way to see the progress being made. At present they have built a very nice parsonage that has a room large enough to hold services. Once they have sufficient funds, they will build a church building next to the parsonage. There is a good-sized piece of land and they are already making mud bricks which will be fired and then used to build the church. By the time we were ready to leave there, it was dark. We headed on down the road another 15 kilometers to the home of the district superintendent in the town of Namigonha. As we arrived at the church, the people who had gathered erupted into song to welcome us. We greeted the superintendent’s wife, Mama Carolina, whom we hadn’t seen since they graduated in 2003. The ladies of the church were preparing a meal for us and we waited and visited while the last arrangements were being made. We were a little bit concerned because no word had been said about where we would be spending the night, and it was getting late. Never mind, first things first! Dinner was served – roast chicken and rice, millet xima and chicken curry. It was starting to get familiar. Finally dinner was over and we were told we’d go and find a place to stay. The district secretary would go with us and show us where the place was. Only about a kilometer up the road into town we pulled off and stopped in front of a shop. It didn’t look like a place with accommodation, but we were assured that this was the place and that they had rooms for visitors. Unfortunately, we needed three rooms and they only had two, and the bathrooms were in another building. We asked the district secretary if there was another place in town and he said there was, and we headed for that place.

When we got there, it didn’t look like much, and not very appealing at that. Bonifácio and I went to inspect the facilities and the secretary assured us that this was the only other place in town. I won’t go into details but it will suffice to say that floors were the same color as the dirt outside. They had beds and sheets and pillows, but we couldn’t attest to the cleanliness, nor how many people had used them before we got there. The beds were only ¾ size; that was fine for Bonifácio and Mama Uate, but we were a bit squeezed. Still, we were glad for a mattress and the mosquito nets. We didn’t risk opening our suitcases there and it’s the only night on the whole trip that we didn’t dare turn the light off to go to sleep. We’d seen too many creepy-crawlies escaping when we turned the light on! The bathrooms didn’t merit being called that – they were little more than closets with holes in the floor. There were no windows anywhere and only one narrow doorway into the central hallway from the veranda. As our Field Strategy Coordinator would describe it, it was “condições minimas” – or minimal conditions. Had it been a jail, and a delegation from Human Rights Watch had seen it, they would have raised one royal protest about the terrible conditions under which prisoners were being held. But since it was a “guest house” – well, we didn’t have much of a choice. At least we knew it would be better the next night – we’d be with Bonifácio and his family at their home in Nampula.

July 4 – We were up around 5am this morning, pulled on our clothes from yesterday, washed our faces and brushed out teeth using the bottled water we’d brought with and got out of that place as quickly as we could, hoping that we weren’t taking and hitch hikers along with us. We returned to the church for breakfast and again we shared our tea bags and coffee and powdered milk. The assembly began around 8:30am and by now we were accustomed to the format – and we could almost repeat the sermon with Bonifácio, even with it being in the Macua language! This was a larger crowd than the previous two assemblies and there was more special music and celebration in addition to the reports being given. The district was experiencing good growth and they reported a better than 50% increase in membership over the previous year. Fantastic!!!! That’s not to say that there weren’t problems – some areas of the district were not growing nor were they participating in the budget giving – but the Lord was obviously blessing!

At the close of the assembly Rev. Zacarias announced that it was time to take up the offering. Actually, it was the first assembly where they had bothered to take an offering – good Nazarenes, these! People began to sing and to celebrate as the table was placed in front of the pulpit and people began to bring their offerings to the Lord – a 25kg bag or rice, 20kg of peanuts, a couple of sags of beans, two large branches of bananas, pumpkins, a bag or oranges, and coins and some notes placed enthusiastically on the table. Other items were also presented, all with singing and enthusiastic praise being offered to the Lord for His blessings. Once all the excited had settled down, Rev. Zacarias called us to the front of the congregation and thanked us for coming to be with them at their assembly. We were completely dumbfounded when he then told us that as their expression of thanks, they were presenting us with the offering that had just been given! We were speechless! I must confess, the first thought that entered my mind was, “How are we going to fit it all in the back of the truck?” What gracious generosity! And what a humbling experience to be the recipients of such gracious and loving kindness by God’s people who have next to nothing themselves! We can only pray that the Lord will bless them in the measure that they were a blessing to us!

After lunch of – you guessed it: roast chicken and rice, millet xima and chicken curry – we packed up the car, said our farewells, and set off down the road heading for Nampula, about 80 kilometers to the east. The closer we got to Nampula, the better the road conditions, and the more traffic we encountered. The highway was still a dirt road, but it was graded and we were able to make better time than previously. It was just after 4:30 pm that we entered the city of Nampula and pulled onto a tar road – the first we’d seen since July 1st when we left Milange. Now we were in city traffic and contending with other drivers. Thankfully, Bonifácio was with us and knew where we were going. We arrived at his home just a bit before 5 pm, just as it was going dark. Busi, Bonifácio’s wife was anxious for our arrival and we were delighted to see her and the kids – Khosi, 13; Buhle, 11; Paula, 8 and Lindane, 6. Busi had a lovely dinner prepared for us – not chicken – but homemade pizza! She’d got the recipe from Rhoda when they were here in Maputo and Bonifácio was teaching at the Seminary. After dinner a hot bath as heavenly and a clean, fresh bed was delightful, especially after what we had experienced the night before. It was good to have an early night, but Sunday would be another busy day, with a service in Rapale, about 20km back down the road in the direction we’d just come from, and then a 450 kilometer (280 miles) trip to Montepuez in Cabo Delgado Province for an assembly on Monday.

Installment 4 of THE JOURNEY: Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 29 June to 1 July, 2009

29 June – Monday was the day to continue our journey and today’s destination was Milange in Zambésia, across on the other side of Malawi. We had a quick breakfast and got the last few things loaded into the back of the truck and then, after our words of thanks and farewell, we climbed into the truck and headed for the bridge across the Zambezi River and the road north.

We’d had word that our church in Zobué, right on the Malawi border with Tete, wanted us to stop on the way for a brief visit. Pastor Efeti Cebola, one of our graduates from last year, would accompany us to show us the way. It was about a two-hour drive to Zobué, and we had to deal with our exit at the Mozambique border post before we even got to the church. The border there passes through some rough mountains and so the border posts are about three kilometers apart, and the village of Zobué is between them.

We got to the church at 10:30am and the pastor met us with a warm welcome. We told him that we really needed to be on the way by noon at the latest because we had to get across Malawi and get to Milange for a pastor’s retreat in the evening. His reply was, “No problem.” He escorted us to his home a short walk up the hill from the church. It was a bit of a wait before everything was ready and around 11am we were served a lovely meal of rice, chicken, corn meal porridge, meat curry and fried potatoes. I kept looking at my watch and the time was passing, and at 11:30am we headed back to the church that, by now, was full of people waiting for the service to begin. I figured we could leave by 12:30pm and we’d still make it OK, so I tried to relax. Rhoda kept telling me, “This is of the Lord so just relax. Everything will work out just fine.”

We started our with a hymn and a prayer and another hymn, then the pastor introduced us. We gave a report of the Seminary and Rhoda and Mama Uate gave their testimonies and I was getting ready to get up to give an abbreviated sermon, but then the pastor called for the ladies choir to sing. About 15 ladies stood up and promptly left the church. Outside they got organized and then began to march back in singing. They were dressed in white blouses the traditional capulanas – wrap around cloths used for skirts – with the Church of the Nazarene emblems printed on them in blue. They were very attractive! Once on the platform, they presented their three special songs, and then they marched out singing again. I got ready to get up to speak, and the pastor announced that they young people from a neighboring church were going to give a special. About 8 young people dressed in matching purple shirts stood up and left the church. Again, once outside, they got organized and then began to march back in singing. They came up to the platform and also sang three specials before marching out singing. Again I got ready to speak but yet another singing group was announced, so I tried to relax and enjoy the music, all the while the hands on my watch kept moving forward. By the time we had finished the service, had said our farewells and were ready to leave for the Malawi border post, it was 2:30pm! The pastor went with us to help us negotiate the Malawi immigration and customs process and it’s a good thing he did. As it was, we didn’t finish and leave the border post until 3:30pm. It took a full 45 minutes just to process the temporary import of our vehicle, and that for the 250 Km (150 miles) trip across to the other side of the country!

We got into Blantyre around 4:30pm and headed for the offices of SIM - Serving in Mission - a sister missionary organization. Missionary friends in northern Zambésia where we would be staying on Wednesday had asked us to stop to pick up their mail there in Blantyre, and we were glad to help them out. We figured it would be a bag with a few letters – no big deal. Little did we know! The missionary greeted us with, “We sure are glad you’re here. We’re running out of space!” In the end, there were about 25 medium sized boxes with books, a couple of mail bags, other parcels and a bag with a few letters! When we pulled out of there 15 minutes later, the back of the truck was packed tight!
We had thought about stopping to get some more bottled water and biscuits (cookies) for the journey, but time was passing and we were in the Blantyre rush-hour traffic so we forgot that idea. By the time we finally left Blantyre behind, it was past 6pm and it was dark already. And Malawi has almost no highway direction signs so we were trying to remember which route to take from our trip through there four years ago! Finally, we came to a police traffic control and I asked him, “Is this the highway to Milange?” He confirmed that it was. We breathed a sigh of relief and continued on our way dodging bicyclists on our side of the highway and cars and trucks with their high beams bright coming at us on the other side of the highway. Then it started raining!

Fortunately, the farther we traveled, the lighter the traffic and with the rain, heavy at times, there were fewer bicycles. We came to a small town and since I had about 3000 Malawian Kwacha in my pocket, I wanted to spend it before we crossed the border. I pulled into a filling station to get some diesel and spend my Kwachas and I asked the attendant what time the border closed. He wasn’t sure but said he thought it was 7pm. We had less than an hour to get there, and it was still about 80 kilometers (50 miles) down the road, IF we could believe the road sign we’d seen a short while back. We continued on toward the border, passing among the famous Malawian tea plantations which we couldn’t see at all. After about 40 minutes, we pulled up short at another police control post. The officer asked where we were going and I told him, “Milange.” He said, “Well, you won’t make it there tonight. The border closed at 6pm. I suggest you go to the lodge up the road on the right and see if they have room, or you could go back to the last town where there is a motel.” Ugh!

We discussed it among ourselves and decided we would go to the lodge and see if we could phone our district superintendent in Milange and get his advice. We found the lodge and the night watchman opened the big steel gates to let us into the parking area. The place was not much to look at really. I found some people in a meeting room and asked where reception was, and they pointed me in the direction of a little run-down office on the edge of the building. I asked if they had any rooms and the guy said they did and the cost would be 2500 Kwacha. I asked if he took credit cards or dollars (I’d spent my kwacha on diesel about an hour before), and he said they didn’t, only Kwacha. Then I asked if they had a telephone, and again he said they didn’t. I went back to the car, through the rain, to discuss our options.

The ladies figured that the worst that would happen would be that we’d sleep in the car at the border, and there would be able to access the Mozambique cellular phone network and talk to our district superintendent, Rev. Benjamim Banda. So we set off for the border figuring it would be another 30 minutes or so. Well, 10 kilometers later we came to the Malawian border gate – closed! It wasn’t as far away as we thought it was.

There were some guards there and I got out to talk with them and they confirmed that the border closed at 6pm, BUT, they said, “If you want to go and talk to the chief of customs, maybe he’ll authorize us to let you through.” So, off into the nighttime darkness we went, down a little lane and to the home of the chief of customs. I explained our situation, that we needed to get to a pastors’ meeting in Milange, etc. He said, “Well, it is out of the ordinary to open the border after hours, but if the chief of immigration will deal with your passports, you can just leave your vehicle permit with the guards and we’ll process it in the morning.” One down; three to go!

Next we headed to the home of the chief of immigration. The guard knocked on the door and as it was opened, the smell of dinner cooking wafted into the night air. I thought, “Oh no, we’re interrupting the guys dinner! There won’t be a positive answer here!” But no, after telling the story yet again, the chief said to head on over to the immigration office and he’d be right there. Just a few minutes later, he and his assistant arrived, escorted us around to the back of the building, unlocked the door and ushered me into the immigration offices. He gave me some forms to fill out and I presented them with our passports which he stamped and handed back to me. He told the guards that all was now in order, he could open the gate and let us pass through. Whew! Now we had to deal with the Mozambican authorities!

It was about a half a kilometer through a sort of no-man’s land to the Mozambican border post. Lights were still on, but no one was around. We’d phoned Rev. Banda from the Malawian side and he said to call again if we got out of Malawi, so we phoned him once our passports were stamped. About ten minutes after arriving at the Mozambican side of the border, and after talking to the night guards, we heard motorcycles approaching through the darkness, and saw two headlights coming around the bend. Rev. Banda and Pastor Leonel Saimone, one last November’s graduates, both with a pastor riding behind them, arrived to try to help us get through the border.

Rev. Banda went to the home of the Mozambican official and explained the situation and to see if they would let us pass through on to Milange, but they didn’t want to be bothered and told him that the chief had gone home and took the keys with him and there was nothing they could do. However, they did say that we could go on into the town of Milange for the night, leave our truck at the border, and come back the next morning to deal with the passports and bring the truck through. We had decided that we’d just stay with the truck all night and sleep there, but Rev. Banda wouldn’t hear of it. He had reservations for us at a pensão (like a little hotel) in town and he’d take us there and some pastors would stay with the truck. So, Rhoda and Mama Uate got the few things that we would need for the night, then they awkwardly climbed onto the back of a motorcycle, and off into the darkness they went leaving me at the border with the two pastors, both of whom could speak Chichewa, but no Portuguese or English. We communicated the best we could and waited on the porch of the border post out of the rain until the two pastors returned on their motorcycles. About 40 minutes later, we heard the sound of the motorcycles returning and then it was my turn. Three pastors stayed and slept in our truck for the night and Rev. Banda took me into Milange, about 5 kilometers from the border post, where I met up with the ladies at the pensão. By the time I got there, I was freezing cold and half wet through from the rain, but soon warmed up. Rev. Banda brought us some supper and hot water to make tea, and we finished our supper around 10pm. We had missed the service for the pastor’s retreat, but we had made it to Milange. It sure was nice to snuggle under the blankets and sleep in a warm and comfortable bed. We felt bad for the pastors who would spend the night in our pick-up, but they wouldn’t hear of anything else. What an adventure!

30 June – Tuesday morning dawned rather cloudy and foggy. I was up to meet Rev. Banda at 5:30am for the ride back out to the border to get the truck. The border opened at 6am and I was there when they opened and was the first one to process through. They asked me rather bewilderedly, “Are you coming in or going out?” I told them I was coming in and then the penny dropped, “Oh, you’re the one with that truck that spent the night here!” Things were done quickly and soon I was taking the pastors to the church to drop them off before going to get the ladies. By 8am we were all at the Banda’s house having a nice breakfast of bread and tea and boiled manioc. The service started at 9am and there must have been at least 200 people there for the service, some having come by bicycle from 150 kilometers away. The back of the church was full of bicycles, parked there for safety and to be out of the rain. There are 252 churches on this district, but not all of the pastors were able to make it for the meetings. It was a great time of celebration and praise. Everyone was so enthusiastic and excited to be there together to worship and praise the Lord, and to learn something new about serving the Lord. It was humbling, really, to be the one they had come all that way to hear speak.

Though it was chilly and rainy outside, there was a warm spirit in the church as we began our time together. The Lord blessed our worship time and then we began the teaching session. Rev. Banda has asked me beforehand to prepare to teach on the Manual of the church and in the end I opted to do a teaching session on the Articles of Faith. I needed to keep it fairly simple because it all needed to be interpreted into Chichewa, and yet I wanted to give them some “meat” to chew on as well. I taught from 10am to noon, and we took a brief break. Rev. Banda said we’d just go on with the session till about 2pm or so without breaking for lunch. We’d have lunch at the end and then some of the pastors would prepare to return to their homes, the rest planning to visit and then leave at first light the next morning. So, we kept on teaching until about 2:30pm, and then had a question and answer session till about 3pm.

After our late lunch we had a chance to just visit with the Bandas and also with Leonel and his wife, Argentina. They were only married last December and are sort of “missionaries” there in Milange. Leonel is originally from Nampula and Argentina is from Gaza. Both speak different languages and come from different cultures, so they are having to adapt to life among the Chichewa people and to learn their language. It hasn’t been easy for them, but the Lord is helping. It was nice to be able to be with them and to encourage them. Argentina especially appreciated having Mama Uate there as they are both Shangaans and speak the same language.

It was about 8pm before we finally finished up our visit, had a little snack of bread and tea and headed back to the pensão. I was able to get the bill paid and we got some hot water for a bit more tea before turning in for the night. It had been a long day, but a wonderful day of sharing with pastors and with our former students and seeing how the Lord is using them to build His kingdom in this corner of Mozambique.

1 July – We were up at a fairly early hour this morning and got packed up for the next leg of our journey to Gurué in the northern part of Zambésia. First I headed for the filling station to fill up with fuel and to see about a tire that appeared to be low on air. I found a mechanic’s workshop and they pulled the wheel and checked for leaks, but pronounced it fine with no problems, so they just checked my tire pressure all around and I was finished. From there I picked up the ladies at the pensão and we headed to the Banda’s home for breakfast and to say our farewells. We weren’t in too much of a hurry today since we had no meetings scheduled and the drive to Gurué was estimated at about 5 hours, even though it would all be over dirt roads. In the end, we got away from Milange around 9am, heading northeast out of town over a narrow dirt road passing among cultivated fields and small homesteads scattered across the countryside. This was new territory for all of us – we’d never been this way before – so we were anxious to find out what this part of the country was like.

The rain of the previous few days proved quite helpful on this leg of the journey. The road surface had been packed down and for a dirt road, was relatively smooth. Also, there was no dust to speak of as we traveled along. It was still somewhat cloudy, but it was a bit warmer as we had frequent breaks in the clouds allowing the sun to shine through. There were quite long stretches where there were few houses, and those we did see were mostly made of fired mud bricks with thatched roofs. Now and then the houses would start to get closer together and then we would find ourselves entering a little village with a few stores, a primary school, a government office and maybe a clinic and a couple of churches. There would be little “barracas” – small, rudely built stands made of branches, boards, some sheet metal or plastic – set up along the road from which vendors sold their wares – soap, cookies, canned goods, plastic ware such as bowls, basins and buckets, garden implements such as hoe heads, shovels, and rakes, used clothing, capulanas, even bicycles and imported Chinese motorcycles! There were also a number of weighing scales suspended from trees or from the porches of a shop where people would bring their produce to be sold – beans, peanuts, corn, sweet potatoes, and tobacco. We saw many of these weighing scales along the road, even outside the village areas. Buyers in large trucks would traverse this section of road buying up the produce and then taking it to the nearest town or city to sell. We passed through several of these small villages, none of which were indicated on the maps we had. We did come to one larger village, a small town really – Molumbo - nestled in the shadow of a soaring granite monolith. The buildings were similar to most we had seen, and there were a number of buildings in various stages of disrepair that were left over from the Portuguese colonial period. It was all very interesting to see and experience.

In Molumbo we headed east running parallel to a series of these granite monoliths that rose suddenly from the plains that we were crossing heading toward Gurué. They were quite high and extended for some distance off to the east. The road following the gently rolling countryside and there were occasional little streams along the way. Most of these we crossed with concrete culverts but we came up short when we crested one hill and there at the bottom was a “bridge” about 15 feet across to the other side. It wasn’t a real bridge, but a challenge! Actually, it was composed of four steel beams about 6 inches wide. There were two placed side by side to the left, and two more placed side by side to the right. However, the distance between these two steel spans was equal to the track of a small truck, and about a foot wider than the track of our Toyota. In between these two steel spans were placed about 12 tree trunks or large branches, up to about 8 inches in diameter. Some were larger than others. None were exactly straight. There were sizable gaps in between them. And none of them looked like they would support the weight of a loaded pick-up! We walked across the steel beams and judged the distances between our wheels trying to figure out which trunk would be the most stable and the sturdiest. None of them looked to reassuring. Some young guys who appeared assured us that people crossed here all the time with no problem at all. We could just picture one of those tree trunks breaking under the weight and leaving our vehicle resting on his frame with the wheels dangling in mid air, and us wondering how in the world we would get it out of there.

When in doubt and you don’t know what to do, you pray. So we prayed and asked the Lord for guidance, and we asked Him to put His hand under those tree trunks! I lined up the left wheels on one of the steel beams, and the right wheels on what appeared to be the sturdiest of the trunks and slowly edged my way onto the “bridge”. Rhoda couldn’t bear to watch. Mama Uate said that the tree trunk sagged noticeably when I drove onto it. I didn’t notice from my position behind the wheel but I just kept it moving and in seconds I was on terra firma again. With a sigh of relief, the ladies climbed back in and we continued our journey on to Gurué.

A couple of more hours later we began passing through the low bushes of the Zambésia tea plantations and we knew we were getting near to Gurué, famous in Mozambique for its tea. Gurué is a district administrative town in the north of Zambésia Province and is quite an old town. The Portuguese developed the area considerably during the colonial period. It is near to a mountain range with a great view of the mountains. The climate is unique to that area of the country which makes it possible to grow tea around Gurué. We were headed there to visit the Fosters – Stuart, Sindia and Luke – SIM missionaries working among the Lomwé speaking people. Stuart is a linguist and is working on the translation of the Bible in the Lomwé language. The New Testament was translated nearly 100 years ago and it is being revised, but they are also working on the Old Testament which has never been translated. Stuart was not home when we visited as he was in another part of the province working with the translating committee. The Fosters rent a small house on the grounds of a Roman Catholic technical school. The Catholics also have guest accommodation that they make available for a reasonable price. We had made arrangements to stay there and funny enough, it was right next door to the Foster’s house. Sindia Foster graciously received us and provided us with a lovely dinner, and we were also able to unload all of the mail that we had collected for them in Blantyre. Gurué is surrounded by high mountains and the tallest, Mount Namuli, has become fairly well know lately in conservation circles as being a place where numerous new and previously unknown plant species have been discovered. We had a comfortable nights sleep and made plans for an early departure the next morning. We were to head to Cuambe in Niassa Province where we were scheduled to attend our first of eight district assemblies. It was to prove to be an interesting day!