June 25 – We were up at 5:00 this morning and headed out onto the highway around 6:00, our first destination being the town of Catandica on the road heading north to Tete. We arrived there around 8:00am and made contact with our district superintendent, Rev. João Crosse, another former student (graduated in 1998), along with his wife, Argentina. He had planted the church in Catandica after graduation and when he was named superintendent two years ago, he turned the church over to another of our graduates who unfortunately was not home that day oweing to it being Mozambique’s Independence Day. We visited with the Crosse family for about an hour before heading back to the highway and making our way north again, the next destination being the village of Nhacolo on the banks of the Zambezi River. The turn off to Nhacolo was about 80km (50 miles) north of Catandica, and although Rev. Crosse told us what to look for, we still went right past the turn off before we realized we’d missed it. We turned around and sure enough, there was a small sign indicating the direction we wanted to go. For the next three hour or so, we drove along what was little more than a one-lane sand track through the Mozambican bush. We passed one small village with some old, run down buildings from the colonial period, and some newly built government buildings and a school, but mostly what we saw were mud-brick houses with grass roofs. We passed many stately baobab trees along the way, crossed through dry steam beds and even crossed one completely dry river that was at last 400 meters wide – and not a drop of water seen until we got within a few kilometers of Nhacolo where we had to ford a stream lined with people taking baths and washing their clothes and kids just generally having a good time in the water. Of course, they all stopped what they were doing to watch us pass through. We were going to visit the Dias family. José Manuel Dias was a 2003 graduate and had worked in our yard when we moved to the house on the Seminary campus. We had gone through reconstructive surgery on their son’s hands while here (all of his fingers on both hands were joined with webs of skin) and they also had a little girl that they named after Rhoda, so we wanted to see them if we could. By the time we had reached Nhacolo, we had traveled just over 130 kilometers (81 miles) over that sand track, and we were going to have to repeat it to get back to the main highway!
We had a lovely but short visit with Mama Rosalina and the children, but Rev. Dias had gone to a family’s house where there had been a death. She gave us directions on where to find him – we had passed that way on the road to their home – so we set off on the return trip hoping to find him, and sure enough, just before passing through the water, we found the turn off and found Dias sitting under some trees with the bereaved family. He was overjoyed to see us and we had an all too brief reunion there under the trees, and then we had to set off again over the dirt track. We were impressed by the large number of homesteads that we passed that had no signs of anyone living there – no chickens, no signs of fires for cooking, no implements lying around the yard, thatched roofs in disrepair. We could only come up with two possible reasons – the families had moved closer to the villages to have access to schools, or the parents had died of AIDS and the children had gone to live with relatives. The later is often the case these days all over Africa.
Before we got back to the main highway night had set in and we finished the last few kilometers on the dirt road in the dark. We turned north again and headed for Tete – 150 kilometers (95 miles) on up the road. The first 35 miles were atrocious as we had to cross over a range of mountains with a highway that was full of craters filled with dirt that produced clouds of dust as the huge tractor trailers headed toward Malawi. The edges of the highway were crumbling and we had to make our way very carefully along. It seemed like the experience would never end. Finally, at the bottom of a long grade we reached the town of Changara with its turn-off to Zimbabwe to the west. We continued on north, now on good highway and able to do about 60 mph with very little traffic until we reached the outskirts of the city of Tete. Here we contacted the wife of our Area Coordinator for Tete Province, Agnes Banda, (she and her husband Albino were 2000 graduates) and got directions to their church and home where we would be staying for the next few days. They had a lovely dinner all prepared for us with chicken, rice, fried potatoes, meat curry and salad. It was wonderful! After dinner and a good wash, we were shown to our room, complete with air conditioner! However, being winter, there was no need for any air conditioner! Blankets were more the order of the day, even for Tete, notoriously the hottest place in Mozambique; in summer it often reaches 50oC (120 oF).
26 June – It was an early morning wake-up call today as we were planning to head to our district center on the Furuncungo-Macanga District, about 180km (115 miles) north of Tete city. After a breakfast of bread and fried eggs and tossed salad, we headed north crossing the Zambezi River on the only highway bridge across the river in Mozambique. It was built in the 1930’s and is not in the greatest condition. They only allow one heavy tractor trailer on the bridge at a time, and their speed is limited to 15mph. After 25 miles on the tar road, we turned off and again were traveling on dirt and gravel roads. This was going to be a much more troublesome road than the previous day’s dirt road. The road had not been worked on since the rainy season and so there were many places with deep ruts and exposed rocks and pot holes and craters to be avoided and driven around. There was much jostling in the pick-up as we made our way up and over the mountains and then down through lush green valleys. Frequently we were in thick forests on the mountain slopes with beautiful vistas seen from among the trees. Finally, after about three hours on the road, we made it to the mission at Furuncungo. The last missionaries to have served there were Oscar and Marjorie Stockwell who were forced to leave during the war for independence back in the early 1970’s.
We were welcomed by the wife of the district superintendent, Graciosa Derezina (1999 graduates). Her husband, Elias, was attending the General Assembly in Florida so was not there. (He’d been in Maputo when we departed on this epic journey!) A service had been planned and about 12 former students from all over the district had come in to welcome us, one even riding his bicycle for two days and 200 kilometers (125 miles) to be there. We understood why his wife wasn’t there too! Other pastors from nearby churches also came along with a number of church members. It wasn’t every day that a missionary came to visit in Macanga, and those who could, wanted to be there. We were also there to give a report on the Seminary. We had a lovely service with special music, and choirs. We showed our display boards with photos of the Seminary and Dave preached a message about Zacchaeus. The real surprise was when Mama Derezina presented us with a live goat in gratitude for Dave’s intercession with the American embassy in Maputo when Rev. Elias had a problem getting his visa to go to general assembly. We were must humbled by the warm and gracious reception we received there in Macanga.
After the service were fed a lovely dinner at the Derezina’s home before starting our trip back to Tete. The big question was how to best deal with the goat? Agnes Banda and Pastor Rosário from Tete who had accompanied suggested that the pastors butcher the poor thing right there on the spot and then we could take the meat with us in a cooler, so that is what was done. We got everything packed up and about 3pm we headed back down the hill to start our trip back to Tete. We were anxious to get off the dirt road before dark, or at least to get off the mountains. The roads were not conducive to hurrying, however, and they seemed to have gotten worse after we passed over them in the morning. In one particularly awkward place there was a huge rock right in the middle of the road. I thought we could straddle it, but didn’t see the rut to one side and we hit it square on with a loud THUD and a whopping jolt to the front of the truck. It shook us all, but we passed over it and the engine kept running, so we just carried on. We went for about five minutes more and with another shake of the truck and the engine abruptly died. What do we do now, out in the middle of nowhere? I got out and opened the hood (bonnet) and saw that the battery had come loose from its normal position (the bar holding it in place had come loose) and slide over against the air conditioning pipes shorting out the whole electrical system. I pushed the battery back into place, tightened down the securing bar, checked underneath to make sure no oil was leaking (none was) and then checked the oil level in the engine – normal – got back in behind the wheel and tried to start the engine. She fired up as if nothing had happened. Everything seemed normal, and off we went. There were some funny things happening along the way but they were sporadic so we just continued on, taking it easy and carefully. Soon we were off the mountains onto more level terrain and the road got better and soon we were back out to the tar. Whew! By now it was dark and we finally made it to the Tete bridge, crossed the wide Zambezi, filled up the tank for the next day’s journey out to Fingoe, and then made our way back to the Banda’s house for a dinner of chicken and rice, fried potatoes, curry and salad. We were glad to roll into bed that night, and didn’t know a thing until 4am the next morning when it was time to get up and get ready for another day on the road.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Our Trip to Northern Mozambique - 23 June to 16 July
Report of Our Trip to Northern Mozambique – 23 June to 16 July, 2009
June 23rd. We were up early on Tuesday morning. The pick-up was packed the night before with everything but our suitcases. Orlando Siapange, one of our students who we were taking home for the term break, was waiting eagerly to leave, and as soon as Mama Uate, one of our Bible school teachers, arrived, we had a prayer and we set out on our nearly four week adventure. After filling up the fuel tank, we were headed north.
The trip was uneventful as we crossed into Gaza Province and made our way up to Xai Xai. We crossed the Limpopo River around 9am and continued on through the town of Xai Xai. Half way through the town we encountered our first dose of bad roads – pot holes and narrow pavements and drop-offs on the edge of the road made progress slow and a bit risky. Eventually we were out of town and things improved a little, though preparations were underway for highway repairs kept us from making rapid progress. For the next 80 kilometers (50 miles) we had poor road surfaces, and then we crossed into Inhambane Province and the road improved drastically! In Quissico, we pulled into a filling station to look for toilets and there was our former student, Zacarias Mutombene, just coming out of the local administrator’s offices next door. We had planned to visit him and his family at the church they are pasturing but had not phoned ahead. We followed him down the hill to the church and had a lovely visit for about 40 minutes or so before continuing through coconut palm plantations on to our next stop in Massingue.
As we entered Massingue, we phone another former student, Helder Zimba, who is planting a church there in the town. He came out to the highway to meet us and we followed him back about 200 meters off the main highway to the church. The current church is made of woven palm leaves and thatched roof, but they are starting construction on a block building that, when finished, will accommodate about 300 persons easily. Mama Zimba was visiting family in Maputo with their new baby daughter so we only got to see Helder and his son, Josué.
We left Massingue around 2pm and headed north again for our destination of the day, Vilanculos, and the home of our district superintendent, Rev. Simeão Mulhanga, a 1996 graduate of the seminary. The first 80 kilometers were pretty rough with more potholes, but that smoothed out into a beautiful highway, lined with baobab trees and coconut palms. The closer we got to Vilanculos, the fewer were the palms and other trees took their place. Finally, a large number of heavy trucks parked on the roadside, and a sudden appearance of potholes, told us we were at the turnoff for Vilanculos. We left the main highway and headed toward the coast, driving another 15 kilometers in rapidly fading daylight until we arrived at our church just outside the main town. Here we were warmly welcomed by the Mulhanga family and treated to a lovely dinner of bean soup followed by chicken and rice and fried potatoes. Orlando spent the night with the Mulhangas, but we and Mama Uate had a cottage reserved at a nearby holiday location. It wasn’t the fanciest place we ever stayed in, but it was adequate for one night. On the way there, we thought we had a flat tire from a thumping noise we heard, but all the tires were fine.
June 24th – We were up early and returned to the Mulhanga’s house to get Orlando. Driving back to the Mulhanga’s house, we could hear none of the noise we had heard the night before. After breakfast and filling up on fuel, we were off again heading north. As we turned onto the main highway, the thumping noise returned. We checked the wheels, could see nothing out of the ordinary, and so continued on. It was another 400 kilometers to our next destination and the more we drove, the worse and more worrying the noise became. We made it to Inchope, the cross-roads of Mozambique, where we dropped Orlando off to get a bus to his home town about 30 kilometers east toward Beira. We also met another former student, Jorge Macherenga, a 2001 graduate, who is pastoring there at Inchope and caring for about 70 AIDS orphans.
Jorge showed us the way to the church where he and his family are serving, and the kids were there that afternoon. They children living with older siblings or with aunts and uncles or neighbors, and they come to the church several afternoons a week for activities, lessons, and a basic meal. This ministry is receiving about $300 a month from Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, but he has been told that this help will end in August. Jorge has started raising chickens to sell to help fund this ministry when the NCM help comes to an end. One of the things that we did here at Inchope was to deliver several boxes of handmade quilts that had been sent by the ladies of the Vancouver, WA Church of the Nazarene specifically for AIDS orphans. We also left some candies for the kids that were there. Our hearts were touched as they all lined up and held out their hands to receive the little that we had to give them. We couldn’t help but think of the words of Jesus in Luke 18:16, “Let the little children come to me and do not prevent them coming, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”
After our visit with the children, we continued on to a mission just outside the town of Gondola on the main road to Zimbabwe. Here we were to spend the night with missionaries who had stayed with us in Maputo on their way to South Africa several weeks before. I had phoned ahead to see if they could help with finding a mechanic who could look at our truck, but as we pulled into the mission, Carlos took a look at our left front wheel and said, “I think I found your problem.” Four of the six lug nuts holding the wheel on were only half tightened. We tightened them up, when for a test drive, and the loud thumping noise was gone! Praise the Lord! It was only the Lord who kept that wheel from coming off as we traveling the nearly 1200 kilometers from Maputo! There at the mission we unloaded our luggage and got a cup of tea, and after a brief visit headed the short drive into Chimoio to visit with Murombo and Ana Moises, 2007 graduates from the Seminary. They are pastoring the main Central Church of the Nazarene in Chimoio. We had a lovely but too short visit with them before heading back to the mission in Gondola. It was then that our next adventure began and we saw another answer to prayer.
Being in a hurry to visit with the Moises family, I had passed several filling stations on the way into town figuring we’d fill up on the way back. But, the first station we came to was closed already at 7:30pm, and when I pulled into the next one, they informed me that they had no diesel. We continued on down the road toward the mission and the next station had the same problem – no diesel! I asked where the next station was and was told it was in Gondola. That’s where we were heading, but by now my fuel gauge was below empty! We were coasting down hills so as not to use up the fuel we had. Finally, the lights of Gondola appeared in the distance and we coasted down the hill into the first filling station we came to. Two mini-bus taxis were there and so we had hope. I pulled up to the pump and asked if they had diesel. The attended said he did and we began to fill up. As he pumped the fuel he asked me, “Are you a missionary?” “Yes, I am,” I replied. Then he asked, “What church are you from?” “Church of the Nazarene,” I said. “Well, I am too!”, he exclaimed. I then asked him, “Do you know Agosto Castelo and Nsolo Castelo?” (They were two former students from that very town.) Rather surprise, he replied, “They’re my brothers!” I told him to give them my greetings when he next saw them and to tell the folks at the church that he’d been an answer to prayer that evening. Our fuel tank holds 60 litres; we pumped 60.2 litres into the tank. We made it back to the mission guest house greatly relieved and praising the Lord for His protection and provision during the day. We a cup of soup and some crackers for our dinner and had a lovely nights rest in preparation for our next day’s travel.
PS - Since preparing this first installment, our computer was stolen in a house breakin. As a result, we lost all the photos we took on this trip. We hope you'll be able to "image" the trip with your imagination and our descriptions. More installments will be forthcoming in the week ahead. Dave
June 23rd. We were up early on Tuesday morning. The pick-up was packed the night before with everything but our suitcases. Orlando Siapange, one of our students who we were taking home for the term break, was waiting eagerly to leave, and as soon as Mama Uate, one of our Bible school teachers, arrived, we had a prayer and we set out on our nearly four week adventure. After filling up the fuel tank, we were headed north.
The trip was uneventful as we crossed into Gaza Province and made our way up to Xai Xai. We crossed the Limpopo River around 9am and continued on through the town of Xai Xai. Half way through the town we encountered our first dose of bad roads – pot holes and narrow pavements and drop-offs on the edge of the road made progress slow and a bit risky. Eventually we were out of town and things improved a little, though preparations were underway for highway repairs kept us from making rapid progress. For the next 80 kilometers (50 miles) we had poor road surfaces, and then we crossed into Inhambane Province and the road improved drastically! In Quissico, we pulled into a filling station to look for toilets and there was our former student, Zacarias Mutombene, just coming out of the local administrator’s offices next door. We had planned to visit him and his family at the church they are pasturing but had not phoned ahead. We followed him down the hill to the church and had a lovely visit for about 40 minutes or so before continuing through coconut palm plantations on to our next stop in Massingue.
As we entered Massingue, we phone another former student, Helder Zimba, who is planting a church there in the town. He came out to the highway to meet us and we followed him back about 200 meters off the main highway to the church. The current church is made of woven palm leaves and thatched roof, but they are starting construction on a block building that, when finished, will accommodate about 300 persons easily. Mama Zimba was visiting family in Maputo with their new baby daughter so we only got to see Helder and his son, Josué.
We left Massingue around 2pm and headed north again for our destination of the day, Vilanculos, and the home of our district superintendent, Rev. Simeão Mulhanga, a 1996 graduate of the seminary. The first 80 kilometers were pretty rough with more potholes, but that smoothed out into a beautiful highway, lined with baobab trees and coconut palms. The closer we got to Vilanculos, the fewer were the palms and other trees took their place. Finally, a large number of heavy trucks parked on the roadside, and a sudden appearance of potholes, told us we were at the turnoff for Vilanculos. We left the main highway and headed toward the coast, driving another 15 kilometers in rapidly fading daylight until we arrived at our church just outside the main town. Here we were warmly welcomed by the Mulhanga family and treated to a lovely dinner of bean soup followed by chicken and rice and fried potatoes. Orlando spent the night with the Mulhangas, but we and Mama Uate had a cottage reserved at a nearby holiday location. It wasn’t the fanciest place we ever stayed in, but it was adequate for one night. On the way there, we thought we had a flat tire from a thumping noise we heard, but all the tires were fine.
June 24th – We were up early and returned to the Mulhanga’s house to get Orlando. Driving back to the Mulhanga’s house, we could hear none of the noise we had heard the night before. After breakfast and filling up on fuel, we were off again heading north. As we turned onto the main highway, the thumping noise returned. We checked the wheels, could see nothing out of the ordinary, and so continued on. It was another 400 kilometers to our next destination and the more we drove, the worse and more worrying the noise became. We made it to Inchope, the cross-roads of Mozambique, where we dropped Orlando off to get a bus to his home town about 30 kilometers east toward Beira. We also met another former student, Jorge Macherenga, a 2001 graduate, who is pastoring there at Inchope and caring for about 70 AIDS orphans.
Jorge showed us the way to the church where he and his family are serving, and the kids were there that afternoon. They children living with older siblings or with aunts and uncles or neighbors, and they come to the church several afternoons a week for activities, lessons, and a basic meal. This ministry is receiving about $300 a month from Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, but he has been told that this help will end in August. Jorge has started raising chickens to sell to help fund this ministry when the NCM help comes to an end. One of the things that we did here at Inchope was to deliver several boxes of handmade quilts that had been sent by the ladies of the Vancouver, WA Church of the Nazarene specifically for AIDS orphans. We also left some candies for the kids that were there. Our hearts were touched as they all lined up and held out their hands to receive the little that we had to give them. We couldn’t help but think of the words of Jesus in Luke 18:16, “Let the little children come to me and do not prevent them coming, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”
After our visit with the children, we continued on to a mission just outside the town of Gondola on the main road to Zimbabwe. Here we were to spend the night with missionaries who had stayed with us in Maputo on their way to South Africa several weeks before. I had phoned ahead to see if they could help with finding a mechanic who could look at our truck, but as we pulled into the mission, Carlos took a look at our left front wheel and said, “I think I found your problem.” Four of the six lug nuts holding the wheel on were only half tightened. We tightened them up, when for a test drive, and the loud thumping noise was gone! Praise the Lord! It was only the Lord who kept that wheel from coming off as we traveling the nearly 1200 kilometers from Maputo! There at the mission we unloaded our luggage and got a cup of tea, and after a brief visit headed the short drive into Chimoio to visit with Murombo and Ana Moises, 2007 graduates from the Seminary. They are pastoring the main Central Church of the Nazarene in Chimoio. We had a lovely but too short visit with them before heading back to the mission in Gondola. It was then that our next adventure began and we saw another answer to prayer.
Being in a hurry to visit with the Moises family, I had passed several filling stations on the way into town figuring we’d fill up on the way back. But, the first station we came to was closed already at 7:30pm, and when I pulled into the next one, they informed me that they had no diesel. We continued on down the road toward the mission and the next station had the same problem – no diesel! I asked where the next station was and was told it was in Gondola. That’s where we were heading, but by now my fuel gauge was below empty! We were coasting down hills so as not to use up the fuel we had. Finally, the lights of Gondola appeared in the distance and we coasted down the hill into the first filling station we came to. Two mini-bus taxis were there and so we had hope. I pulled up to the pump and asked if they had diesel. The attended said he did and we began to fill up. As he pumped the fuel he asked me, “Are you a missionary?” “Yes, I am,” I replied. Then he asked, “What church are you from?” “Church of the Nazarene,” I said. “Well, I am too!”, he exclaimed. I then asked him, “Do you know Agosto Castelo and Nsolo Castelo?” (They were two former students from that very town.) Rather surprise, he replied, “They’re my brothers!” I told him to give them my greetings when he next saw them and to tell the folks at the church that he’d been an answer to prayer that evening. Our fuel tank holds 60 litres; we pumped 60.2 litres into the tank. We made it back to the mission guest house greatly relieved and praising the Lord for His protection and provision during the day. We a cup of soup and some crackers for our dinner and had a lovely nights rest in preparation for our next day’s travel.
PS - Since preparing this first installment, our computer was stolen in a house breakin. As a result, we lost all the photos we took on this trip. We hope you'll be able to "image" the trip with your imagination and our descriptions. More installments will be forthcoming in the week ahead. Dave
Thursday, June 11, 2009
It’s been some time since we were able to add anything to this blog, but with a few extra minutes tonight, I’ll see what we can do.
June started out with a bang here on the campus with the arrival of a small – 7 member – dental Work & Witness team coming from Colorado Springs. Members of the team were Wes & Carolyn Taylor, Mark Taylor, Dr. Bob and Diane Meyers, Dr. John Ley and Linda Dadiva. They arrived on Saturday afternoon, May 31st, took Sunday to attend church and get over jet-lag and get set up, and then on Monday morning they started in on our students, first seeing all the kids and then working up to the adults. Rhoda and I were asked to help with interpreting for them so we adjusted our schedules to lend a hand and look a bit “down in the mouth” with the dentists.
I must say, during that week we truly saw the hands of Jesus working among our students. They were connected to Bob and John and Diane and Linda, but they were the hands of Jesus nonetheless. Although outwardly they ministered medically, it was all done with the grace and gentleness of Jesus. Such care and love they showed to our students and others who came to be seen! It was a blessing to be witnesses of their ministry. During the week they filled teeth that otherwise would have been unceremoniously yanked, rebuilt broken front teeth, restored smiles, relieved pain, ministered grace, and one retired D.S. even had a partial plate made giving him two brand new front teeth and a smile that made him look 20 years younger! If all the work they did had been done in the U.S. at American prices, the cost would have exceeded $50,000! So we are praising the Lord. On the scale of the world's needs, this may be a small insignificant occurrence, but for us here at Seminário Nazareno em Moçambique, it was marvelous!
During the week we also had a four-member team of Youth in Mission, a program of Nazarene Youth International and World Mission, arrive to spend about 8 weeks with us here in Mozambique. They will be working with youth groups here in the Maputo area and attending various churches on the districts and generally ministering among the Nazarene youth here in the city. They are Jerry Romasco and Allyson Yost from Trevecca Nazarene University, Kaylee Brooks from Southern Nazarene University and Kristin Gould, a recent graduate of Northwest Nazarene University. We are enjoying having them around and our house has suddenly been livened up considerably.
At the end of the month Rhoda and I will be heading to northern Mozambique on a four week trip representing the Seminary. We’ll be visiting former students and holding mini-pastors retreats as well as attending eight different district assemblies and preaching along the way. We’d appreciate your prayers for us as we set off on this journey. We’ll be back home in mid-July in time to start teaching in the second module of this second academic term in the Seminary. We’ll be sure to add another installment here when we return with a description of all our adventures.
June started out with a bang here on the campus with the arrival of a small – 7 member – dental Work & Witness team coming from Colorado Springs. Members of the team were Wes & Carolyn Taylor, Mark Taylor, Dr. Bob and Diane Meyers, Dr. John Ley and Linda Dadiva. They arrived on Saturday afternoon, May 31st, took Sunday to attend church and get over jet-lag and get set up, and then on Monday morning they started in on our students, first seeing all the kids and then working up to the adults. Rhoda and I were asked to help with interpreting for them so we adjusted our schedules to lend a hand and look a bit “down in the mouth” with the dentists.
I must say, during that week we truly saw the hands of Jesus working among our students. They were connected to Bob and John and Diane and Linda, but they were the hands of Jesus nonetheless. Although outwardly they ministered medically, it was all done with the grace and gentleness of Jesus. Such care and love they showed to our students and others who came to be seen! It was a blessing to be witnesses of their ministry. During the week they filled teeth that otherwise would have been unceremoniously yanked, rebuilt broken front teeth, restored smiles, relieved pain, ministered grace, and one retired D.S. even had a partial plate made giving him two brand new front teeth and a smile that made him look 20 years younger! If all the work they did had been done in the U.S. at American prices, the cost would have exceeded $50,000! So we are praising the Lord. On the scale of the world's needs, this may be a small insignificant occurrence, but for us here at Seminário Nazareno em Moçambique, it was marvelous!
During the week we also had a four-member team of Youth in Mission, a program of Nazarene Youth International and World Mission, arrive to spend about 8 weeks with us here in Mozambique. They will be working with youth groups here in the Maputo area and attending various churches on the districts and generally ministering among the Nazarene youth here in the city. They are Jerry Romasco and Allyson Yost from Trevecca Nazarene University, Kaylee Brooks from Southern Nazarene University and Kristin Gould, a recent graduate of Northwest Nazarene University. We are enjoying having them around and our house has suddenly been livened up considerably.
At the end of the month Rhoda and I will be heading to northern Mozambique on a four week trip representing the Seminary. We’ll be visiting former students and holding mini-pastors retreats as well as attending eight different district assemblies and preaching along the way. We’d appreciate your prayers for us as we set off on this journey. We’ll be back home in mid-July in time to start teaching in the second module of this second academic term in the Seminary. We’ll be sure to add another installment here when we return with a description of all our adventures.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sunday - 3 May 2009
We're having a recuperative and lazy Sunday afternoon here in Maputo this afternoon. For the past hour we have been "enjoying" one whopper of a thunder and lightning storm. The lightning flashed all around us. The thunder crashed, the rain just poured down and the wind whipped the trees here in the yard. The electricity in the house flashed on and off a couple of times, and the dogs nearly turned inside out. Finally, it passed over and the sun shone for about 15 minutes, but now it's clouded up again, though I think part of it might just be the hour of the day as the sun is starting to sink in the west.
Now, let me bring you up to date on our comings and goings. I will try not to go into too much detail since it will take too long to read it anyhow. Backing up to Thursday, we went to the memorial service for the Tshambe's son at Central Church. Rev. Mrs. Tshambe is our pastor at Maputo Central Church and Rev. Mr. Tshambe was our District Superintendent until he retired a few years ago. On Saturday night, their son, Morgan Teófilo, was killed in a horrific accident as he was driving to Maputo from Johannesburg where he lived. He was about 50km from his parents' home when the accident occurred.
After the service, as Mama Tshambe's brother was talking about arrangements for the funeral in Jo'burg, Rhoda passed me a note saying she thought we ought to try to go too give give support to the family. I was hesitant because we didn't know where it was going to be, who else was going, where we'd stay, if we'd be able to book a hotel room, etc. etc. When she said to him after the service that we might try to go, he started thinking of who we could take with us, and several names were suggested of people who wanted to go too and needed a ride, etc. We got home and I got on the internet to see if we could make a reservation at the Road Lodge by the airport and to our delight, found we could, AND that I had enough "frequent sleeper" points that we could stay for free! Then we called Ginoca Mondlane, a pastor's wife, and made arrangements for her to come with us. Rev. Tshambe called and asked if we could pick up two more ladies - Mama Carolina Mula from Central Church and one Mama Tshambe's sisters - at their house. And so the arrangements were made.
After the service, as Mama Tshambe's brother was talking about arrangements for the funeral in Jo'burg, Rhoda passed me a note saying she thought we ought to try to go too give give support to the family. I was hesitant because we didn't know where it was going to be, who else was going, where we'd stay, if we'd be able to book a hotel room, etc. etc. When she said to him after the service that we might try to go, he started thinking of who we could take with us, and several names were suggested of people who wanted to go too and needed a ride, etc. We got home and I got on the internet to see if we could make a reservation at the Road Lodge by the airport and to our delight, found we could, AND that I had enough "frequent sleeper" points that we could stay for free! Then we called Ginoca Mondlane, a pastor's wife, and made arrangements for her to come with us. Rev. Tshambe called and asked if we could pick up two more ladies - Mama Carolina Mula from Central Church and one Mama Tshambe's sisters - at their house. And so the arrangements were made.
So, at 4:15am I got up (I'd woke up at 3:30am and couldn't go back to sleep) and got in the shower and at 4:50am set out with the two visiting superintendents from Tete to take them to the bus station. I dropped them off and returned home to get Rhoda and get ready to leave for Jo'burg. Ginoca arrived a bit before 6am and shortly after we set off. We got to Tshambe's at 6:30am thinking we'd pick up the ladies and continue on, but that was not to be. It had been decided that the 5 cars going to Jo'burg would all travel together, and that they'd accepted our suggestion to avoid Ressano Garcia border (we'd spent 4 hours there two years ago on May 1st trying to go to Kruger) and travel via Swaziland instead, and that they would follow me! Well, the convoy wasn't ready to leave till 8:45am! They did have tea and bread for us all while we waited though.
The trip went without any problem, but it just took much longer than it would have had we been on our own. We led the group, followed by pastors Admirado Chaguala and Mordecai Nhabanga, Tshambe's son-in-law and one other car with some ladies from Central Church. All together, there were 24 of us. There was very little traffic on the roads or at the borders but a couple of the cars had a bit of difficulty with the long and steep hills first going up to Goba border post, and then up to Mbabane in Swaziland. We did manage to by-pass all the toll booths in South Africa and we got to Tshambe's son's house not far from the airport just before 6pm.
When we got there, there was already quite a crowd gathered. We all just sort of marched in and took over as only Mozambicans can do. Teófilo's wife, Nellie, six-months pregnant, was in the large main bedroom on the bed with a big blanket, and her sister was with her. Mama Tshambe climbed onto the bed beside her. It was a touching scene. There were chairs all around the bed on both sides and at the foot and our delegation filled the room and proceeded with a consolation service. That lasted about an hour, then most of us left and a group from Nellie's church came to take our place and they had a service. That was all over by about 8:30pm and then they served a meal to everyone who was there. I'd say there must have been 60 or so people there. A lot were family. Filimão and Samantha, another son and daughter-in-law (he is our former colleague here at SNM and is now Regional Education Coordinator for Africa) and their two kids were there, plus some others with Mozambique connections. There was a lot of visiting and reminiscing, and then Samantha started letting folks know about arrangements for accommodation. Some stayed with neighbors and some were taken over to the guest apartments at Wilro near the Regional Office. It was about 9:45pm that we took off and headed to the Road Lodge - only about 20 minutes from the house, but on the other side of the airport.
Yesterday morning we were up early and had breakfast at the hotel, then about 8:15am we headed out to return to the house. We got there shortly after 8:30am and the street was already full of cars as people had gathered for the procession to the funeral. Nellie's church was way over in Soweto so they'd hired a school hall on the other side of Benoni for the funeral - about 10km from the house. There was a of confusion getting there, but enough folks knew the place, and the rest of us managed to follow. We got there about 9:45am and the service was due to start at 10am. The hall was full of folks, and there was a worship team leading the service which was more like a worship celebration than a sad funeral. It was very different from funerals here in Mozambique! Filimão read a brief story of Teófilo's life and then shared how he and Samantha had been praying for him and had been talking to him about getting right with the Lord. He had worked hard and done well and had become part-owner of an engineering firm there in Jo'burg. He owned two houses (the house we were at was beautiful and large) and several cars and was well off, but had not been following the Lord for some time. Fili and Samantha were with them on Easter Sunday and I guess Samantha preached him a sermon and that day he prayed and accepted Jesus as his Savior. Then it was only two weeks later that he was tragically killed in the accident. Fili told the whole story and really preached the Gospel with all these non-church folk there who had known him from work etc. Then the pastor brought a powerful Gospel message as well. There was a tremendous sense of the Lord's presence through the whole service.
From the service, there must have been about 70 cars that proceeded to the cemetery - only a few kilometers away. We were there at the cemetery with a cold, stiff breeze blowing for about 45 minutes, then returned to the home for a lunch. Tshambes decided to stay there for a few more days and so Nhabangas decided to stay too. Also, Tshambe's daughter and son-in-law decided to stay too, so there were only three vehicles to return. We decided that we'd travel together for safety's sake and we left around 3:30pm and headed for home. We stopped in Nelspruit to get a few things from one of the grocery stores and to visit the loo, and then headed on. The border was not too busy and we got to Tshambe's house around 10:15pm. One of Mama Tshambe's sisters - Maria Mucavele, who has been a Mozambican ambassador to various places, and travels on a diplomatic passport - was with us and we dropped her off to pick up her car. Another sister was staying at Tshambe's house to keep an eye on it while they are away. We headed on for home and dropped Ginoca off at their house and then came on home. It was about 11:30pm that we drove onto the campus and home. Needless to say, we were rather exhausted!
Today we went to a new church out in one of the new bairros northwest of the city - Khongolote. The church is only a little over a year old and one of my former students is pastor. They had 37 charter members when the church was organized and now they are running around 100. They have a little reed building, which was full this morning, and they are accumulating cement blocks and raising money to build a building that will accommodate at least 500! They have a lovely large piece of ground with enough room for a church, a parsonage and Sunday School rooms. We had a lovely service, and our six students that went with us sang and one of the guys gave a testimony about how he'd been called to ministry. After the service, they gave us all ham and cheese sandwich on a bread roll along with a glass of juice - so we'd be nourished for the journey home. It was ever so nice of them!
It's now 5:30pm and it's nearly dark outside. I'll get this finished and ready to post, then I'll go down to school and see if we've got any emails waiting for us, and I'll get this sent off. Tomorrow we start a new term with new classes and new schedules. I'm sure it will take a few days to get into the swing of things. I'll also call Tropical and ask if they have any intentions of restoring our internet service!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Greetings! It doesn't seem like a month since our last posting on this blog, and I'm sure no one has checked it out. Still, it's early days and it hasn't been publicized at all. Just a few events since the last posting:
February 26 - March 1 = We took off for a a few days of break to celebrate - 6 months late - our 30th wedding anniversary. We spent a night in White River, South Africa and then the next day headed north to the Letaba Camp in Kruger National Park. We had spent a night there on our honeymoon in 1978 and went back for old time's sake. We spent two nights in a rondavel overlooking the Letaba River. We didn't see many animals on this stay as there's been lots of rain, water is plentiful in the park, and the bush is very overgrown. We had to do an 80km detour to get out of the park as the low-level bridge at Crocodile Bridge Gate was under water. When we got home, we could hardly use the office due to the smell of a dead rat somewhere in the office.
March 2 = Dr. & Mrs. Jerry Porter, our general superintendente and his wife, arrived for a two day visit here in Maputo. The evening of the 2nd we had an ordination service for three pastors who couldn't make it to the ordination services held in January.
March 3 = While the Porters were doing a seminar for pastors and students, we make a lightning trip to the Johannesburg airport to take missionary friends - Phil, Karen, Luke and Isabel DuBert - to get their flight to the USA and a ten-month furlough. We made a stop in Nelspruit to get the front end aligned, have breakfast, pick up mail and let Phil purchase a tire for his car (which we brought back to our house) and had them to the airport by 2pm. After getting them unloaded and checked in, we turned around and headed home. On the way we stopped at our nearest McDonalds (in Witbank, RSA) for supper and also did some shopping as we knew we'd be late getting to Nelspruit. We got back home in Maputo around 10:30pm.
March 4 - We finally were able to hunt for, and find, the dead rat. It was cleaned out of the bottom drawer of the file cabinent, but although the rat is gone (and a lot of stuff that it messed up), the smell still lingers faintly in the office, and more strongly in the filing cabinet.
March 6 = Dave spent the evening in the pediatric emergency room with a couple and their 3-month old baby girl. She was eventually admitted with bronchial pneumonia and spent the next 4 days in the hospital.
March 7 = We took our former neighbor, Dona Beatriz, shopping for a new refridgerator. The one she was using was only about 50 years old and was about dead!
March 14 = Today we attend the birthday celebration of the wife of one of our pastors, Mama Mate. She was 60. It was a lovely time with a service of celebration with lots of special songs and praise to the Lord for His goodness to her. Then we had a feast with the usual African dishes and some cakes. It was all held out in their yard under some big cashew trees with a lovely cool breeze blowing. It was delightful.
Tomorrow we'll be going to Xinavane to preach - about 150km north of Maputo in the sugarcane producing area of the province. We'll take some students with us and do some publicity for the Seminary as well. Then on Monday we'll be back to the regular routine of classes and school activities.
February 26 - March 1 = We took off for a a few days of break to celebrate - 6 months late - our 30th wedding anniversary. We spent a night in White River, South Africa and then the next day headed north to the Letaba Camp in Kruger National Park. We had spent a night there on our honeymoon in 1978 and went back for old time's sake. We spent two nights in a rondavel overlooking the Letaba River. We didn't see many animals on this stay as there's been lots of rain, water is plentiful in the park, and the bush is very overgrown. We had to do an 80km detour to get out of the park as the low-level bridge at Crocodile Bridge Gate was under water. When we got home, we could hardly use the office due to the smell of a dead rat somewhere in the office.
March 2 = Dr. & Mrs. Jerry Porter, our general superintendente and his wife, arrived for a two day visit here in Maputo. The evening of the 2nd we had an ordination service for three pastors who couldn't make it to the ordination services held in January.
March 3 = While the Porters were doing a seminar for pastors and students, we make a lightning trip to the Johannesburg airport to take missionary friends - Phil, Karen, Luke and Isabel DuBert - to get their flight to the USA and a ten-month furlough. We made a stop in Nelspruit to get the front end aligned, have breakfast, pick up mail and let Phil purchase a tire for his car (which we brought back to our house) and had them to the airport by 2pm. After getting them unloaded and checked in, we turned around and headed home. On the way we stopped at our nearest McDonalds (in Witbank, RSA) for supper and also did some shopping as we knew we'd be late getting to Nelspruit. We got back home in Maputo around 10:30pm.
March 4 - We finally were able to hunt for, and find, the dead rat. It was cleaned out of the bottom drawer of the file cabinent, but although the rat is gone (and a lot of stuff that it messed up), the smell still lingers faintly in the office, and more strongly in the filing cabinet.
March 6 = Dave spent the evening in the pediatric emergency room with a couple and their 3-month old baby girl. She was eventually admitted with bronchial pneumonia and spent the next 4 days in the hospital.
March 7 = We took our former neighbor, Dona Beatriz, shopping for a new refridgerator. The one she was using was only about 50 years old and was about dead!
March 14 = Today we attend the birthday celebration of the wife of one of our pastors, Mama Mate. She was 60. It was a lovely time with a service of celebration with lots of special songs and praise to the Lord for His goodness to her. Then we had a feast with the usual African dishes and some cakes. It was all held out in their yard under some big cashew trees with a lovely cool breeze blowing. It was delightful.
Tomorrow we'll be going to Xinavane to preach - about 150km north of Maputo in the sugarcane producing area of the province. We'll take some students with us and do some publicity for the Seminary as well. Then on Monday we'll be back to the regular routine of classes and school activities.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Greetings from Maputo!
Well, at the close of our first week on this blogspot, we've had one comment. Thanks, Dave!!!!
It's been a good week this week. Here at the Seminary we've been having our annual Holiness Convention all week. Basically we've had special chapel services each day with our former District Superintendent, Rev. Manuel Tshambe, as our guest speaker. He has preached well and there have been good responses to his messages. Classes have gone as normal with nothing too special to report on that front. We're at the mid-point of our first module of 1st Term so next week we'll be having mid-term exams and/or quizes.
Believe it or not, we've slept under blankets two nights this week - and it's mid-summer here. Wednesday afternoon a storm blew up and the rain poured and the wind blew. The temperature dropped into the upper 60's which for here, at this time of the year, is COLD!!! It rained all day on Thursday and only cleared in the wee hours of Friday morning, but yesterday the temperature was back up into the normal range - high 80's/low 90's - and it's been that way today as well.
We've had a different kind of day here today. It started out normal enough, and Rhoda and I both had our lists of things to do, what with it being Saturday and a "day off" and all that. I must say that Rhoda's list had things for me to do in addition to my own list, ha! First on my list was to get the grass cut in the back yard. I did the front yard last week but didn't get the back done, and with the rain we've had this week, it really needed it. I could have done the front yard as well it's grown so much since last week, but I didn't.
After that was done, I headed off to the men's dorm to hang up a bulletin board and to replace three lock sets in doors to student rooms. I also needed to replace some door handles as well (our guys don't know their own strength). Just as I was finishing the last door, Rhoda rang to say she'd discovered the drain blocked in the guest apartment where we were planning on putting some visitors tonight, so I went by the took shed and got a plunger and headed up there. When I got there I discovered, to my horror, that the termites had struck yet again and filled the drain pipes with sand, including the trap under the sink, and not only the kitchen but also the adjoining bathroom. My fear was that the pipes from the other bathrooms and the washing machine was also clogged up with sand, but fortunately, it was just the kitchen and the one bathroom.
Well, there wasn't anything else to do but tackle getting the pipes unblocked. I went out to the back of the building to check the inspection plug and found that the sand filled the pipes all the way out of the building and into the ground. So, I came home to get a shovel and the hose pipe since it appeared we'd have to dig up the pipes. I got started on that and a couple of the students came to give a hand and we worked steadily on it until almost 5pm before we finally got all the pipes cleared out and the water running through the drains again! The sun was beating down on us most of that time and we were exhausted when we got finished. In the process, I discovered some plumbing problems in the bathroom which I'll need to fix before we can put anyone in there to stay, and we need to replace some broken drain pipe outside of the apartments as well, so we'll be working on that on Monday it looks like.
When we first came to Mozambique in 1992, other missionaries told us - "Mozambique is a place where anything can happen, and if you wait long enough, it usually will." We've found that to be true! And as we write this blog week by week, we'll try to share some of that "anything" that happens.
Every blessing. Dave & Rhoda
Well, at the close of our first week on this blogspot, we've had one comment. Thanks, Dave!!!!
It's been a good week this week. Here at the Seminary we've been having our annual Holiness Convention all week. Basically we've had special chapel services each day with our former District Superintendent, Rev. Manuel Tshambe, as our guest speaker. He has preached well and there have been good responses to his messages. Classes have gone as normal with nothing too special to report on that front. We're at the mid-point of our first module of 1st Term so next week we'll be having mid-term exams and/or quizes.
Believe it or not, we've slept under blankets two nights this week - and it's mid-summer here. Wednesday afternoon a storm blew up and the rain poured and the wind blew. The temperature dropped into the upper 60's which for here, at this time of the year, is COLD!!! It rained all day on Thursday and only cleared in the wee hours of Friday morning, but yesterday the temperature was back up into the normal range - high 80's/low 90's - and it's been that way today as well.
We've had a different kind of day here today. It started out normal enough, and Rhoda and I both had our lists of things to do, what with it being Saturday and a "day off" and all that. I must say that Rhoda's list had things for me to do in addition to my own list, ha! First on my list was to get the grass cut in the back yard. I did the front yard last week but didn't get the back done, and with the rain we've had this week, it really needed it. I could have done the front yard as well it's grown so much since last week, but I didn't.
After that was done, I headed off to the men's dorm to hang up a bulletin board and to replace three lock sets in doors to student rooms. I also needed to replace some door handles as well (our guys don't know their own strength). Just as I was finishing the last door, Rhoda rang to say she'd discovered the drain blocked in the guest apartment where we were planning on putting some visitors tonight, so I went by the took shed and got a plunger and headed up there. When I got there I discovered, to my horror, that the termites had struck yet again and filled the drain pipes with sand, including the trap under the sink, and not only the kitchen but also the adjoining bathroom. My fear was that the pipes from the other bathrooms and the washing machine was also clogged up with sand, but fortunately, it was just the kitchen and the one bathroom.
Well, there wasn't anything else to do but tackle getting the pipes unblocked. I went out to the back of the building to check the inspection plug and found that the sand filled the pipes all the way out of the building and into the ground. So, I came home to get a shovel and the hose pipe since it appeared we'd have to dig up the pipes. I got started on that and a couple of the students came to give a hand and we worked steadily on it until almost 5pm before we finally got all the pipes cleared out and the water running through the drains again! The sun was beating down on us most of that time and we were exhausted when we got finished. In the process, I discovered some plumbing problems in the bathroom which I'll need to fix before we can put anyone in there to stay, and we need to replace some broken drain pipe outside of the apartments as well, so we'll be working on that on Monday it looks like.
When we first came to Mozambique in 1992, other missionaries told us - "Mozambique is a place where anything can happen, and if you wait long enough, it usually will." We've found that to be true! And as we write this blog week by week, we'll try to share some of that "anything" that happens.
Every blessing. Dave & Rhoda
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Greetings! This is our first attempt at any kind of a BLOG, although we've been doing daily family letters for some time now. We hope that with this blog, we'll be able to give everyone at least a weekly update on events and happenings in our lives as well as in our ministry here at Seminário Nazareno em Moçambique.
Please feel free to leave any comments.
Every blessing,
Dave & Rhoda
Please feel free to leave any comments.
Every blessing,
Dave & Rhoda
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