One Thousand Words of Mozambique: Week 3

 

One Thousand Words of Mozambique: Week 3

 

Day 15: 1/25/17

   

This was, without a doubt, one of my hardest days in Mozambique. There was quite a bit of spiritual warfare in this village (and by “quite a bit” I mean “actually a lot”), creating plenty of space for the Lord to teach me about discernment in the Spirit and increase my confidence in the fact that the power inside of me is greater than any power of this world. The African church services drained me, as I (and some others on my team) experienced very obvious spiritual attacks. This picture is of the church in Zavala still being built. As a whole, we were confused as to why the Lord would have called us to this village without allowing us to do what we came for (build a church). Looking back on the week, I recognize that we spent so much time in community with one another playing games, telling stories, and sharing about life at home. I also learned a ton about the reality of the enemy’s attacks here on earth and how to combat them more quickly and effectively. 

 

Day 16: 1/26/17

Zavala was hard. I learned a lot and was pushed faaaaar beyond my comfort zone (both good things), but we all left the village physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. Because our transport for the next couple of hours was a flatbed truck, we all got to look super cute bundled in our rain jackets as it poured down rain. It was pretty funny at first because all I could think was “this is my life now”, but getting pelted in the face by giant raindrops as you hurl down an African highway at 70mph gets old pretty quickly. It was one of the many moments on the Race so far I have had to abandon my comforts and what I felt I deserved for the sake of the Kingdom.  

 

Day 17: 1/27/17

Today was a much needed Sabbath. I was able to shower for the first time in 7 days; the African Bush isn’t a joke, y’all. I napped, read, processed, and worshipped. Then, I somehow ended up sewing several articles of clothing for my teammates that were already ruined. That’s when my friend Katie called me “Susie Homemaker” for hours. Praise the Lord for teeny-tiny sewing kits, Girl Scout sewing badges, and rest days.  

 

Day 18: 1/28/17

Last day of children’s ministry! The kids would show up around 10am and leave around 5pm, so it was a pretty full day haha. Since these were the same village who came to children’s ministry each time, we got to know a couple of them well and got to love on them a little extra. At one point, Antonio (one of the young men working with Africa on Fire) turned on African dance music and the kids lost their minds; it was incredible. As soon as they heard the music start, regardless of where they were or what they were doing, every single one of them booked it towards the growing crowd and immediately started dancing. I loved it. When it was time to go, a couple of us piled into the flatbed truck with all of the kids to take them back to the village. 

 

Day 19: 1/29/17

This was our last Sunday on the compound. We went to church in the morning with the Africa on Fire volunteers who helped out or lived on the compound with us (first picture). These incredible men and women all had different stories and all worked tirelessly to serve us and anyone who stepped foot on the compound. The women prepared 3 meals for us each day (a process that started at 7am and didn’t end until dinner dishes were washed and dried around 8pm) and the men took care of us by driving us anywhere we needed to go, translating when we went into the villages, and repairing/ building things around the compound. Our teams truly came to love these people. Then there’s Jackie and Baileigh: the two women on my team I love deeply. Just wanted you to see how cute we are and how much we love each other. 

 

 

Day 20: 1/30/17

Mozambique: the country that broke all of my expensive gear. By the end of Mozambique, my tent had 2 holes in it, my sleeping pad had an irreparable leak, my light wasn’t turning on, the pocket of my hammock ripped. Clearly, the Lord was intentionally wrecking my materialism- and I kinda hated it haha. Rather than being fiercely independent and taking pride in my nice things, I was humbled enough to ask others for help and express the needs I had. Here’s a cute little pic of my newly patched and inflated sleeping pad. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it would still deflate within three hours and I would wake up on the hard African dirt. Without physical comfort, I had to fight for my joy this week. 

 

Day 21: 1/31/17

On our last day in Chibuto, we head out into the village to say our goodbyes and pray for the people. We got to see the home and meet the family of three brothers all of us grew to love and adore, Alsin, Surge, and Arink. These were the boys we met the first day it stopped raining and we had a dance party outside. All three of them came walked though the village with us that day, but the oldest of the boys, Alsin, knelt down beside us at one house, outstretched his arm, and prayed on his own alongside us. I glanced up in the middle of the prayer and couldn’t help but catch this moment. My heart lurched and I saw- for the first time all month- tangible fruit for the work we had been doing. My goodbyes to these three boys were the hardest. Every part of me pleaded for the Lord to stay with them, growing them into incredible men of His word, serving as a much needed revolution in their community built on broken families and absent of strong, Christ-like, male figures. Later that night, Baileigh had the idea to wash the feet of the Africa on Fire volunteers. It was incredibly powerful as we witnessed them be served