Mozambique Training and Evangelism Time

Wow, I didn’t mean to let it go this long before I posted again!First I must give a bit of a recap of our trip toMOZAMBIQUE: Kurt, Shannon, Funeka and I made up the team from Salt and Light. We joined with 9 others from a couple other relating churches. After a time of training in the Kruger Park, the team split into two groups. [no attacks from the monkeys this year Heidi!!]

After crossing the Limpopo River, (always an adventure!) my group headed to Mapai to hold a Geographical Training Time for the pastors. It was mostly pastors from Assembly of God churches who attended-about 15 pastors in all. To be honest, we were shocked to find that some of them didn’t have a solid understanding of salvation, so instead of teaching some of the deeper things of the faith, we were encouraged to stick with foundational topics of the faith such as Prayer, Grace, and Sharing your Faith...

Besides the training times with pastors, we spent our time praying for the sick in hospitals, children’s ministry after school hours, and building relationships the believers. Some of this was also done after we left Mapai and went to Chicumbane.

I must say the flies were absolutely horrid. They swarmed everywhere because our camp was set up right next to a crawl [lots and lots of cattle]. Whenever we were preparing meals we practically had to designate a person to fan the food to keep flies from resting/feeding on it. There were many moments where I could see that about 15 flies were resting on me. One had to constantly be moving to keep them away. It definitely forced me to be able to put up with insects.

There were also these huge flying ants that came out at night especially around the fire. They looked like worms with wings and I suspect that they talked to each other and targeted me most of all to bring terror to ;)

Each evening we held a crusade where hundreds of people would come just from the sound of music on loud speakers and word of mouth throughout the day. In such a rural area, the locals don’t often see sound equipment and experience the benefits of technology like we were showing through the Jesus Film and The Passion of the Christ. Many responded to the salvation call each night, and we prayed for the sick each night.

Throughout the week, everyone on the team was given the opportunity to testify/preach many times. Which WOW builds your faith so much! Reminded me of when Jesus said “My nourishment comes from doing the Will of Him who sent Me….” One of my favorite times was when our translator’s wife invited Funeka and I to come and have tea with her. This included holding the baby she was looking after and playing with the children as well. Really it was such a kind act for her to invite us to have tea with her because we couldn’t easily communicate due to the language barrier. And even though there was grace and we did understand each other through body language and laughter ;) the time we spent together truly made me want to work hard and learn Portuguese. You see even though it’s not her first language, most Mozambicans can speak it because the Portuguese colonized much of the nation years ago….

My other favorite time was when a group of us went hut to hut to see what doors would open to share or pray for the sick. And there was SO much opportunity. One of the guys we visited standing there with his wife and child asked us to pray that the demons would stay away from their home. We talked to him about the Authority we have in Jesus Christ, but it comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was a believe so we prayed with him for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they had huge smiles and said afterwards that they felt different

**you can see pictures from the trip on my facebook. there is a recent albumn for Mozambique !!