Mozambique

As some of you may
know, last weekend about 10 members from my team (myself included) tagged along
with the youth, from one of the churches we attend here in Swaziland, to a new country: Mozambique. The pastor of the church we go to, Pastor Sambo,
is originally from Mozambique
and he wanted to take a special trip to support his home church as they had a
huge celebration for the first Sunday of April. We were supposed to head out on Friday evening, but as always, plans
change in Africa. We ended up leaving at 5:15 am on Saturday
and made several random stops along the way. We still aren’t sure what we needed to stop for all those times, but
usually the bus driver hopped out and ran away then came back ten minutes
later. (We have learned to not ask
questions and just go with the flow!) So
we eventually arrive in Mozambique
and major culture shock. I don’t know if
you know, but they speak Portuguese there and the whole country looks nothing
like the rest of Africa we have been too. It was like we arrived on a totally different
continent, it reminded me of Havana,
Cuba. Craziness all over the place…the city was so
alive. 

We got to the church
we were staying and fellowshipping at and it was a very big church compared to
what we have been attending. It was
spacious and very clean and orderly. As
soon as we got off the bus, they ushered us into a room where they had prepared
fish, chips, rice, beans, milli pop, and some other food for our lunch. We ate quickly then hopped back on the bus
and headed for the beach. We swam for
about 10 minutes and the Pastor called for us to load up the bus again. He was trying to tour us all over the city in
two hours…it was a tight schedule. After
the beach we boarded a ferry and road across the river to the other side, where
we could buy raw fish!! Again, we don’t
ask questions, we just go. So we got to
the other side, then turned around and headed back. Once we were on the side where our bus was,
we hopped back into and rushed to the church for the evening service. We got there late, but somehow everything
worked out and we enjoyed the 3 hour service. Around 8 pm they fed us dinner and then we got our sleeping
arrangements. Some stayed in the church
and some stayed in the pastor’s house…Caroline and I were lucky enough to get
our own room at the pastor’s house without electricity, but with two cots! 

The night was rough,
but finally it was time to get up and head back to the church for
breakfast. We road in the back of a
truck on chairs…didn’t workout too well, but it was a clever idea. Then the truck ran out of gas on the dirt
road, so someone else picked us up and we finally got to the church. After breakfast, we were ushered into the
various Sunday school classes to be presented to the children.  Each class was so full of life and excited
that people from North America were in their
country. Then the service begun and four
hours later it ended. Whew!! I thought an hour and a half was long…but
those people really know how to praise the Lord. The thing I will miss when I leave Africa is the worship, although it doesn’t vary much,
when the Africans worship the Lord, they worship intensely and with
passion. No one is sitting down and they
all have their hands raised and are praising the one who created them. Then when the pastor speaks, he speaks with
such authority and enthusiasm. Even
though I don’t always understand what is being said, just the way it is said
speaks volumes about the urgency of the message of Christ. We partook in communion with our brothers and
sisters and then they took up some offerings to end the service. 

All and all it was a
phenomenal weekend. Nothing went the way
we thought it would go, but the experience we got fellowshipping with this
other church was worth everything. Praise God we were able to build stronger relationships with the youth
members of the church we attend here in Swaziland. Now that I look back at the weekend, it is
very evident that God’s hand was in everything that we did!