One Very Interesting Overnight Outreach…

2pm and we are leaving, only an hour late for our 4-hour journey to Alua, a village in Nampula Province. On the back of the open flatbed truck were 14 mission school students and 8 student pastors.


The 4x4 driving behind us carried a TV crew from GODtv who are doing an in-depth interview with Heidi, and are following her around. Heidi still has a class to teach in Pemba, so she and Shara, her PA, will head out 2 hours later and meet us in Alua, bringing 8 kids, and 4 guest speakers: Asher Interater’s team from Israel and the director of IRIS India, Ravi.

We had just left Pemba, and I was sitting in the front playing with my new camcorder – I was going to film this outreach and make a little documentary thing for people back home – when there was an police checkpoint. The policeman saw my camera and demanded to know where my authorization paper to film was. I don't need one; it’s a small camcorder, for a “home movie”, why do I need authorization? Well they made me get out the truck and wanted to see the footage I had. There was one shot of a pickup truck stuffed with 15 people, and 6 guys hanging off the back. That really upset him. Apparently (according to him) you aren't allowed to film while sitting in a moving vehicle. 2 of our Mozambican leaders were pleading my case, but the cops were really being nasty. “Fine, you all can turn around and go back to Pemba, OR she stays here and goes to the police station with us”. I’m just pretending not to speak/understand ANY Portuguese. They are eyeing my camcorder, so I quickly eject the tape and offer it to the chief guy. (Better that I lose a tape than the camera!) They take it, but are still not happy. Finally after 15mins, I’m not sure what happens, but they accept our apologies, hand back the miniDV tape and let us go. *huge sigh of relief!*

Will (driving the pickup with the film crew in it) was waiting just up ahead out of sight. We fill him in and advise the cameraman sitting in the back not to let the police see the camera.


The next checkpoint is just before the Lurio River, the provincial border between Cabo Delgado and Nampula Provinces. I have driven over this bridge countless time and never had a problem. Today however, they demanded to see all the passports of the foreigners and the ID papers of the nationals. Which hardly anyone has on them. Never in the year I’ve been here have we EVER been asked for documents/passports. They hassled Will about his insurance sticker that was out of date – but legally Will doesn’t need insurance, its optional, and he chose not to renew. It was a long long interrogation. Finally we paid the bribe of $8 and left. We were late enough as it was – and there was lightning in the distance, we don't want to be caught in the rain…

Rain. Lots of it, pouring down and drenching all the people sitting in the back of the open flat bed truck. Soaking the tents, the sleeping bags, the sound system. We stop and buy a big piece of black plastic and everyone huddles under it to stay dry. We hadn’t gone much further when Will flags us down and tells us to stop. Shara’s Landrover had died, the transmission had dropped out – and it’s new, it’s only done 19 000km/11,800miles! The problem however was that she had been driving behind Heidi and Heidi hadn’t noticed that Shara wasn’t behind her anymore… We try to get in touch with her, but Heidi’s phone is weird; it keeps connecting us into her voicemail, so that we actually hear ‘you have 79 new messages’. Heidi’s car is filled with 8 kids, Shara has the guest speakers, some more kids and a student. Finally we get thru to Heidi, she’s only about 5mins past Shara and she heads back. Its late, nearly 7pm and pitch black. The rain has eased up a bit, but could start again at any minute. Finally Heidi calls and says, “OK its too late to get to Alua, just go to the chief of the village you are in now and ask if we can do the outreach there, and camp for the night, We’ll go to Alua first thing in the morning.” Great. We don't want to scare the chief with all the white people at once, so Will and Carlos go see the chief with one of the student pastors from this area. The rest of us stay sitting in the flatbed next to the road. The lightning is spectacular and the cameraman for the film crew sat on the edge of the road trying to capture it when a motorcycle drives past. It’s an off duty policeman and he’d been drinking. And he had a hassle with the camera. Around this time Will comes back with permission for us to stay in the village and just as we head towards the chief’s bamboo mud hut the cop on the motorbike takes our driver’s license and the truck’s papers. We get to the hut and Ibrahimo (the driver) goes to Will and tells him what happened. The cop had taken off to the police station.

Heidi calls again wants us to setup the sound system and just show the last 30mins of the JESUS film. It’s raining so I’m not too keen on that idea. We decide to setup the tents first before the bags and sleeping bags got totally soaked so we had just got all the tents up when Heidi calls again and says that we should rather just go to Alua and stay there, we cannot do the outreach in the rain and at least there is a church building in the other village.

“Pack it up guys!”

The students sighed, “So this was just a practice run?” All the villagers were sitting on their porches watching in fascination as all these white people set up tents and then 10minutes later break them down again. They must have thought we were crazy. So we pack it all up and huddle under the awning of the chief’s hut, trying to stay dry. The motorbike cop had gone to fetch the chief of police, and they confiscated Will’s papers and license too.

Heidi and Shara arrived then, with Shara’s Landrover balanced precariously on the back of a flatbed truck – some random guy had seen they were broken down, stopped to help – when he realized that we help orphans, he said, “Well then I will help you” So he drove his camiao down a ditch so that the back was level with the road, Shara pushed her car onto the back, they used rope to tie the Landrover to the truck, then everyone got back into the Landrover and the guy drove off behind Heidi. They said it was scary; it kept swaying from side to side!


Heidi joined the discussion – the issue of the passports was raised again – then more police arrived carrying AK47s. They wanted to place us under house arrest here in this village because the jail back in Namapa wasn’t big enough to hold all of us. Why exactly they wanted to arrest us was still not clear, but they were having issues with us. Will came to the awning and told us all to pray, not take photos and keep quiet – things were getting tense. The rain was pouring, it was pitch black, and I had been having an interesting conversation with the cameraman for the film crew!

Finally Heidi said, “This is ridiculous, we’re leaving.” And for some reason the cop said, “OK”. Will came running up to us, “Quick. Get in the truck. Get in now before they change their minds. Move it. Double time!”

We (very quickly) load up and go.

Alua isn’t too far away, and we are welcomed by singing and cheering! Its 8:30pm and we are very late, but we made it, and that’s what counts. Everyone helps to unload the camiao and we dump everything inside the church, then we huddle in the building were Heidi has been preaching in the dark for 15mins already. We get the generator out and I try to start it. There was enough gas, but the big question was, “where is the pull cord?” I had let one of the Mozambican staff use it to test some equipment and he had returned it minus the pull-cord, and hadn’t even told me it was missing. It’s a good thing we were out of cell phone range; else I think I would have chewed his ear off over the phone. We use a piece of rope and wind it around the coil; finally we get the generator started and have some light in the church. After the preaching we prayed for people, and Heidi prayed for a guy that was lame, and he got up and walked. Pretty cool!

11pm and we set up our tents, in and around the church building and have a tuna roll for supper. Everyone settles down and by midnight all is quiet.

At 5am the Mozambicans start waking up and making a noise… by 6 it was impossible to sleep - I looked up and saw 7 little black faces pressed against the see-thru mosquito net covering the entrance of my tent. It had been too hot and stuffy to shut the door, but I need to change, so I try to get the door’s zip to cooperate with my sleepy brain, finally shutting out the staring eyes. I change and crawl out my tent, hoping that the water for coffee was already boiling on the wood fire. It was and I make myself a cup of coffee, strong and sweet, and munch on a buttered bread roll for breakfast.


I got the mission students to do sound – its great, so it leaves me free to film. Church starts at 8am and for once I’m not stuck behind the sound desk! There are too many people to fit in the church, so we move the speakers outside instead – its hot in the sun, so most of the crowd find a shady spot and listen from there instead. All the guest speakers preach, and there are a number of healings. A woman comes up to Heidi and says that her daughter is a deaf mute since birth, but she is at home, about 6km/3.72miles away please can someone go fetch her so that she can get prayer??? I offer to take Heidi’s Landrover to pick her up – when I get to the house there was also a cripple guy, so we picked him up too, and also another blind man. Back at the church Heidi prayed for the girl, she is about 12years old, and she said, ‘mama’, her first word. She seemed really bewildered, I guess I’d be too if this was the first time that I ever hear anything! That was awesome!



Heidi had to get into the church, we have to dedicate the building, and she has to officiate 4 weddings (well, actually one wedding for 4 couples). All goes well and the
couples enjoy their kiss at the end… the church building is dedicated, and now its time for lunch.

The film crew want to interview Heidi in the kitchen, so we can’t eat yet, an hour later they are finally done. We’re just about to eat when an Iris pastor comes to Heidi to show her 8 orphans that he has been looking after – he would like to register them with Iris, and he would like us to take them back to Pemba because he cannot afford to support them. They are older children, 13 – 16 years old. Heidi has been going the whole morning now; I think her mind was so tired. I was standing behind her, she turns around and says, “We cant take them to Pemba, what can we do for them?” My suggestion: Buy them goats? This kicks starts her again and she says. “OK, we will buy you 4 goats, some seeds for a garden, and food for the kids. We will register them and support them, but they will stay with you.” The pastor also needs a bicycle, so we head into town to get the bicycle.

Heidi goes shopping - an hour and a half later she returns with all the goodies she’s bought. She likes to shop – we got a bike, 30 capalanas, 50 pairs of flip-flops, a huge bag of rice, a huge bag of beans, buckets, school book, matches, candles… the goats will be bought in the village where they stay.

By the time we get back to the church, lunch is over (we had even fed the community), dishes were done, the camiao was loaded, ready to leave! There is a scramble to get everyone who needs a ride home on the back of the truck, the film crew are loaded, and Heidi’s Landrover is already just dust in the distance. Quickly we go after her – she wants a picture of each kid.

At the pastors house we unload the goodies Heidi had bought, she has a look around the house where they stay, then she dedicates the house as a children’s center, prays for the kids and then we’re off – its 4pm already!

The rain starts almost as soon as we hit the good road, and the students huddle under the black plastic again, some of them wrapped in the rain protectors of the tents. It rained the whole way home, stopping only just outside Pemba. None of the police gave us hassles and it was a fairly smooth journey home. The rain lulled me to sleep, and when I woke up I was so hungry, I realized that all I’d eaten the whole day was a butted bread roll and 2 little mangoes! The film crew was staying at the 5* Pemba Beach Hotel – they have the best buffet there, so I started dreaming of the meats, the veggies… I was ready to drop $20 on some food! But I knew I’d just eat some 2-minute noodles and tuna when I get home.

The sound equipment unloaded, the students dropped off and finally at 8pm I am home.
That was quite an adventure don't you think?

PS The GODtv programme should have been broadcast in 2 parts, on Fridays, Dec 22 and 29 at 10:30am... called 'In Depth with David Aldous', and is an interview with Heidi Baker, focusing on IRIS Pemba - BUT it wasnt - so just keep checking their website www.god.tv.

Pemba Conference!

A flurry of activity as the flatbed trucks start arriving, depositing their load , then heading out once again. The people had started to arrive! By the start of the conference on Friday night there were at least 2000 people camped out in and around the big-top tent, and also in all the outdoor classrooms.


Pit latrines and shower areas had been franticly dug in the week leading up to the conference, now no matter which direction you looked you would have no trouble locating a latrine - huge white ‘S’ (for women) and ‘H’ (for men) letters were painted on the bamboo walls (and for those that could not read, little stick men and woman were painted too!) There seemed to be some people who had never used a latrine before, so the conference organizers spent 10minutes during announcements clearly explaining the do’s and don’ts of using a latrine. They had also painted huge stick figures on the walls inside each stall, CLEARLY showing the correct and incorrect usage. That just cracked me up!

I had thought that we were going to show the JESUS film the first night, but instead they gave me an old VHS copy of some movie about a guy dying and going to hell and not liking it very much… it was in Portuguese, so not many of the people understood it, and the power cable kept being pulled out of the socket/falling out by itself so then it took time to restart the projector – so we never did see the end of the movie! But the people had fun singing and dancing and for once they weren’t upset when I said I was switching off the system – cos supper was served! Everyone rushed off to go eat and I was left to pack it up by myself (as usual) fortunately there was a guy that had forgotten his phone in the sound room, so I made a deal with him – he helps me, and once its all packed away, I’ll open the room for him to get his phone. It worked, and he somehow got more guys to help out so it went fairly quickly! Then as I was just despairing about getting a ride home (it was 10pm) I saw a Landrover drive past – yay!

The next morning the conference kicked off for real. During the night more people had arrived, and as the day went on more would still come, we were expecting about 3000 people in total from the other districts!

Well after an hour and a half of energetic singing and dancing the people settled down in the dirt and on the grass mats and to listen to the head of our missions school, Lesley Ann Leighton. After the ministry time the band came up again and the crowd went wild – kicking up another dust cloud as they praised the Lord. The bell for lunch rang and quickly the tent was deserted…

Each afternoon for the duration of the conference, Heidi had scheduled 4 workshops to run concurrently – and she had let me know the day before that I had to make happen a sound system for each of the 4 venues…
When I found out about this stretch of my super powers, I had quickly gone to where the mission school was having their class and asked one of the staff to get me 6 volunteers to do sound. Josh went up to the front and said, “I want six guys to put up their hands!”
Most of the guys dutifully raised their hands - not at all knowing what they were getting themselves into – and Josh picked 6. “OK – you’ve all have been assigned to extra work duty this weekend. See Nikki after class. Thanks”- I like his style! I might add that Josh had been a Marine before he had come here! When I met with the guys after the class to outline what I required of them, one of the guys gave a sigh of relief that the assignment had to do with sound – when he had put up his hand he had thought that maybe it was for “clean the latrines” duty!

I was so thankful that I had those 6 guys to help out – the workshops went off without a hitch and I was able to go home for 3 hours each afternoon to take a nap before I had to be back to re-setup the sound system for the evening session!

The evening sessions were amazing – all the people in the surrounding area had come too, and there were loads of people: singing, dancing, cheering, shouting, having fun - but it was loud.



So loud in fact, that I’ve lost the ability to hear some of high frequencies with my left ear. The minute I realized that, I sat behind the sound desk with my fingers plugging my ears. I couldn’t risk more damage. Now 2 weeks after the conference it hasn’t recovered, and I’m not sure if it will. I’m going to get some proper attenuating ear plugs made when I’m next in South Africa to stop my ears from more damage. So that’s sad.


Our high-tech sound setup, 2 Soundcraft Gigracs linked to power the 8 speakers

But the conference was good – I think that the people in the villages, those that live in the bush bush, went home feeling encouraged and not forgotten.

Sunset in Pemba

On the last day of the conference Heidi held a huge wedding ceremony for anyone that wanted to get married – there were 17 couples that said ‘I do’ that day. The message was about ‘Love’ and it was really sweet. Some churches in America had donated rings, and after Heidi led them in their vows our senior pastor went to each couple and they tried out the rings till they found one that fit. Each woman got a ring! Then Heidi said, ‘You may kiss the bride’. It was the FIRST time that I have ever seen a Mozambican publicly display affection, and this was not just one couple, it was 17 couples, all of them kissing. And they kissed for along time! ☺

It was a busy 4 days for me, and after working nearly 45 hours in total, I was fairly happy when it all came to an end!

No more little campfires in the outdoor classrooms, no more people scattered around sleeping where they could find space on the ground, no more laundry hanging on all the fences, no more 4000 mouths to feed 3 times a day. The people had all piled back into the trucks, and by Thursday the base was empty, and quiet.

Back in Pemba

I am back in Pemba after my quick 10 day visit to South Africa to write 3 exams - it was a nice break: hot running water, pork ribs - need I say more? :-)

I am back just in time for our annual Pemba conference - the place is a beehive of activity getting the big tent chruch expanded to fit in the extra 3000 people that are coming, and then finding them all place to sleep...



Pemba is blossoming - Summer is coming! The big baobabs are are green, and the mercury is rising and rising... its HOT here!

The sound systems are OK - they survived my absence, although the room was a mess with cables and speakers and stands lying around everywhere - I made my annoyance known and the guys came in and tidied, apologising profusely for being too lazy to pack things away properly... *sigh*

The conferennce kicks off tomorrow night with the JESUS film - and of course at least 2 hours of singing and dancing!

Até Logo! (Until Later)

Sad News

I received some sad news this morning, they said it better than I ever could.

" There are times when we don’t know what to say.
When we feel the emotions, but the words are so few, so,
so empty, or not close enough.

And such is the time now. Baby Lori is home now, in Jesus' arms.
She left us this morning, and, and He took her Home.

She just stopped breathing.

Just yesterday she seemed fine, was her usual darling self,
the laughing, joyous, cute, baby girl we all love so much,
and now, now she is gone and we are left trying to cope. "



You can read her story here: A Little Miracle

I will miss her so much.

Getting to Malawi

Mozambican immigration were being silly and had decided to take the end of Ramadan as a public holiday – this meant that my passport was still in their possession on Thursday when I was meant to be flying to Malawi with Rolland… We called and even sent someone to the office to ask for my passport – they refused to give it to me before 2:30pm. So frustrating!!!

Eventually I had to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to go to Lilongwe for the Iris Central Malawi Conference. I walked back to the little plane and took my suitcase out and sat on the front steps waiting for a driver to fetch me. Rolland and his other passenger cleared customs and took off.

I let everyone know that I was going to be in Pemba for the next four days and set about preparing for the next day. Suddenly I got a phone call – arrangements had been made and a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) plane will come pick me up in Pemba the next morning and take me to Lilongwe. I was astounded. WOW! Someone had sponsored me a flight!!

The next morning bright and early I was at the airport – it was deserted and the few staff that was there must have thought I was slightly crazy, being there so early when there were no scheduled flights for the next 5 hours. It wasn’t too long before I saw the plane land – the guy at the gift shop kindly let me onto the runway and he also called the immigration guy to let him know I was there. He arrived 30 mins later and stamped me out the country. Finally we were off.

The pilot, Dave, had been working with MAF in Mozambique for 10 years! After we took off he let me fly the plane – quite a challenge trying to keep it level and on course! But it was fun – we had to dodge the clouds because MAF regulations require that they not fly thru clouds - I think that made the flight even more interesting! It wasn’t long before I saw the clear blue water of Lake Malawi below us, the next thing I knew Dave had taken the controls and we had landed.

I was really happy to be in Malawi!

(continued...)

Malawi - Conference in Lilongwe

I was a day late, but it didn’t matter – finally we could set up Rolland’s 2 powerful speakers to help the other 4 weaker ones! (he doesn’t like anyone else using his speakers, its me or nothing)
We gave a new meaning to ‘surround sound’ placing the 6 speakers in a circle around the stage to accommodate all the people staring at us from all directions!

Mo, the base director for Iris Malawi had a really cool worship drum track which we played at full blast to get the people’s attention – they were entertained by Mo dancing to the beat – some laughed and others joined in!


Dancing to the Drums

The Malawians as such a friendly people, and they differ in many ways to the Mozambicans we work with daily, but in some ways they are still the same, for example: The worship times were as usual a mixture of dancing and aerobics lasting about an hour and a half. Preaching translated into the local language, Chichewa, followed the energetic worship time and then we prayed for people and allowed God to move. There were so many testimonies at the end that blew me away. The Malawian culture does not often allow women to participate in church services, much less allow them to testify on stage. One after the other they described how sickness had left them or their families, how even in the face of extreme poverty they have discovered joy they never knew before and how they will go back to their villages refreshed and filled with more of God’s love.


The conference at night

The 3 days flew past – and before I knew it we were having our final service. They had arranged for a little variety concert, a showcase of singing for an hour before church started – young kids, old men, a man with an accordion, a family – but the group that stole the show was a group of women with babies tied to their backs. They started really quietly and had a pretty nice song going when suddenly they stopped and did a little ‘doe - doe - doe - tchaaaaaa” and then carried on with the song. The crowd went wild, cheering and clapping. It was great! Who would have thought, little African ladies being hip?


Me doing my job

We had an interesting time at the airport trying to convince the immigration people that we were on a private flight, seeing that Rolland was not wearing a pilot’s uniform (shorts, a blue Iris T-shirt and a baseball cap doesn't seem to be an acceptable pilot outfit). Also our statements of, “NO, we do not want to check our luggage in at the check-in counter” was met by strange looks. “So how are you going to get those 3 luggage trolleys up the stairs to the departure lounge?” *sigh* eventually they twigged that we were on a PRIVATE flight, meaning our own plane, meaning we had to wheel the trolleys onto the tarmac to get to the plane. They let us take the trolleys through the transit lounge on the ground floor – I got stuck trying to wheel the 2 speakers through the metal detector – it didn’t go off, the speakers were just too wide! But finally we got to the plane, loaded it and took off.

The flight back was uneventful; we missed the 5pm cut off for landing in Pemba by 15mins, so we had to pay the fine for a late landing – all because we had stopped to buy cokes in Lilongwe! (maybe the hassle at the airport was also to blame). But it was nice to be home again!

Dogs, Monkeys & A New House!

While I was in Morrumbala building the house for the orphans I bought a puppy! She belongs to both my housie and I, and we decided to call her ‘Bala’, after Morrumbala, but it also happens to mean, ‘bullet’!


Bala 2 months old

Its like having a little baby in house – the landmines and the puddles… *sigh* but we are getting the hang of it – trying to train her to be a good house dog. Not too sure what kind of dog she is… or how big she’s going to get!

She and Charlie the monkey get on really well – he escaped the other night and when I woke up to let Bala out the next morning I saw a monkey sitting on my kitchen wall!



He jumped down and Bala and he played for about an hour, chasing each other, tumbling, and tugging ears and tails! It was so cute.




Jessie and I have moved to a smaller house – so just the two of us live there now, and we have a bathroom INSIDE the house as well as a kitchen! And they finally hooked us up to the water too, we had been paying kids (with candy) to carry water for us… so now when the city has water I can take a real shower and walk back to my room in only a towel and not worry that half the base can see me! The only thing that needs to be fixed is the meter high gap between the roof and the wall in the kitchen/verandah area… It’s a security risk - I’ve hopped over it before, hopefully they will put bars and mosquito netting in soon!

Its so nice to live in a little house, they even planted a pretty little garden outside it! Sad thing is that we don't have a yard anymore, so Bala has to stay inside, else she runs around and eats the food scraps and fish bones out of the buckets the Mozambicans leave outside their houses!

Grrrouwf!!

Police...

One lazy Saturday we decided to go to the beach, to Murrebué, about 20mins away. I borrowed the Landrover and we see who all is going – so Will says he will take his car too. But he wants to go the long way round and drive on the beach, so the girls pile into the Landy and off we go. There is a Police checkpoint just as you leave the city and they stop everyone, but today they weren’t there – yay! But then as we were nearing the turnoff when we saw a little uniformed man wave us down… he asks to see my license and the car’s papers. No problem.


“There is a problem here, these papers do not say there is a roof rack added to the car. And also the payload weight written down is 1 ‘4’ 80 and on the car is says 1 ‘9’ 80. We go talk to the chief”

I get out the car and follow him to the side of the road where his supervisor is standing with another lady cop. “Please sir, let me call our head driver, he speaks better Portuguese than I do”… “No, your Portuguese is good”. Well at least I got a compliment out of it. I still try to convince him that the ‘4’ is just a poorly written ‘9’ and that I was so so so so sorry that we didn’t amend the papers to include the roof rack. He’s not buying.

He suddenly asks me, ”are you married?”
No I’m not married. I’m too young.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”
I don't have a boyfriend either.

“but you are so pretty, will you be my wife?”
Actually there was a guy I like a little bit.

“but we can just sleep together”
NO! I have a boyfriend.

“your boyfriend is in Pemba?”
yes…

“why is he not with you?”
ummm… he has to work today

“so do you sleep with him?”
NO.

“But how do you know if you like him if you don't sleep with him?”
I am a Christian, you must only sleep with your husband.

→ The other 3 police officers were cracking up; they thought it was the funniest thing ever. And they still had my license and the car’s papers else I would have punched him and ran.

“OK, so do you want to go on a date with me?”
No

“Don’t you like me?
NO.

“Why not?”
umm…

“So do any of the other girls in the car want to marry me?”
No, they ALL have boyfriends.
Please I just want to go to the beach to relax.

“But your paper’s are wrong”
I am so sorry.
Please can we go to the beach?
I will fix the papers on Monday.

“OK. Go. Maybe we can have a date some other time”

They hand back the papers and I get back in the car. I think that from now on the extent of my Portuguese when dealing with police will be, ‘now faa lou por chew ges’ (I don't speak Portuguese)

I really felt horrible, like he had molested me in some way with his words and the invasiveness of the questions. And there was nothing I could do about it either, anyone else I would have punched, but he had my driver’s license, and I was in an Iris Landrover, with the Iris logo on the door, so he would know where to find me…

And just incase you were wondering, I DON'T have a boyfriend. I invented him for the moment!

Other than that the rest of the day was good – the beach was good, Bala got to go swimming for the first time and we ran on the beach. She doesn’t like the waves too much but when the tide is out there are tons of sandy bars with puddles she swam thru.

I decide that I don't want to go the short way home, just incase the cops are still there – besides driving on the beach sounds like fun. I am following Will’s pickup and on the first sandy hill we come to I stopped too soon and got a bit stuck – but I put the DiffLock on, 4 High and there I go, reverse out the sand. Then the DiffLock off and I pick up speed and we clear the sand bar easily. There is a silence in the car as the girls process what just happened. But I love it! The tide had come in too much for us to drive on the beach itself, but there was a path right next to the beach we drove on. One part was on an angle, I’m sure it was close to 40 degrees, because it was scary, felt like we were going to roll, but so much fun! I like this kind of driving, off-roading!!!

Sunday after church I was invited by the same bunch of people to have a barbeque on the beach – Will had bought a whole goat and we grilled that on a huge grill they had made for their 4th of July party. It was so good. The goat I’ve eaten in the villages and at the center has always been in a stew, so to have a huge chunk of grilled goat was fantastic! The dogs loved the bones, the one we gave Bala was nearly as big as she was!

We dug a deep pit in the sand on the beach and after the BBQ we moved the hot coals over there and built a fire. It was great, the stars were out, there was NO one around, and the moon was a huge red ball, reflecting over all the rock pools formed by the outgoing tide. It was beautiful.

Collecting Kids

You might remember the village called Miegane that I mentioned in the Safari story… well I spoke to Heidi about the kids and Heidi said ‘why didn’t you bring the kids back with you???’ :-)

Well it isn’t that simple, there are documents that need to be filled out and we decided that we would go back later with Rodolfo, director of our children’s center here in Pemba. The kids would go to Maranghania, a new base that was starting about 20mins outside Pemba, one that is much smaller, with fewer kids. The vision is to have boys aged 6-10 living in little ‘families’ of 12 kids with two ‘parents’. They are still building, but there is one house ready for kids. The missionary couple running that base, Michael and Julie were excited that they would maybe get some kids.

Monday the 5 of us packed into the car and set off for this village – its exactly a month later, October 2! We arrive in the village and ask people until we are shown to Joao Assane’s house. Fortunately he is home, and he remembers me from the bush camp. He was surprised that we had come back! Word quickly spread and soon there was a crowd around the chairs that had been set out for us.



We had no idea what condition the kids would be in, and asked to see the kids. They were sent for, but it turns out that all of them are staying with their grandparents, and 4 of the kids’ caretakers refuse to let us have them. One lady, a grandmother with an 11-year-old daughter, was looking after her 2-orphaned grandchildren, a 3 1/2 year old boy and a year old baby. She is too weak to work the fields to get food for the kid, so the 11-year-old aunty looks after the baby. Both kids are slightly malnourished, but do not look like they are starving.

Michael and Julie are not ready to take a baby, but they do not want to split the family. Its a hard decision to We go to the bush camp for and hour to think and pray – it’s a huge decision to take a child away from all he has known. The camp is just as beautiful and peaceful as I remembered it to be!

Finally we think of a solution: we will buy her 2 goats, and then she can sell the goat kids and make money. That way we can leave the kids there and they would have food and be looked after. I think that was the best solution!

We get back to the village and quickly a man is found that has goats for sale: we buy 2 female goats, one is already pregnant, and we hire a man to build a pen for them to be kept.

The lady is covered in witch doctor paraphernalia, and so are the kids, so we want to pray for them – Michael preached in Portuguese and the assistant chief translated into Makua (hardly any of the villagers spoke Portuguese), then he asked if anyone wanted to give their lives to Christ. No one. Oh well, so we prayed for the grandmother and the kids and got ready to leave.

The crowd scattered, and suddenly Julie realized she didn’t have photos of the kids with the goats! So we drove to the lady’s house and took some photos, then went back to the assistant Chief’s house. And there, standing outside the gate were 2 guys. As we got out the car they said ‘we want to receive Jesus’. How AWESOME is that???? We prayed for them, and Michael led them in a prayer. It was so exciting! They had heard about Jesus before, but never really understood it. Now we have the start of a church.


Adults from Left to Right: Rodolfo, Michael, Julie, the Grandmother (she is holding the orphan baby)
The little boy in the front, dressed in blue, is the 3 1/2 year-old orphan. Also posing for the camera are the 2 goats we bought them!

I had already told Joao (the assistant chief) that I wanted to bring a team out there for a 3 or 4 night outreach, and this just made me want to do it even more! So that is my goal, to get an outreach scheduled in the village, and then also do outreaches in the other 2 villages you drive through to get there. I think it will be great – Iris hasn’t been there yet, this was the first time!

I also realized that I liked being in the villages more than I liked being at the base in Pemba, I mean its nice to have a home to go to, but I like going out to the villages and just being there…

So we left without any kids, but that’s better.

A Little Miracle

A grandmother showed up one day and brought a tiny starving baby to us. Baby Lori was 2 months old, and she had been surviving on watery shima (maize porrige) after her mother died giving birth. She looked horrible, weighing a mere 2 pounds with nearly every bone in her body visible. We did not have much hope for her survival and it made us so sad so we prayed and prayed that she would live.



Today, 4 months later we have the cutest fattest most adorable baby! Lori has gained so much weight and is developing normally! She is 11 pounds and so healthy! It is a miracle – she is a little fighter, and every day as we watch her grow we can hardly believe this is the same baby we took in those few months ago!