A Mission Trip Part 1

To get to Angoche was a mission on it's own, it would take 3 days, a lot of sweat, a few tears, meeting some amazing people, a lot of prayer and quite a few laughs. So lets start at the very beginning as Mary Poppins, would say. We left Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church at around 2pm Friday the 14th of November and arrived at Heathrow at about 5:00pm ish. We all congregated at fast check in (Mr Administrator had already checked us in online) and I went to find Mr C (an ex elder from SCBC now living in Devon) who was a few yards away!!!! We said our good-byes to Ms G who was taking the minibus back to SCBC and checked in.

We flew at just after 8pm and arrived in Johannesburg at just after 6am local time. We were met by Mr & Mrs R who work for The Missionary Organisation as fixers, getting the things that the guys in Mozambique Mission Field and other places need. We were taken to their house and made to feel very welcome, we showered and had tea and coffee, melon, biscuits and sandwiches. In the afternoon we went to a craft market, where I met Picasso who sculpts rock, photo below. We then had tea at R & R's a fantastic cooked meal and a time of just wonderful sharing and fellowship. Later Mr C, Cameraman and myself were taken to an amazing guest cottage somewhere in countryside that was so beautiful and very peaceful (apart from the peacock!!)

At 6:30am the next morning (Sunday) we were taken to the airport and off we flew to Maputo (International Airport hahaha) a short 1 hour flight. Maputo is a funny airport for an international airport, it is tiny and cannot receive anything bigger than a 737? ho hum. We had a 6 hour wait also Ms T would be joining us here. We had bumped into her at Jo'burg airport earlier that morning. Two guys had gone to find Ms T from immigration but she had been taken somewhere else. After they had been gone an hour and they hadn't returned I was a little concerned and mentioned to Mr Administrator that I would like to see what was happening. Mrs G and I went outside and were heading to arrivals when I heard a small cry of "English Blogger!!!" I looked around and there was Ms T running up to us. She was OK but a little shaken. Immigration had tried to put her on an earlier plane and other things.

From Maputo we flew to Nampula a 3 and half to 4 hour flight. For a meal we were given a small can of coke and a bag of crisps?. The flight went very smoothly and we met up with E and P in the baggage claim, E and P are friends of Missionary Man and Missionary Lady from Holland, Missionary Lady trained with E as a midwife. Missionary Man and B.G a fellow worker for The Mission Organisation met us at the airport and took us to the Organisation Campus. We had a Boys and Girls house, joined by a wooden door, there were a few screams in the night. hahaha none of them were mine!!!












After a shared breakfast on Monday we had a tour of the Organisation Compound site and saw the offices and "Kithaapuo" the work that Missionary Man and Missionary Lady Missionary Girl and Missionary Boy have spent the past 12 years working on!!!!











Then we had a dust ride!!!! a 2 and bit hours ride to Angoche, most of the road is a dirt road.......well a dust road and we got filthy in our Land Rover unlike the other two cars going to Angoche we had no air con so we had the windows down....I am sure I still have red dust in my lungs.
Well it was a great ride and I learned so much from our driver, J (who is Missionary Man's boss!!!) he was telling me about the tribal systems and the way things work in the villages and stuff like that, it was just amazing. As we were driving we saw hardly any wildlife apart from the odd chicken or goat, Most of the houses along the road were made of grass, mud or weaved palm leaves. It was very Tarzan for want of a better description. I was so amazed at the beauty of the place and how peaceful everything seemed to be.... We stopped a few miles out of Nampula and looked at a Mountain...."Old Man" it's called.....
Hardly any cars or trucks, plenty of push-bikes and people walking. Having a convoy of the three 4x4 vehicles did turn a lot of heads...this would be one thing I did find hard, which I will mention in a later blog. Anyhoo after just over two hours of dust and very fast driving!!!!! We made it to Angoche safe and dirty Monday late afternoon!!!! 3 days of travelling and we would need to do this again in 8 days time!!!!!

Mozambique Mission Part 3 (A few Problems and what we did on some of the Rest Days, rest days indeed)

On the Mission we did have a few problems, most were concerning health and the heat, I had a migraine one day, that took me out of action. I sent out a txt to Mission Team Leader back at home and I was prayed for and it had lifted by the evening!!! A couple of others had upset tums and were taken out of action for the odd day but over all we all did very well.

The other problem we had was after the first dedication. We were all full of the joys of an amazing day, we arrived back at the men's house (there were a lot of us as about 6 or 7 extra people had arrived from The Organisation to join in the first dedication) We were visited by the Police and immigration. Obviously we all kept a low profile and let Missionary Man + J deal with this. There was a lot of talking at the front of the house, a couple of armed police kept their eye on everything, when I say armed, I mean armed to the teeth, Side Guns, AK47's and hand grenades!!!(a tiny bit over the top I think). Missionary Man and J would update us and say things like...well they want to check our passports and visa's, then, what the man from immigration really wants is a bribe!!! There was no way we would pay him a bribe so, things got a little worse. He wanted all passport numbers, names and visa numbers. J started to write these out for him then he said no, no, no I want everyone to come down to the Immigration Office with Passports.

So off we all walked or were frog-marched I'm not sure really.but it was all jolly interesting. There will have been 20+ people all standing in his office, the armed Police waiting over the road with an eye on us. And one by one we had our passports and visa's checked, well the team from the Mission Organisation couldn't have theirs checked as they didn't have them with them... and Missionary Man hadn't had his passport stamped at immigration, he had given in his passport along with Missionary Girl and Boys and they hadn't stamped his passport. This was a big problem or so the Immigration Officer said. Missionary Man would have to go back to Nampula and try and sort it out. J would stay with us and Missionary man and Missionary Boy along with the Mission Organisation team would go to Immigration in Nampula.

Missionary Man's passport should have been stamped when he entered Mozambique, but they hadn't done this. This is a way of generating some money as they charge you $50 a day for not having it stamped!!! Well Missionary Man spent a very frustrating morning in Nampula, the Immigration man had caused himself a whole heap of problems!! when they got to Nampula and the Organisation team arrived with their passports all sorted with the right Visa's his boss was not well pleased and told him so. Mozambique are trying to encourage tourism and this was a real spanner in the works. Anyhoo Missionary Man couldn't get it sorted so J told him to come back and see what happens at the Airport. (Guess what? he left Mozambique without any problems at all, the Power of Prayer is amazing)

We all felt a little deflated and attacked back at the Men's house. I made us all some Homemade Soup for out tea, a hearty soup with loads of fresh vegetables. After Tea I lead the devotions I felt it was a good thing to debrief about the day in full. I started off by reading from John and the washing of the Disciples feet. Then said how I been so affected by this service, the washing of our Hands, the food and how I felt we had helped lay a massive foundation stone for the Church in Angoche, and if we do that Satan would be really cheesed off and we should expect to be attacked and this really felt demonic. As a group we had a great discussion and a wonderful time of Prayer and reclaiming of the day for God.

The day after the dedication was a rest day. I had a walk up to the shopping centre or Down Town Angoche ..... well this is an amazing thing. I think there are about 12 shops all selling virtually the same thing. I walked down to the town with Mr and Mrs Administrator he was buying some provisions for the team, cokes and other bits and bobs.

Mr & Mrs Administrator buying things in one of the shops in Down Town Angoche

I thought I would have a look at what was available....not a lot to be honest. As I have said Angoche is really a subsistence town so I guess there is no point stocking trinkets and nick-knacks that wouldn't sell in a month of Sundays. But there again in one shop window there was a clutch from a Morris Minor? I think there must be 30 cars in Angoche and not one of them is a Morris Minor.

Rush Hour Down Town Angoche

With Pipi in the shopping centre of Angoche

So we had a few rest days, on one of these I went to the market with Missionary Girl, the market is a wonderfully colourful place full of colours, smells (some not so nice) people and dust. I went with Missionary Girl as she can speak Portuguese and would help me buy some Kapulana's (a wrap worn by ladies) I wanted some as gifts. Missionary Man asked us not to take any photo's of the market as it a Muslim area and it may cause some problems. So I don't have any photo's from there.

In the Men's House we had a house man called Assani, Assani was Mr & Mrs Missionary Man's House Man. And as Mr Missionary Man said he is a golden find; he is honest and a very hard worker. He will look for work, he would do our washing, ironing, if the water was off he would walk to the Girls House and fetch water.... and he would cook a meal for us on the rest days. This is a photo of him cooking for us. He is an amazing cook

Assani Cooking us a wonderful meal

Now when I am away on I usually keep my head shaved, it saves time and its so easy to keep tidy, well don't let Missionary Girl and Mrs G loose with your razor........

The Men's unlike the Girls house only had Water for part of the day, also the Girls house had Air-con in the bedrooms...we didn't. I had a fan in my room that was louder than an aircraft taking off, which is more than Mr and Mrs Administrator had in their bedroom. A shower usually consisted of.... Standing in the bath next to a large container of water with a Jug, poor a jug of cold (well luke warm) over your head, this felt wonderful as by then I was boiling hot. Then washing yourself down, get another Jug of water and poor away. 1 shower completed, the toilet cistern needed to be filled the same way after use.

More about Dedications and 8 weddings in my next posting.

A good weekend

I had a good weekend all the more so as Mrs EB had returned from her camping trip with GB. Mrs EB had a very husky voice due to her losing her voice on camp.... I am just really pleased she is home safe and sound. Saturday evening we went to Simla for a curry, it was a welcome home meal and I told the guys at Simla that I was checking up on the food for Tuesday when 16 of us go for my Birthday Balti...Mmmmmmmmmm tasty.

I was on sound again this weekend at Church and I also did the sound at a very quiet wedding on Friday, about 20 people and the Bride and Groom, they had been on Alpha and wanted to marry. It was a very special wedding.

Team Leader did his final sermon on Hebrews...and of course it was amazing, we really are a very blessed Church to have such an amazingly humble and fantastic teacher. Team leader told me a very funny joke on Sunday.

Patient: Doctor, I think I'm a moth!
Doctor: (looking at his notes) You are not my patient your Doctor is next door
Patient: I know but your light was on.

Made me chuckle.

After church the usual suspects went to the Jockey, well the usual minus a few on holiday and those heading to Cornwall. It was a nice crowd last night and we had a good chat and laugh. Later today I am off for another Jab to allow me to travells to Mozambique and later this week my good friend Skip will be coming round to hopefully do some more guitar and bass on the album. I really need to start the vocals and think about artwork and stuff. I am also going to pop up to the mission we are doing on Falcon Lodge and do some balloon stuff....

All in all good fun.

Wednesday

I have had a trip out to the MASTA Clinic!!!! the what? well if you intend to visit places that don't have the same diseases as us you need to visit there for a Cholera injection as my GP clinic doesn't do that one? well if only it were that easy!!!

Monday I called to make an appointment, the message said leave your name and number someone will call you back, I believed this statement of fact and did just that. I phoned at 10am and by 6pm no one had called me back? So yesterday I went to Handsworth Wood and visited the centre to ask for an appointment I have one for next week. Joy of joys....

I have a friend...well I like to think I have a few friends, but one friend who emigrated to Beijing a couple of years ago, we worked together at GWR Creative in Nottingham knocking out adverts by the dozen every day. Well my friend Richard has started a blog!!!! only a few years behind everyone else...but he was always like that (a little slow) It is good to welcome Richard to the blogosphere. I hope you enjoy Richard's slant on life, which seems to be a hankering for American food? I think I would want a good old English Roast or British Balti, each to his or her own huh?

Lastly, I have heard off Mrs EB from the Girls Brigade Camp that she has laryngitis via a text as she couldn't phone.. what luck huh, she never has that here!!!! I knew I could never be that lucky.