Third Week in Beira

I trust you have all had a good week or will in the future be able to look back on this week and see the good that the Lord has brought out of the struggles you have maybe been going through. Struggles and difficulties are never easy when we are in the midst of them but it’s very comforting to know that everyone that the Lord allows His children to go through is custom fit for us. He always intends for you and I to come out more like Him on the other side. Romans 8:18 says “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”ESV

I was very encouraged last Sunday to be able to spend the whole day with Felix. We met at 9am and he came with me to the church gathering. That was the first one he had been to in the year that he has been here in Mozambique. He us to gather with believers in Malawi but he doesn’t know many believers here in Mozambique and he can’t speak Portuguese so he was limited as to who he can gather with. The service was interpreted into English. He was very glad to have been there.

One of the church services.

We spent the rest of the afternoon together till about 6pm. We shared together over lunch. We have found that we both have a hard time understanding the others English but we are getting better at this and so we are getting a clearer picture of each other now. As I speak with Felix more it seems he maybe does understand what salvation is but because of the way he speaks he uses words I know but he has a different meaning for them. As he explains himself more it seems he maybe has accepted the Lord but from the way he has been taught it is up to him to keep his salvation. Please continue to keep him in your prayers, that he would continue to have hunger for the Lord and that He would get connected with a group of English speaking believers for fellowship and encouragement.

Sunday afternoon we took a walk down to the port.

My Portuguese studies continue to go quite well, although I am starting to feel a little over loaded. I am going to have a good understanding of how the language works after this month but I am going to need to continue to do a lot of study and memorization as I return to Lichinga. I am so thankful to have this time to study Portuguese right at the start of my time here.

We are very thankful to have running water here at the house but often in the evening the water is shut off till early morning. Sometimes after I eat supper I got to wash the dishes and there is no water. Monday night was one of those times. Tuesday morning I woke up and I heard water running. I went into the kitchen and I had left the tap turned on the night before when I went to see if there was water. Thankfully the sink didn’t over flow. Again Thursday night there was no water. Shortly before 6am Friday morning Dominic one of the brothers came into the house. I heard him come in and I heard the water running. He turned the water off and went in the shower. I got up about 15 minutes later and saw just outside my bedroom door that there was a river flowing down the hallway. I went to the kitchen and the sink had over flowed I guess the drain had gotten clogged. It had completely flooded the kitchen and pantry. The kitchen is in the back of the house and the water ran through a couple room down the hallway and out the front door. This wasn’t really what I had wanted to wake up to. I soaked up about 10 gallons of water from the kitchen and pantry and when Dominic came out of the shower we got another five gallons from the other rooms and the hallway. Thankfully they are not carpet floors. The house needed a good mopping anyways. I didn’t think of taking any pictures at the time.

Thursday I left my cell phone in the classroom after my lesson and it disappeared. Unfortunately this means that I have lost all of the 300 and some phone numbers I had in it. If you think I had your phone number before I would appreciate it if you would send it to me. I am told that there is a good possibility that I can get the same phone number again, but I have to go phone shopping now and see what is available. Especially for those of you here in Mozambique who get this letter and might be trying to text or call me I am not getting those texts at this time, someone else just might be though. It was a mistake on my part to leave it in the room but I am thankful that nothing else has gone missing here as there are many pick pockets.

The taxis I ride here are like mini vans and they call them chapas (pronounced shăpă.) Chapa is actually the word for metal roofing sheets, but it has become so popular that they use the word for taxis. No one really seems to know why but I have a theory. Many of the chapas are in quite good shape but many of them are in very poor condition. The drivers are often quite careless/reckless in their driving. One day I was riding one into town and we got pulled over for speeding. When was you last on public transit and that happened? One time the clutch was so burned out on the chapa I got one I almost didn’t think it was going to get me home. Yesterday morning I am sure the chapa I took had no brake pads or shoes left and it made grinding noises the whole way and we had to stop and buy brake fluid. To me the lack of brake fluid was the least of his problems. One day I was standing out in front of the house waiting for a chapa and one stopped down the road to pick someone up. They opened the sliding door and it feel off. I think they maybe call them chapas because many of them are in such poor shape they are ready to be recycled and made into chapas, just my theory. Anyways riding on the chapas make you keep very short accounts with God because you just never know when your time to go maybe. I am not sure if there are many more sincere prayers then those of a chapa rider.☺

A chapa

I have not been eating quite as much PB&J lately. I have been cooking a few other things like burgers, fried eggs, crepes and pancakes. Also a few other things that I don’t have names for just my own concoctions. I am getting hooked on freshly roasted peanuts. I can get raw peanuts at the market and I roast them in a frying pan. I love the smell of roasting peanuts and they just taste so good and they are cheap too. I am thankful that a couple of the brothers here help me getting the charcoal lit when I am going to cook. I don’t know what it is but I don’t have the knack yet. I have made a few attempts and gone through a few boxes of matches. I am sure I will get it some time.

One of the concoctions. Made with corn flakes, peanut butter, sugar and syrup.

Wednesday evening after I had finished my home work I went out in the back and Santos one of the brothers here loves the young kids in this neighborhood and he share Bible stories and sings with them. He had about 15- 20 out there so I went out to meet them and try some of my newly learned Portuguese. They are great to practice with and they get some good laughs out of things when I say them wrong. I played many different games with them most of which they had to teach me because I had never played them before. We played together for a couple hours till they had to go at 9pm. They all wanted to know if I was going to be be able to come out and play on Thursday. I said that if I got my home work done then I would. Thursday I stayed in town and got my home work done and I arrived at the house at 6pm. When I got off the chapa there were ten of the children sitting by the road waiting for me to arrive. When they saw me they all came running and greeting me. I was carrying my back pack and another bag they took them and carried them for me as we walk around the back. There were several more in the back and I found out that they had been waiting for three hours for me to come. Most of them are 6-13 years old. I just wish I could speak more Portuguese so that I could share more about Jesus with them. They are a great bunch a kids but they need Jesus.