Cyclone Idai!!

I heard that there was going to be a cyclone in Beira, but I didn’t think too much of it as there had been a ‘cyclone’ in January that had caused some flooding in the city but flooding happens every year. However, this time the team received an email from Rachel, the BMS relief coordinator, regarding the cyclone, and it was only a few days before that I began to realise that this was going to be a lot stronger and more serious than the last one. My English friend, who helps to run an orphanage was preparing the windows and roofs for the cyclone and everyone was stocking up on food, petrol, etc.

We knew that the government had ordered a curfew from 11am on the day that the cyclone was planned. We saw some mini videos of the wind on the beach and yes it was quite windy. We were in Brazil at the time, on holiday visiting Sergio’s family, and Brazil is 3 hours behind, so we followed these events throughout the day and night.

This photo we believe was taken during the day, before the storm was at its strongest!

As we were getting messages from friends and seeing how the wind was picking up, we began to get more worried, praying that God would look after everyone there.

The most worrying time was in the evening, I can’t remember if it was 10:30pm our time or their time, we were getting messages from a friend saying that her windows had broken and water was coming into the lounge and kitchen and she was worried. We also got a message from a friend who thought that the roofing on her daughter’s bedroom had come off, water was coming in and the children were in the hallway sleeping. While another person further out from the city said that her roof had come off, the house was flooding, and they only had the false ceiling to protect them, which is very dangerous if a tree were to fall on the house. They said that all they could hear were tin roots flying in the air and windows breaking. We were trying to assure our friends as best we could, with tears of worry falling down our cheeks,…… and then there was nothing. We were in the dark. No phone networks were working. Those who were not in Beira at the time in our Brazilian watsapp group were frantically messaging and trying to get replies to see if they were ok, but nothing.

It was so difficult to sleep that night knowing the terror that our friends were going through and there was nothing physically we could do to help them and not knowing if they were ok. Tears flowed and worry set and we prayed. Imagination comes into play and you think about the worst possible outcomes and situations. The next day we managed to see some photos of the aftermath from people who had travelled to get signal outside the city. Places we knew looked totally different, the city had changed over night. This was upsetting but what was most upsetting was not knowing how our friends were. The cyclone happened on Thursday night and it wasn’t until Sunday that we heard that ‘everyone is ok’. It doesn’t sound like very long, but it felt like a very long time, and we can’t imagine how families must have felt not getting news from their loved ones. We only found out our friends were ok because flights began on Saturday and some visitors who were staying with our friends were leaving that day and they got in touch with one of our friends and sent photos. If it hadn’t have been for that, we still wouldn’t have known. Also the question in our heads was who is ‘everyone’? All the Brazilian missionaries? But were they all really accounted for? Also what about other non-Brazilian friends, how are they?

Our Church!

Over the following days, more communication came in via satellite phones, one network was on and off, and we saw some lists of people who were reported as safe. They still didn’t have electricity and to get any network they had to go near to the airport. By now we were just so grateful that all of our friends were accounted for and were physically well, though it was a very traumatic experience for them and some have to find new homes or get repairs done. Most of the trees in our garden fell down, although we were most concerned about 2 very tall, lean coconut trees that were very close to our house and could break the roof. However, they didn’t fall thanks to God. They are apparently leaning quite a bit so we will probably have to cut them down to prevent any accidents, but we were very relieved. Water did come into some rooms in our house but our team leader had already raised up anything that was floor level. Some tiles broke, but compared to other people, our house was fine and totally liveable. The difficulty then was seeing the destruction that the cyclone had caused in the city and in the surrounding areas. I’m sure you have seen photos and videos in the news. So many people dead, people injured, without homes, food, clothes. These people already didn’t have anything compared to us, now they have absolutely nothing! Their lives need to be rebuilt not just their homes.

Our Church leader’s house!

When we were in Brazil, it was so hard to focus on anything except our city and to be so far away in such a big time of need was difficult. We prayed and spoke with our leadership and decided to return early to Mozambique. Sergio would go on to Beira to assess the situation alongside Carlos, our BMS Mozambican team leader, who lives in Beira. Liz and the children would stay in the capital, Maputo, until it was safe for them to return. He has been there now for four days and from what he says things are getting back to some normality – for those who have houses and money!

The only road out of Beira after the cyclone

The only road out of Beira was destroyed by the strong flow of the flooded river, but it has already fixed so now the shops that are open can stock up, gas for cooking can be delivered (our friends were cooking on a fire), petrol can be delivered as well as mineral water that was sparse in the aftermath. The power is also back on and phone networks are working.

Rachel, the BMS relief coordinator, arrived in Maputo yesterday and will travel to Beira today to help Sergio and Carlos assess the situation and to draw up a plan of how the CBM (Baptist Convention of Mozambique), BMS and other Baptist organisations can best help the people affected by this tragedy.

We are thankful to all the aid and relief organisations and people that are donating to help the massive number of people in need. It will take a very long time to rebuild all that was lost and more help is needed and will be needed for a long time. The other big problem at the moment is disease. We have heard that children are already dying or ill from cholera and the number of malaria cases has increased.

Here are some statistics from the UN:

• 447 deaths
• 1500 injured
• 58,600 houses destroyed
• 500,000 hectares destroyed
• 1.85 million people in need

Psalm 121 says “I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from You, maker of heaven and of earth”, and this is what we believe.

Please continue to pray for Mozambique and the long road ahead for so many, ad for those who out their lives.

To find out more from BMS, go to: https://www.bmsworldmission.org/news/cyclone-idai-mozambique-needs-prayer/

Top ten tips for surviving Mozambique (By the Action Team)

1. When taking the chapa (minibus public transport), fight for a window seat to get some fresh, clean smelling air, and so you don’t have to get up every time someone else jumps on.
2. Don’t sit in the front seat of the chapa because if it stops abruptly, you’ll be out that windscreen.
3. Use sun cream in 30 degree heat even if it’s cloudy – cos you can still get very burnt!
4. Pretend you don’t speak english when a crazy Zimbabwean man follows you round wherever you go.
5. Prepare to wait……..and wait………and wait……..and wait……..then give up and go home.
6. Wetwipes are always helpful when the power is off and you need a shower.
7. Pots of cream can be used to kill cockroaches but you will also kill the pot of cream in the process.
8. Always check for bugs in the flour, maggots in the rubbish, frogs when it rains, and millipedes that explode when you stand on them.
9. Don’t buy Fanta that comes in a glass bottle and then run off with it, as someone will come after you because they need the bottle back to refill.
10. Make sure they have the right measurements when getting clothes made, or it could be quite embarrassing……

New baby!!!

We are always learning of the many traditions that Mozambicans have and there is one I learn of quite early on when we arrived and I had the opportunity to take part in it recently. It is done by Churches but probably all religions will have their own similar ceremony. When a baby is born, it must stay inside the house until the umbilical word has fallen off and the women from the Church have a ceremony at the house and the baby is presented to them. Then the baby can go outside in the fresh air. Due to timings, this ceremony was a bit late happening, which meant that the baby had been inside the house for its first 3 weeks of life, in temperatures of 35 degrees!!!!! I’m sure he slept well that night.

During the ceremony, the  women pray, sing, read scripture, give advice to the parents, and then dance and singing whilst passing the baby around so each woman can have a turn. We even got cake and fizzy drinks on this day.

There are many traditions here in Mozambique and we learn about new ones each day but when we ask why they do certain things, they don’t know why. Traditions are traditions, they are carried out automatically through the generations with no questions as to why. This can be dangerous as Churches also go through the same traditions and they can be very unBiblical and unhealthy. There are other traditions that celebrate the Mozambican culture in an amazing way and no one should challenge them. We encourage people here to question why they do certain things as many people don’t do that, not in a negative or degrading way but so that they can be informed and know that what they do is honouring to God or not.

 

Meet the A. Team 2018-2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all!! from the Vilela Family

We are currently living with and supervising the fourth Action Team in Beira, Mozambique. We have recorded a video for you to get to know them a little bit and find out about a few experiences they have had so far. They have been here since October and will leave in March……

 

PEPE Joias da Africa, Mafambisse, Mozambique

Last week, we went with the Action Team to visit a PEPE (pre-school education programme) run by a Church in Mafambisse, which is a village about 51km from Beira.

Check out the video below:

Is it ethical for a Christian girl to have more than 2 boyfriends?

You are probably thinking that the question above is a stupid question with only one answer, but this was a question asked by a young person who live in a culture where it is common particularly for.a man to have more than 1 wife and family. This happens outside the Church as well as sometimes with people in the Church. So this young person has a valid reason to be asking this question, which was one of many questions that young people in our Church wrote down for me, Liz, to use in a Bible Study that I will do on Sunday about dating.

Over the last week I have been reflecting on this Bible Study and I was asked to go with a lady from the Church to visit another lady who is struggling in her marriage, so that we could go and pray and encourage her.

As we approached the house made of a mosaic of pieces of rock, we saw the children playing outside, one with very holey trousers eating cold rice out of a saucepan. The lady was sweeping the floor and got some chairs out for us to sit on. The house was very small with little furniture and I later found out it is her in-laws house and she is living there because they didn’t have the money to pay rent at the house they were living and it also got flooded during the rainy season. The lady who we will name Eloisa started asking for prayer for her family, and then began to open up about her situation. She explained how her husband had been working out of town for a while and as time has gone on, he has been spending less time at home and their Conversations on the phone had become distant. Then one day last year, Eloisa’s husband had said that he was working out of town, but when she was walking with her son one day near to her house, her son noticed his dad on his motorbike. Eloisa thought it was strange but for a while she had thought something was up. So she got someone on a bike to follow her husband and see where he was going. He stopped at a house and got out grocery shopping and took it in the house where there lived another woman and her children. It didn’t take Eloisa long to know what was going on, and she knew this had been going on since 2016 but had no proof. Eloisa found out that her husband was buying lots of food for a birthday party for the other woman’s daughter when she was struggling to feed his own three children and he wasn’t spending time with his children! Other events occurred, including the husband trying to blame Eloisa for the break up of the marriage because she was going off with other men, and the husband said he wanted a divorce from Eloisa.

If that happened to you then you would probably want a divorce anyway, without hesitation. But what if you lived in your in-laws house and had nowhere else to go and you depended on money from your husband to live? While we were there the youngest child who is 2 was crying lying on the floor, probably hungry. There is no child benefit, council housing, etc. So even though Eloisa’s husband has treated her this way, she still needs to maintain a relationship with him in order to survive. It is not normal for people here to cry but Eloisa couldn’t help but burst into tears. We are praying that after some men from the Church speak with Eloisa’s husband there could be some sort of reconciliation, but we leave that in God’s hands.

It’s very difficult to do these visits knowing that your own life is so much easier than their lives when trying to give them advice and support. So many husbands have girlfriends or Second and third families. Even the husband of the lady who went on the visit with me has lived with a number of women in the area, but has now come back to her as it didn’t work out with the last one. What can she do? He is her family, the father to her children and she depends on him to support her.

At the end of our chat, we encouraged Eloisa to be strong, to treat her husband with kindness when/if he visits, and that it is only God that can change a person. We need to do our part and focus on own attitudes and how to deal with situations and pray for others.

When I left the house, I thought about how people cope when they go through such difficult situations, when they lose all hope, when it all crumbles around them. God gives hope to these people, to the hopeless. When they have nothing else in this world, we can only remind them that God never leaves them and they can trust and hope in Him…..

^” having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.” (Ephesians 1:18-19)

 

Party!!

Sunday 23rd September was a special day for Chamba Baptist Church celebrating their anniversary of 30 years!

Sergio was asked to preach at the anniversary on 16th September so the day before he sent a text to the leader to check the time of the service. If he hadn’t have texted the day before, he probably wouldn’t have found out that the date of the celebration had changed to the week later!!! That’s life…… in Mozambique……. and even though these sorts of things happen all the time, it still suprises us when it happens.

Sergio preached on Joshua 3: 5 – we must be prepared in a holy way so that God can use us in all layers of society. Being holy is not about just being separated, but being so close to Christ that we look like Him.

Below is a video of some of the worship time during the service.

In Churches here, they always like to sing as the preacher makes his way to the front before the sermon, so here it is….

It is great to be a part of celebrating the Church of Beira, Mozambique! May God continue to bless His Church!

 

 

“I used to smack the children but now I’ve learnt a different way”

This is a phrase that I’ve heard from a few people whilst doing child protection training, and my hope and prayer is that many more have that conviction in their hearts even if they don’t express it in words…..but hopefully my new area of work will help those children who are suffering in different ways.

I spent 2 weeks in France doing the first part of a post graduate certificate in play therapy skills. It was very intense for the 39 students (representing various countries) – 15 days of 9am-5pm learning in the French Summer heat (well we have 2 half days), and then we had homework on top of that each evening. It was a time of learning about yourself as well as learning how to carry out play therapy. We played with sand, musical instruments, puppets, ribbons, plasticine, as well as learning some theory….. I could see God in so much of the language that was used and the principles behind non-directive play therapy that I had to remind myself that I was not in a Christian environment.

I left France excited about putting into practice what I had learnt but also with trepidation as the course was taught in a UK/Western context with its infrastructure, so there is some uncertainty of how I will deal with situations in the context that I am in and a concern of starting something new by myself. However, on the course I met a therapist from South Africa who will be my supervisor and will guide me in my practice.

The neuroscience and attachment theory really helped me to identify possible reasons for why people act the way they do. It has given me more passion to want to help people in Mozambique, to help children to help themselves, enabling them to have a brighter future and to know that their circumstances do not define who they are but they can push through and be great and do great things.

I believe that God has blessed me so much to be able to leave my family and go to France to do the course, meet a great person to be my supervisor, and open the door for a placement. I am so thankful and I want to honour God for the trust He has placed in me to fulfil this ministry.

4 Years…

It is not only the World Cup that happened 4 years ago, but we have also completed 4 years that we are here in Mozambique and many things have changed – 3 became 4! God in his infinite goodness granted us a wonderful son. My job was with the youth department, now it’s in the area of theological training for Mozambique missionaries; more than 90% of local leaders never had the opportunity to have theological training or go to Bible school, so the training that I have been involved in setting up and leading has given the opportunity to develop in Biblical knowledge.

This year we had 3 leaders doing the training program who were met by the pastoral council and were approved to become local pastors. I also had the opportunity to be involved in chaplaincy in a secondary school, giving weekly Christian talks to more than 200 young people, I am also teaching at the Instituto Teologico Batista. I and Liz are also responsible for the Action Team and for other teams that come to Mozambique. Liz is well involved with the work of Pepe (Preschool Program) and teaching about child protection. Liz is also currently in France doing a play therapy course which will enable her to help in the development and transformation of the child. We do not know how much time we have here, but we always want to be led by the Lord …

 

The most difficult thing in missions is to make friends, and when we make these friends, we have to see them go, returning to their countries of origin or going to another country. being in missions can be very lonely. another challenge of being in missions is not to be close to your family, and to me that I am Brazilian, family are all, aunt, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, grandparents, even father-in-law and mother-in-law. share with them every good and difficult moment, see their nephews grow up, uncles become part of children’s lives and routines. But we also learn a lot by living in another culture, the way we see and appreciate the simple moments in life and also learn to be grateful to God for everything, see our children love and respect diversity.

The challenge continues, until He comes.

“He was adamant he was going to marry me”

Action Team Profile 3

Who are you? Rhiannon, 18 years old

Where are you from? A wee seaside town in the North East of Scotland called Lossiemouth

What will you be doing when you finish your Action Team tour? I will be starting university in Aberdeen in September where I will study primary education.

Why did you decide to go on an Action Team? I chose to do action teams because for a long time I felt God was calling me to do some form of mission work. I heard about action teams around two years ago and it just seemed perfect for what I wanted to do, especially as I had been planning to do a gap year before university to really learn more about God an build my relationship with Him, while being able to serve others too.

Best moment: One of my best moments was at one of our adult/teenage English classes we had in the evenings. We made such good friends with all the people there and it was so enjoyable. One night while we were waiting for all the people to arrive, they started teaching us Mozambican worship songs and teaching us how to dance properly! It was so great and we had such a laugh, and teaching them how to Scottish ceilidh dance was so much fun! We danced the whole evening (all while speaking English don’t worry) but it was a lovely night.

Strangest moment: One of my stranger moments here happened in a Spar in beira. To cut a long story short one of the workers was adamant he was going to marry me and every time we went to get shopping this because a lot harder to ignore, to the point where Sergio went into Spar and explained he was my father and could not marry me! We have not spoken to him since but I think that deterred him.

What did God say to you through this time? My favourite verses I really prayed over was in Ephesians 5:1-2 which says: ‘Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as the messiah also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to us’. Being in Mozambique brought me so much joy and happiness and I love being able to meet other Christians and share in fellowship with them, and to ‘walk in love’ with everyone I saw there, from my team to the Vilelas, to the people involved in our projects and to those we see on the street! This verse for me was a reminder to try and follows Christ’s example – in a place where we did stand out a lot, so that those we met who didn’t know Christ might see a bit of who He is through us and the way we act and treat people. I love this verse because it reminds me why I was able to be in Mozambique, because of God’s love for me and the fact he’s given me this opportunity to share it.