Hat Man

I took a picture of this man and he was determined that I would leave it with him. Someone finally got him to understand that the picture was inside the camera and that I couldn't leave it with him.

Baptism

First we started on nice paved road. Then, too quickly, we were off the nice paved smooth road to the pothole filled dirt road. After about 30 minutes on that road we turned off through the grass weeds continuing to the mission church where we were going. Finally we arrived after the path through the weeds had gotten smaller and smaller. We arrived to a location where once again I was the third missionary and first female to arrive at that area. We were there for baptisms.

After a few minutes we entered the church building and the pastor asked questions of the 6 baptism candidates. Questions such as what is your testimony? Then after successfully answering these questions we began the walk to the watering hole. It wasn't too far of a walk however the sun was hot and there was not any shade on the path or once we arrived at the water. We walked through gardens of cabbage and carrots. One of the nationals even gave me a cucumber to eat as we walked.

We arrived at the water and it was so interesting because the ladies all stood on one side and the men on the other side. Then the pastor shared some words before baptizing the people. After the baptism some of the people stayed at the watering hole to take a bath. After all you don't want to miss an opportunity for that since water can be scarce for the Africans.

After returning to the church we had a church service. One of the groups even sang a song in English called I love you Jesus. They really did good.

Lunch was eventually served at about 2:30 pm, afterwhich we returned to Nampula.

Clean your faces

After a river baptism, the most interesting thing happened. All at once the kids immediately leaned over and began washing their faces. It was the girls on one side and the boys on the other all lined up. It was in unison even though it wasn't meant to be. It was a cute sight to see.

Random thoughts on singleness

A topic which has come up alot recently in different conversations is the issue of singleness. How does/should the church relate to singles? How are singles treated? What do singles need? How do people perceive singles? Being a single myself many of the conversations really hit home with me. After hearing some different ideas about it I wrote some of my thoughts. I hope you will read it and take to heart whatever God may lead you to. Don't feel like just because you aren't single you can't read it. These are thoughts which can apply to all people.

Almost 40 and not married whats wrong with you? 20 years old and you only want to get married whats wrong with being single? 50 years old and happily single? No Sunday School class at your church which you feel a part of because you aren’t married or you don't have children? Do any of these sound familiar? Tired of hearing the clichés like God has the right one just waiting for you? Or stop looking and it will happen.

Singleness is meant to be a gift not a time when you feel like a lesser person because you don’t have a spouse or children. The single life can be fulfilling but it can also be frustrating. I challenge you to think about one question is your church single friendly? Are you single friendly? Not to be a matchmaking service for singles but to be a place where singles can join together for support and encouragement. Did you notice the person who quietly walked into to the church service last Sunday and sat by himself? Did you go talk to him? Did you reach out to him? Or were you in such a hurry to get out that you didn’t acknowledge him?

Being single doesn’t always mean that we have more money because it is only one person to care for and it doesn’t mean we have more time for God’s work. We are still people who have needs and wants. I challenge you have you said before he’s not married he has time to do such and such? Maybe singles do have more flexible time than what married people with children have but maybe you are expecting them to do things they don’t want to do just because they are single.

If you’ve been married for 10 or 20 years do you remember what it was like to be single? Or have you ever known? Were you married straight out of high school or college? Do you remember how sometimes it would just be nice to have a family dinner time? Yes even with the 3 year old who throws his food all over the place or the 6 year old who wants to tell you about his pet turtle or the 10 year old who doesn’t want to practice the piano like you are asking him to do.

In God's eyes we each have a gift which we can bring to His service and that is what we are called to do. For some people that may mean having 6 children, for others that may mean never having children of their own. But the one thing that He calls us to do is to love Him first and foremost and to love others, whether it is the single, the married, the widowed, the divorced, or whoever it might be.

Utah team

Recently I had the opportunity to help Corey and Jenni with their team from Utah. It was a great group of 8 people from their home church in Utah. It was nice to minister with Americans and to experience the freshness and excitement which they brought with them. We were able to share the Creation to Christ story in one of the neighborhoods, work with a childrens hospital ministry, do a True Love Waits rally, attend an African church service, prayerwalk and do other actitvities. It was a good week and I'm glad I had the opportunity to work with them.

Gas station

As I was at the gas station the other day filling up my truck with fuel. I thought in a few months I'm going to have to do this myself. I'm going to have to get out of the automobile and pump my own gas. Yes I've gotten spoiled with the fullservice gas stations which they have here in Mozambique. Also they do a thing which is like an amusement park ride with your car. When the tank gets full they "shake" your car to try and get in more full. The first time it happened to me I didn't know what was going on. Now I am more used to it, however I don't think I'll continue this tradition when I return to the United States.

Labor Day

Even though Labor Day is not an official holiday in Mozambique, I still enjoyed the day with a trip to the beach. Jimmy, another Baptist missionary, is leaving soon to move to his new work area. With the move he will be a 6 to 9 hour drive away depending on the roads. As a goodbye a few of us went to the beach for the day. We were hoping to see whales as this is their migration season but we didn't see them on this trip. Maybe in October we will have the opportunity to travel to the beach again to see the whales.

Literacy Training

Recently I traveled to Murrupula about two hours away for a literacy training. It was a good training with 9 misisons represented. Pray that the recently trained teachers will see the program as an evangelism tool and as a ministry of the church.

Enjoying food

Isn't this the way to enjoy rice and beans??

3 day old baby

This baby was 3 days old when I first saw him during my travels on September 4th. I knew he was young but I was very surprised when they said he was just 3 days old. Mom and baby seemed to be doing fine.

Seeing things anew

Before my recent bush travels a friend of mine encouraged me to see things anew on this trip, to see things like I was seeing them for the first time. I thought how do I do that? I started looking and I began to see how far God has brought me during these past two and a half years. I began to see things that I had become accustomed to on my travels, things such as bathrooms. I remember one of my first trips out to the bush I barely drank any water because I didn’t want to use the bush bathroom. Now that isn’t as much of an issue. Or how I can eat supper at 10pm by the light of a kerosene lamp and be okay with it even if it is incredibly hard to see the chicken pieces.

Another way to look at it is how God wants us to see things. He wants us to focus on the present, not on the past and not on the future. The things in the past we need to learn from and build on to head toward things in the future. As Psalm 118 says this is the day the Lord has made we need to rejoice and be glad in it. Easier said than done on some days isn’t it?

3 days travel

Here's something that can put into perspective for you the size of the country of Mozambique and the road conditions. I was talking to a girl from California and she commented that people drive from Canada to Mexico in 3 days in order to do mission work in Mexico. I thought wow, in 3 days they can travel in 3 different countries and many miles. In 3 days we can travel from Nampula to the capital city of Maputo never leaving the country of Mozambique. I thought that shows the differences in the traveling conditions between Mozambique and there.

Have you seen the xray?

The other day I received a call from Pastor Manuel asking if I could take him to pick up one of the youth from his church who had a car accident the previous day while delivering the Jesus film equipment. I said yes. Pastor Manuel and I had a trip out planned for that day so we modified our plans.

We went to the hospital which was about 2 hours away. I wasn't sure exactly what we would find. Thankfully, the guy wasn't in too bad of shape. He could walk slowly and he could talk. He was having pain in his kidney area.

The Pastor went through the process of finding him in the hospital and checking him out of the hospital. After a while we started on our way back to Nampula. Along the way we stopped at about 3 different places, two of them being police checkpoints and the other one being the scene of the accident. At each place the Pastor asked if he knew what happened to the guy's documents, where was the car that had the Jesus film equipment and then he showed the xray. It was the funniest thing to me to see him showing all these people the xray of the guy's back. I had to laugh at the situation as he showed the xray everywhere we stopped.

When we returned to Nampula we went to the hospital here so the guy could get examined. After about 3 hours he was on his way home again with prescriptions for pain medication.

Now, the guy is doing better I was able to see him yesterday. I'm not sure if the Pastor has been able to locate the Jesus film equipment yet but hopefully he will.

Pedro's mom

This past weekend I was able to see Pedro's mom. I went to her area for a church dedication service. I stopped at her house on the way to the church. I asked someone if she would be going to church and they said no she won't go, without asking her. I said ask her if she is going. They translated the Portuguese into Makhuwa and asked her. She said I'll come after I finish my work here at the house. I said okay and went to church.

She did come to the church. I noticed that she stayed in the church for the part of the service which I helped with during the church dedication. Then she went outside and sat. I went outside a little later and she called me over to where she was. Let me rephrase that she motioned to me to come over to her. (We have communication issues because I don't speak Makhuwa and she doesn't speak Portuguese.)

She had brought food for me to eat while I was at church, it was chema and hard boiled eggs. I was so touched! It was so sweet and unexpected.

I would ask that you continue to pray for her. I do plan on visiting her again and I pray that God is softening her heart to Him. I would ask that you would pray for someone who would be a Makhuwa translator who would be willing to go visit her with me.

What is cool?

Have you ever wondered what the word "cool" means? I'm not thinking in terms of temperature, I'm thinking in terms of saying wow that was cool or he/she is cool. This past weekend when I was at a church dedication these guys posed for photos, I told them you're cool. So I thought I would share the pictures with you so you could see what "cool" is in Nampula area.

A few cultural things I've experienced

Today I went to the post office to pick up my package or large envelope I didn't know what it was. The lady working said my name is Carol, too. I said really? Then she said both Carols are "gorda", fat. Of course for Americans this is not a pleasant term but I knew she was coming from the African standpoint. I just laughed when she said that. I thought what do I say? I've explained to some of the guys who want to go to America to use their English, that the term fat is not a good term to use in America especially with women. I said that can get you in trouble. I remember the first time one of the nationals referred to me as fat, I had only been in the country for a few weeks but I recognized the word gorda from spanish. I thought I know he didn't just call me fat. It was still a while before i learned how that is a compliment in the African mindset.

When I was out with another missionary the other week visiting the nationals in Malawi. One of the nationals asked her if I was her daughter. That just showed us that they can't tell our ages anymore than we can tell their ages. The other missionary is actually about eight years younger than me.

Also when I was in Malawi I was carrying a small duffel bag on my back. The ladies asked the other missionary if I had my baby in it. They were afraid my baby was in there and it was hid.

The guy came to the house the other day to collect the info for the census. One of the questions was how many animals do you have in your house/yard? Of course I was expecting to answer 2 dogs. Well dogs wasn't one of the choices. The choices for animals were goats, cows, chickens, pigs, and ducks....

Rat on a stick

Where was my camera when I really needed it? I was on the one trip where I had left home without my camera and I missed a great photo opportunity. It was pictures of about 10 or so small rats on a stick. These were rats that had been cooked a little and were ready to eat, a delicacy for the nationals. However, they weren't ready to eat by me. One of the men traveling with me was so excited to take the rats home for his children, he said they would be thrilled to receive these. The nationals got a good laugh at my being disgusted at the thought of eating the rats on a stick.

Waiting...

A common question I receive is what do you do on your trips? I took this picture as I waiting on the baptism activities to begin. It was interesting to see the national's reaction to my using the timer setting to take the picture.

Bathroom line?

I have to tell on myself...Last week I was on a bush trip. It was bathroom time. I gathered my toilet paper and went to the area behind the tree that I had "claimed" as my bathroom area. Well when I got to that area there was a national who was there. So what did I do? I stood there and waited for a few minutes. Then I thought Carol this is crazy, you are in the middle of nowhere with plenty of other bushes and tree areas to choose from, why are you waiting in line in the bush?? So I moved to another area laughing at myself as I went....

Sunset at Lake Malawi

No further words are needed...Just enjoy a beautiful picture.