Bush Outreach

The past two and a half weeks have been so full, I feel like I’ve been in Mozambique much, much longer!

We were divided up in groups to spend a few days in the bush doing evangelical and medical outreaches. Orginally, these outreaches were planned for just one trip for the whole summer, but they decided up double us up, so instead of waiting till July, I also got to go last weekend! The town we ministered in was only two hours away. A dozen Mozambican Bible school students and as many international mission students loaded up in the back of a truck along with a generator and sound equipment. We sang praise songs in Makua and Portuguese as we bounced down the road to our mystery destination.

Our caravan arrived just before dark, hastily set up tents, and headed by flashlight in the dark past dozens of mud huts to the town center, the center yard of their wall-less school. The Iris outreach veterans were still setting up the sound and projector and generator to show the Jesus film in Makua, so while we waited we made friends with the rapidly gathering crowd. On the walk I had a chance to chat with the pastor of the local Iris church. He said there were 46 people in the church, and that the Jesus film had been shown in that town three years before. I asked how many lived in the town. He would only reply over and over, “muitos pesoas”, many, many people.

We danced to an African choir on the screen as a crowd continued to build and the last light faded. This is probably the second and possibly the first film most people there had ever seen, at least in the Makua language.

My “color group” Aqua fanned out in pairs to quietly intercede during the movie. I found it strange that no one sat down, but three hundred or so villagers stood watching it. Finally, some in the front began to sit in the dirt at the forty minute mark and eventually most people sat down for the 2 ½ hour long movie. Afterwards, my Brazilian group leader asked people to come forward if they would like prayer for healing. Many wanted prayer. Some prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior! It was pretty loud in chaotic to me in general. The speaker was so loud my ears bled, and everything was translated to Makua because they don’t speak much Portuguese in the bush. There were drunk men in the back mocking, children just laughing at the sight of the “acunas”, as we whities are called here, and then the very sincere twenty or so who really wanted prayer.

Welcome to outreach in the bush!

The next day we had a church service in their small hut, which included a warm welcome from the local congregation and prayer for the sick. After this, the medical tent was open and people lined up to see the doctor and receive prayer for healing. I went back to the campsite to clean up lunch and play with the children, but my friends got to pray with a teenaged boy who was deaf and mute. After quite a while praying, my friend spoke the kids name into his ear, and the teenager said it!!! All the kids nearby who knew him and knew he had never spoken in his life became very excited and they all wanted prayer. Praise God! His hearing is not completely restored, so we prayed for him again that night. We just loved on him and I believe he felt God’s love and hope. We will keep praying!

That night we were supposed to go to a different town down the road to show the Jesus film again, but we received word that the elders of the village changed their minds and did not want us to come. This was sad to hear, but I knew that the village we were in, Naquita, had many more people that had not been at the movie the night before. This time we showed the film in the church yard. The whole atmosphere was much more positive. There were still guys in the back smoking, and we knew this town had a lot of people addicted to drugs, but on the whole there was a greater joy and spiritual hunger. After the film, I got to pray for a lady who felt sick and see the joy in her face when I learned through an interpreter that she felt great and that she wanted to pray to receive Jesus. Her name was Lucia. Praise God! There were more people in this smaller crowd who responded to the call for prayer and salvation than the much larger crowd the night before!!! We walked home with a great sense of jubilation. God is advancing his Kingdom in Naquita!

When we arrived back in Pemba, we were blown away when we heard testimonies from the other team that had gone out that weekend. They had a modest response after the film the first night, with Heidi Baker and internationally known missionary to Mexico, David Hogan. leading the ministry time. But what really was amazing was the second night when Heidi and David had gone home and it was just the Mozambican and international students and the regional pastor, Pastor Jose. One of the guys gifted in soccer drew a crowd on the soccer field where they set up for the movie, doing amazing tricks and wowing all the kids who gathered. They said there were 300 or so people when the light went off and the movie started. The outreach team prayed the whole time. When the movie was over and the lights were back on, they were blown away to see about 2,000 people had gathered on the soccer field!!! When people were invited to raise their hands if they wanted to receive Jesus, at least 800 people responded!!!! My friend Rachel prayed for two people who were completely deaf and after the third prayer, God opened their ears!

What you should remember is that this is a Moslem country! But God is preparing the way. They are so hungry for abundant life available in Jesus!