Malawian Mission trip - Day 1
Thursday, 6 July 2017
Another adventure has found us... On the 5th of July 2017, our family embarked on a mission trip with our church, Barberton Christian Church. This adventure has a bit of a different flavour... an adventure with a greater purpose in mind - to proclaim the name of Jesus. ... I have a feeling, that this will be the best adventure yet!
Leading the team are pastors Tim and John. And the rest of the crew consists out of Carl (head of catering), Wendy (head of sewing and crafts) , Maria, Gladys and ourselves.
The pastors will concentrate on training pastors in Lilongwe, and we will all be going door to door to tell people the good news! The ladies in our group will also teach the Malawian ladies how to crochet and do some sewing, in order to give them a way to earn income to help their husbands who are in full-time ministry
On our way we go, at 8pm! More than enough time to reach the Lebombo border post to cross into Mozambique! Fortunately, everything went smoothly, apart from a few chancers who tried to get us to part with our precious passports! Oh, and also the official who looked our passports over, just one too many times!
Into Mozambique we go! It's a maiden for our family. We are finally going into a country which we've been dreaming about for years! But the sightseeing will have to wait, as everything is swallowed by the dark night.
We have to sleep sitting in our very erect chairs and the kids seem to be more adaptable and comfortable than the adults... Yet we worried about them, but I do think they are actually better traveling companions than most.
We all seem to wake from our interrupted slumber at the same time, when dawn awaited us and we are treated to a little glimpse of the sunrise, which promises to be so much more than we could appreciate at that moment.
My first impression of Mozambican splendour, is thousands upon thousands of big, tall, bendy palm trees... everywhere! Never in my life have I seen so many palm trees together. Literally forests of palm trees, as far as the eye can see! It is one of those things which you have to see with your own eyes, no picture can conjure up the absolute feast spread before your eyes! This is what I dreamt for Mozambique and more.
In the blink of an eye the scenery changes and we are in the thick of bushveld with majestic baobab trees shouting out their reign and rule over its humble neighbors. This is another sight to behold. Clumps of baobabs forested together to create a crescendo of nature, so magnificent, I want to stand and applaud!
Before I can continue marveling at all the Mozambican marvels, we stop for breakfast. Chef Carl lays out a spread of rolls, ham, cheese, tomato, eggs, fruit and coffee! Coffee... I thought something was missing in my morning!
Breakfasted and coffeed, we're on our way again. This time we find ourselves in a grassland, savanna type of area. You almost expect Simba and Nala to come strolling out from behind the dotted trees.
The roads do not disappoint. Whatever you have in your mind about the roads here, times it by three.. The potholes here, have potholes, and even those potholes have babies. I think dirt roads would be heavenly to travel on compared to the tar roads in Moz!
We get stopped numerous times along the road by curious, official looking people. A cheerful, polite conversation with them, gets us on our way soon enough.
The villages look poor but cheerful. Little shack shops everywhere, with brand-spanking-new Coca-Cola name boards. The citizens, look happy and at peace. It's hard to believe they have such a little. Which makes me once again believe that less is more.. I see the moms gathering together with their little ones, kids coming home from school - all the little ants of the human world going about their business. Trying to make a living... Trying to make life a little bit easier, a little bit more pleasant. Just like we all do. Some are just the unfortunate, unvolunteered victims of a cruel, corrupt world.
Sigh... Enough heaviness.
The kids are good and behaving well! We've kept them busy with magazines, movies, cards, eating, reading and eating... Jonah asked for a Nichee, which is what he thought a Naartjie was called... The words he makes up are so funny and adorable. And Micah asked for a soulcracker, which we realised is a salticrack.
It is now 1pm, been on the road for 17 hours straight. Tonight we will be overnighting at a mission station between Inchope and Chimoio. They are nice enough to provide us with lodging and a meal! Looking forward to a nice evening of rest in horizontal position :)
Another adventure has found us... On the 5th of July 2017, our family embarked on a mission trip with our church, Barberton Christian Church. This adventure has a bit of a different flavour... an adventure with a greater purpose in mind - to proclaim the name of Jesus. ... I have a feeling, that this will be the best adventure yet!
Leading the team are pastors Tim and John. And the rest of the crew consists out of Carl (head of catering), Wendy (head of sewing and crafts) , Maria, Gladys and ourselves.
The pastors will concentrate on training pastors in Lilongwe, and we will all be going door to door to tell people the good news! The ladies in our group will also teach the Malawian ladies how to crochet and do some sewing, in order to give them a way to earn income to help their husbands who are in full-time ministry
On our way we go, at 8pm! More than enough time to reach the Lebombo border post to cross into Mozambique! Fortunately, everything went smoothly, apart from a few chancers who tried to get us to part with our precious passports! Oh, and also the official who looked our passports over, just one too many times!
Into Mozambique we go! It's a maiden for our family. We are finally going into a country which we've been dreaming about for years! But the sightseeing will have to wait, as everything is swallowed by the dark night.
We have to sleep sitting in our very erect chairs and the kids seem to be more adaptable and comfortable than the adults... Yet we worried about them, but I do think they are actually better traveling companions than most.
We all seem to wake from our interrupted slumber at the same time, when dawn awaited us and we are treated to a little glimpse of the sunrise, which promises to be so much more than we could appreciate at that moment.
My first impression of Mozambican splendour, is thousands upon thousands of big, tall, bendy palm trees... everywhere! Never in my life have I seen so many palm trees together. Literally forests of palm trees, as far as the eye can see! It is one of those things which you have to see with your own eyes, no picture can conjure up the absolute feast spread before your eyes! This is what I dreamt for Mozambique and more.
In the blink of an eye the scenery changes and we are in the thick of bushveld with majestic baobab trees shouting out their reign and rule over its humble neighbors. This is another sight to behold. Clumps of baobabs forested together to create a crescendo of nature, so magnificent, I want to stand and applaud!
Before I can continue marveling at all the Mozambican marvels, we stop for breakfast. Chef Carl lays out a spread of rolls, ham, cheese, tomato, eggs, fruit and coffee! Coffee... I thought something was missing in my morning!
Breakfasted and coffeed, we're on our way again. This time we find ourselves in a grassland, savanna type of area. You almost expect Simba and Nala to come strolling out from behind the dotted trees.
The roads do not disappoint. Whatever you have in your mind about the roads here, times it by three.. The potholes here, have potholes, and even those potholes have babies. I think dirt roads would be heavenly to travel on compared to the tar roads in Moz!
We get stopped numerous times along the road by curious, official looking people. A cheerful, polite conversation with them, gets us on our way soon enough.
The villages look poor but cheerful. Little shack shops everywhere, with brand-spanking-new Coca-Cola name boards. The citizens, look happy and at peace. It's hard to believe they have such a little. Which makes me once again believe that less is more.. I see the moms gathering together with their little ones, kids coming home from school - all the little ants of the human world going about their business. Trying to make a living... Trying to make life a little bit easier, a little bit more pleasant. Just like we all do. Some are just the unfortunate, unvolunteered victims of a cruel, corrupt world.
Sigh... Enough heaviness.
The kids are good and behaving well! We've kept them busy with magazines, movies, cards, eating, reading and eating... Jonah asked for a Nichee, which is what he thought a Naartjie was called... The words he makes up are so funny and adorable. And Micah asked for a soulcracker, which we realised is a salticrack.
It is now 1pm, been on the road for 17 hours straight. Tonight we will be overnighting at a mission station between Inchope and Chimoio. They are nice enough to provide us with lodging and a meal! Looking forward to a nice evening of rest in horizontal position :)
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