Our time here so far has been amazing... God has really been drawing us closer to Him and to each other at the same time we're serving Him. Talking to the kids has especially been a real blessing. I realized that some of the 14 and 15 year olds know God far better than any other Christians I know... They may not know as much about God as we do, but they know God like Jesus knew God - as the father. They know their Dad will take care of them and aren't afraid to live like it, which is so refreshing to see and learn from. They don't worry or ever talk about what they need because they know God's looking out for them! Of course, there's the other kids who aren't ashamed to beg for money, but it's the godly ones who have made an impact on me.
The kids at the Iris base aren't the malnourished kids you see in the advertisements for adopt a child programs... Almost all of them looked like that at some point, but not any more. The meal portions are huge and many of the kids have developed a healthy stomach. A lot of the kids at Zimpeto where we were staying actually spoke English, which helped a lot. However, later this week we will be heading to Machava, where all the missionaries are Brazilian and no one speaks English. That should help us with learning Portuguese, which will be helpful for the rest of the trip!
The spiritual climate in Mozambique is full of religions and superstitions. There are witchdoctors all over the place, and people pay them to either curse others or protect themselves. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it definitely has power behind it. In the States, it's trusting in money instead of God that trips up many Christians - here, it's trusting in the witchdoctor's protection instead of God that is a stumbling block. Cutting off the yarn and button "protection" bands is almost as great a celebration as leading someone to Christ! That isn't the only form of spiritual bondage in Mozambique though...
The Zion Christian Church is a fairly large church here and in South Africa. Regardless of their name, they don't really believe in Jesus or the Bible. When children are born, they ask the spirits of dead people to come and guide the babies... We went to one village (where we actually got to take pictures) and there was a 2 year old boy who wouldn't stop yelling and running around. The mother said he was like that constantly, day and night, but had been fine before the father insisted on taking him to the Zionist ceremony. It was pretty eye-opening to see the effect of spirits on people, especially coming from a culture that doesn't believe in them. But it's in the Book, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
Last week we went back to the Bocaria (the city dump) for another outreach. This time instead of walking up onto the dump to talk with the people sorting the garbage we went around the village surrounding the dump where the roughly 1,000 dump-scavengers live. We went into one home where the husband was lying on a reed mat on the floor. Even through the blanket covering him you could tell his body was completely emaciated. His arms were narrower than my wrist, and his legs weren't much bigger. He was suffering from AIDS, and hadn't been able to eat in a long time. After we prayed for a while he gained new strength, sat up, and said his appetite had returned and he wanted to eat! That was great.
Another AIDS victim that absolutely wrenched our hearts was a little boy living at the Zimpeto center. His name is Thabo (pronounced TAH-boo), he was orphaned at age 3 and was given to some relatives who neglected and abused him horribly. He is about 9 years old now but he hasn't grown much since he was 3, and he is absolutely skin and bones. He has been at the Iris center since August, but he's been ill for so long that his health isn't recovering very quickly. He can't walk, and he stays in the center's clinic full-time. Last week he got really sick, had a high fever, and could barely breathe; the nurses thought he was going to die soon. Jon and another visitor prayed with him for hours and his fever broke and by the next day the sickness was completely gone! He was even able to leave the clinic for the staff worship time, where he got more prayer. If any of you think about it, keep him in your prayers as well, the little guy needs all he can get. (There's a picture of him on our Facebook album, you should have received a link to that earlier...).
Well, we need to bring this update to a close. Thank you all for your continued prayers, support, and encouragements--we are so blessed. Our current prayer requests are:
* That we can get better visas that will enable us to stay in Mozambique longer than 30 days at a time.
* That our health would be protected. We have had several random sicknesses, pains, reactions, and incidents that seem like attacks, so protection would be appreciated.
* That we could learn Portuguese faster, so far it has been a very slow process and we still can't communicate very much.
* That God would show us every day what He wants us to be doing. There are so many "good" things to do every day we're sometimes overwhelmed and really only want to operate in what the Father has for us specifically.
God bless!
~Jon and Carla Reinagel
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
January 15th Mozambique Update
Hey Everyone!
Last week I talked about our outreaches - I´m going to focus on the country of Mozambique this time. It´s kind of strange that it took us this long to really get a feel for the country, but we have been living in a missionary compound most of the time surrounded by Christians. This last weekend, we had the privelage of going into one of the outlying villages and geting a taste of what real Mozambique life is like! The people themselves are incredibly friendly, but the living conditions seem to leave much to be desired. We stayed in a government-built project area, which meant everyone had at least a 1 room house to live in, but most Mozambicans aren´t that fortunate. Many of the people we have met only have one or two changes of clothes (they often get a new pair for Christmas), and most of Mozambique doesn´t have power or running water. The toilets are definitely an experience, but we´ll leave that up to the pictures when we get those up!
Until recently, Mozambique was involved in a terrible war. Though it is referred to as a civil war, RENAMO (one of the warring parties) was funded by other countries in an effort to destabilize Mozambique. They targeted much of the infrastructure of the country and the war itself left Mozambique in shambles. Mozambique has been at peace for a while now, but there are still remanents of the war like land mines and other explosives. Last spring, a munitions dump exploded, sending missles and other explosives hundreds of miles - one hit the mission base we´re staying at right now, but didn´t explode on impact (or there would have been no more base). 5 minutes away from our base, there are the remains of a hospital with several huge holes in it, the largest of which cuts through several stories. Land mines are also occassionally a problem, especially when floods happen and the water moves already marked land mine areas.
Speaking of floods, some are actually occurring right now in the northern part of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and many are in desparate need of food. We will most likely be helping with the flood cleanup, but we do not head up to the northern part of the country for another month. If you would like to help out directly with the food distribution or the cleanup efforts, the best way is probably through Iris´s website, irismin.com.
Well, I´ll save the spiritual condition of the country for later - Carla is going to try and post pictures on Facebook. For those of you without Facebook, um, we´ll work that out next time we get internet access! Please be praying for the Mozambicans in flood areas and the rescue and recovery efforts. Please also be praying for us and our health - malaria is a constant threat and already several of the missionaries have come down with it. I´m very sorry I cannot write back personally to each of you right now, but I hope you understand. God Bless!
- Jon and Carla
Last week I talked about our outreaches - I´m going to focus on the country of Mozambique this time. It´s kind of strange that it took us this long to really get a feel for the country, but we have been living in a missionary compound most of the time surrounded by Christians. This last weekend, we had the privelage of going into one of the outlying villages and geting a taste of what real Mozambique life is like! The people themselves are incredibly friendly, but the living conditions seem to leave much to be desired. We stayed in a government-built project area, which meant everyone had at least a 1 room house to live in, but most Mozambicans aren´t that fortunate. Many of the people we have met only have one or two changes of clothes (they often get a new pair for Christmas), and most of Mozambique doesn´t have power or running water. The toilets are definitely an experience, but we´ll leave that up to the pictures when we get those up!
Until recently, Mozambique was involved in a terrible war. Though it is referred to as a civil war, RENAMO (one of the warring parties) was funded by other countries in an effort to destabilize Mozambique. They targeted much of the infrastructure of the country and the war itself left Mozambique in shambles. Mozambique has been at peace for a while now, but there are still remanents of the war like land mines and other explosives. Last spring, a munitions dump exploded, sending missles and other explosives hundreds of miles - one hit the mission base we´re staying at right now, but didn´t explode on impact (or there would have been no more base). 5 minutes away from our base, there are the remains of a hospital with several huge holes in it, the largest of which cuts through several stories. Land mines are also occassionally a problem, especially when floods happen and the water moves already marked land mine areas.
Speaking of floods, some are actually occurring right now in the northern part of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and many are in desparate need of food. We will most likely be helping with the flood cleanup, but we do not head up to the northern part of the country for another month. If you would like to help out directly with the food distribution or the cleanup efforts, the best way is probably through Iris´s website, irismin.com.
Well, I´ll save the spiritual condition of the country for later - Carla is going to try and post pictures on Facebook. For those of you without Facebook, um, we´ll work that out next time we get internet access! Please be praying for the Mozambicans in flood areas and the rescue and recovery efforts. Please also be praying for us and our health - malaria is a constant threat and already several of the missionaries have come down with it. I´m very sorry I cannot write back personally to each of you right now, but I hope you understand. God Bless!
- Jon and Carla
Friday, January 11, 2008
January 10th Mozambique Update
Hey!
Things in Africa are so much different than in the US… Theology doesn't matter to the people we see – to the broken, the homeless, and the dying, they need more than just news about where they could go after they die. They need hope and life now. Preaching the good news to the poor has been great, but just like Jesus's ministry, the best part has been providing for their needs, showing them God's love, and see their lives completely turn around.
The base we're at now has 330 kids, about 20 long term missionaries and 12 short term missionaries at a time. The scope is amazing – most days, there are multiple outreaches into the community and every day hundreds are fed. I think the most amazing thing is to see the kids here and their heart for outreach – these were the children off the street that had almost no hope of surviving unless they got taken in; they came in bitter, self-centered, and malnourished (among other things) but after they were shown God's love through the Christians here, they have an incredible desire to go out and share that love with others. We go to the hospital and pray for the sick, have outreaches to the street kids who have no homes and beg for a living, reach out to the people in jail, and we have even gone to the village dump where people live trying to scavenge any trash they may be able to sell.
The hospital was the first place we went. It was overwhelming to say the least and I don't think any of us could have stood to be there if we didn't have the ability to do something about their situation. In America, when we pray for someone and they don't get better, we just go ahead and get the surgery or take pain relievers – if the Mozambicans don't get healed, they will usually die or be scarred for the rest of their life. We would walk into a room, tell everyone why we're here, and ask if anyone would let us pray for them. Usually, most people would accept. Not everyone was healed, but everyone was touched in an important way. The AIDS victims were the worst to see – almost all of them were stick-thin, and some of them couldn't talk anymore. They would cry out in pain almost constantly and none of them got healed this trip, but several had less pain. But there were much better stories as well. In one room with 3 women in it, every one of the patients got healed and walked out of the room – they were all in the lounge smiling when we left! 5 women ended up accepting Christ as their savior, and the atmosphere in that corner of the hospital had shifted from death and decay to one of joy and happiness. This happens almost every week, but the hospital is huge and we can only touch a couple people's lives at a time.
The gospel here is just amazing – the kids have really taught me a lot about why Christ came. In the States, I think we too often focus on death and life after death. In Mozambique, there is a stark contrast to the death and pain all around us, and the joy and life in the ones who know Christ. I don't think there is anywhere where we saw this more than in the Bocaria – the city dump. People without jobs would try to make a living by rummaging through the garbage and selling the metal back to companies and the food trash to pig or goat owners. The dump was enormous, and after walking in for 15 minutes, we had still only seen a corner of it. I'll send pictures later, but we're kind of having difficulty with our dial-up connection. We walked up the hill of trash in 3's and 4's and asked the people if we could pray for them, then told them about food we were handing out at the church at the bottom of the hill. Many of them were touched by the prayers, but no one we talked to last week went to the church to get food – they didn't want to leave their pile of trash for fear that someone would take it. I thought that was so symbolic of many of our lives – afraid to give up our trash and step out and take real food. But I think the most encouraging thing that happened occurred deep in the dump – we approached one guy covered in flies expecting to see the lifeless, hopeless stare that characterized most of the people in the dump, but instead we were greeted with eyes full of hope and joy. When we told him what we were there for, he told us his story – he used to live in the dump, then found Christ several years ago. With help from some Christians, Zito was able to live outside of the dump and have a real life, but then he felt called back to the dump in order to reach others. He now lives there to bring hope to others. When the first missionaries got here, the churches told them they were wasting their times with the dying and the homeless because those people would never make a difference in society. But Jesus reached out to the dregs of society, and it seems like he knew what he was doing – the formerly dying and homeless are now making incredible differences; the mission base's school that sought to educate the kids who had never been able to afford school is now the number 1 school in the country, and many Mozambicans have been called to other countries to share the same good news that changed their life around.
We were also able to go to the police station and witness to the people that were in the temporary jail there. People would be kept there for about a week at a time, so each week we share the gospel to another round of delinquents. Many of them needed the gospel, but in a way that surprised us – they couldn't stand living with themselves, and in jail for the first time, they had nothing to do to take their mind off that fact. We explained to them that that was because of the sin in their life and told them Jesus came to take away that guilt and give them a new life. One of the guys told us this was the happiest day of his life, and several others also gratefully accepted the message. Even more surprising, the guards came up to us, got down on their knees, and asked us to pray for them. Almost every one of the 15-20 stationed policemen came up and asked us to pray for them – the Mozambicans from the center had never seen anything like it!
Later, we hope to update you on some of the other happenings around the base. By sharing these things, we hope to show you just how powerful your prayers for us have been and how much difference your support has made in people's lives. We also hope to challenge you a bit and to let you know that the gospel is above all powerful and more than able to change people's lives (Rom 1:16, 1 Cor 4:20)! God bless, and we'll write back soon!
In Christ,
- Jon and Carla Reinagel
P.S. For those of you a little more connected to Iris: Pastor Surprise wasn't tortured then martyred - it was his cousin. Surprise is alive and well and has a base in South Africa.
Things in Africa are so much different than in the US… Theology doesn't matter to the people we see – to the broken, the homeless, and the dying, they need more than just news about where they could go after they die. They need hope and life now. Preaching the good news to the poor has been great, but just like Jesus's ministry, the best part has been providing for their needs, showing them God's love, and see their lives completely turn around.
The base we're at now has 330 kids, about 20 long term missionaries and 12 short term missionaries at a time. The scope is amazing – most days, there are multiple outreaches into the community and every day hundreds are fed. I think the most amazing thing is to see the kids here and their heart for outreach – these were the children off the street that had almost no hope of surviving unless they got taken in; they came in bitter, self-centered, and malnourished (among other things) but after they were shown God's love through the Christians here, they have an incredible desire to go out and share that love with others. We go to the hospital and pray for the sick, have outreaches to the street kids who have no homes and beg for a living, reach out to the people in jail, and we have even gone to the village dump where people live trying to scavenge any trash they may be able to sell.
The hospital was the first place we went. It was overwhelming to say the least and I don't think any of us could have stood to be there if we didn't have the ability to do something about their situation. In America, when we pray for someone and they don't get better, we just go ahead and get the surgery or take pain relievers – if the Mozambicans don't get healed, they will usually die or be scarred for the rest of their life. We would walk into a room, tell everyone why we're here, and ask if anyone would let us pray for them. Usually, most people would accept. Not everyone was healed, but everyone was touched in an important way. The AIDS victims were the worst to see – almost all of them were stick-thin, and some of them couldn't talk anymore. They would cry out in pain almost constantly and none of them got healed this trip, but several had less pain. But there were much better stories as well. In one room with 3 women in it, every one of the patients got healed and walked out of the room – they were all in the lounge smiling when we left! 5 women ended up accepting Christ as their savior, and the atmosphere in that corner of the hospital had shifted from death and decay to one of joy and happiness. This happens almost every week, but the hospital is huge and we can only touch a couple people's lives at a time.
The gospel here is just amazing – the kids have really taught me a lot about why Christ came. In the States, I think we too often focus on death and life after death. In Mozambique, there is a stark contrast to the death and pain all around us, and the joy and life in the ones who know Christ. I don't think there is anywhere where we saw this more than in the Bocaria – the city dump. People without jobs would try to make a living by rummaging through the garbage and selling the metal back to companies and the food trash to pig or goat owners. The dump was enormous, and after walking in for 15 minutes, we had still only seen a corner of it. I'll send pictures later, but we're kind of having difficulty with our dial-up connection. We walked up the hill of trash in 3's and 4's and asked the people if we could pray for them, then told them about food we were handing out at the church at the bottom of the hill. Many of them were touched by the prayers, but no one we talked to last week went to the church to get food – they didn't want to leave their pile of trash for fear that someone would take it. I thought that was so symbolic of many of our lives – afraid to give up our trash and step out and take real food. But I think the most encouraging thing that happened occurred deep in the dump – we approached one guy covered in flies expecting to see the lifeless, hopeless stare that characterized most of the people in the dump, but instead we were greeted with eyes full of hope and joy. When we told him what we were there for, he told us his story – he used to live in the dump, then found Christ several years ago. With help from some Christians, Zito was able to live outside of the dump and have a real life, but then he felt called back to the dump in order to reach others. He now lives there to bring hope to others. When the first missionaries got here, the churches told them they were wasting their times with the dying and the homeless because those people would never make a difference in society. But Jesus reached out to the dregs of society, and it seems like he knew what he was doing – the formerly dying and homeless are now making incredible differences; the mission base's school that sought to educate the kids who had never been able to afford school is now the number 1 school in the country, and many Mozambicans have been called to other countries to share the same good news that changed their life around.
We were also able to go to the police station and witness to the people that were in the temporary jail there. People would be kept there for about a week at a time, so each week we share the gospel to another round of delinquents. Many of them needed the gospel, but in a way that surprised us – they couldn't stand living with themselves, and in jail for the first time, they had nothing to do to take their mind off that fact. We explained to them that that was because of the sin in their life and told them Jesus came to take away that guilt and give them a new life. One of the guys told us this was the happiest day of his life, and several others also gratefully accepted the message. Even more surprising, the guards came up to us, got down on their knees, and asked us to pray for them. Almost every one of the 15-20 stationed policemen came up and asked us to pray for them – the Mozambicans from the center had never seen anything like it!
Later, we hope to update you on some of the other happenings around the base. By sharing these things, we hope to show you just how powerful your prayers for us have been and how much difference your support has made in people's lives. We also hope to challenge you a bit and to let you know that the gospel is above all powerful and more than able to change people's lives (Rom 1:16, 1 Cor 4:20)! God bless, and we'll write back soon!
In Christ,
- Jon and Carla Reinagel
P.S. For those of you a little more connected to Iris: Pastor Surprise wasn't tortured then martyred - it was his cousin. Surprise is alive and well and has a base in South Africa.
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