We departed from Johannesburg around 4 a.m. and did a little sightseeing in the Panorama in Mpumalanga Province on our way to Mozambique. After lunch we continued our trek towards the Mozambique border arriving there around 3 p.m. We exchanged money at M3500/R1 (M25, 000 per $1) just before arriving at the border. Working with this kind of currency is very difficult; it is very hard to pay M100, 000 for a bag of cashew nuts.
African border crossings are always challenging but this crossing was made a little easier because we had Sergio with us and because we had previously obtained our visas in Johannesburg. We got through the border, having purchased our car insurance, gotten our passports stamped and paid a couple of other miscellaneous fees, in around 30 minutes.
We then headed for Sergio�s house where he was introduced to his new baby daughter, Anita. We greeted Cicilia and Delphina but could not remain long as the sunset was fast approaching and we still needed to travel through Maputo to our destination, the Oasis. I was really hoping to get through Maputo traffic before rush hour and before the sun set. However, we were unsuccessful at this and arrived very tired at the Oasis around 6:30.
On Saturday, after an early morning run at the beach, we did some shopping, pumped up a flat tire (which had a slow leak�we also discovered that our spare was flat!) and headed back out to Sergio�s for the first day of our two day Bible Club. At this point we encountered a couple of related snags in our plans. We had hoped to hold the Bible Clubs at the local elementary school but found out that we needed prior approval from the local councilman in order to use the school. We also found out that the school would be in use on Sunday as part of the celebration of Mozambique�s Independence Day. So we moved to plan B and held the club in Sergio�s yard. We got a bit of a late start but were able to use the time to round up some children and lead them, Pied Piper style to Sergio�s house.
The first day we had around 40 children who attended the Club. Kirsten played the guitar as we taught the children �Trust and Obey� in Shangan. Sergio acted as our translator, Abby led the songs and Marie and Jessica each taught a portion of the Wordless Book. We played a few games, ate �lunch� (at 4 p.m.), visited Sergio�s mother-in-law and returned to the Oasis around 6.
On Sunday morning we attended a Baptist church hoping to find a more suitable church for Sergio to attend during his trips to Mozambique. The service was moderately contemporary and the preaching, according to Sergio, was not very Christ-centred (it was in Portuguese). We were disappointed at this, but at least we knew that this was not where the Lord would have Sergio to worship.
We then traveled back to Sergio�s for the second day of the Club. Around 25 children pitched for Day 2. Again we sang songs and played games. Kirsten and Abby taught the rest of the Wordless book and Jessica led songs. Afterwards, we visited a young man, Jose, that Sergio�s been working with and departed for the Oasis.
That evening we were able to interview the sisters who run the Oasis. They are American missionaries that have been in Mozambique since the early 60�s. We were able to learn a lot about evangelical missions in Mozambique in general. I hope to write a report about this in another paper.
On Monday morning we left early for a two day visit to Kruger Park before returning to Johannesburg late Tuesday night. As with any pioneer ministry there were mixed results from our trip. But I felt that overall we had a good weekend and learned a lot of valuable information. There�s a great need for fundamental, Christ-centered missions in Mozambique. Please pray the Lord of the Harvest to thrust forth labourers.