Journey to Mozambique

A lot of dreams came true last weekend as our team got to experience a real African safari. Our route from South Africa to Mozambique (17 hours on two buses, which included a night of “sleep”) took us near an entrance to Kruger National Park. We had booked two nights at a small Christian retreat center nearby, overlooking the Crocodile River, which lived up to its name.  On Saturday, a full day’s game drive through the park gave us glimpses of many African animals – elephants, giraffe, lions, zebras, hippos – just to name a few!  It was a perfect break before we transitioned to our next destination on Sunday.

Thankfully, the border crossing into Mozambique went smoothly and quickly, and now we are located in the southeast corner of the country in a town called Macia.  We are staying at a Bible school that trains African rural pastors, hosted by a special couple named Willem and Carol Nel.  Carol happens to be the sister of Garry Morgan, so there’s a nice family feel being here with my sister-in-law and her husband.  Willem has a number of practical projects for the Northwestern students here.  They’ve been hard at work helping to put in an irrigation system for the orange trees on the compound.  Today some students spent several hours roasting and preparing peanuts to make peanut butter, which the Bible school students sell for fund-raising.  Others walked to a nearby church to have English practice and discussions with some Mozambique young people. Before supper, there was a short class on the local Shangaan language so that our students can at least learn some basic greetings to use with the local people.  Portuguese language knowledge has also come in handy as a bridge language for some.

Life in Mozambique is much less modern and developed than South Africa, and it seems that our ICS team is enjoying getting into the rhythm of a more rural lifestyle.  They’re even getting used to starting their day at 5:00 a.m. to have morning devotions with the Bible school students, followed by shared outdoor chores with the students before breakfast.  Garry is teaching a four and half-hour per day course on Islam for the Bible school students this week, which is being translated into Shangaan.

We don’t have any easy access to internet while we’re here, so it’s more of a challenge to post blog updates, and that’s also the reason the picture downloads haven’t been working.  But be assured that everyone’s doing well, despite a few coughs and colds that come and go.

I’m sure the students will all be thinking of home a bit more on Thanksgiving.  We’ll imagine the smell of turkey in the air!  We won’t be celebrating here until the 6^th of December, which is the end of the school term.