Being Blessed in Mocuba

Thank you all very much for your prayers for us while I was gone!  God was very good to us on our trip to Mocuba, and it was a huge blessing for me.  I apologize that I haven’t gotten this up sooner, but we've had a couple computer issues since I got back on Monday that have now been resolved.  I’ll try and give you a summary of all that happened:

We left Thursday morning at 6 a.m. and drove five and a half hours through the beautiful Mozambican countryside.  The trip was fairly smooth, and actually most of the road was nicely paved because we were on one of the main highways through Mozambique.

A view of the countryside

When we arrived in Mocuba, we unpacked all our gear at Trans World Radio, a local radio station that broadcasts evangelical messages throughout the region.  We then ate lunch, found our living arrangements, and met the Chuwabu translation team.  The Chuwabu is a people group located near Mocuba on the coast of Mozambique who do not have any scripture in their language, written or otherwise.  

We got to work recording the Gospel of Mark at the radio station right away.  The recording process was quite interesting.  One member of the team would read the script of the Gospel of Mark while the rest of us would follow along and check that every word was said correctly.  The team would actually make changes as we went along, small grammatical corrections or words that seemed fine in written form but didn’t really fit with the way the Chuwabu people would use in conversation.  They are an oral culture, so to them, the spoken word is much more powerful than the written word.  I’m not even sure if they have a definitive written language yet, or if they do, if very many of them can read.

Edgar in the foreground, the Chuwabu team, and a technician from the radio station standing

After the whole gospel was recorded, we listened to the whole thing over again and double-checked the recording.  The work was very tiring, as we were concentrating hard the whole time.  They were long days (i.e. Friday we worked from 7:30 am to 10 pm with short breaks to stand up and stretch and for meals), but it was still a blessing to be a part of that work.

On Saturday, we said good-bye to the Chuwabu team and prepared the studio for a local church choir that was coming to do some recording.  We used this recording process as training for the technicians at the radio station.  It was quite a blessing to be a part of this as well, for the choir sang some very beautiful music and was just a great group of young people.

The choir practicing outside the studio in the shade

We recorded with them most of Saturday and Sunday, and then Sunday evening started recording with their instrumentalists.  Unfortunately, the power in the radio station went out (which isn’t an uncommon occurrence) so we were not able to finish anything with the instrumentalists.  Edgar was tired, so he went back to the guest house, but I stayed back and hung out with the instrumentalists for a while.  We ended up playing and singing worship music (in the dark with a cell-phone as a light source), but that was just a great spontaneous worship session that I’ll never forget.  Truly it was a blessing to praise God with these amazing people who lead totally different lives from me in a completely different culture than my own, and to connect as brothers and sisters in Christ, all praising our Heavenly Father.

One more blessing that I’d like to mention was an experience with the host of the guest-house we stayed at.  One thing I’m learning here in Africa is that many African cultures are much more sensitive to the things that go on around us in the spiritual realms than U.S. culture in general.   Our host not only ran the guest-house, but was a missionary and pastor of a church in Mocuba as well.  At one point there was a young family from his congregation with him, and we were introduced.  The wife asked the pastor (our host) to pray for her, as she was having many troubling dreams and also some difficulty with her speech.  The pastor then related to her that it was likely spiritual forces at work, and Edgar and I were able to witness some intense prayer and spiritual battle take place.

It was a powerful experience for me.  It turns out that our host has had countless experiences like this throughout his time as a missionary, and has written a small book documenting his experiences of spiritual forces throughout Mozambique.  Much of the book is comprised of testimonies from former witch doctors who were converted to Christianity after having their demons and magic defeated by Christ and His blood.  Such an amazing God we serve!

Thank you once again for your prayers!  Now I’m settling back into life in Nampula with Hillary, and hope to have more to share with you soon!

~Mark