2018 NYAC VIM Mozambique: The Gift of Learning

Tuesday, April 24

Annette Griffith, Evergreen United Methodist Church, writes:

On Tuesday we visited the Gondola Training Center where the theology students greeted us with song.  We had a short tour of the dorms and the directors house before meeting with the 24 students and their teachers.   Rev. Torres gave a history of our involvement with the Training Center and introduced the first level students and then the second level students who will graduate in June.

Pastor Alex stayed with the students as they resumed their class while the rest of us worked with Cynthia who demonstrated how to build a rocket stove with sun baked bricks that were at the center.

We presented Rev. Torres with the sheets, Bible, book bags and other gifts.  The necklaces that Mary gave were given to Rev. Torres so that he could distribute them at this and future graduations.

A festive lunch was served by the Gondola Center cooks assisted by the women students.  After lunch Cynthia cooked a corn based pudding that included local vegetables, on the newly build stove.  The students and cooks were impressed how efficiently it burned twigs and coconut shells.  The women especially liked that the stove was high enough so that they did not have to bend over to stir the pudding.

We ended our visit with song and dance led by the students.

Tomorrow we head back to Beira and Thursday we will be on our way home.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers on our wonderful experience with our brothers and sisters in Mozambique.

2018 NYAC VIM Mozambique: The Rough, the Smooth, The Comforting

Monday, April 23

Annette Griffith of Evergreen United Methodist Church, writes:

The day began with a morning safari at Gorongosa National Park where we saw many dear like animals, baboons, wart hogs, and lots of birds.  We searched for elephants but we did not see any.

Then back to the pot hole road to go to Chimoio.  The difficult road lasted about 1.5 hours and then we were on the smooth road again.  This trip we noticed lots of construction with the use of large equipment.  Hopefully that means the economy is improving.  There were many more new buildings however, the back roads and side road markets looked the same.  There is hope but also much work to be done.

We arrived in Chimoio and were greeted by Rev. Torres and his family.   Torres' daughter delighted us with a home cooked meal before we headed to the shops to buy food for tomorrow and the materials that team member Cynthia needs for the cooking project she has planned for Tuesday.

There is no internet at our lodging so the message will come a little late.

Peace,

Annette

2018 NYAC VIM Mozambique: Worship of God, Praise for God's Creation

Sunday, April 22
Pastor Alex da Silva Souto, New Milford UMC, writes:

Sunday is the day of the LORD so we got up very early, packed the car and headed back to the Dondo church for worship celebration.


The road from Dondo to Gorongoza has some really challenging stretches… but riding in an air conditioned vehicle is nothing to complain about… especially compared to so many people walking  for long distance and many doing it bare foot.


We got to Gorongoza just in time to go on a visit of a special part of this nature sanctuary.  We spotted lots of baboons, impalas, waterbucks, owls, and some lovely zebras.
We had an early dinner and early night so we can be up by a 6am visit to the flood plains in another part of the park.

God's creation is really amazing!

2018 NYAC VIM Mozambique: The Joys of a Youth Conference

Saturday, April  21

Annette Griffith of Evergreen United Methodist Church writes:

We passed the halfway mark on our mission trip and have accomplished many of our fact finding goals.

Today we visited the Dondo orphanage and saw the new, beautiful, clean and functional buildings. The Assistant to the Bishop, Rev. Jacob Jenhuro was waiting at the orphanage for new furniture to arrive.

From there we went to the house of the Dondo pastor for a wonderful lunch prepared by the ladies of the church.  We were greeted by singing children who were excited to be moving soon to their new accommodations.  They will be moving sometime next week.

While we were there the youth of local United Methodist churches were having a youth conference.  They ran the meeting themselves and were glad to be discussing the work of the church.  It was a pleasure to see so many youth involved.

After lunch Pastor Alex presented the United Methodist Women with two suite cases with clothing for the orphanage and then everybody got lollipops.

Tomorrow we will be back at the Dondo church for an early service before leaving for Gorongosa National Park.  We ended the day with shopping for food for our journey and went back to the guest house for dinner and an early bedtime so that we could get up and out by 8:00 AM on Sunday morning.

Peace be with you,