In the last post, I made mention of what Kees, who has been in Mozambique some seventeen years now, said to me. ‘’This is Africa. Every day, you must be ready to preach, to pray, and to die.’’
The last point was driven home to me nearly every week that we were there in 2011.
The moment we arrived, in March, our drivers were receiving text messages, that one of the under-two week-old babies needed to go to the hospital. That baby died a few days later, and Sarah went to the funeral on the fourth day that we were in Mozambique.On another occasion, someone brought a very sick baby from a town 25 miles away, walking from the road to get to the clinic, which has not been operating for about four years. The baby was sick and ashen, and was driven to another clinic, but died on the way there.
One ministry of the Bible School run by Kees, is to visit the prison on Friday of each week. The entire class, 25-30 people visit, and minister to the prisoners. On one occasion, due to illness, or perhaps weakness from hunger (prisoners are not fed by the prison system, but by family or outside help) one of the prisoners died in a meeting there.
On another day, we received news that one of the workers at an orphanage down the road, someone we had visited with and worked with, had taken ill suddenly, and died of a heart condition that evening, because his normal medicine, had not been available. He left a wife, and two small lovely children.
Car and truck wrecks are common in Mozambique. On one occasion a truck missed a curve and hit a house, destroying the half nearest the road. Miraculously no one in the house was injured, but a woman passenger in the truck was killed.
One evening, two men in a village less than a mile from Maforga were feuding, and one was pushed, or made to run into traffic, and was killed.
We heard of at least three relatives of people that we worked with, that died while we were there.
Life expectancy is still about 47 years in Mozambique, and infant mortality, is quite high (about 180 of every 1000 children die before the age of five.)
However, the one death that hit closest to home for us, and others at Maforga, was that of Martha. Martha, was a lovely woman, competent, and hard working, who loved God. She would come early in the morning each Wednesday, to clean our home. She loved to hold and hug Jacinta, and little Hannah when she was born. Martha cleaned several houses at the mission, and was working hard to save her money after losing her husband to illness the year before.
Martha’s hard work wore her down. She had anemia, and had Malaria three times in the first half of the year. She had not been feeling well, and pneumonia was suspected. She had also accidently stepped on a nail, and tetanus was a worry, but she slowly had recovered from that. After a frustrating several weeks with no real answers from the local hospital, she continued to weaken. Finally it was determined that she had tuberculosis. She did not respond well to the treatments, and just a week or two before we left, Martha died, somewhere around the age of 35.
In our area it was generally considered to be polite to remove ones shoes before entering a house, to leave the dirt and dust outside. Martha would leave her sandals outside our door, and one day I took this picture.
It reminds me of Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
We are there in Mozambique to help with both physical needs and spiritual needs. Though Martha died a physical death, she is one of the success stories, as she died knowing that her sins were forgiven by Jesus Christ, and that because of his death and Resurrection, she has conquered death.
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