Traveling in Moz.

 Lots of flying and driving over the last couple of weeks in Moz.  It really is such a beautiful country as you will see in the pictures below.  

 Our first visit we made was to Lichinga to visit with Nancy who has served in Moz. for many years.  She is also a nurse and has helped us with 40/40 in the past.  It was good to visit with her and see where she lives and meet some of the people she works with. 

She gave Kevin a Yao New Testament which has recently been printed. People are still working on translating the full bible.  Please pray that this project would be completed soon so that the full Word of God could be in the hands of people.

 On our way to Mapudje we passed village after village after village of Yao people.

The Yao are a predominantly Muslim people group of about 2 million spread over three countries; Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. The Yao people have a strong cultural identity, which transcend the national borders. The Islam, which they have embraced, is not the orthodox religion, which is found in the countries such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi-Arabia, ect. but is totally intermingled with their traditional animistic belief system. It is often referred to as "Folk Islam."

 The majority of the Mozambican Yao people are virtually ignorant of who God is, how creation happened and the need for a savior. They need certain knowledge of the Old Testament first in order to help make sense of the New Testament message of Christ.

 In every village we saw flags sticking up out of the huts.  Some of these were political flags because Moz. just had an election.  However, the other flags symbolized where there were young girls and boys who were coming of age and were taking part in ceremony's for that. 

 The people who normally live in Mapudje were out so we visited a little bit with some of the leaders in the C.  

 This is where the C. meets.  It was started several years ago.

 These mountains were just gorgeous!

It's hard to tell in this picture but there is just hut after hut all along the road.  It is overwhelming to think of all these people being lost.  In just about every village we passed Nancy would tell us of how she had been telling stories in that village, but after a short time the people she was meeting with would tell her she could no longer come.  They were fearful for what others would say or do.  

 

 Kevin's little friend.

 We went to one village and visited with a young woman who had a tumor on her face.  It was so big that it distorted her eye, nose, and mouth on one side.  Because she lives so far from the hospital she could not stay and do the treatment, so she left and just went back to her village. 

As we traveled to Marupa we came upon a Yao funeral.  They took up the whole road so we just pulled over and waited until they got to the place they were going to have the burial.  In Yao culture, only the men attend the burial while the women remain at their huts wailing.