Bush Bush In Chuiba

Update On Bush Bush In Chuiba

I know this is now two weeks late, but I did my best with everything has been going on which is a whole other blog. 

Two weekends ago I got to lead my Harvest School color group (MENTA) into to the bush bush. I didn't find out what village or area we would be going to until the day before we left. I was ecstatic to hear that my team and I would be heading to a village called Chuiba. which is the Village my home church, Grace Center, had adopted a few years ago. I couldn't believe it.

Thursday the fun began. My color group, mozambican team, and a few guest speakers headed down to the camions where we began to wait. Soon we found out one of our camions was broken and that was why we had been waiting for 3 hours. Finally we were able to get a truck and get things loaded. Luckily, for us Chuiba is only 30 mins away from base, when roads are good that is.

Finally we arrive, we set of camp, and we come together to pray right outside of the church that was washed out by the floods and the new church Grace Center help build.

Heidi and her team arrive and we all  drive out about 10 minutes to the place where we are showing the Jesus film.

We pile into the smaller trucks. The truck I am in stops. The transmission has gone out and we are parked right in front of a little store shack where all these Mozambican mama's are watching with curiosity. When the truck wasn't starting I decided to go over and try and chat with the Mamas and invite them to the film. They laughed at my broken Portuguese and Makua, but eventually got the point. Finally, the truck started up again and everyone jumped back in. I think we stopped just so we could invite those mamas. Alas, the sand got too thick and the truck was stuck again. We all decided to jump out and walk, but we made it half way through the film.

The film ends and the chaos begins Heidi began to preach. Jumping from Portuguese to Makua my team and I are quickly lost in translation. The next thing I know was that we were being asked if we were ready. Confused I said “yes?” Then I was asked again are you ready? I replied “Yes, to pray?” To which Heidi replied “no for your skit.” To which I replied “yes of course” running back to my confused team I told them very quickly to get ready for the Good Samaritan skit, that we had only practised one time before. They jumped in anyway and did there very best.

Then Heidi preaches again and asks the village chief to preach, who has only just become a Christian recently. Then we are pushed in to a fire tunnel line to begin praying for people. It all happened so fast! Surrounded by kids on all sides, trying to stay in our fire tunnel formation, having my hair pulled at by fascinated girls behind me, and still getting very lost in translation we all just keep praying. Hundreds of people are going through the line to receive Jesus a blind man starts to come through the tunnel to receive Jesus He stops right in front of me and Heidi everyone is praying the man gets healed and the line keeps moving. Just like that He was healed 3 years of cataracts and this man can see again.  The mamas I had invited to come earlier show up and come through the line. After about an hour of standing in a line the crowd breaks out into a worship dance party as we begin to pack down.

With no Truck coming to pick us up we make the long 30 min trek in the dark through the village back to our camp sigh,t accompanied by, literally, hundreds of children.

Exhausted, hungry, and covered in dirt we do our best to keep the kids out of our tents. We have our traditional bush-bush supper of spaghetti and tuna and head for bed.

The next morning we have breakfast (two bread rolls one with jam one with peanut butter) and complimentary Starbucks Coffee served by Heidi herself. We had a time of prayer then we split up into many different activities. House visits in the village, children's program, discipleship program with the church leaders, fixing latrine walls, and cooking lunch. As the day went on we got to hear many more testimonies of those who went out into the village and saw many people of another faith receive the Love of Jesus into there hearts, give up there witch craft and get healing in there bodies.

Praise the Lord I love my life and the things He allows me to see.

That night we had showed the Jesus film again in a different location it was an interesting night and the area was a more spiritually difficult area than the night before, but God only knows the impact we had on those villagers and what all they did received.

The next morning we had the amazing opportunity to honor the village chiefs with Breakfast and capulanas (mozambican fabric used for everything).

At one point I was speaking with the Pastor of the church, that Grace Center has help build, and told him that Grace Center was my home church! His eyes got bright and his smile increased and he said “oh tell everyone thank you so much! An that you are now my very good friend!”

Not long after we honored and blessed the villgae we packed up and headed out back for base.

The trip over all was a beautiful time to really connect with the village and see God work in ways there that even Heidi was excited to see because of the hesitation of the village so much before.