MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - The Road to Tanzania

Matchedje, Mozambique
Saturday, October 10, 2009
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The Road To Tanzania
Some years ago, when Jesse and Tanya first arrived as missionaries to Lichinga, Mozambique, the Lord had given them prophetic words about the road that runs north from Lichinga all the way to the Tanzania border. There are many Yao villages along this road, as well as Yao villages branching off of this road that have never even heard the name of Jesus. The prophetic words that came to them were that God is giving them that road to Tanzania…giving it to them in the sense that they were to be the ones to reach the unreached Yao people along this road with the gospel of Christ. We have sensed that we were to assist Jesse and Tanya in making this a reality, bringing acceleration to this promise to them, and have also sensed that these prophetic words are for us as well. This week, we made some real headway in seeing the fulfillment of this promise.
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Matemangue, Mozambique
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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Scouting Trip from Assumane to Matemangue
Last week we went to the Department of Agriculture in Lichinga and purchased some maps. We began to build a huge wall of maps from Lichinga all the way to the Tanzania border. We are creating a war room in our house where we will intercede for these villages by name, marking them on these maps and noting the progress of each village. There are many missing maps, as we had to place an order for many to be made, but as we observed the section of the map closer to Asumani, we noticed two villages to the west of Assumane that we had never been to. They seemed a bit hard to get to, and believe me, they were. The first village is called Lussanhango and the second village is called Matemangue.
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We set out a bit late in the afternoon for such a trip. Jesse, Victo and I all hopped on three motorbikes and headed up a road we had never been on coming out of Assumane. We asked people along the way, as there are many other trails and it is quite easy to end up on the wrong trail. I did bring my GPS to mark the roads. I have now rigged a 12 volt adapter to the battery of our motorbike, so that I can run the GPS without it running out of its’ internal battery on the road, which it has before on longer trips.
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These roads are some of the most windy, treacherous roads we have ever attempted to ride on motorbikes. There were rivers we had to cross, as well as very questionable log bridges, where we had to balance our wheel in the middle of the logs to make it over the bridge. It was a lot of fun though. When we made it to these villages, the people looked at us as though they had never seen white people, which they probably haven’t. These villages are well off the beaten path, but the people were friendly, and we are excited to return to them to meet the chiefs and began to evangelize them.
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Matchedje, Mozambique
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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Scouting Trip from Lichinga to Matchedje
Today we piled into Freedom, our new 4X4 vehicle, with a full tank of diesel petrol, and drove 240 kilometers from Lichinga all the way north to Matchedje, which is right at the Tanzania border, and then drove another 240 kilometers back to Lichinga. Most of the roads are unpaved, but aren’t in the worst condition ever. Many other roads we have traveled on have been worse. We started out at about 8:45 am and marked 56 villages on our GPS from Lichinga to the Tanzania border. It was an amazing journey and very exciting to see the prophecies begin to be fulfilled. There has been some work of evangelizing and discipling done by the Baptists, as well as YWAM in the past, especially from Lichinga to Lumbiza, which is I think less than half way to the border. So we made it our aim to actually plant seeds of evangelism on this trip, to the villages north of Lumbiza. We brought tracts in Portuguese and Yao and passed them out in every village from Lumbiza to Matchedje. The people who could read gladly accepted them and we believe that they will read them, even to their family and friends.

At a small village that is called, “Malawi,” we spotted a lady who had a hunchback working near her home. Our hearts broke for her, as we saw her struggling to walk, all hunched over. We stopped at the village and began to talk with her. Victo began to share the gospel of Christ with her in the Yao language. She had never even heard the name of Jesus before. She was very glad to hear the message of salvation in Jesus, and that she could be set free. We noticed that she had a large pouch, a witchcraft fetish, tied around her neck. We shared with her that she could not follow Jesus and witchcraft, and that in order to be completely set free, she would have to forsake the witchcraft and destroy the fetish. She was hesitant at first, as she said that it had been around her neck for many years. We explained to her that this thing was actually hindering her from being set free, and that for God to receive the glory, she would need to destroy it. She then tore it off from around her neck, and had Victo take the fetish and throw it in the latrine, where that garbage belongs.

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It was then that the lady prayed and asked the Lord Jesus Christ into her heart, forsaking a life of sin. We also talked to her about how Jesus died not only to heal us spiritually, through salvation, but that “by His stripes we are healed” physically as well. As we laid hands on her for healing from her hunchback, she straightened up as the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon her. Jesus took away the pain from her chest, her back and her knee, and she stood there before us without a hunchback any longer. We had her bend over and stand back up straight a few times. We asked her what she was feeling. She said she felt a little sore in her lower back, which we were sure was because her body had not been used to standing upright like that, and that over the next week, God would take that soreness away as well, as He completes the healing work He began. It was a huge testimony to the greatness of God, and that today, just as in the days of the early church, the gospel of Christ was being attested to by miraculous signs and wonders performed through the hands of His apostles (sent ones).
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There was also a young man of around 14 years old who saw what had happened, as well as some others who had gathered from the village to see what was going on. This young man could read in Portuguese and Yao. So we gave him some portions of Scripture in both languages and he agreed to read them to this lady who had just experienced new life in Christ.



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The journey to Matchedje at the Tanzania border was amazing. T one point, we looked through the trees and saw a lovely green pasture. As we stopped the truck to observe it, we observed some animals moving in the field. As we ran to get a closer look, they turned out to be baboons hopping across the field and into the trees. Jonas took some cool pictures where you can see the baboons. We were also told by people in the villages that elephants were often seen in the area. We were excited about possibly seeing elephants, too, but ended up only seeing a big pile of elephant poop on the side of the road. We were still thankful for the wildlife that we did see, and know that we will see more of the wonderful animals of Africa as we travel in the future.
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Ntumbule, Mozambique
Saturday, October 10, 2009
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Scouting Trip from Chilugo to Ntumbule
On our maps from the Department of Agriculture, we noticed 9 more villages to the south and to the east of the areas we have already been traveling and ministering. We decided to take one last scouting trip on motorbikes with the GPS to mark them and pray about which ones to bring “Proclaimers” to chiefs before the rainy season. Yesterday we attempted to make this trip, but the front tire on Jesse’s motorbike went flat in the first village, Chilugo. Jesse has shown the Jesus film in the village of Chilugo in the past, and we have one man from this village in whom we are training at our leadership conferences at the base. As some guys in the village, set up for fixing flats began to patch a hole, it was odd to find out that Jesse’s tube had not one hole, but maybe ten holes all around the tube. Jesse has never had a flat on that motorbike, and only one thorn was found in the tire. We know that as people pass these tire-fixing stations, that often these people attempt to use witchcraft and curses to give people flats, so that they can get the business. We, though, believe that the blood of Jesus protects us from such things, yet still found it odd. Instead of fixing all of the holes, which would mean waiting a long time and paying more money, we decided to just have the couple of patches done that they had already worked on, ride back home, and go into town later to purchase new tubes for the motorbikes, to take them with us on these trips, along with our pump, so that we don’t have to wait for the tires to be patched in the villages..
So today we prayed up and headed out on this scouting trip again. Man, this trip made the trip earlier this week to Matemangue seem like a cakewalk. This was deifinitely some of the most difficult terrain we have ever attempted to ride. My motorbike broke through the wood slats on one bridge, make the front wheel head toward the river below. We had to cross other rivers with our motorbikes, one of which I slipped off of another make-shift “bridge” and stepped knee deep into thick mud, along with my motorbike getting buried in it. I bent my right foot peg on a rock, broke three spokes on my rear tire. Jesse and Victo also had a crazy ride on their motorbike. All that to say that we successfully made it from Chilugo to Ntumbele. The people of these villages were again very friendly. We marked these villages on the GPS. In some of the villages, we witnessed women performing witchcraft ceremonies. These villages definitely need Jesus. Our GPS mapping has been completed for this time before the rainy season. Now it is time to pray about which villages to return to next week, bringing “Proclaimers” to the chiefs of those villages. Please pray that the Lord would direct us to the right villages.
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Christian Young