MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Outreach in Megiti

Megiti, Mozambique
Saturday, November 28, 2009
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Outreach in Megiti
Went on our final outreach for IRIS Harvest School HS11 this last weekend. Most of the time, students only go on one outreach, but praise God, I’ve been blessed to go on two additional outreaches that were optional, as well as two other outreaches on my own. We went to the village of Megiti this time. We traveled due west toward Meteoro, and then headed north to the village. We had a wonderful time.
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The first night we set up to show a different film about Jesus that was translated into Portuguese. It is a much shorter film than the Jesus film, but the Jesus in this film is much happier than the normal portrayal of Jesus, which I really like. After the film we had a time when people could receive Jesus. Many people raised their hands to receive Jesus after Jesse preached. Then Heidi Baker arrived and had local Mozambicans put on a skit based on the parable of the sower. Then we had a time to pray over children who were having trouble passing their exams in school. We also prayed for anyone who was having trouble sleeping due to demonic attacks. There was a time to pray for people with other ailments as well. Quite a few deaf people came forward for prayer from Heidi, who, once again, has a 100% healing rate for people to receive their hearing. All who came to her were healed by Jesus.

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Setting up tents at village of Megiti.............Iris church at village of Megiti

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Beautiful rainbow at the outreach...............This man was deaf but can now hear

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One really cool thing that happened was the healing of a boy who I was able to pray for. Heidi was busy up front praying for people, and a mother and her son were trying to get to the front so that he could get prayer to receive his hearing. Seeing that he needed prayer I just took him up in my arms (he was probably 4 to 5 years old). With his mother right next to him, I asked her in Portuguese about his hearing. She said that he barely had any hearing. I tested this. He could read my lips but could barely hear me snapping my fingers near his ears. I stuck my thumbs in his ears and began to pray for him in Makhua and Portuguese. When I finished praying, I took my thumbs from his ears, snapped my fingers and asked if he could hear me. The boy’s eyes got really wide and his face lit up as he told his mom excitedly that he could hear now. His mother screamed in excitement and praised the Lord for his healing. I had the boy repeat after me the words, “kushukuru Yesu” (which means “thank you Jesus” in Makhua) to make sure he had received full hearing. My faith was boosted as the boy and his mother repeated this after me.
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The next morning we had a church service where we prayed over some adopted children and then went with Heidi to a couple of new homes that were built next to the local pastor’s house, in which they would be taking in these children who are no longer orphans to care for. We prayed over each of the four rooms, and I anointed each door with oil. Then some prominent Muslim shieks from the area came to the village where we were staying because they heard about the healings that took place the previous night. They actually prayed right there and received Christ. Then they gave Heidi and Rolland a chicken and some pigeons to say, Thank you." Amazing! From there we went to a small lake where we held baptisms. Rolland Baker gave a teaching on the meaning and importance of water baptism. Another really cool thing is that Heidi asked me if I would like to help her baptize the new converts. I was happy to, and emptied my pockets of my cell phone and wallet, jumped into the lake with Heidi and a few Mozambican pastors, and helped Heidi Baker baptize 15 to 20 people. It was a glorious time of people making a public declaration of their faith in Christ. Many of them converted from Islam, which is a huge testimony of true conversion, because of the pressures in the villages to conform to Islam. After they were baptized, they knelt at the shore and received prayer. What an exciting day!

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Praying for the adopted children in Megiti.........Praying in the new rooms for adopted children

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Rolland teaching on water baptism..........Christian and Heidi baptizing in lake

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Rejoicing with new converts from Megiti being baptized

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It began to rain while we were having baptisms, and didn’t really stop raining for the rest of our outreach. We all sang beautiful songs in Makhua and Portuguese as we crowded into the covered Camion and headed back to the village. We were originally planning on showing the film about Jesus at another village that night, but couldn’t due to the rain. So we hung out with the people from the village and had fellowship with each other. We also held a service in the church in Megiti that evening, where I played my guitar and we led worship in Makhua and English. There were testimonies and a message from an awesome woman of God named Amy, who ministers with her family and other believers to drug users and prostitutes in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. We slept in our tents through the rain, woke up and broke camp while there was a break in the weather, had another service in the church, and headed back to the IRIS center in Pemba. The Kingdom of God is being forcefully advanced here in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique. Thousands of churches have been planted in this province alone since IRIS Ministries came to Pemba in 2003. There is an amazing amount of acceleration happening here. Mozambique is a nation that is being transformed from within. Praise the Lord!
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Outreach in Chuiba

Chuiba, Mozambique
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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Outreach in Chuiba
I talked to Pastor Carlos (who is the leader of all outreach efforts for IRIS in Cabo del Gado) a week ago or so about finding a village not too far in distance from Pemba that there is not an IRIS church presence where I could take some Mozambicans with me to. We had already gone to Mahati, which I found out did end up having an IRIS church relatively near to the village. I even got to meet the pastor of that church and tell him about the people who had come to Jesus. Pastor Carlos told me about a village called, “Chuiba.”
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He was telling me that Chuiba is a very strong Muslim village, and that there were not welcoming when outreach efforts have been made there. But IRIS definitely would like to plant a church in Chuiba, should the doors open for this. He told me that large Jesus film outreaches haven’t worked, and that doing evangelism on a smaller scale and making friends would be a better tactic. A few days later I was talking to Heidi Baker about wanting to go into that village. She told me that she and others were stoned in that village over a year ago. All of this caused my spirit to even more leap at the challenge.

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So yesterday, after praying about it, I took Jonas and some Mozambicans: Tony, Benito, Adelino and two other guys. We drove southeast down the coast to the village of Chuiba. We all prayed in the car on the way there. I had confidence that God was going to give us favor in this village. We drove into the village, and although the atmosphere felt a little tense, mostly among the men of the village, we were welcomed by a group of women and children sitting near a shady tree. We actually ran into an IRIS pastor who was with these ladies. He is a school teacher in Chuiba, and has a church not too far from the village.
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Anyway, after asking their permission to speak with them, I got out my guitar and we sang some songs in Makhua together. They loved the songs, and sang along, dancing to the rhythm. Then I gave my testimony, as well as presented the gospel of Christ I asked how many of them felt that emptiness that only Jesus could fill and explained how they would only go to heaven if they repented of their sin, and received Jesus Christ into their lives. Almost all of them, probably a group of 20 to 30 women, children and a few men, wanted to pray for forgiveness of sins and to ask Jesus into their hearts, where He would live their entire life.
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Since I am unable to teach through the entire Bible in such a short time with people, God generally gives me a certain aspect of the gospel to focus on. Yesterday, I focused on the fact that when we die, we will hear one of two things from God: (1) Well done good and faithful servant, enter into my rest, or (2) Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. I believe that this concept, which lined up with my personal testimony, really hit home for them, as almost all of them raised their hands, repeated a simple salvation prayer, and asked Jesus into their hearts. It was a beautiful thing. Another group of precious people added to the Book of Life, and being brought into Jesus’ Makhua bride. Praise the Lord. I believe these to be the first converts in this village. We sang some more. They asked if we could come back and teach on Sundays, starting a church in that village. We said that we must have the leaders of IRIS speak with the chief of that village. But even that they would want a church in that village is a completely different response than when IRIS first came to that village. We also bought mangoes from them and gave them out to all those who were present, just to bless them with some physical food, as well as spiritual food. We gave out Portuguese Bibles to those who could read, as well as Christian Literature for children. Although Jonas and I were hit with some rocks thrown over a fence today at IRIS base #1 while we were with gathered together with our fellow Harvest School students and Mozambican Bible School students (only got hit in the legs, nothing serious), we definitely didn’t get stoned in Chuiba yesterday, and believe that a huge victory was won for the Kingdom of God. We have been speaking to the leadership here about following up now with the new converts.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Update from the Young Children

Pemba, Mozambique
Sunday, November 15, 2009
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Guitar Lessons With Adelino
When we first came to Pemba, one of the first people Jesse and Tanya introduced me to was Adelino. He kind of reminds me of myself. He was pretty quiet and shy when we first talked to each other. He’s also extremely humble and kind.
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One day I saw him going up to look if someone else was at the gate of our housing compound. I knew Jesse and Tanya were at the house and that Adelino would like to talk to them, so I asked him if he would like to come.

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Well, he ended up staying the whole afternoon at our house and we watched a movie, sat and talked. Then the thing that really connected us was when my dad brought out the guitar. My dad started teaching him guitar that night and he had the most joy I’ve ever seen on anyone’s face in my life! From here on out, almost every day I’ve been teaching him guitar and just investing in our relationship. This has been my main ministry while I’ve been here, and I really enjoy it.
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Jonas Young
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The Bayobab Fruit and Paulo
Hello! My name is Jordan. Now here in Pemba I’ve seen these fat trees. On them are a fruit called “Bayobab fruits.” Now every once in a while they’ll bang on the top of the roof. It sounds like a hammer!
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One time we were talking to our friend, Antoinette, and she said that these fruits are edible. At that time, [I was told by my parents that] we couldn’t eat them. When along came Paulo, an African boy who likes to come and play with us. [Sadly, Paulo’s mother just died a few weeks ago and he has come to live at the children’s center here in Pemba. He is ten years old, yet very small for his age, with a bloated tummy and a very bad skin condition] He took this hard fruit and..tap, tap, bang! Tap, tap, bang! He banged the fruit on the cement. Crack! Smoke like debris came out. Orange-ish, brown-ish fruits that looked like orange slices laid inside. Paulo picked one up, snapped a piece off and popped it in his mouth. Suck, suck, suck.
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We asked [our parents] if we could at least have one fruit. [They] said yes and they tasted sour. Later, Paulo wanted to swing on the swing outside. We did, and we spent the rest of the afternoon together.
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Jordan Young

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The Bayobab Frutes and Paulo
Hi, my name is Justine. Often, I see Big trees with Interesting frutes on it. They are called Bayobab frutes. Along came a boy named Paulo. He cracked it open!! He also ate one. We did too. They taste like candy.
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Justine Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Outreach in Chiure and Mikobodi

Chiure, Mozambique
Saturday, November 14, 2009
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Outreach in Chiure
I think I mentioned before that part of our training at the IRIS Harvest School of Missions is going into the bush with our color group teams in the Cabo Del Gado province to do outreach and evangelism. The first village we went to this last weekend was the village of Chiure. Arco-Iris (which literally means rainbow in Portuguese), or IRIS Ministries already has a church presence in this village. We still showed the Jesus film nonetheless the first night where many prayed to receive Christ and many were healed, including three people who were deaf but received their hearing. We were blessed to have Heidi with us again on this outreach. There was a really cool drama about Noah and the ark, which some visitors to IRIS Pemba put on. I played guitar as we led all the people gathered in a song called, “Mwari Wakanaka” in the Makhua language (I love playing the African rhythms on my guitar). It was a wonderful night.

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The next morning we woke up to village children’s faces surrounding Jesse and I in our tent. The no privacy-thing is normal when we stay in villages in Mozambique. Children are very curious, but at least in this part of Mozambique, often want whatever you will give them, including empty water bottles. They are even pushy at times, but they are poor, and have survived with almost nothing somehow, so they will do whatever they can to insure their survival. Only Jesus can truly change people from the inside-out, breaking the poverty spirit. Our job is just to love them and share the gospel of Jesus with them, in word and in deed.
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Anyway, we woke up to Heidi making Starbucks for us. We chuckled together as I told her it was her Starbucks ministry in the bush-bush. Then we walked to the pastor’s house where Heidi officially opened another “children’s center” because he is taking orphan children into his home to care for them. It was beautiful as Heidi asked each of the children what their dreams were; what they wanted to be when they grew up. We got to pray for those children, too.
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Then all of us students split off into groups with other Mozambiquan Bible School students to go house to house throughout the village, praying for people and helping the people get rid of their witchcraft. I was in a group with Daniel, his fiancé, Yohan and two Bible School students, one of whom is named Marques. The people in the village mostly spoke Makhua, and the Bible School students only spoke Portuguese and Makhua, which left me to translate for my fellow Harvest School students from English to Portuguese. It has been a stretching time for me here in Mozambique, as I have needed to learn Portuguese quickly. God has been giving me so much grace in this area, and I was able to successfully translate for all of us as we ministered in the village that day (it also helps that I learned Spanish when I was younger, making Portuguese not too hard to pick up). We saw AMAZING VICTORIES!
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The first house that we went to, we caught an older woman heading to the machamba (garden) to work. We asked if we could pray that God would give her strength to work in the machamba. She agreed. We also talked to her about receiving Jesus Christ into her heart, even though she was already Catholic. She didn’t have time to, or just wasn’t interested (I’m not quite sure which one). But her son and daughter both had heard us talking to her about salvation, and right off the bat asked us if they could receive Jesus. They both prayed right then, repenting from their sin and asked Jesus into their hearts. PRAISE GOD! The next house we went to there was a mother, father and son, and we could smell alcohol. The son admitted that he had demonic spirits tormenting him and that he wanted freedom. We proceeded to lay hands on him and pray for deliverance. We have also been learning how to speak some Makhua, so I said, “minepa tchotakala tchorowa,” which means, “leave now demons.” We also taught them the simple gospel message, and telling him the need for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within him through faith in Christ, so he also prayed and received Christ. Then we prayed for an older woman to be healed from Malaria, who said she felt the fire of God flowing through her. She felt much better after we prayed for her. Then we prayed for another woman who was barren. Daniel’s fiancé shared the story of Hannah with her. She was so thankful that we came to pray for her. Another man wanted us to go to his family’s house to pray for his sister who was suffering from asthma. We began to pray for her, anointing her with oil, and had her breathe deeply in and out, but she said nothing had changed. We were about to pray more for her, but I felt led to stop and ask if she had been to any local witch doctors to receive traditional medicine for the sickness. Her mother confessed that they had. We then had their entire family publically pray and renounce the witchcraft and prayed again for the young lady. Immediately I felt as though something was happening in her. We told her that it was our belief that she would be well by morning. We taught the family about the importance of following Jesus alone and trusting in him alone for her healing, and for salvation. After many victories we headed back to eat lunch, then prayed for a man named Sikari who had been blind from birth. One of his eyes was completely white, the other one missing the eyeball. Our team pressed in for over an hour for his healing, but he didn’t receive his sight right then. Please pray for Sikari, that he would be able to experience what it is like to see for the first time in his life. We comforted him and challenged him to never give up on praying for a complete healing.

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Outreach in Mikobodi
Our team piled in the camion and drove another 25 kilometers away to a village called, “Mikobodi,” where we would show the Jesus film and do some evangelism. It wasn’t a very big village, and there was an Arco-iris church a ways away. As the people gathered to watch the film, the smell of alcohol was in the air and some men were acting very unstable, and looking strangely at the white-skinned girls on our team. A few from our team shared their testimonies before the film. Most of our team decided to gather behind the truck away from the crowd during the film, where they had an amazing time of intercession for that village. You could literally sense the spiritual atmosphere change as our team prayed. One of the visitors even saw angels lined up on top of the camion.
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After the film had finished, Jesse gave an awesome testimony of how Jesus transformed his life. When asked who wanted to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, many people raised their hands and prayed to enter into a personal, hand-holding relationship with Jesus. Then we had a time for people to come forward for healing. Many people from this village came forward for prayer. Many were healed. Our team prayed for those who came forward. Many people who had back problems were healed. We also prayed against many cases of malaria. A very cool thing is that are team came against the spirit of addiction in prayer behind the truck during the film. During this prayer time, a couple of men came forward to testify that God had set them free from the addiction of alcoholism. PRAISE THE LORD! Woke up early this morning, first to the Muslim call to worship, then to a group chanting and blowing their eerie sounding whistles for some traditional celebration tied in with witchcraft. Overall, we had an amazing weekend of outreach!
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Boat Trip to an Island

Pemba, Mozambique
Monday, November 9, 2009
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Boat Trip to an Island 

Our family along with Jesse and Tanya, who we consider part of our family, too, took a boat trip to an island right across Pemba Bay. Jesse and Tanya had taken a boat trip to this island two and half years ago when they were attending the school. They said that there were some of the most beautiful coral reefs ever near that island, and man, they were right.
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It took me back to our days as missionaries in Micronesia in the late ‘90’s. God’s creation is so amazing. That there is an entire underwater world teeming with brilliant colored fish and other sea creatures is a wonder. Jesse and I went spear fishing, this time with some success, as we speared five fish which we took home, cooked and ate. The kids all enjoyed swimming, collecting awesome looking shells and just hanging out on the beach and in the caves. It was a fun morning, and a nice break from our school schedule to just relax and enjoy God’s creation together.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Outreach in Mahati

Mahati, Mozambique
Saturday, November 7, 2009
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Outreach in Mahati
God has been stirring mine and Jonas’ heart to find local Makhua villages where there is not yet a church presence, and do some evangelism and discipleship. We have also been ministering to some boys from a village near the IRIS Base, one of whom can speak English, Portuguese and Makhua. His name is Adriano. Jonas and I have taken Adriano and others to the beach to swim with them and just spend time with them. They love being with us and we love being with them. I sense such a strong call on Adriano’s life, even though he is only 14 years old.

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So with my 14 year old translator and one other boy, Jonas and I headed to a village about fifteen minutes away called, “Mahati.” We just asked Adriano if he knew of a village where there wasn’t a church. He brought us to Mahati, where we drove into the heart of the village, found some friendly faces, and got out of the vehicle to share the gospel of Christ. None of this is part of our curriculum for school; it is just something that God has laid on our hearts to do as we have free time.
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I shared the gospel of Jesus with a group of over 30 men, women and children who had not heard the story of Jesus. I asked if any of them wanted to repent of their sins, including witchcraft, and receive Jesus Christ into their hearts. Almost all of them raised their hands, desiring to pray with us for salvation. It was awesome to hear them repeat after Adriano in Makhua, each one becoming a new creation. Then I asked if any of them were sick and wanted prayer for healing, explaining that Jesus also gives us power to pray for the sick and see them recover. I was able to practice my limited conversational Makhua that I have been learning. Two women came for prayer. Both were healed. One had pain in her hip. The other had pain in her chest and in her back. The gospel of Christ was accompanied by signs and wonders, which confirmed the gospel which we preached, just as it happened in the early church of the New Testament. They were so thankful that we came. We will return next week to do more follow up discipleship, and more evangelism. I will see what I can do about talking to IRIS about this village, too, as these villagers were very much longing for there to be a church in their large village.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - A Day With Heidi Baker

Pemba, Mozambique
Friday, November 6, 2009
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A Day With Heidi Baker
We have been so blessed to be able to attend the IRIS Harvest School of Missions here in Pemba, Mozambique. Heidi and Rolland Baker are the founders of IRIS Ministries. They came to Mozambique in the early to mid ‘90’s after being missionaries in Indonesia, China and England for many years. Heidi has written a few books and has a HUGE heart of love, especially for hurting children. As she teaches us in the school, many times her mantra is: “stopping for the one.” She talked about that a lot today in class, as she illustrated it with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Because of Heidi and Rolland’s love for the hurting, IRIS Ministries is not only an organization that helps orphans, but the fastest growing church in Mozambique, with thousands of churches and pastors here and in other nations, and that in only the past fifteen years or so. To be honest, I believe Heidi Baker to be a modern day Mother Theresa. Thousands of orphans in Mozambique and beyond have been taken from the streets and have been clothed, fed, housed and educated, all because of Christ-like love and compassion that flows from the heart of this woman of God.
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We are attending this school because Heidi personally gave the approval to grant us a scholarship, as full-time missionaries, to come and attend the school. She is so very kind. At the end of today’s session, Heidi had all of the IRIS full-time missionaries come forward to have the student body lay hands on them and pray for them. We were invited to come forward, as we are full-time missionaries in Lichinga, along with Jesse and Tanya. It was an honor to have Heidi, or “mama Aida” as they call her here, lay hands on each member of our family, including our children to pray for us. She has been imparting to all of us her heart that is so filled with compassion.
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Outreach in Saul
Our outreach teams, made up of staff and students, were heading out to two different locations yesterday afternoon. Heidi was heading to one of those locations and we were invited to follow her one hour to the village of Saul. It was so neat to just stop at the gas station with Heidi, converse with her, and follow her in the Land Rover that she was driving to that village. Heidi likes to be able to be on outreach with the students here in the Pemba area, when she is back from speaking at different conferences in the States. After we arrived in the village of Saul, we were able to connect more with “mama Aida.” Our children just hugged on her, and she hugged on them. We thanked her for letting us come to the IRIS Harvest School of Missions. We will be able to connect with her and Rolland next week to get to know each other more and to vision cast what God has placed on our hearts for the future.

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The Jesus Film was being shown in the Makhua language, which differs a lot from the Yao language that we are learning back in Lichinga. As it has been with other outreaches in Mozambique, it looked like almost the entire village was gathered around. As the film was ending, all of us students and staff piled into the back of the Camio with Heidi. Heidi asked if Jordan and Justine could be a part of the play, where the story of the Good Samaritan was acted out. They were happy to be a part of it. They played “banditas” who attacked and beat up the man in the story. Heidi then explained the story and preached the gospel. Jesse, Paul and others testified, too. Many people were saved. She also gave the invitation for people to come and receive healing from Jesus. Heidi has been given such a strong healing anointing for deaf people. She now has a 100% healing rate of people receiving their hearing as she lays hands on them and prays for them. Many times, she will go into a village and say, “bring me your deaf people,” pray for them, see them healed by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, and then see entire villages repent from their witchcraft and embrace the gospel of Christ. This night two deaf children came forward to have Heidi pray for them, and they walked away hearing and talking, healed by Jesus. PRAISE GOD! Many others were healed as staff and students laid hands on the sick. I was blessed to be able to pray for a few people, one of which I led through a prayer of deliverance and receiving Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, all in the Portuguese language, as I had no one to translate. It was an amazing night of victory for the Kingdom of God.
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We piled back into “Freedom,” our 4X4 that God has blessed us with, and followed Heidi in her Land Rover back to the IRIS Base in Pemba. We enjoyed our day with Heidi Baker, and feel so blessed that God continues to bring such wonderful Christ-followers into our lives. We count it a HUGE blessing to work and minister with IRIS Ministries here in Africa.
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Christian Young