MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - New Land and Building Project in Assumane

Assumane, Mozambique
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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New Land and Building Project in Assumane
God has truly blessed the new church plant in the village of Assumane. The church has outgrown the 20ft X 40ft grass building in a matter of four months. We now have between 15 and 25 adults and well over 100 children attending the church service every Sunday morning, not to mention all of the ministry that takes place during the week in Assumane.
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Assumane is a village of great destiny. There have been so many prophecies over this village, many of which speak about it as being a key to reaching the other villages north of here, others about the Lord bringing about revival through the children of Assumane. We believe that Psalm 24:7 is a key verse to this village’s destiny, which says, “Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” With this in mind, we knew that there would be a need to expand in Assumane.

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Earlier this year, Jesse and Peter met with the village secretary and obtained a 20m X 20m plot of land for 600 Meticais (about $20.00) where the existing grass church and latrine was built. Just a few days ago, after praying for more land, Jesse, Victo and I met again with the village secretary, sharing our vision with him about the church and the children’s ministry. We originally began to ask him for 5 more 20m X 20m plots to the left, right and behind the existing church. Can you believe it? He ended up giving us a 60m X 820m plot of land, all the way to the river!!! And we only paid him 600 Meticais (about $20.00) for 5 hectares of land! Praise the Lord for His favor!
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We have started to draw up plans for two new, permanent brick buildings with metal roofs to be built on this new land. One will be a new 40ft X 80ft church building, where we will have combined worship with the children on Sunday mornings. The other will be a new 40ft X 120ft children’s ministry center with four classrooms and a huge open area. The children will then go to this building during the time of teaching on Sundays to receive age-appropriate teaching. And there will be much, much more going on in these buildings during the week. We just haven’t had any place suitable to house all the things we’ve been doing in Assumane as of yet. Along with these two new buildings, we will be constructing a new sign and planter bed, and new well to be dug that the entire village can come to get clean water (thanks to Remnant Christian Fellowship of Walnut Creek, California, my dad’s church and our other home church where we have ministered at during different seasons over the past 16 years, raising money during this past Christmas season). Also, there are future plans for a playground, a parking lot, a place where a future care-taker can have a home and machamba (garden), and a covered fellowship area. Construction of these new buildings costs so little in comparison to what it would cost in the U.S., yet still adds up. Please join with us in prayer for the release of finances for this new building project. Already we have saved a portion of our personal financial support for this construction, but we will need much more. Where God guides, He provides. Let us know if God stirs any of your hearts about giving toward this project specifically.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Christmas Time in Lichinga

Lichinga, Mozambique
Friday, December 25, 2009
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Christmas Time in Lichinga
With the birth of Jesse and Tanya’s baby, things around here have been a little hectic. We were able to spend Christmas Eve last night at the Wilcox home, where all of us missionaries with IRIS spent the evening together (except for Jesse, Tanya and Zoe who stayed back at our place). We had a time of prayer, a gift exchange and shared a meal together. It was a lovely way to spend Christmas Eve.

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Usually on Christmas morning we have had a tree and done gifts with our own family. Here on the mission field, it isn’t exactly the same. We bought each other gifts last week and just gave them to each other then. This morning, I took the flatbed truck, “Faithful” up to Asumani, picked up most of the adults from the church there, and traveled to Paul and Graca’s church, “Igreja Dos Santos,” where we had a combined Christmas celebration with both churches. There was a lot of singing and dancing, prayer, testimonies and teachings from the word of God. I got up and gave my testimony in a very animated way which had a lot of people laughing. I gave a message from Luke 1-2 on the coming of the King, Jesus, and about God sending John the Baptist to prepare the way for the King. I talked about how when a king was going to travel through a land, he would send out messengers before him who would announce his coming and literally clear the roads of debris. I talked about how we need to clear the road into our heart from the debris of sin, that Jesus, the King, may enter. I also talked about the second coming of Christ, and how we are all messengers, preparing the way for His second coming. Victo translated into Yao and Paul translated into Chichewa. I also served communion and had Paul assist me so that he can continue to serve it in his church. We then shared a meal of rice, beans and fish heads.

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After we drove everyone back to Asumani, I just came back home and have been enjoying this Christmas afternoon with the family. I pray that the Lord would bless you all this Christmas day, and would draw you closer to Himself.

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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - A New Edition to the Family

Lichinga, Mozambique
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Zoe Joy Gellatly – A New Edition to the Family
Tonight, the newest edition to our family and missionary team came into this world. Zoe Joy Gellatly was born to Jesse and Tanya Gellatly, our dear friends and fellow missionaries here in Lichinga, Mozambique. She was born at 9:32 pm and weighed in at 8 lbs, 1 1/2 oz. Tanya is really a hero. She had the baby in our home with the help of her midwife, Sandra (a YWAM missionary here in Lichinga) as well as from some others. No hospital. No delivery room. No medication. Just all natural, here in Africa. Little Zoe is the cutest little thing as you can tell from the pictures.

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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - A Christmas Message

Assumane, Mozambique
Monday, December 21, 2009
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A Christmas Message
Had a Christmas service today at the church in Assumane. It was a wonderful time of celebration. It is a wondrous sound, hearing the Yao believers singing praises to their Savior, Jesus Christ. I gave the message today out of Matthew 1:18 - 2:16 and told the story of Jesus’ birth. I also talked about how Satan, through king Herod, wanted to come after and kill Jesus after he had heard of his birth, and talked about the similarity of how Satan also tries to come after us and kill Jesus in us after we give our lives to follow Him. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I had some volunteers come forward and play the part of the lion and the animals the lion hunts, showing that the lion waits for the weaker animals to stray from the herd and chooses them as its’ prey. We talked about straying from God and from the body of Christ. I talked about how many times after conversion, problems arise in life, or we get persecuted from others, and that the enemy often whispers into our ears, “See, things were better when you weren’t following Christ. Go back to your sins and it will all be better.” We had a time of prayer where people were given opportunity to return to Jesus who came to the earth as a man many years ago. There was more singing and worship.
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After the service, those who were present, which was about 140 children and 30 adults, walked together to Phineas’ house where some of the IRIS missionaries, especially Rachel and Melissa, had planned a Christmas party for the church. There were games, chicken and rice, bottles of soda and then at the end, balloons given away as the people left. It was a wonderful time. Rachel’s church back in England funded this party, and the people were so happy. This was our Christmas celebration here in the village of Assumane as a church.

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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Seven Baptisms

Lichinga, Mozambique
Saturday, December 19, 2009
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Seven Baptisms
A little over a week ago, some friends named Paul and Graca came by to meet with us at our house. Paul and Graca have an amazing testimony. Graca was saved maybe two years ago at a makeshift grass church building that once existed right in front of the house we now live in (it just fell down while we were in Pemba, but had been unused since the church in Asumani was planted in September), under leadership of Jesse and Tanya and other missionaries on the IRIS base. Soon after her salvation, Graca began to have incredible encounters with the Holy Spirit, being baptized and filled with the Spirit. Not much later, Jesse and Tanya water baptized her in a murky fish farm. Graca’s husband, Paul, had been a believer, yet was not walking with God, but trying very hard on his own to begin businesses, raising chickens and selling mobile phones. Yet God has such a strong call on Paul’s life, that his businesses never really thrived, and God had been telling Paul that he was only to serve Him in ministry. About a year ago, Paul fully surrendered to this call of God on his life.
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Paul and Graca have planted a church on their land in their village in Lichinga. The building they use was once the place where Paul raised chickens. The name of their church is, “Igresia Dos Santos.” Paul and Graca have continued to stay very close to our hearts and a huge part of our lives. Paul has attended our leadership conferences at the IRIS Bible School, and both Paul and Graca have accompanied us on evangelistic outreaches. These guys are ON FIRE for Jesus. They have lengthy prayer meetings daily at their church, often with periods of fasting. Many, many people have come from their village and from other places because the healing power of God is so great at their church. Even people from other churches are coming to them because they aren’t seeing the power of God in such mighty ways at their various churches. They operate a bit like a hospital. People come and get healed. Some stay and become members of their church. Others go back to their own churches. Paul and Graca don’t mind. Only that God is glorified. They are being faithful with what God has called them to. One lady was paralyzed and now can move and walk once again. Another lady was mentally handicapped and couldn’t talk but now is in her right mind and speaking once again. God is showing up in huge ways at Igresia Dos Santos.

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For some reason, these two lovely followers of Christ who should be teaching us how to walk with God came to us over a week ago with various questions. This time, as they came over, they asked us how to do water baptisms and how to serve communion. We answered their questions and agreed to accompany them as they were to have their first ever water baptisms with new converts from their church this Saturday. So today, Jesse, Bona, Victo, Carlos, Jonas and I all rode motorbikes into town to their church and, after a time of singing and praying, took a walk for many kilometers up and down many hills spotted with houses and machambas (gardens) all the way to a river big enough to have baptisms. Paul and I got into the very cold water waist deep and baptized six women from their church. Paul had been teaching on water baptism for the past couple of weeks at their church, but I said some things about it’s significance before we had the baptisms. There was prayer, singing and rejoicing as these excited new converts decided to take that step of obedience to Christ and symbolically die to their old lives under the water, and come up out of the water as new creations in Christ in the presence of their peers who walked with us to the river. Carlos also wanted to be baptized, so Victo, who has been discipling him, got into the water and baptized him as well. Thank you Jesus, for letting us take part in these baptisms today. Please continue to pray for Paul and Graca, as they relentlessly serve Jesus, day in and day out. They are not paid to be full-time pastors, yet God miraculously provides for their every need.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Salvation and Healing at the Hospital

Lichinga, Mozambique
Monday, December 14, 2009
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Salvation and Healing at the Hospital
Today I had the opportunity to accompany some friends and fellow IRIS missionaries to the hospital in Lichinga to do some ministry. My friend Tyren started this ministry a while back here in Lichinga and let me tell you, it is an awesome ministry. Tyren, Victo, Melissa, Chanito, Peter and I all headed to the hospital at around 3:30 pm today, praying as we drove through Lichinga to get there.

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We all went together into various hospital rooms where Mozambican men, women and children were staying, many of them with the look of fear or desperation in their faces. Our purpose in going? To share the love of Jesus, to pray for the sick and to bring the hope of the gospel of Christ to them. Most of them I had the chance to pray for were professing Muslims, yet their children who were sick had witchcraft from the witch doctors tied around their necks. I was able to talk to them in Portuguese, explaining to them that we were believers in Jesus, and that Jesus has the power to heal their children, but that the witchcraft around the necks of their children displeases God and will actually hinder them from being healed. Both sets of families actually were very open to cut the witchcraft off of their children and have us pray for them. I had Peter and Chanito explain the gospel of Christ in more detail. Not only did the families forsake the witchcraft and have us pray for their children to recover, but they all received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. It was amazing!
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We also prayed for others, many of them children. Others also prayed to receive Christ. So significant was the fact that we were able to share the love of Christ with them all, through a touch, or a smile. Tyren even gave a brand new Portuguese Bible to one of the nurses there, praying and prophesying over her. I truly believe that this is where Jesus wants us to be…among the sick and the hurting…bringing hope to the hopeless. Jesus hung out around sick people all the time when He walked the earth…and the people were healed. Jesus said that “greater things than these” we WILL do and that “these signs WILL follow those who believe…they WILL lay hands on the sick and they WILL recover.” His will is that we do His will. “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In heaven there is no sickness or pain. We simply want to invite the Kingdom of heaven and the will of God to invade this earth realm. I pray that wherever you are right now, that God would stir your hearts to lay hands on sick people and watch the Kingdom of God take place through you.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Learning the Yao Language

Lichinga, Mozambique
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
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Learning the Yao Language
We believe that part of being a successful missionary is learning the heart language of the people who you are ministering among. This is something we have been able to focus on lately here in Lichinga, among other things, during the rainy season. So we have been hitting the language studies.
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The Yao language is in the Bantu language family (as is Swahili and other languages) and is a very unique language. Learning the language is more than just trying to read and say words and phrases in Yao; it is listening to the Yao people speak, and trying to use what we learn in everyday conversation with the Yao people.
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We are so blessed to have a few resources in Yao to make learning the language easier. We have two sets of written material, one that also has mp3s along with it, so you can actually hear the Yao speaker and try to follow along. We all have notebooks that we copy this written material into by hand, and then practice speaking as we listen to the mp3s on our iPod. This has been helpful. I have also been blessed to find one out of print Yao New Testament (which I purchased from another missionary at a moving sale), that is more of the Malawi Yao, but still understandable to those here in Mozambique. I’ve been bringing my Yao Bible to the villages and just reading Scripture passages to the people who gather to hear. This helps in language learning, to be able to read it aloud.

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Maybe you would like to learn a few simple Yao phrases with us. One greeting we often give is to say, “ntendele” which means, “peace.” To greet someone in the morning you would say to them, “Adjimwiche wudi?” which literally means, “have you passed the morning?” The response would be, “Nyimwiche, kwadi ajetu?” which literally means, “I have passed the morning, and you?” One of my favorite phrases in Yao is, “Isa akunonyela mwejo n’nope,” which means, “Jesus loves you very much.” This are just a few simple phrases. Please pray that God would give us acceleration in learning the Yao language, that we would be able to communicate to the Yao people in their heart language, pray with them, and even teach God’s word to them. Using interpreters is okay, but speaking to them in their language really opens up the doors to their hearts, and brings big smiles to their faces as white people attempt to speak their language.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Graduating from Mission School

Pemba, Mozambique
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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Graduating from Mission School
Two days ago, our family, including Jonas, Jordan and Justine graduated from IRIS Harvest School of Missions HS11. It was a glorious time. We actually were graduated five days early as we needed to get back to Lichinga for Tanya to have the baby. So with all of our fellow students and the mission school staff present, Heidi and Rolland Baker had our family come forward where they graduated us.

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Graduating from mission school was much more than just receiving certificates of graduation from Heidi and Rolland. They actually laid hands on us, along with Mel Tari, author of “Like a Mighty Wind” and a key leader in the Indonesian revivals, prophesying over us and speaking words over our lives. We actually got it all on mp3, which is cool. Even the mission school staff and students came up and prayed over us and prophesied. It was amazing! They also had Jesse and Tanya come forward to pray over us as a missionary team. There were a lot of things said about being a new model for missions, reaching the unreached peoples and even a future boat ministry going from island to island. Heidi Baker even ordained us missionaries with IRIS Ministries. I feel so unworthy, yet so honored and favored by God to be a part of such a wonderful family in IRIS Ministries. It was a wonderful finish to the past couple of months of mission school. We have been deeply impacted because we attended the school and God has fanned the flame of the Holy Spirit within us, preparing us for the next season of our journey as missionaries.
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Christian Young

IRIS Harvest School of Missions HS11 2009 Staff and Students

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