MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Matekenya

Lichinga, Mozambique
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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Matekenya
In Africa, there are different kinds of things that we deal with in our lives as missionaries. One of those things that we deal with is called, “Matekenya.” Matekenya is a kind of worm that makes its’ way from the African soil to the human body, usually the feet. The thing is, you don’t know when this creature enters your body, you only know after it has borrowed into your skin and has laid its’ eggs. One day, you may notice a small black spot on your foot, that almost looks like a pimple.
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Jonas is the first of our family to become intimate friends with the Matekenya. He told us the other day that he was experiencing pain in his foot as he was walking around. As we looked at the bottom of his foot, it looked like what we had seen on other people like Matekenya. We had Victo, a local Mozambican missionary take a look at it and sure enough, it was Matekenya. Victo has removed Matekenya from our missionary friends, Jesse and Tanya before, and this is just something that the people of Africa deal with. So skillfully, Victo removed the Matekenya from Jonas’ foot. In the pictures you see, the white thing being extracted from Jonas’ foot isn’t the Matekenya worm itself, but a huge egg sack that the Matekenya lays inside the foot. If the egg sack is broken while being removed, many more Matekenya will soon hatch within the foot. Although this extraction may look very painful, the Matekenya actually destroys nerves in the foot in the area that it has dug its’ hole (although Jonas felt some pain). The extraction of the Matekenya from Jonas’ foot was successful.

Matekenya BEFORE extraction

Matekenya BEING extracted

Matekenya DURING extraction

Matekenya AFTER extraction

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Jesse, Tanya and Victo had to extract over 40 Matekenya from a man’s foot in one of the Yao villages. His foot literally looked like hundreds of craters. Untreated, Matekenya actually kills people in Africa. Hopefully you weren’t eating your breakfast when you read this and looked at these pictures.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Outreach in Lussenhando

Lussenhando, Mozambique
Friday, January 29, 2010
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Outreach in Lussenhando

My heart was racing as we went down the red-dirt road to Assumane. We picked up the rest of our evangelism team from Papa Phineas’ house and we headed down the road to the village of Lussenhando.
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We pulled up to the chief’s house and he came out of his courtyard to come and greet us. After we greeted everyone, we split up into groups and went across to different parts of the village to do ministry and pray for healings.

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A lady totally saved and healed................This child also completely recovered

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Our group of people was me, daddy, Anita, her sister and two teenagers my age; Carlos and Gebuza. We went to Anita’s sister’s family’s house. There, we spent time talking with her family and soon enough five or six people got into a single-file line to receive Jesus and healing for their bodies. They were all healed miraculously. Hallelujah!
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When we came back to the chief’s house, the flat-bed truck was set up with the sound system and projector. We were all ready for tonight. While we were dancing, I made friends with some of the kids there. One boy (I later found out his name is Mbwana) was always fighting with the other kids. I especially befriended him and I think it really impacted him that someone would make friends with him.

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Chris Chin playing guitar in the flatbed.......Hundreds from the village to watch the film

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A Muslim man receives Jesus Christ..........Our evangelism team the next morning

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Also, during the dancing and singing, the generator stopped working a couple of times. We all prayed over it in Jesus’ name and it worked the entire rest of the outreach. Soon it was time to start the Jesus film.
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As soon as the movie started, I sat down with my friends, Bona and Carlos, and we watched the film. About halfway through the film, we ate dinner. We watched the crucifixion of Jesus together, and I saw the look of sadness on almost all of the children’s faces.
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After that we had people raise their hands to receive Jesus. Some of them did, including a Muslim man. After this, we danced a bit more and we packed up for the night. We put our things in the tents we had set up in the chief’s courtyard. Then we set up our sleeping bags and hit the sack…well, not really. We actually stayed up until about midnight talking in Yao from tent to tent, making everyone laugh! It was a great day of ministry.
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THE NEXT MORNING…
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The next morning we got all of our sleeping gear back into the truck. Then we had some breakfast of mangoes, bananas, bread and little donuts called, “bolos.” After breakfast we prayed together as a team and went out in groups again throughout the village.
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Our group specifically prayed for many healings, including a blind lady. We also prayed with some more people to receive Jesus.

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Our group praying for a blind woman.........Visiting different houses in the village

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During this time, Jesse was with the chief and a few village leaders, who were showing him a plot of land where they want us to build a church building! (and a couple of mud huts where we can stay sometimes)
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This is an amazing victory, because just a few days before, Muslim sheiks had been angry with us because we wanted to show the Jesus film. God has amazing plans for this village, and the Yao of Mozambique!
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Cho Nas Chung
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Some other cool things about our two-day outreach in Lussenhando...the Muslim sheik actually came up right before the Jesus film to greet our team and was very favorable toward us showing it. I know that we realized that we were there to love them and bring the good news of Jesus to them, not to compete with their religion. This was also confirmed publically by the chief and village leaders that night over the sound system. Almost the entire village was present to watch the film, which was hundreds and hundreds of people. Although not many came forward that night to receive Jesus after the showing of the Jesus film, over the two day outreach around 20 adults and 60 children prayed to receive Christ, many of them also healed of infirmities. The main village leaders were among those who were saved. The blind lady who was delivered from a demonic spirit didn’t receive her healing because as we were praying for her in the name of Jesus, she was chanting and singing things to Allah. It was a perfect time to teach her that Allah is not God, and that if she is crying out to Allah for healing, Jesus won’t hear her to answer her. I took the time to talk to her about the true, triune God of the Scriptures, and she said that from now on, she will only pray and sing to Jesus! I will follow up with her to see what Jesus does with her sight. She has been blind for twenty years. We will be planting a church in this village this year, as the people of the village want one. We are praying about sending teams to pastor these churches, teaching on Sundays, on a rotation (myself included) to this church, one we want to plant in Micoco this year, and perhaps some others. Our goal will be to develop pastors in these villages to continue on the work of pastoring and teaching. Praise God! Lussenhando was the village where the chief, secretary and 50 others had given their lives to Christ when we brought the “Proclaimers” to the chiefs of 5 villages before the rainy season. The current harvest in this village is a direct result of our prayers and the divine strategy that God has given us to reach these villages for Christ!
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Ant Infestation

Lichinga, Mozambique
Friday, January 15, 2010
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Ant Infestation

Here is the crab that crawled out of our shower drain that night.

These big black ants have big fat heads and jaws, packing a power punched bite.

The day after. The black areas on the ground are piles of big black ants.

.A little over a month ago, I had accidentally stood on one of these ants hills in the grass while on my motorbike. The only reason I knew I was standing on their home was because I began to feel horrible pinching all over my foot and my leg. As I quickly pulled up my pant leg, I saw these big black ants covering my socks, biting me through my socks, and within a few seconds, many had crawled up my pants, even up onto my thigh, biting as well. These are painful bites. When I was in Pemba, I was bitten a few times by some fire ants, which were worse (the fire ant bites lasted many hours after their bite). These bites didn’t last quite as long, but are painful.
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The night of the ant infestation was like the incident when I accidentally stood on the ant hill while on my motorbike, but 100 times worse. The reason being, is that the largest of these ants were falling from the walls and ceiling down my shirt and biting me, and, Jesse and I had to go outside to fight the ants as well, where ground was literally black and crawling all around our house, and we literally could not even see the dirt. All night long, even after we had sprayed tons of spray, I was waking up at night with ants still in my clothes biting me. That night sucked! It was literally like a horror movie, or National Geographic special, and we were very close to that entire colony of ants taking over our home.
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In over two years, through rainy seasons and all, Jesse and Tanya have never seen anything like this in our home. I know that it could just be an ant colony moving and that our home was just in the way. But the thing is, when we began to pray against the ants, and break any curses or witchcraft against us, the ants only then began to retreat from our home. Witchdoctors here often use animals to go after people. Wild bush dogs have bitten friends of ours here, and when those dogs were killed, witchcraft was found tied all around their teeth. Owls and other animals have also been used to place witchcraft upon people, too. Witchdoctors have even called lightening down upon people and they have died. This may sound far-fetched for some of you, but these things are factual.
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The other strange thing is that as Jesse was falling asleep the night before this infestation, he saw, in the Spirit, a human figure with the head of an anteater. The Lord told Jesse to get up and warn me about it, which Jesse thought silly and went to sleep, only to wake up hours later under heavy demonic attack. Was the Lord trying to warn us about these ants the day before? Was there an assignment from the enemy against us because we are pushing back the darkness here in Africa? Not sure. But I do know that this event has caused us to be more aware and alert when the Lord is trying to warn us of approaching danger. These are some of the crazy things we deal with here in Mozambique.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Breaking Ground in Assumane

Assumane, Mozambique
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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Breaking Ground in Assumane
We broke ground yesterday on one of two new church buildings in Assumane. Thanks to you, our supporters, we have been able to spend most of our financial support on funding a good portion of the construction of these new facilities. Other IRIS missionaries here had some more really great ideas on the construction of the new children’s ministry center. They thought classrooms on the exterior, rather than the interior of the building would be best. With all of us in agreement of that, we drew up some new plans of what the children’s ministry center will look like. Although these are just buildings to house what God is doing here in Assumane, I must admit, these are going to be some pretty sweet buildings. Check out how we even put a crow’s nest that we will name, “the eagle’s nest” on top of the children’s ministry center. In the future we will chain a shofar, instead of a church bell in “the eagle’s nest,” to call people to worship.

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New tools and sand for new project.......Condeila and Luciano digging foundation

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I am also working on a church sign for in front of the new church facilities. I bought a piece of wood, cut it in half, and am hand carving, “BEM VINDOS, IGREJA DE ASSUMANE,” on the top section which means, “Welcome, The Church of Assumane.” On the bottom section is the IRIS logo with Psalm 24:7 in Portuguese to the right of it. That passage is very prophetic for the village of Assumane. After I am finished carving the sign, I will paint it. I will keep you updated as the building project continues. Please pray for Salomao, Condeila, Luciano, Jesse and I as we spend many hours doing construction. Also please pray that the Lord will release more finance for this project. Our support alone can’t cover the entire cost. The building project we figure will be around $20,000 for both buildings. But this is just a drop in the hat for our God who owns everything. =) Imagine two brand new churches being built in the U.S. for only $20,000!!! This goes to show you just how far the U.S. dollar goes in Africa. Praise the Lord that we can build two permanent structures for so little!
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Impartation - Our New Motorcycle

Lichinga, Mozambique
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
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Impartation – Our New Motorcycle
This rainy season we realized how difficult it is to take the little 50cc motorbikes to the villages in the matope (mud). You literally drive a few hundred feet, then have to stop and try to dig the matope out of your wheel wells because the tire has stopped on the mud. Last year, when we first arrived to Lichinga, we bought a new 50cc motorbike which we named, “Acceleration,” and believe me, it has already lived up to its’ name as we took that motorbike to tons of unreached Yao villages, bringing the gospel of Christ. But our intention was that “Acceleration,” along with the 50cc motorbikes that Jesse has purchased, “Transition” and “Transformation” would stay here in Mozambique when we make the move across Africa to Mali. Every week we send out the Mozambican missionaries who live on base with us here on these motorbikes to the villages. Victo, Chanito, Gezani, Peter, Bona and Carlos have faithfully been traveling, on these motorbikes and on bicycles that have also been purchased, to so many of the villages where we work doing evangelism and discipleship, with much success.

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God had laid it on mine and Jesse’s heart that He would soon give us two 125cc dirt bikes that we could ride through the matope during rainy season and would be much better for the trails going to all of the villages. But we believe that these 125cc dirt bikes will travel with us across Africa to Mali as well, where we will use them there to bring the gospel of Christ to the unreached Bambara villages. Today the Lord gave us the first of these two 125cc dirt bikes. We scored this brand new Yamaha 2-stroke 125cc for the lowest price possible here in Lichinga, using some of the money the Lord gave us over a year ago that was designated to purchase vehicles to bring the gospel to the unreached people groups. We named this motorcycle, “Impartation,” as we are traveling to the villages imparting the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit to those who come to Christ. Jesse’s is coming soon, too, and he has already named it, “Multiplication.” Praise the Lord for these tools that will carry us to the ends of the earth with the gospel of Christ. Another plus is that these bikes were built much better for taking them off of jumps, as we love to do in the villages to get laughs and cheers from the villagers. Hey, someone has to bring the X-Games to Africa. =)
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Christian Young

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Small jump near our home last year.............Took a fall on Impartation the other day

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - New City Church - Centro de Adoracao PENIEL

Lichinga, Mozambique
Sunday, January 3, 2010
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New City Church – Centro de Adoraçao PENIEL
We minister with such an awesome team of missionaries. The Wilcox family, who are the IRIS base leaders here in Lichinga, have had it on their heart to begin a city church on Sunday afternoons in downtown Lichinga. Heavy on their hearts has been the desire to bring unity to the body of Christ here in the Niassa province. So today was the kick off of this new City Church. They named the church, “Centro de Adoraçao PENIEL” which means, “Center of Worship – FACE OF GOD.” The service is both in English and Portuguese. The little place that the church rents was already packed out the first day with people from all kinds of different nationalities and denominations. The Holy Spirit’s presence was so evident and tangible as there was a lot of worship, a message and a beautiful time of ministry at the end where many were touched by God. I have been asked by Annelisa to play guitar and sing in the worship team. It was an honor. Next week, both Jonas and I will be playing in the worship team. This new City Church is going to be a vital part of God’s Kingdom coming to the Niassa province. I can’t wait to see what the Lord does with it.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Sound the Shofar

Lichinga, Mozambique
Friday, January 1, 2010
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Sound the Shofar
A new year. We believe that 2010 is going to be a very important year and that God is going to do new things worldwide this year. Isaiah 43:19-21 says, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. This people I have formed for Myself they shall declare My praise.” (NKJV)

Jesse, Chris Chin and Justine sounding shofars at our home in Lichinga

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The shofar, or ram’s horn, was used by the God’s chosen people in the Scriptures, usually in battle, and many times to sound the alarm when an enemy was attacking a city. Other times it was used to call a truce between two warring sides. And yet at other times it was blown by the priests in Jerusalem to announce the beginning of the Sabbath. This instrument was key for the children of Israel in various settings. God has given our missionary team a “shofar blessing.” We have acquired 2 sets of horns locally, from which we were able to make four shofars. We like to use these instruments when we worship the Lord together. We will be using them in each church we plant in the Yao villages. But this New Year, we are blowing the shofar, announcing the new thing God is doing here, and the great coming harvest. Happy New Year to all of you! Look with great expectancy for the new things God will do in your lives this year.
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Christian Young

Fires come very close to our home sometimes in Lichinga

Our backyard with new grass fence and thatched roof on the old cook house

The sun going down at our home in Lichinga

The moon coming up at our home in Lichinga