MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - 8 Baptisms in Assumane

Assumane, Mozambique
Sunday, February 28, 2010
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8 Baptisms in Assumane
Today was a very special Sunday for us. Today we went to see some of our Mozambican family baptized in the river!
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We drove up to our thatch and bamboo church building with smiles on every face we passed by. We had a short service, with some worship and a 10 minute teaching from Jesse. Then we all walked down to the river.
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Well, we never actually reached the river (it’s a long walk), but we stopped by a smaller water hole and baptized them all there. We saw eight people baptized, including a new couple who had just given their lives to Jesus.
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It was a great day, but everything comes to an end, so we packed up all the sound gear and headed home.

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Sunday Mornings at the Church of Assumane
A typical Sunday morning for us isn’t what yours might be. We come into the village of Assumane, and you see little African kids with ear-to-ear grins, yelling out, “Jonasi! Christiano! Ajesse!” [often they are also singing worship songs they learned at church as we enter the village as well]. Then you get to the church building and everybody there smiles as you approach. You’re with family!
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Then we [usually] set up our sound system and the generator and get the music started! On normal days we have upbeat music that everyone can dance and worship to. Once that’s over we usually have some worship with my dad’s guitar accompanying the voices [along with indigenous drums and other percussion instruments].
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After that we have our Mozambican family give testimonies of the Lord’s goodness throughout the week. Then either dad or Jesse or one of our Mozambican leaders preach [in the Portuguese and Yao languages]. After [or before] the sermon’s over (usually 10 to 15 minutes) we have some of our Mozambican family do a drama about what was preached [or what will be preached].
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[The cool thing we have been seeing lately along with the Yao believers performing dramas to tell a biblical story is that after the drama, they get into a group and begin to sing an original Yao song. Some from the group will even come in front of the group and begin to testify even more of the truths they acted out and are singing about. This is an answer to our prayers as we believe that this indigenous style of worship is unique to the Yao people. We have been praying that the Yao believers here would not simply copy other forms of foreign worship, but from their hearts, express their worship to God in their own way. Praise God for this!]
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At the end while we’re packing up, we usually have more singing and dancing. Once we’re ready to set off for home, we give our family a big “goodbye,” and we get in the trucks to go back to the house. [We also experience times when the Holy Spirit just says to do something different. There is so much freedom for this. Often there are times when we pray for people’s healing and deliverance, which might seem weird to some to see a demon manifest in someone who is getting prayed for. Family is a good term for what is happening here in the Church of Assumane. This is just Sundays. The Christ-followers of the Church of Assumane are also taking care of one another during the week and praying for one another’s healing. They also carry the glory of God to other surrounding villages of their own accord, evangelizing and making disciples. We are so excited about the Church of Assumane, as it is our first church plant of many more to come in the Yao villages north of Lichinga.]
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Jonas Young [and Christian Young]

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Malaria and Me

Lichinga, Mozambique
Friday, February 26, 2010
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Malaria and Me
Last Thursday I began to feel quite strange in the morning. Something deep in my body was causing me to feel very sick, sore and tired. After our time of worship together in the morning, I decided to try to take a motorbike trip to Lussenhando with Jesse and Victo, fighting through the pain. It was an uncomfortable ride and when we got the the village, I felt as though I wanted to fall asleep. Still, we prayed with the one blind lady, who is doing better and better and sat down with a group of youth, teaching them from Scripture. That night I began to experience horrible diarrhea, stomach pain, headache, fever and chills.
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Our plan for the next morning was to go with Jesse, Tanya and Zoe to the lake at Meponda, just to get some rest and relaxation. I was on the verge of not going with them, but at the last minute decided to continue to fight through the pain. We made it to the lake, but I felt miserable the entire time. That night it rained throughout the night on our tent covered with a tarp. I was getting an average of two hours of sleep each night and feeling worse.
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All of this continued as we headed back to Lichinga, but now I was also vomiting along with (and often at the same time as) the diarrhea. The stomach pains were becoming unbearable, to where I literally could not sleep and was always doubled over. On top of that, we began to experience a rat infestation in our house, and rats were literally crawling onto the bed at night and crawling on me. This also wore me down as the few breaks between the pain that I did have to sleep were spent warding off rats. I decided to begin taking the Malaria medication, which is a series of pills taken for five days. Many people were praying for my recovery. The symptoms slowly began to lesson after much prayer and taking the Malaria medication. I am just now feeling (almost) back to normal. But let me tell you, it was not a fun week of being the most sick I have ever been. Thanks to all of you for your prayers for me.

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Malaria is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito infected with Malaria. We have taken precautions by taking "Neem" oil extract, which comes from a tree in India. It is a natural preventative medicine that missionaries swear by and is 95% effective against Malaria. I quit taking the drops of "Neem" oil over a month ago so that everyone else would have enough for them until we can make a trip back to the U.S. to obtain some more.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - First Muslim Funeral

Assumane, Mozambique
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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First Muslim Funeral
Got a call yesterday morning from Condeila in Assumane. He told me that there was a funeral taking place because a child had died. Headed up to Assumane soon after. Come to find out it was a child that we had prayed for at the church in Assumane. The child couldn’t walk, but after praying for the child, his legs began to straighten out. We hadn’t seen this child or the parents of the child in church since before we left for Pemba over three months ago.
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As I entered the village, all of the Muslim woman were weeping in one area while the Muslim men were in another area, some sitting down, others chanting in Arabic over the dead body. 80% of Mozambican Muslims are “Qadiriyya” Muslims, who often mix traditional African animism with Islam. Many of them practice “Sikili” during funerals, where they work themselves up into a weird kind of breathing, having to do with mourning for the deceased. They also recite portions of the Quran at their funerals. “Qadiriyya” Muslims, though, are often more open to the gospel, especially after witnessing an authentic healing by Jesus, as they are more mystical people in practice and in a way, searching for an experience with God. “Qadiriyya” Muslims remain at the house of the deceased for three days after the funeral because of “Sidaka,” the belief that the spirit of the deceased stays around for 40 days after death. These people stick around and do these rituals all to “facilitate the deceased person’s entrance into heaven.”
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I was invited to go with the procession to the burial site. Tears ran down my face as I followed, partly because we didn’t get the chance to pray more for him and see him fully recover, but mostly because of the lack of hope these people have. As Christ-followers, we know with complete surety of our destination after death. The thought had crossed my mind of praying over this child at the gravesite and seeing him raised from the dead. For these miracles have been prophesied over us by Mel Tari of the Indonesian revivals while we were at the Harvest School in Pemba. I didn’t sense it was the right timing for this and I am still learning their culture and getting to know the Muslims in Assumane. I believe in my heart that the child is in heaven, as he was not even two years old and never had the chance to make a conscious decision for or against Christ. But I did talk to the people of the church in Assumane about our ability to raise the dead, and about how we can share the hope and love of Jesus with the mourning Muslim population. Although it was a sad time, I was glad to take part in this funeral and count it as part of my learning experience here on the mission field in Mozambique.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Outreach in Meponda

Meponda, Mozambique
Monday, February 15, 2010.
Outreach in Meponda
This past Saturday, a group of our evangelism team headed to the town of Meponda, which is right on Lake Malawi. Our missionary friends, Keith and Bromwin, have lived and ministered in Meponda for the past two years and have planted two churches in that town. Keith originally asked if we could bring the Jesus film equipment onto his boat for a four hour boat ride up the lake to a Yao village where they have also planted a church to do an outreach. We had agreed, but were informed this last week that the chief of Meponda said that we needed to show the Jesus film in the town of Meponda itself before we could show it in the other village. We had no problem with this, as the people of Meponda need Jesus, too. Next time we will do an outreach in the other village.

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It is only about an hour and a half trip to Meponda from Lichinga. This time our evangelism team consisted of Jesse, Condeila and Anita with their youngest daughter, Melfa, Graça, Chanito and I. We were blessed that Keith was able to take some of our Jesus film equipment in his truck, allowing us to bring more people to the lake in our Nissan Terrano, which we named, “Freedom” when we bought it. We got to Meponda by around 1:30 pm. Keith and Bromwin have a beautiful place right on the lake. Since we arrived so early, we were all able to get some swim time in. The water was so nice, and it was hot outside. It was the first time that any of our Mozambican friends had ever swam in a lake, so it was so fun watching these grown adults act as giddy as school children in the lake.

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After a swim and eating some snacks, we all headed to the center of Meponda where we set up the sound system and projector in front of a school. Soon, over a thousand people had made their way to watch the Jesus film. We had African music playing as we danced with the people. Jesse greeted everyone over the loud speakers. Condeila and Anita gave their testimonies. Two different pastors from the two churches Keith and Bromwin planted also shared. Graça shared the gospel with Holy Spirit power. Before the Jesus film had even started, about 100 people raised their hands acknowledging that they wanted to receive Christ. Graça led them in a prayer of confession, repentance and belief, inviting Jesus Christ to take up residence in their hearts. The people loved the film. Chanito again shared the gospel with people and at least 15 more people received Jesus. Others who were sick also came forward for prayer and were healed. It was a successful night of evangelism and ministry.

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The next morning we all got up and had Matebishu (breakfast or literally, “kill the bug”) together. Condeila led a man who happened to be near the lake to Jesus. Another man who had gave his life to Christ the night before came to the lake that morning to be baptized. I had Condeila and Chanito explain the meaning of water baptism. We invited others who were around to witness this man’s baptism. Then, Condeila and Chanito baptized him right there in the lake. We then headed to the church closest to Keith and Bromwin’s place, where we fellowshipped with the believers there and participated in their worship service. We really got a chance to encourage the believers there to follow up with the new converts in Meponda. When we do these types of outreaches, where we are going to assist other missionaries in their work, we basically do evangelism through the Jesus film, encourage the believers and the local churches, and then go back to our ministry in the Yao villages close to where we live. For this type of outreach, you couldn’t ask for things to go more smoothly and with the fruit that was produced. Praise the Lord for such a successful outreach!
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - 83 More Saved in Lussenhando

Lussenhando, Mozambique
Friday, February 12, 2010
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83 More Saved in Lussenhando
Today, around 8:30am, we got ready and packed up to go visit the village of Lussenhando. Once we were ready, we started up our green Nissan 4X4 and headed down the muddy road, we were off!
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When we were driving to Lussenhando, we had a wonderful Mozambican greeting. As we drove down the village’s main road, we had children on all sides waving and shouting out our names. We got out, greeted the chief and visited with the children. After a while, Jesse asked if I could preach. Absent-mindedly, I said, “yes,” and before I realized what I had just said, the children were all in a semi-circle, waiting for me to talk.
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I preached the message of salvation to this group of beautiful Mozambican children. We did an altar-call and all 80 or so children gave their lives to Jesus this morning. I was so overwhelmed that I was able to see even friends from past visits accept Him as their Savior. Angels were rejoicing in heaven this morning!

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80 children wanting to receive Christ....Praying for the sick, shining with God's glory

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The rest of the morning, we played with children and prayed for three more adults to give their lives to Jesus! We also prayed for a lady with a cataract in one eye. She didn’t receive her sight that morning, but we are all still believing for her healing! Soon it was time to leave. I said, “goodbye” to all of my friends there. Then we set off for our little white house on the hill to tell the stories of what happened this morning.

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Jonas Young

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Tanya leading game of duck, duck, goose......Carlos, Victo, Jesse and Bona

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Visit to Nangembele

Nangembele, Mozambique
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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Visit to Nangembele
Today we decided to make a scouting trip of the road from our home to the village of Nangembele. We had heard that the wide road through Chilugu was possible to take a 4X4 truck on, so we decided to ride that road all the way to Nangembele, where Victo had dropped off a Proclaimer (Audio New Testament in the Yao language) with the chief before the rainy season. We have been asking the Lord to open doors for us to show the Jesus film in villages that are passable by 4X4 truck. The road to Lussenhando turned out to be passable by truck, but last week when we attempted to ride motorbikes to Matemangue, the next village north, we found it impassable by truck, so we didn’t continue further. Today, it turned out to be a similar situation. The road in some areas has the really bad mud on it to where even with a 4X4 truck, you get buried.
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Yet today we continued forward on motorbikes to Nangembele to try to connect with the chief there. He was in his machamba (garden) as many people are during the rainy season. We are finding that the best day to try to visit villages is on Fridays, when most people are in the villages because of their Muslim duties. So if you think about it, could you pray for us on Fridays, as we will be sending teams out on motorbikes and bicycles to the villages to evangelize and make disciples.
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We were able to share the gospel with a few groups of people that were in the village of Nangembele. Some listened with an openness, some tried to tell us that they follow Allah and Mohammed, others even laughed and mocked us as we were sharing the gospel with them. With the peace of God on our side, we know that seeds were planted. We even handed out gospels of John in Portuguese to those who were interested. We will be back to Nangembele as it is a village that God has highlighted to us.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2010 - Assumane Construction Project Update

Assumane, Mozambique
Monday, February 8, 2010
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Assumane Construction Project Update
We are four weeks into our church construction project in the village of Assumane and making really good headway. We are nearly finished with the foundation of the new main sanctuary, have the ground cleared to start digging the foundation of the children’s ministry center, and thanks to Remnant Christian Fellowship of Walnut Creek, California, we have had the first of two wells that will be dug on the church property, which brings clean water to the people of Assumane, as well as makes mixing cement for the construction of the new church buildings possible.

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Christian pulling water from new well.....Well #1 on Assumane church property

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I am up there everyday, sometimes working on the building itself and sometimes making arrangements for cinderblocks to be brought to the village, buying and delivering bags of cement and rebar and other such things. One of my favorite things about doing this construction project is the fact that I am able to fellowship with and disciple the three guys we have hired to work everyday. We decided to hire only believers that we knew very well as we wanted to bless them and their families as well with work and income.

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First temporary grass church and latrine....Christian working on the foundation

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One of the guys, Salomao, is one of Victo’s older brothers. He has graduated from YWAM’s Discipleship Training School here in Mozambique, and is overseeing the brick laying part of this project (and is doing a great job). He brings a lot of spiritual depth and, when I am unable to be there with them, holds a daily Bible study with the other two guys while they are on their break. Salomao and his family will move to Itepela to minister with YWAM for a year or two after this phase of construction is completed in three or four months. Then, he has plans to move back to Lichinga where he will minister with IRIS working in the Yao villages with us. Condeila has developed into a great leader in the church of Assumane over the last two years since his conversion. His family live across the street from the church property in Assumane (His dad and mom are Phineas and Maria). He and his wife Anita lead the prayer and worship time often on Sunday mornings. He is on fire for Jesus and wants to become a pastor. I see him pastoring the church in Assumane as well assisting in other churches that are planted in the area someday soon. Luciano is from Kazigwa, the next village north of Assumane. He is also on fire for Jesus. He would also like to plant and pastor a church someday in his village, which has no church. Luciano is one of the funniest guys I know. Sometimes when we are dancing in church, we make funny faces together. We like to invent rhymes together using Yao and Portuguese mixed such as “Romba para jomba,” which means “fish (whole little fish eaten as a relish with corn meal mash) for uncle.” Condeila and Luciano were led to Jesus by Jesse and Tanya, and they have been investing into them ever since. All three guys and their families join us on evangelical outreaches to the other Yao villages, and are beginning to step into their huge destinies that Christ has for them, even beginning to operate in the signs and wonders through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Salomao, Condeila and Luciano working...Foundation nearly finished on 1st building

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Also, we have another two guys from the Church of Assumane, Jordao and Joaquim, making the mud bricks we will use for the walls of the new church facilities. They are making huge bricks out of matope (mud) that they will burn in order to make them hard. We debated building the facilities out of these bricks or cinderblocks, but decided to do a mixture of both. The foundation and pillars are being built with cinderblocks with cement poured in them, while the walls between the pillars will be built from these mud bricks, which also gives it a more traditional Mozambican feel, as many of the buildings here are made of these mud bricks. Jordao and Joaquim are selling these bricks to us for 3 Metecais each, while the cinderblocks are 25 Metecais each, and are basically the same size. They told us that they are giving us this price because it is a work of love they are doing for God. This is literally saving us thousands of dollars on the building project. Praise God for the genuine love of God in these guys. Jordao and Joaquim are also being trained and developed as leaders in the church.

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Jordao, Joaquim and Jesse with mud bricks....Close-up of mud bricks in progress

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Jesse and Tanya, Rachel, Tyren and Tiffany and us are all using the support that comes in for us monthly to fund the construction of this project. We still have many needs for the construction of these facilities. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. You are investing into eternity.

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Christian Young