MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Our First Visits To The Village Of Assumane

Assumane, Mozambique
Sunday, September 13, 2009
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Our First Visits To The Village Of Assumane
One of the ministries God has called us to in Africa, and specifically here in the Niassa province, is to travel to the villages from Lichinga to the Tanzania border, bringing the gospel of Jesus to unreached Yao people, disciple new believers, develop leaders and plant churches.

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The first village on this road, and the village considered the gateway to these other 100+ villages is the village of Assumane. Jesse and Tanya have started a work in this village and have been ministering there for the past two years. The second day we were here we road dirt bikes to Assumane to meet these precious people; Jesse on one bike with Victo on the back; me on the other bike with Jonas on the back. Jesse is really popular in this large village. As soon as the children saw him coming, they all ran out waving and yelling, “JESSE!” The village is lined with mud huts with grass roofs of various shapes and sizes. We met Phinehas, one of the prominent men in the village and someone that Jesse and Tanya led to Christ, as well as his family. We only stayed a short while as it was getting dark.
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The next day, we took “Faithful,” the truck that so people prayed for and gave financially toward over a year ago, with the girls and Tanya as well. This time we prayed for a paralytic man named Howard, who God has begun the healing work in. We also met a lot of the children of the village, who were very intrigued at our white skin and the girls’ hair, because it is different than theirs. We then met the village chief, who is not yet a believer, yet who has given permission to Jesse and Tanya to build a church facility in the village, as well as the land to do so. The girls went back to the house. Then Jesse, Jonas, Victo and I drive back to work on the construction of a latrine for the church to use. We worked some long hot hours in the sun, our hands and clothes covered in red dirt from digging. I had to learn some real tricks at splitting bamboo so that we could construct the walls. Jonas helped tie the bamboo to the posts. We were hoping to finish that day, but ran out of ties and time.

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This church in Assumane is the first church to be planted among these 100+ villages that God has given us. Jesse and Tanya planted this church and have the responsibility of pastoring this church, while they continue to train leaders to take over. We went to the new church in Assumane this Sunday. We piled the sound equipment, benches and grass mats into the back of “Faithful,” and then piled into the truck bed ourselves, heading to Assumane. I practiced guitar with the worship team last night and got to play at the church this morning. There was a huge gathering of over 100 people. The praise and worship was enthusiastic and amazing! The testimonies and preaching was done in Portuguese and Yao, which we have started the process of learning. We got to come forward and share how glad we were that God has called us to Mozambique, not just as visitors, but to be with them week in and week out. This is an amazing people and an amazing place to be.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Settling In To Our New Home

Lichinga, Mozambique
Saturday, September 12, 2009
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Settling In To Our New HomeHome here in Lichinga, Mozambique looks quite a bit different that home in Piotrków-Trybunalski, Poland looked. We live in the mission house on the IRIS Ministries base with our close friends, Jesse and Tanya Gellatly. Our house has plenty of room. Jonas has his own room and Jordan and Justine have their own room. We all sleep on beds with mosquito nets. Our house has no electricity or running water. We have rechargeable battery-powered lanterns for night time, with a windmill on top of the roof that creates enough energy to recharge batteries. We pull our water from a well outside the house everyday. Our kitchen has a dishwashing station with a wash basin, rinse basin and another basin to let the dishes dry. Our house does have a propane powered range and refrigerator. Our bathroom has a toilet that we have to flush by pouring five gallon buckets of water into. There is also a latrine outside with grass walls that I use quite a bit. We pour water boiled water mixed with cold water over us in a shower basin. We have used a solar shower a few times that we purchased while in the U.S. that also has warm water in it when we fill it and let it sit outside in the sun. Although home looks different, we are all LOVING IT! We feel so blessed here at our new home. Jesse and Tanya and the other missionaries have welcomed us so warmly to our new home. Outside our new home, Yao children often collect and play with our kids. They like to call for Jonas, who has been going outside and playing soccer with them and another missionary kid his age, Elias.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Europe to Africa DAY #4

Lichinga, Mozambique
Thursday, September 10, 2009
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Europe to Africa DAY #4
Got up this morning at 4:00 am after a short night sleep in Maputo. I couldn’t sleep so well because our mosquitoes nets were packed and I heard mosquitoes buzzing around near my ears all night. We all woke up with bites all over us, too. But the kids seemed to sleep through the night just fine.
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Our taxi driver who drove us to the IRIS base last night came back to collect us at 5:00 am this morning as promised. We packed all of our luggage into his van and drove to the airport. On the way there, I had the chance to witness to him. He grew up Catholic and I was able to talk to him about not needing a priest to receive forgiveness of sins, but only a personal relationship with Jesus. He seemed very open. We had a great conversation during the half hour on the way to the airport.

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Everything from Maputo to Lichinga went fine. We did get charged for overweight luggage on this leg of our journey. But altogether, we paid half of what we expected because we weren’t charged on the first leg of our journey. Our plane stopped in the city of Nampula on the way to Lichinga. These airports in Mozambique are very third world and it felt really cool to be in them, waiting for flights to leave. The images we saw outside of the airplane window were astounding. We saw landscapes different than any we have ever seen in this world. God is truly an artist.
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We were greeted at the Lichinga airport by Jesse and Tanya, the Wilcox family and all the other missionaries from the IRIS base here in Lichinga. It was a lovely reception. We spotted them waving red and white flags from the balcony. Some politicians from Mozambique were on the flight with us and were greeted by an entourage of people waving the same colors. A coincidence but very cool. It was even on Mozambique television.
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We got to our new home which is lovely. It is so good to be with our good friends, Jesse and Tanya again. We love them to pieces. We entered our new home, which is a mission house where we will be living with Jesse and Tanya. After we rested a bit and unpacked our things, we headed to the Wilcox’s home where we had a meal together as well as a wonderful time of worship. The other missionaries serving here at the IRIS base are Peter and Debbie Wilcox, the base leaders, with their six children, three of which happen to be around the same age as our children, which our children are so excited about, Tyren and Tiffany and their three children, one of which was just born here at the base, not in a hospital, Nathaniel, Melissa, Tania, who are all foreign missionaries, as well as Victo and Gezani who are local Mozambiquan missionaries. We are loving it here and are so glad the Lord has brought us here safely. Thank you for your many prayers. We love you all.
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Christian Young

MOZAMBIQUE 2009 - Europe to Africa DAY #3

Maputo, Mozambique
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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Europe to Africa DAY #3
What a day! We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Then our same taxi driver, Joseph, took us to the airport in Johannesburg. Everything at the airport in Johannesburg went smoothly today. We were, once again, blessed beyond all measure by not being charged any extra for the extra weight in luggage we had. The flight was pretty bumpy. I mean, I don’t ever get airsick and I felt a little woozy. We landed at the airport in Maputo safely, though.
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Once we walked from the tarmac to inside the airport, we immediately had to pay $25.00 each for one month visas (which we will later change out for one year visas). The thing is, the officials took our passports and our money and left somewhere. This would have made me a little nervous, as I couldn’t tell who were airport officials and who were not at times. Some people who we thought were airport officials with tags “helped” us get our luggage off the conveyer belt. They “helped” us through customs, where one lady checked one of our bags, and then told us to move on. We were told by one of our “helpers” outside that he actually told her to overlook our things in exchange for money from us, which again we never asked for. Our “helpers” mostly spoke only Portuguese as well, which was really challenging. We only started learning basic phrases in Portuguese before we came to Mozambique. I found myself using more Spanish and trying to tweak the accent like Portuguese, which seemed to work all day. Thankfully the languages are close enough to do this. We will definitely be attempting to learn Portuguese fluently, though, in order to really communicate well.

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After exchanging some U.S. Dollars to Mozambique Meticals, and paying off the customs official and our helpers (fortunately didn’t take much…but welcome to Africa, where poverty leads many to do whatever they can to make money), we ran into our next set of challenges. There were supposed to be two taxis waiting for us that were supposed to take us to a place called the “Oasis,” which is a guest house close to the airport. Our taxis weren’t there. We got a hold of them and the “Oasis,” who told us they were sending a taxi. We waited and waited with no sign of anyone. We finally flagged down another big taxi that looked like it could fit us all and our luggage in it, and decided we would look for the “Oasis” with the driver, or another hotel perhaps. We finally arrived at the “Oasis,” only to find that their office was closed and that they were no vacancies (even though we pre-arranged things with them). We then decided to search for another hotel. We went to hotel after hotel asking for an available room. There were absolutely no vacancies. I guess there were many things happening in Maputo this particular week; seminars, a festival and sports events, and every hotel was full.
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We finally got a hold of Jesse in Lichinga, who told us we should go to the IRIS Ministries base which is outside of town. Our taxi driver said he couldn’t take us there, as the company he worked for would not allow him. But he did have a good friend that he called to see if he could take us. He agreed. This other guy met us where we were parked after hours of searching for vacancies, with no restroom and no food since our lunch on the plane. It was after dark and we drove to the IRIS base. We had no food and two bottles of water, but we did have a few chocolate bars, which we ate for “dinner.” The people at the IRIS base were very welcoming. We were given a room with some cots. They even have a light in the room and one plug so that I can plug our computer in and write this blog. God is so good to us. We took the time to just thank God together as for seeing us through, even when things seemed hopeless. This is truly an adventure.
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Christian Young

SOUTH AFRICA 2009 - Europe to Africa DAY #2

Johannesburg, South Africa
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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Europe to Africa DAY #2
Had a long, ten hour, overnight flight from Zurich to Jo-berg. Thankfully they seated us together once again, even though one of us was on standby when we first checked in at Warsaw. I have always had a difficult time sleeping on these flights and might have nodded off ten minutes here and ten minutes there. Saw a racist act on the airplane, as a white South African woman cut in front of a black South African woman to use the restroom. Then when confronted by the black woman, the white woman just responded, “You won’t be telling me what to do.” I was amazed and got a glimpse, even before we landed in South Africa the deep-seated racism that exists. Got into Jo-berg around 9:00 am, which is the same time zone as Poland, interestingly enough.
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I had tried to book an inexpensive hotel in Jo-berg last minute, and so at this point, after making it through passport control and getting our luggage, which all made it safely, we decided to exchange some U.S. Dollars for South African Rand and then find an information booth and ask about the best way to get to our hotel which was 11 miles from the airport. Everything was very easy to find and everyone was very friendly. The man at the information booth set us up with a guy named Joseph who would taxi us and all of our luggage to the hotel. The driver’s side is on the right side of the vehicle in South Africa, as it is in England.

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On the taxi ride to the hotel, we had a great conversation with Joseph, who is a born-again Christian and goes to a Presbyterian church. Joseph began to teach me a few phrases in Zulu, which is widely used in Jo-berg. It is amazing to travel to another continent, hear different languages than you have for the past nine months, and even feel the difference in the atmosphere, both physical and spiritual. The languages used in Jo-berg are Afrikaans, English, Zulu and Tswana. Joseph told me that during apartheid, they were forced to learn Afrikaans, but now the black South African community doesn’t want to speak it. He grew up speaking Tswana in his home.
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We were helped with our luggage up to our room by another very friendly man, and after we were met at the counter by a very friendly woman. We then decided to walk to a mall to get some lunch. It is cool walking down half-paved roads, with the other half being red dirt. We ate at an Indian food restaurant, as we haven’t had this food since we were in England. There is a large Indian population in South Africa as well. We were waited on by a guy named David. He was so great. The food was fantastic. He even took time to teach us more phrases in both Zulu and Tswana. When I use these conversational phrases like, “sawubona” which means, “hello;” “kunjani” which means, “how are you?” and “siyabonga” which means. “thank you,” the faces of those I am talking to lights up. As in other countries, when you even attempt to speak their language, they are so happy. We are having a great time in South Africa, even though we will only be here for the day and overnight.
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Christian Young

SWITZERLAND 2009 - Europe to Africa DAY #1

Zurich, Switzerland
Monday, September 7, 2009
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Europe to Africa DAY #1
Left from the airport in Warsaw, Poland for Zurich, Switzerland on the first stretch of our journey. Our flight from Zurich to Johannesburg for September 8th was cancelled three days before our flight, so we had to take the flight on September 7th instead, meaning we would have to stay overnight in Johannesburg. The flight to Zurich was fine. Once we arrived in Zurich we were to have 50 minutes to make our connecting flight to Johannesburg, which seemed like it would be plenty of time.
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When we got into Zurich and were going through the passport control, we were detained by the authorities because of a discrepancy about our length of stay in Europe. We had thought that we had read the laws about staying in the Schengen territory without a visa correctly, but apparently our understanding of the law wasn’t the same as the what the authorities in Zurich were saying. We began to pray very hard as the clock was ticking, the plane was boarding, and the authorities were deciding what to do. God answered our prayers and the authorities came out and let us go, stamping our passports. Advice to all who are thinking about staying in Europe for longer than three months…Get a visa, which is easier said than done these days.

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Then it was the mad dash to the gate through the security checkpoint, which was very stressful as one of our carry-on bags has most of our electronic equipments in it. Then we had to take a train to our gate, which promptly showed up right when we got down the stairs. Then we just barely made it onto our plane. It was very stressful, but God was so faithful, and we all got a good workout by running through the airport in Zurich. On another note, God showed us tremendous favor with the airline as we had almost doubled our weight allowance, and should have paid a hefty fee, but they checked all of our luggage and didn’t charge us anything extra! Thank you Jesus!

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Christian Young

POLAND 2009 - Skateboarding Outreach in PT

Piotrków-Trybunalski, Poland
Thursday, September 3, 2009
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Skateboarding Outreach in Piotrków-Trybunalski
We have been able to do some outreach at the skate park in Piotrków-Trybunalski. The first time I came to this skate park was back in 2007. I was able to skate with the locals, play some of my original music and give my testimony. This time around, Damian, Jonas and I were able to connect with some of the same guys I met two years ago, as well as meet some new guys. It was a great time of re-connecting. Damian was able to have some deep conversations about God with one guy.
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Christian Young