Oasis

Oasis:  1.  A small fertile or green area in a desert region, usually having a spring or well.  2. Something serving as a refuge, relief, or pleasant change from what is usual, annoying, difficult, etc.

Because Rodger and Lynne's house is not yet ready for move in, we have all been staying in a lovely small hotel/guest house called Escododiño.  I believe in Portuguese it means something like "a little resting place".  It has truly been our oasis.  It has old world charm, beautiful grounds and a lovely pool. Lynne and I have been doubly blessed with this oasis since while the guys have been working to make sense out of the chaos at their house, we have been doing our sewing projects here. 

But it makes me think about what their life is going to be like here. We plan to move them in on Thursday.  I know it will still be chaotic.  They have chosen to live on the part of the island called Makuti town. (Makuti means thatch...what most of the roofs are made from). Most Europeans or non-natives choose to live on the northern 1/3 of the island called Stone town.  Maybe 3 to 4 thousand people inhabit this section.  (Realize the island is about 2 miles long and maybe 3/4 mile across.) The remaining 16,000 or so people live in Makuti town.  This is where the Schmidts home is located.  They have a beautiful view of the ocean on one side, two different cemeteries on two other sides and the closest neighbor is a thatched roof hut where they cook over charcoal and pound grain to make their flour. Little children are running around everywhere. Many of the youngest run around naked. It has another world, National Geographic feel to it.  Life here will be difficult. Just getting things like toothpaste, shampoo, basic groceries could take a several hour trip to the mainland. Life here is loud and public. Every move they make will be scrutinized. 

Where will be their oasis?   It will be in each other.  In the little successes of changed lives and growing relationships.  In visits from their boys between school terms.  But most of all it will be in our " friend".

Please pray for them on an on-going basis.  They will be doing what very few of us would even consider doing.  Living in a barren, foreign land where there is incredible need, incredible poverty.....incredible dirt, incredible mosquitos....but incredible people.  Pray for seeds to be planted, watered and nurtured that they may grow into a green oasis on this island.  

Matricula

Matricula:  on Wednesday the men went to Nampula to get needed supplies for the construction.  Since they would be returning late, Lynne and I left before dark to go get dinner.  On the walk back from the restaurant, Leena (as she is called here) talked with a young man she had met on the street the day before.  As he walked back with us, he told Leena that he should have been in 9th grade this last year but had not had the "matricula"....school fee....for the year.  As with most people on the street, he was asking for something from the "wealthy tourist". But Rodger and Lynne know that once you make a handout to one, you will be a target of all. Many of you have known me through the trips I have made to Brazil or even been there with me.  There are some kids that just get to your heart and become something special to you....my Tevas or my Brazilian "daughter" Letitia. Lynne had that feeling about this boy.  She told the young man that she could not make this kind of decision without talking it over with Rodger.  She told him that he must come and talk to Rogerio "man to man".  He needed to come back the next morning to our guest house by 7 am to see Rodger or go to the house around 8 am.  He did show up the next morning asking for Leena.  No...he must go talk to Rodger ....again, man to man.  And we were proud to find out he did.  He ended up helping with some grout work in the kitchen and then raking in the yard.  And earned his matricula!  The amount....around $10 US which would allow him to go to school this coming year seems so little to us.  But he can be proud to have earned it and not just gotten a handout.  Rodger asked him to later bring him the registration paper for school and then to show him a good report card during the year.  We can hope he does so and proves worthy of what Lynne saw in him.  

On the road to Ilha...day 4

Our final travel day was finally here!  I mean...no more searching for hotel rooms in the wilderness, hopefully I had learned how to humor police in order to keep Rodger out of jail and the rebels and all the fighting was several hours behind us.

We drove for an hour or so, filled up with gas and headed across the Zambezi river!

For the most part the last day was uneventfull....well up to the last few hours.

We actually made it through all the police stops...we lost count of how many.  As we got closer to Nampula, the road construction forced us to drive on several sections of dirt roads.  We really needed a rest stop, and since we are men...well, we were surrounded by numerous locations from which to choose.  

At this point I do need to add one comment about day 2 and it has to do with "potty stops".  

About 30 or 40 minutes prior to our losing the tire off the trailer and while we were in rebel territory, Mother Nature called my name loud and clear.  In fact, good ole Mother Nature began to scream my name so loud...we had to stop immediately!  I did not get more than 15 feet off the road when I knew I had no choice but to stop, drop and...I am sure you get the picture.  Fortunately there wer only 4 vehicles on the road besides us and we had passed all 4, so my close proximity to the road was of no great concern.   That is except for the fact that this was not going to be a quick stop.  Three of the vehicles, all big trucks, caught up to us and passed us by and finally a Toyota that was having a difficult time of going faster than 4 mph even managed to pass us.  I can still see the woman on the passenger  side of the car holding up her hand beside her face so she could not see me!  

Anyway, back to day 4.  We made our stop and as Rodger walked by the trailer he glanced down at the tires.  The tread on both brand new tires was almost scrubbed off!  We drove another 1 1/2 hours until we got to Nampula to fill up with gas for our last 2 1/2 hour drive, which ended up lasting 5 1/2 hours.

The tire on the left side of the trailer was now showing the steel belt of the tire.  We tried to find a tire shop, but no luck at 5 p.m. on a Sunday night.  

We had one good spare so we changed to worse tire only to now discover the lug nuts had not been fully tightened and that is why the tire wore so rapidly.  We tightened the lug nuts and we were off...for about 10 minutes.   BOOM...our one good tire blew out and bent the fender of the trailer.

God really was looking out for us.  As soon as Rodger got the van and trailer stopped on the shoulder, we were surrounded by 20 kids all wanting to see what we were going to do.  One young boy got us a BIG hammer and Rodger was able to pound the fender away from the tire. Someone else found us a big piece of wood to put between the jack and the trailer to lift it high enough.  

We the discovered the "other" problem.  The nut holding the hub to the wheel had not been sufficiently tightened and that wobble was enough to ruin the tire.  How we made it as far as we did was only by God's protection.

We put the old tire back on and drove the the last 2 hours between 40 and 50 kmh to try and save the tire and limp in to Ilha.   The last 45 minutes of the drive I watched sparks fly off the tire as the steel belt continued to hit the pavement.

Finally at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night we made to Hotel Escondinho on Ilha de Mocambique!

On the road to Ilha....day 3

After a good breakfast...we left at 7:00 a.m.

This is pretty much what we faced all day, although some sections were better than others. 

The police have traffic control stop points in all sorts of places.  Most are consistently in the same spot at a guard house or under a shade tree.  Today, our second stop was under a shade tree.

When we come to a stop, I always pull up behind the trailer and wait.  Rodger talks to the police and explains he is moving to Ilha and I am there to help...but I don't speak Portugese.

Today a young soldier came to my window with his AK-47 slung on his shoulder and asked me a question.  I looked at him and said, "No Portugese, only Engish".  He smiled and said, "That's OK, I speak English". He wanted to know where I was gong and why and then asked if I could give him money or something to drink.   He saw the Coke cans and wanted one of those, so I hopped out and got a cold Coke from the back of the truck, which seemed to do the trick.

When he walked back to the bench that he, a young female police officer and an older male officer were sitting on, I knew something was wrong.

Rodger was involved in an animated discussion with the 2 police officers and in a couple of moments walked back to the truck I was driving.  He asked for some paperwork for the truck and the calmly told me he was probably going to jail until Monday.  Since this was Saturday afternoon, I was looking at a loooong wait.

The young female police officer did not like Rodger's Colorado license.  His international license was being sent to him, but he had been assured by other officers that this was OK.  This was NOT OK with this young woman, and she was writing up a citation that had to be paid right then back at the police station.

The male officer had other thoughts.  He did not like Rodger in the least little bit and had decided that Rodger had not properly respected the officer's authority.  He was going to write up a report and Rodger was gong to jail until Monday.  He left to go get his Dell Laptop to write his report.

Anyway, we changed car keys and Rodger took off for the police station to pay his fine and, of course, left me on the side of the road with the van in the middle of Mozambique.  I started talking to the soldier and the nice police lady.

The male officer returned to the check point with his laptop and when he got out of the car asked me where the other driver was.  I was all, "no Portugese, only English", only to find out he spoke very good English.  After a quick explanation, he calmed down and wanted to know if I was also from Maputo.  I told him no, "I'm from California".   He looked at me and asked, "California"?  What's it like in California"?

I have to stop here and let you know I had really been praying.  Rodger and I both felt we were under attack from the enemy, and I was praying that the Holy Spirit would soften this man's heart.

Well, we stated talking about California and what it was like and he was explaining to me about him being a traffic officer and just as I was explaining about our Highway Patrol, Rodger get back on the scene,

Rodger approached the police officer  and showed him the receipt from having paid his fine and then stood politely and humbly before the officer.  The officer was sitting I his chair and then reached over and got Rodger's license and residence card.  He held them in his hands and looked up at me and said "Let me tell you about your friend".  At this point I couldn't claim I did not know Rodger, so I leaned down to listen to what he had to say.

He explained that the Colorado license was not valid by itself and Rodger needed 1 of 3 other types of license.  I nodded by head and said I understood.  He then went on to say that in all of their "talks", Rodger had called the female officer and him thieves and this was an insult to their authority.  Of course, Rodger did not call them thieves.  I, on the other hand, looked at officer very sincerely and nodded my head up and down and said that I understood. 

The officer then handed Rodger's ID's back to him and said he had decided not to send Rodger to jail and that we could go.  Rodger thanked him and we walked to the van to exchange keys and decide where to stop very shortly so Rodger could collect himself.  I took my keys and walked past the trailer and I was going to go straight to my truck without saying goodbye to the nice police officers and young soldier.  But I just had to stop....

I walked up to the male officer and shook his hand and thanked him. 

Then I invited him to come visit me in California!

After the officers, the soldier and I laughed, the officer wanted to know my email address, so I nodded my head politely and gave it to him.   I have not heard for him yet, but I am sure I will.

We drove for another 4 hours and finally pulled off the road for the night to an unbelievable oasis in the middle of nowhere.

After a restful night....we were ready for day 4.. 

Curtains!

Curtains!  Most of you know that was my "job" for this trip...to make curtains so Rodger and Lynne could move in their house and have a sanctuary away from eyes that watch every move of the strange new people moving in!  below see picture of the completed kitchen curtains and one panel of the bedroom curtains.  Progress has been slower than we would like.  However there are so many praises in the midst of this.  

The sewing machine was donated by wonderful friends of the Schmidts from So. Africa.  (That frees up some of my support funds for other needs). The fabric was picked out also in So. Africa and they just estimated what would be needed.....not even having exact measurements for the windows.  And the expenditure for that was much less than budgeted and we will have plenty of extra fabric for other   

uses.  Then, if you saw the house and all the projects going on there (plumbing, carpentry, floor stripping, staining and sealing, among lots of others).....we had no idea of how we could work there.  But the guest house where we are staying was gracious enough to let us use their conference room with huge tables and plenty of room to work.  Lynne and I have had quality time and wonderful talks while working together on this.  I feel so blessed by her friendship.  Hopefully the kitchen curtains can go up tomorrow.  And we will begin on the living room and bathroom ones.  Don't worry...I will post completed pictures of them all hung by the time we leave next week.

The guys are also progressing slowly on the house.  Today they traveled to Nampula to buy more supplies.  Please pray for their continued strength.  Also for Mike Hagar who is not feeling well....some kind of respiratory thing that has him really wiped out.  

You will enjoy reading Mike's stories of their drive here.  That brings up another huge praise.  We don't know whether it has hit the news there but there has been political unrest between two government parties here that has progressed to riots and shooting.  This happened in the area where Mike and Rodger had their trailer axle break during their drive.  The UN is now telling any non-Mozambiquans to avoid the area completely. What a blessing our guys were there several days before this happened and made it through.  

Any way...the weather is hot but the breeze comes up by late day which helps cool things down.  The electricity and the Internet has been sporadic.  But the food is wonderful. Lots of crustaceans! 😄

More soon.  Thanks for your prayers and support.  

Love, Diane

On the road to Ilha...day 2...part 2

We soon arrived at the "repair shop" and we began to view the damage and then determine what part(s) we needed.  The only way to see what we had was to look in the "parts bin"......

They found a hub that would work and about 61/2 hours after the wheel came off...a new one was attached and we were ready to go!

Remember when I said it was difficult to find accommodations the first day?  Well...we serve an awesome God!  

We knew we could not continue at 7 p.m.  I had seen a sign as we entered town that advertised a hotel.  The shop owner took Rodger to the hotel and what a great blessing!  We found a very clean and secure little hotel with a cafe.  I cannot tell you how unusual this is.  Anyway, when we got both vehicles to the hotel, they had dinner waiting for us.  

After a short but restful sleep AND a nice breakfast we headed off for day 3.....OH MY!

On the road to Ilha...day 2.....

Quick update...what you're reading is several days behind.  The area we went through that I am getting ready to describe has been under rebel attack.  The town we spent the night in was attacked by rebel forces the day after we left.....

We left our nice rest and stay at 4:00 a.m.  Before I go on, let me say that my beach front room cost $45 per night.  There we other properties that charged considerably more, but this was a great deal for a great location.  There are very few hotels close to the highway because the highway goes through desolate and remote parts of the country.

The goal was to drive to Beira and spend the night with one of Rodger's co-workers, have a nice dinner and leave the next morning.

We first had to drive through an area known for rebel activity.  The day before we got there, 7 soldiers had been killed in a small weapons fight with the rebels.  We drove for about 4 hours and came to the bridge where the military escorts take a caravan of vehicles through the danger area.  

We arrived at the check point to find out the caravan had just left a few minutes prior to our arrival.

The soldier at the guard post told Rodger we could go on through because everything was OK.  All the fighting was in another area.

I did not think we could possibly drive through any area more remote than what we had been through, but I was wrong.  We drove for another 3 hours and saw maybe 12 people other than the 6 people on the highway with us.  Eventually we came to a town that was the staging area for southbound traffic and drove on through....for about 15 minutes.

 As we were driving on up the road, I was still "admiring" the scenery, when, BOOM....the right wheel of the trailer snapped off the axle!  I watched as the right side of the axle hit the road and Rodger managed to pull off to the left shoulder..they drive on the "other side" of the road, British style. I somehow managed to keep my left eye on the trailer and not run into Rodger, and my right eye on the tire as it bounced along the shoulder and into the brush.  WOW!

We stood on the side of the road and then quickly began looking for the tire.  Two men on bicycles came by and helped us look and fortunately found the tire, wheel and hub.

 

Of course Rodger took the truck and headed back to town to look for help and left me with the van in the middle of Mozambique by myself!

He found help and the short version is, they unloaded the traile onto a flatbed truck the then we all lifted the empty trailer onto the truck as well.

On the road to Ilha...day one...

Do you remember the old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby "road" movies?  Well...Rodger and I just lived through one of the most amazing true to life road movies you can ever imagine! 

We left Maputo at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday...that's 3:00 A.M.!!!!

After loading some items from storage we were on the road on Mozambique N1, which is the main road connecting southern and northern Mozambique. Actually, it's the ONLY road connecting southern and northern Mozambique.  I would like to tell you it is a highway connecting the south and north but even the word "road" would be generous for significant portions. 

Anyway, we started our journey north and began interacting almost immediately with the Mozambique equivalent of the Highway Patrol. Well, Highway Patrol/local Cop and a soldier with an AK47, sometimes several cops & several soldiers.  We traveled about 475 km the first day and we're stopped 9 times.

We also began a journey back into time.  As we rolled along the Mozambique countryside, we continuously saw the small groupings of mud huts and saw the people walking along the highway going about their daily lives.  Some were fortunate enough to have bicycles and it was fascinating to see how much stuff or how many people could be on one bike.  It is amazing how you can leave a capital city like Maputo and in less than 15 minutes see people live like their ancestors did 1,000 years ago.  Mud hut, no electricity, no running water and cooking with wood and/or charcoal.  

We drove until 2 p.m. and then left the main highway to get our hotel room for the night.  We had to leave the main road because their were not any decent accommodations on the main road.  We travel about 60 km on a road that led to a couple of towns on the seaside. I will post those photos.

We were snapped back into the 21st century when we arrived at the hotel and had a very restful night.

The area we stayed in was beautiful!  I finally got to see the beach area that every one raves about in Mozambique.  And to think it only took us 9 hours of driving time! Whew!

And then we started day 2.......

Writings from Lynne

I am copying the text from an email that Lynne posted.  This tells a lot about our dear friends and why we feel so strongly about the work they will be doing on the Ilha.  Diane

I write this from the guesthouse lobby on Mozambique Island.  

After weeks of preparations, catching up with ministry partners, annual meeting with our teammates, visiting national pastors and friends, in Maputo, field leader meetings and time with Stephen in Kenya, the time has come.

I(Lynne)arrived on the island Wednesday evening.  Rodger and our friend Mike are currently making the drive with all of our personal belongings; a four day drive on some rough roads.

Once they arrive, we will complete the last work on the house and move in!

We anticipate the next few months being all about getting our feet under us and starting Makua language study.

We covet your prayers now more than ever before.  Life will be very different for us here than in Maputo.  Here are a few differences that we know of:

No local body of believers with which to fellowship for the first time in our lives.

Less availability of goods.  The nearest grocery store is two and a half hours away.

Adequate medical care is two and a half hours away. Good medical care is a 2 hour flight away.

Living conditions, especially water, is more of a challenge.

The society as a whole is walking in spiritual darkness.

The words of the Chris Tomlin song keep repeating in my head: 

"I know who goes before me
I know who stands behind
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side
The One who reigns forever
He is a friend of mine
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side."

We appreciate your prayers and support.  We could not do this without you.

Blessings and love,

Rodger and Lynne

Road weary adventures

This is actually being written by Diane.  This October 2013 will be my first time to Ilha de Moçambique so I guess the new blog should be Mike and Diane on the island.....but we will leave things as they are!  😄. I am going to paste the text here of an email I just sent out.  Asking for lots of prayers for Mike and Rodger.  

Hey friends.....I am sitting in my hotel room in Johannesburg...thankful to have these legs of the journey easily behind me.  Mike and Rodger have not had as easy of a time on their drive.  Day 2 turned out to be when they should have had the military armed escort.  However, it left without them so they proceeded on their own.  No trouble with bandits but in the afternoon on Friday, in the middle of nowhere Moz, the trailer axle broke and the tire fell off.  I don't know the whole story but they did make it to a town which then brought a truck to load the trailer on.....it was unloaded and repaired, better than ever, but cost them an unexpected $400 plus being behind schedule.  
And I guess they have been stopped at least 20 times by police, checking their paperwork.  When I woke up from napping this morning, I had missed a request for immediate prayer but I think many warriors had them covered.  Police that stopped them this morning claimed that Rodger's driver's license was not correct so they were going to lock him in jail until Monday.  But by the time I could reply, Lynne let me know that they had ended up letting him off with a steep fine....5000 metacais....about $168. 
Mike just called me here at the hotel.  They have stopped for the night (Saturday evening here).  They plan to start again about 2 am and hope to be able to make it to the island tomorrow.   Mike said some roads are ok but many times they are driving on the shoulder dodging potholes.  
Please pray for an uneventful and safe final day of travels for them.  They are both exhausted. 
Mike Hagar, the other guy meeting us here, should be somewhere in the air over the Atlantic.  I will meet him at the Joberg airport tomorrow morning for the final leg of our journey to Nampula and then the island.  

We're off.....almost!

We did a ton of last minute errands today to get ready for our drive!

We will leave Rob and Heather Banks house at 3 a.m. To start our northward journey.

I will try to post photos of our trip if I can figure out how, because we will go through some beautiful country.

If you follow on a map, we will go up the Mozambique coast to Inhasoro, Beira, Caia, Nampula and then to Ilha de Mocambique.

Between Beira and Caia we join a military escort in a caravan for protection....