Spirits, Insurance, Chariots, or the Lord our God?

After getting settled into our house, we found that there is a small Baptist Church within walking distance from our house.  So Sunday morning we ventured down to check it out.  We got there a little early for the service and caught the end of the Sunday School lesson.  When the service started, a lady who speaks both English and Portuguese came and sat next to us and translated the sermon into English while the Portuguese was being translated to Makua.  They had a song book that we even sang some familiar hymns out of (in Portuguese of course).  It seemed that random people would take up instruments such as a tambourine, drum, or triangle to play along while we sang, and there were distinct clapping rhythms a little more complex than we are used to.

Before we came to Mozambique, we learned that oftentimes Christianity is mixed with animism and ancestry worship.  As we have attended church, we have begun to learn how this really takes place.  The tail end of the Sunday School lesson the first week was so interesting that we decided to go earlier the next week to hear the continuation of the lesson.  The topic was mixing spiritism and witch craft with Christianity.  In traditional African culture, when something is wrong in your life, someone is sick, etc., you probably have angered a spirit or a dead ancestor and you should make an offering.  It was explained that sometimes they would dig up the dead and take hair or nail clippings to use as part of their offering.  A discussion started that other cultures (Americans and Brazilians) don’t do these things and it was explained what was more typical in those countries.  Someone made the argument that other countries do what they do as a result of their culture, and Africans do what they do as part of their culture.  The teacher was teaching out of a passage in Deuteronomy where the Lord condemns the practice of witch craft, sorcery, etc. (Deut. 18:10).  One question that arose during the class concerned witch doctors.  When a witch doctor calls upon god, what god are they calling on?  It is the same God we worship?  As the lesson went on, the teacher explained that God is the Creator, supreme, and sovereign.  If we truly believe this, then why do we need to please these spirits?  Someone said that the relationship between God and the different spirits is like the government.  The government has different ministries in charge of different things and that when they go to the spirits, they are going to a department under God so to speak.  People often worship the Lord on Sundays, but when bad things happen, they place their security in their offerings to spirits.

After hearing all of this, we asked our language instructor, who is also a Mozambican pastor, if this was common in his church and among Christians here in Mozambique.  He told us that it is extremely common here in Africa.  He said the way families are run here, a head uncle may bring the family together and decide what offerings to the spirits need to be done.  It is very difficult to refuse to do these things.  He said the churches need a few strong believers who can stand up and say they will not participate in witch craft to help be an example to the rest of the congregation.

Are American Christians really that different?  When hard times hit, do we immediately seek the Lord, or do we find our security elsewhere…our bank accounts and insurance.  Africans in general don’t have the financial resources to solve their problems by throwing money at them, so they do something that gives them a sense of security (sometimes completely out of fear).  It is something that is so ingrained in their society (even if it is kept quiet) that Christians here struggle to see how it contradicts the Word.  Think about how your society incites fear and is constantly bombarding you with the need for security (insurance, retirement, safety, etc.).  Do we put more trust in these things than the Lord?  Pray for the Mozambican Christians, the churches, and the pastors, as they seek to teach the Word of the Lord.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” 

Psalms 20:7

A Little Bit of African Wildlife

While we haven't been seeing elephants and zebras since we have been living in Africa, we have seen some pretty fun wildlife that you don't get to see in the States.  If you know Dave and I, you know we both come from natural resources backgrounds in college and that I am a bit of a bird nerd (that explains why we have so many bird pics!).  Dave is the awesome photographer (in most cases).

Chameleon

 

This chameleon was so fascinating to watch as it slowly made its way 

towards the grass, turning its eyes back to look at us... it hissed at Dave when he tried to pick it up!

Little Banded Goshawk (Shikra)

Bronze Mannikin

Striped Kingfisher

Olive Bush Shrike

Paradise Flycatcher

 

Cashew Tree

Passion Flower (Dave's favorite flower)

 These cicadas make a lot of noise when you are trying to sleep at night with the windows open!

Termite mound

Charlie and Lobo

They may not be wild, but these guys are our crazy guard dogs.

Chapas, Church, and Coconut Rice

Last Sunday we had a great introduction into Mozambican culture…public transportation, a church service (not a bit in English), and authentic Mozambican food.  Sunday morning we walked down the road from the center we are living on to meet with one of our MAF teammates, Erica, for a lesson in riding a chapa.  What is a chapa you ask?  It is a basically a twelve passenger van (that may have up to 25 people on it) that serves as public transportation.  For about 5 mets (20 cents) per leg, you can travel all over Nampula.  They have color coded stickers across the windshield with roads or areas of town on them to help you know where it is going (if only we knew the parts of town…all I knew is we were looking for the green ones).  You don’t have to wait at a stop, just wave at one as they go by and if it is not too full (or even if it is), they will stop and pick you up.  If you end up getting an edge seat by the door, you will get in and out over and over when the chapa stops to let people off along the way.

A group catching a chapa

We took the chapa to a church where they only speak Portuguese and/or Makua, a common tribal language in the Nampula province.  We got off the chapa on a main road and then proceeded to walk between buildings through narrow passageways making several turns to get to the church (I don’t think I could find it again on my own!).  When we arrived at the church, Erica’s husband, Jonas (who is from Mozambique), saved us a spot up front.  At the beginning of the service, everyone prayed out loud together at the same time.  Then a leader called up the worship leaders, for a time of singing and most of the songs were in Makua.  Then they had the different choirs (children, youth, and women) come up to sing.  They started in a line at the back of the church and sang as they walked to the front.  Jonas introduces us as visitors and translated as we said who we were.  Afterwards, many in the church came up to us and greeted us.  When the pastor got up to preach, he spoke in Portuguese, while another man translated into Makua for the people in the congregation that do not speak Portuguese.  Jonas whispered to us during the service so we could follow along. 

Children singing at church

Women singing at church

(Sorry for the poor picture quality...we had some good videos to post from church

and spent the last 3 days trying to upload them with no luck!)

After the service was over, we took a chapa to Erica and Jonas’s house.  Erica had this stool that she sat on with a scraper on the end that is made for scraping coconut.  The juice from the coconut was used to make the rice and beans that we ate, which was delicious! 

Scraping the coconut

We visited the afternoon away, learning more about the culture, before it was time to take a chapa home.  We waited awhile for a green one, but it never came so Erica and Jonas decided to go with us on a pink one to another spot where we could catch a green one.  While on that chapa, it broke down and we all piled off.  Fortunately, we were in a spot where you could catch a green one, so we were able to get on one to make it back to the road to our house.  We managed to make this trip by ourselves armed with the one Portuguese word that means “stop”!