Sunday Service

03 June 2012—

                We awoke to rain today, which was a little disappointing since most of us had planned to wake around 5 a.m. to catch the sunrise over the Indian Ocean.  While those of us in the U.S. are used to seasons which seem to sprint towards the summer during this part of the year, the people in Mozambique are preparing for their winter, which is generally marked by a period of dry months and tepid weather.  Today, however, brought about conditions with a strong breeze and random bouts of sunshine-laced rain, leaving me thinking more of spring in Georgia than any winter I have ever known.

                However, most of the rain began to clear with the sunrise and we gathered for an early breakfast with our hosts, Linda and Orai Lehman, before setting off to a local village for Sunday services.

                This church, which is home to Daniel, one of our colleagues from World Hope International, is the same one we visited last year and I found it exciting to see the progress that has been made on the building addition the congregation was starting to fund this past June.  It is only about 50% finished; however, its completion will allow the ever-growing congregation room to breathe since the current cinderblock walls and tin roof have become too small.

                As is sometimes customary for visitors, Wayne was asked to give a guest sermon during the service, in which he spoke about faith because oftentimes, it is all that sustains the people here.  Most of us in the Western world will never have to understand the type of belief that motivates people here because their lives often resemble a way of living that only our ancestors have known.  Here, having faith isn’t only about trusting God and believing that he is leading through love; it is about having a conviction that the rains will come to nourish the fields and rivers, and that they will have simple healthcare through common colds and disease.  Without the needs which we consider basic, such as food (including water), clothing, and shelter, the people here will cease to exist.  In short, Mozambique ranks on the UN’s “50 Least Developed Nations” list because it accommodates 0.61% of the world’s population living below the global poverty line of $1 per day. 

In his words during the sermon, Wayne said that “faith is a confidence that what we hope for will actually happen,” and it got me thinking about the fact that, although our lives in the U.S. remain free of many of the hardships that define everyday existence here in multiple parts of Africa, the core of having faith remains the same.

                At the end of the day, the things we all hope for are really not so different.  Perhaps I will never know what it’s like to pray for precipitation so that I can feed my family or even access to a school so I can learn to read; however, faith seems to extend across nations when we look to God in our quest for a new and better day, for health for our loved ones, and for a road in which we’re supposed to follow.  It’s easy to get lost in life and culture knows no bounds when it comes to missing the path we’ve been asked to take, but if we have faith and understand that as human beings we’re all striving to find compassion and love, then it’s easy to see how similar we all are.  If faith truly is having a confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, then it is hope which has brought us all here, and it is faith that will lead us home.

Posted By: Tanna Krewson