Friday, December 05, 2008

A Mission Trip Part 1

To get to Angoche was a mission on it's own. We left Sutton Baptist Church around 2pm Friday and arrived at Heathrow at about 5:00pm ish. We all congregated at fast check in (Mr Administrator had already checked us in online) and I went to find Mr C (an ex elder from SCBC now living in Devon) who was a few yards away!!!! We said our good-byes to Ms G who was taking the minibus back to SCBC and checked in.
We flew at just after 8pm and arrived in Johannesburg at just after 6am local time . We were met by Mr & Mrs R who work for The Missionary Organisation as fixers, getting things that the guys in Mozambique and other places need. We were taken to their house and made to feel very welcome, we showered and had tea and coffee, melon, biscuits and sandwiches. In the afternoon we went to a craft market, where I met Picaso who sculpts rock, photo below. We then had tea at R & R's a fanastic cooked meal and a time of just wonderful sharing and fellowship. Later Mr C, Cameraman and myself were taken to an amazing guest cottage somewhere in countryside that was so peaceful (apart from the peacock!!)
At 6:30am the next morning (Sunday) we were taken to the airport and off we flew to Maputo (International Airport hahaha) a short 1 hour flight. Maputo is a funny airport for an international airport, it is tiny and cannot receive anything bigger than a 737? ho hum. We had a 6 hour wait also Ms T would be joining us here. We had bumped into her at Jo'burg airport earlier that morning. Two guys had gone to find Ms T from immigration but she had been taken somewhere else. After they had been gone an hour and they hadn't returned I was a little concerned and mentioned to Mr Administrator that I would like to see what was happening. Mrs G and I went outside and were heading to arrivals when I heard a small cry of "English Blogger!!!" I looked around and there was Ms T running up to us. She was OK but a little shaken. Immigration had tried to put her on an earlier plane and other things.

From Maputo we flew to Nampula and 3 and half to 4 hour flight. For a meal we were given a small can of coke and a bag of crisps?. The flight went very smoothly and we met up with E and P in the baggage claim, E and P are friends of Missionary Man and Missionary Lady from Holland, Missionary Lady trained with E as a midwife. Missionary Man and B.G a fellow worker for The Mission Organisation met us at the airport and took us to the Organisation Campus. We had a Boys and Girls house, and a few screams in the night. hahaha none of mine.












After a shared breakfast on Monday we had a tour of the Organisation Compound site and saw the offices and "Kithaapuo" the work that Missionary Man and Missionary Lady Missionary Girl and Missionary Boy have spent the past 12 years working on!!!!











Then we had a dust ride!!!! a 2 and bit hours ride to Angoche, most of the road is a dirt road.......well a dust road and we got filthy our landrover unlike the other two cars going to Angoche had no aircon so we had the windows down....I am sure I still have red dust in my lungs.
Well it was a great ride and I learned so much from our driver, J (who is Missionary Man's boss!!!) he was telling me about the tribal systems and the way things work in the villages and stuff like that it was just amazing. As we were driving we saw hardly any wildlife apart from the odd chicken or goat, Most of the houses along the road were made of grass, mud or weaved palm leaves. It was very Tarzan for want of a better description. I was so amazed at the beauty of the place and how peaceful everything seemed to be.... We stopped a few miles out of Nampula and looked at a Mountain...."Old Man" it's called.....
Hardly any cars or trucks, plenty of push-bikes and people walking. Having a convoy of the three 4x4 vehicles did turn a lot of heads...this would be one thing I did find hard, which I will mention in a latter blog. Anyhoo after just over two hours of dust and very fast driving!!!!! We made it to Angoche safe and dirty Monday late afternoon!!!! 3 days of travelling and we would need to do this again in 8 days time!!!!!



Cast on Mission
Missionary Man (Translated 4 books of the Bible in to Koti)
Missionary Lady (Translated 4 books of the Bible in to Koti)
Missionary Girl (Daughter of Missionary Man & Lady)
Missionary Boy (Son of Missionary Man & Lady)
Mr Administrator (Church administrator & Team Leader)
Mrs Administrator (Team Leaders wife and Joint Team Leader)
English Blogger (Me)
Ms A (a great lady and my seating companion on all the flights)
Cameraman (Videoing the Mission)
Mr C (Ex Elder from SCBC and very wise man)
Mrs G (singer and French)
Miss C (American and Youth Volunteer at SCBC))
Mrs R (Called Pipi "Grannie" in Koti)
E & P (Dutch friends of Missionary Man & Lady)
Dr S (Wonderful Doctor and man of God, and totally bonkers)
Ms T (a Youth worker and new member of our Church)
J (Missionary Man's Boss) + a few other friends from the Organisation.