We’ve heard several stories about the spiritual
 |
| Pastor Sampaio and his family |
customs in
which the Mozambican culture is steeped. Spiritual warfare is extremely overt
here and the belief in the activity of evil spirits is very prevalent. For
example, Mozambicans will regularly conduct a ceremony in which they sprinkle
rice flour on a banana leaf and place it under their bed. This is to call upon
the spirits of their dead ancestors to bless the men with a good a job and the
women with plenty of children. This tradition is rooted in fear because they
are also calling upon their ancestors for protection from being tormented by
evil spirits. Those coming to our churches here in Moz are finding freedom from
these beliefs and placing their hope and trust in God for their blessings and
protection.
Another deeply ingrained belief here is that grandmothers
can place a curse on a young married couple if the groom does not properly
provide a dowry to his bride’s family. Grandmothers will go out to the fields
with their hoes and call upon the evil spirits to create strife, discord, and
arguments. They believe the demons will encircle the young couple’s house and
prevent conception and the inability of the groom to land a good job. Pastors
John and Maria told of a childless couple they counseled who had been “cursed”
in this fashion. After prayer and counseling the young wife became pregnant one
month later. They now have four kids.
The other day, we visited a local church led by Pastor Sampaio.
He is an exceptionally sweet elderly man. At 73 years old he is still going
strong and passionately leading God’s people. He worked as a translator for 10
years bringing God’s word to a local language. When he finished, he felt lost,
without a purpose, and at his age, worthless. He crossed paths with Pastor John
who quickly saw the value that he could bring to the Life Covenant family of
churches here in Mozambique. He is a man filled with humility, kindness, and sincerity.
He brings strong teaching skills, wisdom, good counseling insights, and a vast
bible knowledge to all the churches in the area. He has become a tremendously valuable
asset. It’s amazing to see how God has given Pastor Sampaio an important role
to play in his work here in Mozambique and replaced his feelings of
worthlessness with a sense of purpose and confident value to his kingdom. He has
asked that we pray that he will have few more years of ministry.
Yesterday we visited a third local church in the village of
Dondo. Then we picked up the third wave of teammates at the airport. After our
lunch we went out to the market to buy a truckload of food and supplies for the
Melanie Center. The market was a beehive of activity. Individuals were selling
a variety of fruits and vegetables, fresh seafood, meat, and nuts. Think a
local farmer’s market on steroids. Competition is fierce as there are dozens of
vendors each selling the same product. It’s not hard to see how people earn
less than three dollars per day. From there we went shopping at the cupulano
store. Cupulanos are the long multi-colored skirts worn by Mozambican women.
Outside the shop hobbled a small, filthy one-legged boy, begging on homemade
crutches. Heartbreaking to say the least. He kept saying, “What’s up guys?”
over and over. Eye contact only spurred him on. Ignoring him only increased the
ache in my heart for him. I had nothing to give him. No food or money. He
wobbled around our van on his crutches, refusing to take our gestures of “nothing
to give” to heart until we pulled away. I watched him through the side window,
offering up a silent, feeble prayer.
A prayer for him.
And a prayer that I wouldn’t forget him.
No comments:
Post a Comment