A Shell "Angel"

 

This past week we held an Ancient Paths seminar here in Matola.  A team came from South Africa to lead the seminar and we hosted two of the men.  The first night they stayed with us we were in their vehicle and directed them to our apartment.  The second night we headed separate ways and Steve made them a detailed map to get from the guesthouse (where they had supper) to our place.  Around 9 p.m. I started wondering where they were.  At 9:30 I made a phone call to the guesthouse and found out they had left an hour earlier.  Now what?  They didn't have a cell phone that worked, and we didn’t have a vehicle so all we could do was pray.  Then Steve decided he would go out and see if he could find them.

 

He stood under a light at a Shell station close to our house where there is a roundabout.  In the meantime, these two guys got a little turned around but eventually found the road they were to be on.  They were in our neighborhood but got it into their heads that we lived in a 10-story building (we had told them we were in Apt. 10).  So, even though they had the map, they thought it must be wrong and started looking for 10-story buildings.  They went around and around, even going the wrong way down a 1-way street.  Of course there were 3 traffic cops right there ready for him.  The police asked them for some whiskey (note they did not ask for money!) but since they didn't have any, settled on some Rands.  They decided to go around the roundabout one more time and then they saw Steve, their angel!  They were so happy to see him and get to our house.

 

The one guy is a pastor (he reminds us of Don Cripe) so I told him he had the makings of a good sermon illustration.  Well, he's turning it into his whole sermon.  When we don't have proper perspectives and let deception creep in, we go around in circles, waste time and pay unnecessary fines even when we have a “map” right in front of us.

 

So we had a good seminar and the people who participated are excited about continuing to be involved.  It looks like Steve and I will also be more involved and eventually become coordinators for the Maputo area.  This will involve more training in S Africa in the coming months.  We met a very good couple from Cameroon who have been missionaries in Moz for 5 years.  They are Genesis and Yolanda and Genesis really had a touch from God, a new beginning.

 

It was funny to hear the South African's reaction to the heat.  It was in the 80's one day and you would have thought it was 100!  Where they live it is quite cool and not humid.  Thankfully the next couple of days it was cool and rainy.  I'm loving the weather, it's just right for me!  We hope you’re enjoying life where you are too.

 

This week we found out that the government can call a holiday from one day to the next.  The funny thing was that we didn’t even know it was a holiday until the end of the day because we were at the seminar. Steve went to the office in the afternoon and everything was all locked up with no one around.  Then he found an e-mail announcing “Samora Machel Day,” a 20^th anniversary of the death of the first leader after independence (his plane was shot down just across the SA border).  We don’t know if this will be an annual holiday or not.  One just never knows what a day will bring in Moz!