We have landed in Mozambique!!

A massive thank you to everyone who has prayed and encouraged us! It is so good to have arrived!

We had such a warm welcome, the whole Mozambican team came to greet us at the airport! They helped to carry all our bags and then prayed and sang as we arrived at our accommodation.

It’s been great to have Chris & Jenn, the base leaders, and their three kids here to welcome us too! They have served for 10 years with Iris, and have a wealth of wisdom to impart. Chris has been very unwell the last year or so, but God made a way for them to be here!

We feel so blessed and well cared for by Jesus. Our kids have loved playing with theirs, and we are currently staying in a house next door, which is such a blessing. The kids play together almost every day in their garden, where they have a swing and slide!

It’s been a whirlwind first month here, the kids have started school (even Levi has started at the nursery) and they’re all enjoying it and making friends! We have started Portuguese language lessons 2 hours a day, with a lovely teacher called Victoria who is the daughter of the elder pastor - it’s a steep learning curve but going well, all the Mozambicans are so warm and helpful!

Ben is also getting stuck into learning the local language of Makhuwa, learning new phrases every day from people he meets! The people always smile and laugh when he greets them in their local language! 

One of our biggest challenges was finding a vehicle, town is a 25min drive away, where the few shops are and the kids go to school.

The roads here are more like the surface of the moon, than road, so the suspension in second hand cars is often destroyed! It was also very difficult to find a vehicle that had not been stolen.

But Jesus had the perfect one set aside for us, owned by another missions org right here in Nacala, and we now have an all terrain vehicle, perfect for outreach/town! We really wanted one with seats in the back so we could take others beside our family, and this car has seats for at least 9! Jesus is amazing! 🥰

We’ve been so blessed to be able to stay in a beautiful small home on Chris & Jenn’s land whilst we work on getting our own home renovated. We’ve had such favour in securing a 3 bed house close by, it’s been neglected the past couple of years and is a project! But will be a lovely home with some TLC. We have begun work on it this week with a stone mason and an electrician 😊 

Jesus is doing amazing things here, every week we have a prayer and testimony time as a wider team, and there are testimonies of new churches being planted, or a new bairro (neighbourhood) wanting the team to come and plant a church. God seems to be moving quicker than the team can keep up! The verse “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38 seems very apt here.

Almost all of the team here are first generation believers. Trying to disciple and equip new people fast enough, to have pastors for all of the churches is one of the biggest challenges. The team go on outreach every week all over the Nampula province, driving many many hours on roads (that are more like footpaths) through the bush to encourage churches and believers, and to spread the gospel to those who haven’t yet heard about Jesus. The response is overwhelming.

Ben went on outreach for two days with no translator, that was a wild experience! He loved it! He was able to help baptise many new believers, and encourage the churches with the pastors in broken Portuguese! The Holy Spirit didn’t seem to mind! They had a blast!

There’s an incredible children’s ministry erupting here too. The children’s pastor Tinga Tinga, leads a team who go to different neighbourhoods during the week to share the gospel with the children. They sing songs about Jesus, play games, teach them the gospel through the colours of the Mozambican flag, and then give them bread. Everywhere they go they have around 500 children turn up to hear about Jesus every time! Many of them experience a baptism in the Holy Spirit during a time of prayer; they are majority from Muslim families that attend. It’s amazing. 

Prayers appreciated for this next couple of months. Chris, Jenn and their kids are about to head off to America for 6 weeks. Prayer for our kids as they adjust to not having their playmates next door, and for us as we will be the only Iris missionaries here until another couple (Melissa & John) arrive with their new baby Titus, in August. The team is growing though! There are two other families each with a little girl hoping to join the team here this year, they are just waiting on visas - which are taking a really long time, as with all things Mozambique! Haha!

Speaking of visas this is our second prayer request, there have been issues between the immigration office here in Nampula (main city 3 hours away) and our embassy in the UK regarding our visas they issued. We’re not sure specifically what the issue is, but they’re not happy with something the embassy did, so as yet we have not been issued our full visa from Nampula. So prayers this can be resolved swiftly and we can get our visas would be gratefully received!

Pray for the ministry as it continues to grow - and for labourers for the harvest!

Love from us five,

Tash & Ben