The trip ended pretty well.  On my last couple days we drove to Pemba which is the capital of Cabo Delgado.  This was where we were going to fly out, but we got there a few days early to have fun.  I got really sick for a couple of those days, so that hurt the fun.  But fortunately, I got better in time to swim in the Indian Ocean and debrief with the missionaries and other interns about how the whole trip went.  And overall, it went extremely well.  I'm glad to be home, but I can't tell you how great these last 6 weeks have been in Mozambique.  Hopefully, I'll never be the same.

Backing up a little bit.  Our last weekend in Montepuez we hosted a Leadership Retreat at the Smith's house. All the leaders from village churches I had met throughout the internship came for this weekend.  The theme was serving together as leaders. They said this was a very important topic for these people to hear.  These people really want to have authority over each other, and they often abuse power if they have it.  And this is a problem even for these men that are leaders in the church.  So it's tough to hear Jesus say, "For he who is least among you all - he is the greatest."  I thought it was a very powerful weekend.  I remember sitting in that circle of 12 or so men thinking, "These guys are good guys.  They are going to do great things for God."

Hopefully, you've noticed I have a hard time knowing what to write sometimes.  It's difficult to put six weeks in a couple letters.  I think I'm going to copy a part of my last journal entry for you:

"Yesterday, we got on a plane and waved goodbye to our... family in a lot of ways.  They are my Mozambique family.  It was really hard saying bye.  I know I'll see them again either furlough or heaven, but I just felt really close to them these past 6 weeks.  I will miss them very much.  I could try and bring the whole experience to one climactic finish in this journal entry, but I'm quite sure words would fall short.  And any attempt at a conclusion would seem odd since what I'm learning seems far from over.  I'm learning about myself, about how to get along with people, how to fully depend on God, and those kinds of lessons don't get mastered.  

Even so, I am ending the internship chapter in my life for now, and it's sad.  I hope my prayers continue and that Mozambique stays in my heart.  I want a lot of things to stay in my heart.  I want the Smiths and Howells to stay, and I want the Talbotts in Marupa to stay, and I want the Holtons and Caldwells and Lucky to stay.  I want Rajabo, and Albino, and Alshandre, and Amarde, and Floristo, and Mario, and Africa, and Alberto, and Fernando, and Fanito, and Nelson, and Candida, and Maria, and Ali, and China, and Daju, and all those people to stay.  Those people are the reason I went."

Anyway, I want to thank everybody again for praying for me.  I hope God's been teaching and stretching you this summer like He has me.  And if I see you soon, I'd love to talk more if you want to.  I'm realizing it's a lot easier than typing.

Anyway, in Lichinga we got to see a lot of development work going on with the Holtons and Caldwells.  They are doing amazing things.  For instance, there is a plant called Artimesia (sp?) that cures milaria.  Another plant called meringua (sp?) basically has every vitamin known to man and can purify water.  I'm going to put a link to the Holton's blog on the group wall.  Overall, it was a really good experience.  

One of my favorite things I heard was when Kyle Holton told us what development meant to him.  He said development is not going into a village and telling people how we can make their life better.  It's not saying we have all the answers.  That's just another form of oppression.  We have to come in appreciating that these people have things to teach us.  And together we can learn to better our lives with the resources God has given us.  Development is letting these people be the author's of their own lives.  (I didn't put quotes around that because I obviously was paraphrasing, but that's the gist.)  

So we spent a couple days in Lichinga seeing other ways God is working in Mozambique and then we did a survey trip in Marupa.  A survey trip is where you travel around a specific area getting information that would be useful for missionaries who are considering moving there.  For instance, we tried to learn about education and health care and religions.  Also, we collected a lot of logistics like... how much a coke costs, or where is the closest gas station.  

I really enjoyed going out into the nearby villages and talking to the village chiefs.  Sometimes a village has a chief and sometimes a village has a king.  Sometimes they have both.  It's sort of confusing to me, but my best conclusion is that a king can be in charge of multiple villages and a chief is just in charge of one.  So we would sit down with these men and talk about their village and how often they go into town and whether they have a well and whether elephants are a problem (they often are.) There are a lot of reasons I enjoyed this part of the survey, but mostly I just liked the men we sat and talked with.

There are a lot of reasons why I liked the trip overall too.  God continues to show me how big He is when I see Him in the little town of Nagir outside of Marupa.  I have seen Him in His people and His creation.  (Lichinga looks and feels a lot like Colorado.)

Also, I really enjoyed seeing three different missionary families.  (We stayed with the Talbott family in Marupa.)  Mission work is different for everybody, but it was very beneficial, I think, to see some of that diversity.

Also, the more time I spend with the Smiths and Howells... the better.  They are two outstanding families and long car rides make for great learning opportunities.  They have a lot of wisdom.

Ok, well it's amazing that I've written this much and still feel like I haven't scratched the surface!

They live a very different life than I do.  The mom, for instance, carries her son on her back all day everyday, and carries big big buckets of water, and baskets of corn or beans or peanuts from the farm, and makes 3 meals a day (unless a white boy stays at her house, then it's about 7 meals.)  Needless to say, she was strong.  

God showed me how blessed I am last weekend, and also gave me a glimpse of how to live simply.  In the little backpack I brought, I had more STUFF than that whole family.  The dad, Albino, has two outfits and one of those is a flowery dress.  (A lot of men wear women's clothes, but they don't know it.  sshhhh.)

I've also been very amazed so far at how HUGE God is.  There have been a couple nights in particular where I have looked up into the sky at night and seen about 4 million stars.  God is present and working in people and churches even in a little town like Opacho.  

At church there were 8 men and one women and about 12 kids.  I led singing (in makua metto - there are about 5 songs I've learned well enough to lead) and read scripture.  

So this bonding experience overall was a huge blessing, and honestly I've only scratched the surface, but there is no way I can put all God is teaching me into this message.  I hope it's ok for me just to say... God's teaching me a lot and it's only been 2 weeks.

Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh State, India

Dear brethren,

I arrived in India on 8 June and had a great week of fellowship in Mumbai (Bombay) with Craig and Teresa Phillips and baby Anna. We met with several house churches and made plans to work together again in January, Lord willing. There are hundreds of New Testament Christians scattered all over this city of nearly 20 million souls who need encouragement and teaching.  The spirituality of these Christians is awe-inspiring. I’ll spend another day with them on the way out of India at the beginning of July. Teresa’s parents, Eddie and Susan Cloer of Searcy, will be there at that time for a visit.

Rob Daniel from East Grand has been with me most of the time. He has been a great side-kick and brother. Rob works with the Christian Student Center in Springfield and has a connection with India through East Grand. They work with a congregation in Hyderabad, not far from where I spend most of my time in India. The East Grand elders asked me to go with Rob on his visit because I know the territory (sort-of). We found the Indian brethren in Hyderabad to be faithful and well. Rob left today to return home via Atlanta.

I am holding daytime Bible classes (topic is Sermon on the Mount) and nighttime village meetings in the area around Rajahmundry, near the east coast of India.  The family of brother S. John, who visited East Sunshine briefly last year, is my host. I have seen more than 20 of our Bible School graduates and scores of brethren of long acquaintance. I look forward to several more days of fellowship before returning to the States. Internet connection is sporadic, but I will post another report when I can. Please pray for the work in India. My health is good. The brethren here send greetings.

Love in Christ,

Damon

It's tough to tell you an average day because every day we are doing different things – there is no “average day.”  I'm waking up most days at like 5 and running with Jeremy or riding bikes.  It’s weird, I know, but if we woke up any later, the sun would be too intense.  Most days we have language learning with a guy in the village named Fanitu.  He's nice but it's like 2 hours and he isn't a teacher.  He just knows English kind of. 

I feel tired a lot of the time.  The sun kind of drains you.  Plus we've been packing our days pretty good.  Sunday we went to church, and that was really cool.  I was asked to speak for the Lord's Supper.  Jeremy translated for me into Makua.  I talked about how it was really important to Jesus to share in this meal with his disciples before he died.  There was a little boy who never said a word to me, but he stayed close and watched me a lot.  I had him wearing my Cardinals hat through most of church. 

Monday we toured the town of Montepuez.  It was funny because we were definitely a spectacle.  We always are.  When there are 7 white people walking together everyone stops and watches. 

Preparations are underway for a June 1 departure for India, my 26^th trip to that country since 1981. It's always a great spiritual experience for me, and I thank all of the brethren who make this trip possible each year. Four weeks of Bible teaching and village evangelism have been planned, and brethren are waiting to work with me in Mumbai (Bombay), Goa, and Andhra Pradesh state. I will see many of our preaching brethren who graduated from our Bible School and some of the children who stayed in our children’s home.

Besides evangelism, another project has been near to my heart lately, and I just have to do something about it. If you look on our web page under outreach, foreign, you will see women who are breaking rocks. This work takes place in a village near my headquarters in India where there is a large rock quarry. These women sit all day long on a rock pile and break rocks with a hammer. The resulting gravel is used to make concrete. Many women have been blinded or otherwise injured by flying chips of stone. That’s bad enough, but their school-age children often work beside them. These children will have no education because they must work to help support their families. My idea is to raise funds to replace the money the children would earn so that they can go to school without loss of income to the family. Probably they earn $60 per month. They would need just a little more for their school fees. This would be a small amount of money for most American families, but it would mean a lot to a child's future. Two Christian families are already committed to this project. I would like to rescue several children from this hopeless situation and give them a chance for a better future.

Our family had a wonderful time in Uganda these past two weeks! We loved reuniting with dear friends, see our former home, eating food we've been craving for the past 19 months and taking in all the sights, sounds and smells. Some of the words that described our trip were......fun, joyful, valuable, peaceful, encouraging... Thank you for all your prayers these past couple of weeks. We felt blessed in every way during our time there.

We praise our Lord for what He continues to do in Uganda among the Ankole people. May His Kingdom grow more and more in that place!

The Fouts family

Chris

Chris Ford

Tim and I made it to Uganda safe and sound--okay, we're at least safe.  Bobby and Candice have been wonderful hosts and are doing well in the midst of challenging life in Uganda.  Tim has enjoyed meeting missionaries and Ugandans, and even went with Bobby to a nearby village yesterday and stayed the night.  I have been blessed to reconnect with my friends here and meet with leaders from several churches.

We will miss being with you today, but know that God will continue His faithful work among you.  We look forward to being with you again next Sunday.  We love you.

Grace and peace,
Deron

These three will be joining a medical mission group to serve those in need in Haiti this coming May.  Are you interested in joining?  Contact the church office (889-5455) or see this ministries' website.

Shelly Sanders was our most recent member to travel internationally for missions.  Below is a message from her to the East Sunshine family:

To my loving, generous church family:

Thank you so much for your prayers and financial contributions that enabled me to go to Nicaragua to serve our team and the people there.  Many of you didn't know that when God put this on my heart I didn't even have a job.  I was confident I would be offered a teaching contract before school started, but when that didn't happen, I knew God was planning on me being in Nicaragua.  You were the way He accomplished that.

Every day as we served the people at the medical clinicws, I told children about you.  There are little people you will never know that know som of your stories, you caring for them, and your faithfulness.  they were truly blessed because you helped us provide 53 workers and $20,000 worth of medicine.  We served almost 10,000 people in 7 days! 

Bless you all, Shelly Sanders.