This past weekend we went out into this village called Milamba for a "marriage retreat."  You might think of a retreat as like a bunch of people all driving to this building and eating cake and talking about a book or something, but this is totally different.  And there's no way I can describe it, but I'll try. 

We drove down this bumpy road for like an hour and a half, and drove through these mud huts with straw roofs to the church building which was also a mud hut and straw roof.  Then Jeremy and Allen drove out to pick up more people from other villages to bring them to Milamba.  About 15 people were in the back of each of their trucks, and probably 10 in the little front cab. 

We ate shema and beans every meal; it was hot all the time; 80 little Mozambicans surrounded me at all times and watched my every move, and I couldn't talk to them at all.  There was a mango tree like a fourth of a mile away through the cotton field and I raced those kids to the tree a lot.  They loved it. 

You wouldn't believe how many people we stuck in that little mud church.  The singing was crazy, I tried to get a video of it.  The women start every song.  They are so loud.  It's really funny and fun. 

Jeremy and Allen talked to the people about what it means for a husband to be devoted to his wife and a wife to her husband, and ways they could show love, and what God intends for marriage to be.  That's an invaluable message to be taught because people around here hardly ever even get "married."  They just decide they are married and they have sex.  And even then there is rarely any sense of commitment.  So this was sort of new to these people, but it was really good.  I told Allen how fortunate I was to witness them doing this.  They are doing some pretty cool stuff here. 

It was funny because they brought this generator and a projector screen and put a bed sheet up between two bamboo poles and showed a video of Abraham.  It didn't follow the topic of marriage, but they had promised they would show a movie.  It was pretty crazy watching the whole village watch that movie (in all English).  

Sunday morning I did the offering talk while Allen translated into Portuguese and another guy (I forgot his name) translated into Makua. 

On the way back we stopped by these waterfalls – it was crazy.  A thousand Mozambicans surrounded us there and watched us too.  I was absolutely caked with mud by the end of the weekend.