Our Bushclinics - a real lifeline!

Meet Ernesto Abudu - our trained First Aid Officer at the Mucombeze clinic. He is one of three trained "socoristos" in the missions service.

We have two medical posts - 20 km apart - who serves a huge community around them. The average visitations per month amounts to over 700 visits. Most of our medication is supplied by the Health Department of Mozambique.

We have regular vacsination programs at our clinic for several diseases eg. tuberculoses, leprocy and other child diseases like pocs ect.

Lynn Lagore is a qualified Canadian nurse who takes responsibility for the missions clinics. She does weekly training with the medical staff and sees that all health regulations are followed.

Here is Ernesto in action. He loves needles but not so sure the population likes that as much as he does.

And here is our hospital - ready for the first patient. In our area there is no medical services for many miles. We are the only outpost in an area where 100's of people die annually. Malaria, TB, Aids, Mulnitrition, Cholera, Snake bites, and other rare tropical diseases are common and is our biggest headache.

Please pray for this important ministry as it is often the last lifeline for many hundreds of people in the bush.

Latest update on flooding in Mozambique

Thousands evacuated from rising floods

Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding in central and southern Mozambique, forcing thousands to flee their homes. The government's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has used the armed forces to ensure that evacuation from dangerous areas is complete. According to INGC deputy director, Joao Ribeiro, "the greatest problem we face concerns people who still do not recognize the danger they are in, and so keep going back to areas of risk".

According to the Minister of State Administration, Lucas Chomera, the government is ready to respond to the flood emergency: 800 million meticais (about $33.6 million) is available for flood relief – 80 million from the state budget, and the rest from foreign donors.

In the Zambezi valley over 62,000 people had been evacuated by 13 January. The current flooding in the Zambezi valley is already worse than the floods of February 2007, and the authorities have even been forced to evacuate areas where the victims of those earlier floods were resettled. On 11 January the National Civil Protection Unit (UNAPROC) rescued about 18,000 people in the Jardim and Cachaco resettlement areas in Mutarara district. These areas should have been safe, but they are now threatened by the continued rise in the Zambezi.

In the southern province of Inhambane, a second flood surge that swept down the Save river has inundated the town of Nova Mambone for the second time. The Save burst its banks on 12 January as the level of the river rose rapidly to 7.5 metres, two metres above the flood alert level of 5.5 metres.

In its latest bulletin, the National Water Board (DNA) warns that the situation could worsen in both the Save and Zambezi basins.

At least four people have died so far in the floods on the Pungue and Buzi rivers in the central province of Sofala. A preliminary estimate drawn up by the INGC is that, since the crisis began in late December, 53,730 people have been displaced by these floods in the districts of Dondo, Nhamatanda and Buzi.

The flood on the Buzi river is paralysing economic life in much of Buzi district. The ferry across the river, linking the areas of Bandua and Guara-Guara, cannot operate because the ramps are under water. This has made it impossible for the main employer in the district, the Buzi company, to move its main product, alcohol. Likewise the raw material for alcohol production, molasses from the Mafambisse sugar company, can no longer reach Buzi.

The district capital, Buzi town, can currently be reached overland via Tica, on the Beira-Zimbabwe road. But this route could be cut at any time, since the river is rising again following heavy rains in both Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

The Pungue, measured at the Mafambisse sugar plantation, stood at 7.47 metres on 10 January, well above flood alert level of six metres, and the DNA warned that it could rise higher.
There is also a new threat on one of the main southern rivers, the Limpopo, During 12 and 13 January the Limpopo rose by two metres at Combumune, so that it had surpassed the flood alert level.

However the DNA predicts that the level of the Limpopo will stabilize, which would mean there is little threat to the two major population centres further downstream, Chokwe and Xai-Xai.
As the population in the accommodation centres rises, so the INGC and its partners (such as the World Food Programme, and NGOs such as Oxfam and save the Children), are working to ensure that food, clean water and decent sanitation are available for people displaced by the floods, Latrines are being dug and chlorine distributed to purify water.

I am an OUT-OF-CONTROL DISCIPLE!

I found the following article by Leonard Sweet from his Soul Cafe - this summerizes my heart and I hope yours too:

I am part of the Church of the Out-of-Control. I once was a control junkie, but now am an Out-of-Control Disciple. I've given up my control to God. I trust and obey the Spirit. I've jumped off the fence, I've stepped over the line, I've pulled out all the stops, I'm holding nothing back. There's no turning back, looking around, slowing down, backing away, letting up, or shutting up. It's life Against the Odds, Outside the Box, Over the Wall, the game of life played Without Goal Lines other than "Thy Will Be Done..."

I'm done lapdogging for the topdogs, the wonderdogs, the overdogs, or even the underdogs. I'm done playing According to the Rules, whether it's Robert's Rules of Order or Miss Manner's Rules of Etiquette or Martha Stewart's Rules of Living or Louis Farrakhan's Rules of America's Least Wanted or Merril Lynch's Money-minding/Bottom-lining/Ladder-climbing Rules of America's Most Wanted.

I am not here to please the dominant culture or to serve any all-show/no-go bureaucracies. I live to please my Lord and Savior. My spiritual taste-buds have graduated from fizz and froth to Fire and Ice. Sometimes I'm called to sharpen the cutting edge, and sometimes to blunt the cutting edge. Don't give me that old-time religion. Don't give me that new-time religion. Give me that all-time religion that's as hard as rock and as soft as snow.

I've stopped trying to make life work, and started trying to make life sing. I'm finished with second-hand sensations, third-rate dreams, low-risk high-rise trades and goose-stepping, flag-waving crusades. I no longer live by and for anything but everything God-breathed, Christ-centered, and Spirit-driven.

I can't be bought by any personalities or perks, positions or prizes. I won't give up, though I will give in... to openness of mind, humbleness of heart, and generosity of spirit. When short-handed and hard-pressed, I will never again hang in there. I will stand in there, I will run in there, I will pray in there, I will sacrifice in there, I will endure in there-- in fact I will do everything in there but hang. My face is upward, my feet are forward, my eyes are focused, my way is cloudy, my knees are worn, my seat uncreased, my heart burdened, my spirit light, my road narrow, my mission wide.

I won't be seduced by popularity, traduced by criticism, by hypocrisy, or trivialized by mediocrity. I am organized religion's best friend, and worst nightmare. I won't back down, slow down, shut down, or let down until I'm preached out, teached out, healed out or hauled out of God's mission in the world entrusted to members of the Church of the Out-of-Control... to unbind the confined, whether they're the downtrodden or the upscale, the overlooked or the underrepresented.

My fundamental identity is as a disciple of Jesus--but even more, as a disciple of Jesus who lives in Christ, who doesn't walk through history simply "in his steps," but seeks to travel more deeply IN HIS SPIRIT.

Until he comes again or calls me home, you can find me filling not killing time so that one day he will pick me out in the lineup of the ages as one of his own. And then... it will be worth it all... to hear these words, the most precious words I can ever hear:

"Well done, thou good and faithful... Out-of-Control Disciple."

Mozambiquean Women marching on to VICTORY!

My wife is again standing very close to me as I am writing this article. It is not because this is our 100th blog posting but because she wants to make sure that the women of Mozambique is getting the best exposure possible in this posting. If you are married you would know that it is best to write what they tell you ....... ! Do I need to say more? The Woman Program in Mozambique moved rapidly during the last year to expand its influence in northern Mozambique. Culturally women are always seen as on the background. We all know they form the cornerstone of any community ..... and for that matter .... the country. (My wife has left now ..... so I am saying this on my own!! LOL. And it is the truth!)

A training manual has been put together with the help of Eunice, Alta and Rene who did some of the groundwork in previous years. This manual has been translated into Shona, Portuguese, English and Senna. It has been distributed by our leaders from the north to their own woman programs. The woman of Africa are standing up and are being counted as they influence their communities with literacy programs.

These programs also motivates them to start entrepreneurial projects like crafts etc. to raise money for struggling families. The woman caught the program very quickly and older ladies in their 60's are participating and are able for the first time in their lives able to read, write and even read their first owned Bible.

Thanks to you all for participating, donating and praying for the ladies of Africa. As they are being developed everyone is reaping the rewards of their hard work.

Love God and love Rwanda too

Wherever in the world we are we know so little about the real suffering of people. As disciples of Jesus Christ we have a collective responsibility to care and share a Gospel of reconciliation. I share this story with you to understand a little bit more! We are in the process of linking with Rwanda and a project there .... join us on the journey:

Typical Rwanda bush. Read the story of Steven from Rwanda below.

The boy had been running all night. Running from home. Running from his mother. Running from the voices. For a moment silent. Listening. Catching his breath. Then running again. Headlong, stopping to check on the baby. Waiting for his brother to catch up, running again. Fear driving them deeper into the forest. Further from home. Further from the men who had come that morning speaking words he didn't understand. Demanding to know where his father was: long dead is where he was, together with his brothers - caught between the impossible demands of various factions.

The weight of the night rested on him. They had left her. Left her to the voices. At his age he couldn't imagine what that meant. Five year olds don't know of these things. Not even those who grow up in the shadow of Idi Amin.

Now, year's later, thinking back he could perhaps imagine, but why would he? Why would he want to? We might imagine with Hollywood clarity but Steven locks it away in some part of his memory that he doesn't go to.

They had run only because she had begged them too. In the rush to leave the village she had slipped. As she fell she twisted to cushion the child she carried - the baby now strapped to his own back. Her leg broken she had begged him. No tears. She had to be strong - for them and for what was to come. She had sent them away and they had run.

He had seen that strength in her eyes before. On the day they had come demanding food. Comfort. On the day they had accused his father of helping the others. On the day they had dragged him to the top of the village and shot him like a dog. On the day they had done the same to his two older brothers. He knew that strength and it scared him. Five year olds are not supposed to know of these things.

They were alone, the three of them. Steven and the other two - his siblings. Years later I asked him their names - he can't remember. What he does remember is running. What he does remember is the weight of caring.

The next few days were long. They wandered now, lost in the rain forests of central Africa - three children, a five year old, and his brother and sister - both younger than him. He tried to get them to eat something, leaves and roots like him, but they wouldn't. They couldn't. Over the next week he carried them and buried them and left them.

Steven's story started in Uganda under Amin, it continues today in Rwanda where he ministers in the wake of the genocide. How is it that he found the capacity to forgive and to find hope in God? How did he found faith in the midst of his own suffering, faith that calls him to bring healing and hope and forgiveness and reconciliation to others?

Steve's story is personal but not unique. His story is being repeated in conflicts the world over: Darfur. South Africa. Palestine. Northern Ireland. Baghdad. The DRC. New York. The Balkans. London. South East Asia. Afghanistan. The details of the conflict and suffering might be different. The scale certainly is not the same. But in each case hope and forgiveness and truth and faith and reconciliation are called for.

What makes Steve's story amazing is that I know him. And in him I see the fruit of "The Gospel of Reconciliation."

Check out my Slide Show!

Serious flooding in Mozambique - 60 000 people affected!

Due to heavy rains in southern Africa, the Zambezi River is overflowing and approximately 60,000 people in Mozambique are affected by floods.

Several communities along the Zambezi valley are at risk and ActionAid is working hard to evacuate people and give them necessary support and supplies.

“We are doing the best we can, but we need more resources,” says Fernando Ketulo, ActionAid’s emergencies and conflict advisor in Mozambique.
The water level of the Zambezi River is five meters higher than normal, threatening previous safe areas on higher ground in the region.

PICTURE LEFT

Floodwaters have destroyed homes and infrastructure

PICTURE RIGHT
Thousands of people in the region have been displaced

In February 2007, thousands of people were relocated due to the floods and they are now being threatened again by the new and much stronger floods that started at the end of last year.
ActionAid is working both with local community organisations and governmental institutions to support the people in need.

ActionAid is evacuating people with boats as well as providing tents, water, medicine, sanitation and plastic sheets for protection against the rain.

“We are also trying to pay special attention to women and children in this difficult situation,” says Ketulo.

The water levels are expected to rise even more over the next couple of days, posing danger to over 200 000 people.
The government has also declared they might have to open the gates of the over-filled Cabora Bassa Dam, further upstream.

“We are deeply concerned about the impact of releasing more water onto the lower grounds along the Zambezi Valley,” says Alberto Silva, ActionAid country director in Mozambique.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY!

DID YOU KNOW?

* Mosquito's are 170 million years old.

* Their Spanish name (little fly) dates back to 1572.

I just returned back to Mozambique from a visit to the RSA. Mozambique is in flood again. On our own mission base we already had far over 1 000 mm of rain. Roads and bridges are washed away ..... but that is not our biggest fear. It is the mosquito or as we call them here - "mossies". They kill 1 000's of people in our area and about a million yearly.

Some other interesting facts:

• It is only the female that is capable of haematophogy (drinking blood) and the one we fear. As if the garden of Eden with our dearest Eve wasn't enough! Anyway there is a lesson to be learned.


• The female mosquito injects a mild painkiller, which numbs the host (you and me) to the pain from the "bite". (Mosquito's don't bite.)

Some other facts for those who need more:

Malaria is transmitted between people by female Anopheles mosquitoes, and more than 60 species have been incriminated in the transmission of infection (there are about 430 species of Anopheles, and about 3500 species of mosquitoes altogether).

Some species are more significant than others as vectors because of variations in susceptibility to the parasite or the propensity of the mosquito to bite humans and to enter houses when looking for a blood meal. Anopheles gambiae sensu lato is the vector of most significance in Africa.
Both male and female mosquitoes feed on nectar and damaged fruits. But only females feed on animal blood to provide proteins for their eggs. The adult mosquito survives for between one week and one month.

Females lay their eggs in batches of 70-100 on the surface of water at night. The type of water used for egg laying is indicative of the mosquito species and includes irrigation channels, a pool of water in a tree trunk, and sewage effluent. In tropical temperatures the eggs hatch after two to three days.

The larvae lie just below the surface of the water and feed on algae, and after 7-14 days turn into pupae during a five-minute process. The pupa is comma-shaped and is the least active stage of the Anopheles life cycle. After two to four days the pupa metamorphoses into an adult mosquito. The adults emerge during late evening and are able to fly within minutes.

Mosquitoes usually mate during flight. (Not like humans.) The male is attracted to the female by the tone of her wing beat, and has antennae that act as sound receptors. (Pretty much the same as we do.) Once mated, the female searches out a blood meal, following sensory cues such as host odour, carbon dioxide and convection currents. She then seeks out a resting place, which may be indoors or outdoors depending on the species. (What can I say?)

When the blood meal has been digested, the ovaries develop and the mature eggs are laid at night. (And it doesn't take a full 9 months!)

Bless ya all for 2008 and please keep us all in your prayers as mozzies are breeding heavily during our rain season.