A Day in His Shoes...

For the past two years, Kendall has been traveling to Mozambique to evangelize, plant churches, and encourage existing churches. Yesterday, we all traveled with Kendall to visit Khompo Village and to teach. Honestly, my expectations were that we were going to go, sing, teach, and love some people then go home. About halfway into our day, I realized that this trip was not for me to minister, but to sit back and simply observe what Kendall does when he travels to Mozambique. I was humbled and I learned so much after our day. I was able to understand his feelings of excitement, frustration, anticipation, and simply following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Kendall kept saying, "this is what church planting is all about! Now, you see what I do and why I get so tired sometimes." He was right, it was so good for me to "walk in his shoes" for a day. I am so blessed to be his wife and his prayer warrior every Friday. Now, I have seen a few places that he goes and now my prayers can be more specific. Many times in ministry or in any job in life, we do not appreciate each other's jobs because many times we have never taken the time to just walk alongside another person to see what they do day in and day out. My appreciation and love for Kendall and his calling has grown immensely! Our children loved going to Mozambique and they were excited to see what Daddy does too! Our day was interesting and I took the camera along so that you could see for yourself what church planting involves!

We approached Nachimbwe Village, the first village across the Mozambique border. The men to the left of the picture are cooking and drinking beer.

   The men in Nachimbwe stopped us to talk with Kendall. These men had already started drinking and it was only 9:30 a.m. The man closest to Kendall is supposedly a Nyao dancer. 

This is the next village that we came to. The headman of this village is a witchdoctor. Everytime that Kendall has driven by this village in the past two years he has never seen anyone outside. Yesterday, we saw one woman carrying water. Pray for this village, it is very dark and they are without Christ. No denomination has attempted to plant a church here because the headman is a devout witchdoctor.

We arrived at the third village, Khompo, which is the village where Leonard Banda lives. Leonard was the first man to receive Christ in Mozambique during Kendall's time of ministry there. Khompo is a big village with 210 plots. 

Khompo Basic School is the location that we had planned to have a meeting. We waited for about 45 minutes and no one came. Kendall taught in Khompo two years ago and there were about 25 people coming to the teachings. After he began focusing on other villages, the people stopped coming. Leonard and his family met together at their home. The problem is that there are 7 other churches within this village. Leonard then told us about another village that is 3 miles from Khompo, so we began our travels there to meet with the headman.

Some of the children of Khompo Village. Pray for their salvation and that they may know the Lord through Leonard's witness there.

The journey began to Kasenje Village. The drive was beautiful and pictures do not do it justice!

Obstacle number one. No one travels this road so every tree that has fallen, we had to go around. Leonard and Kendall looked around the tree to find a path for us to travel.

The two trees on the left side of this picture is the path we traveled. It was quite a tight squeeze!

Oh goodie! Another tree in the road. We just kept saying, the Lord never said it would be easy and He hasn't closed the door yet, so we pressed on.

Then Kendall and Leonard had to remove this huge branch because we couldn't pass with it hanging down.

Right past the limb, there was a huge fire to the left of this picture and as you can see the small fire on the right of the picture. The wind was blowing quite hard and the fire was growing. Kendall and Leonard both felt that it would be safer for us to turn around and go back to Nachimbwe because we were unsure of what would happen with the fire in the time we were at Kasenje. Kendall will attempt to go back to Kasenje this next Friday. Pray that the Lord will open the door for Kendall to share the Gospel in this village, there is only one church there.

This was the road we traveled. As Kendall would say, "this is a boy's adventure road". We had a great time!

Kendall looks at the fire and ponders his decision to turn around again. He knew it was the right thing to do since the entire family was with him today.

This is Kendall's "weighing my options" face.

As we walked back to the truck, he saw that the fire had already grown and was moving.

It was such a beautiful area. No one is around! It is mainly all fields that people use to plant. We saw pumpkins, maize, and okra in some of the fields.

The outskirts of Khompo near Kasenje.

It was laundry day for many of the women of Khompo. You can't see but the children are waving as we drove by! All of the people that we met on the road, our kids smiled and waved at them! On the left, you can see the clothes lying on the grass to dry.

The road back to Nachimbwe and the border from Khompo.

We reached Nachimbwe again. After much discussion and prayer, Kendall felt like the Lord wants him to teach in Nachimbwe this year because the men there want him to come preach again. He tried to teach there two years ago, but they did not receive him well and they were not ready for the Gospel.

Nachimbwe has no church. It is a village that is known throughout Zambia and Mozambique because of the witchcraft and traditions that they uphold. Alcoholism is rampant and there are many people who are Nyao dancers. Nyao dancers are the African dancers you see on National Geographic, but they are people who have become possessed with demons and are very violent people. Please pray for Nachimbwe, Kendall will be the second missionary to try to plant a church here. This past year, many people died in Nachimbwe from malaria. Leonard informed Kendall that "the people are crying out because of their losses this year". 

Kendall talked with the men at Nachimbwe. They were incredibly drunk at this point and Kendall told them that he is coming to teach them next Friday. They were excited that he was coming. Please pray that the men choose not to be completely intoxicated when Kendall arrives. God can work above alcohol because we have seen a man in Khompo that came to Christ when he was drunk and he is a solid, sober believer now! Pray that God will transform these men!

Pray for these precious children of Nachimbwe that they may be able to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and come to know Him. Pray that they may be saved from the trap of alcoholism and the cultural traditions that are displeasing to the Lord.

Kendall leaving the border post in Mozambique. Our day was finished and we were heading home!

This is the border crossing into Northern Mozambique from Nyimba.