Pembury Baptist Church

Please click here for information regarding the Praise CD sung by Mozambican workers available for sale from the Church Office or on Sunday mornings starting 14th June 09.

The latest email from Lyndsay with her shocking news and amazing details of God's work in Mozambique is below:

I had started my latest update email to you but things changed so I have included the latest news.

On Friday night our office was broken into and our guard, Jorge, was killed. We found out on Saturday morning, when the weekend guard arrived to take over from Jorge. He then called the police, who called Jill and she had to spend her Saturday dealing with the aftermath. It turns out that they jumped the fence, and used a crowbar to open the windows of the building. They slit Jorge’s wrists and throat with a machete and dragged him around the side of the building bleeding to death. They then took 7 of our computers, 2 printers, lots of files, and our internet cable and ran.

The saddest thing is that if Jorge, had been behaving the normal way that guards behave, he would probably still be alive. Here, guards tend to sleep for a good few hours of their “shift”, tucked away somewhere near the building. Instead Jorge was being honourable and doing his job as he should. Because he was trying to protect the building and our equipment, he lost his life.  This kind of act is almost unheard of here. Occasionally thieves are killed if they are caught and proven guilty, but guards are respected members of society here, and its just horrible that Jorge was killed because he was doing his job.

I so admire the people that I work with though. Although we are all so sad, the guys are all pulling together to make sure that me, Jill and Jen are all ok, and they are all encouraging each other so much. Despite all that goes on here in Beira, it really encourages me that there are people who can keep their eyes focused on God and can keep looking forwards, whilst dealing with the crap in a really appropriate way.

I feel really encouraged and God has given me so much reassurance that he still has his hand on this Beira, despite all the horrible things I have seen recently. Church was amazing yesterday. I was really undecided whether or not to go to Mozambican church in the morning because after the events of Friday, the thought of sitting through a hot 3 hour service that I can’t understand was not what I fancied doing. However, Jen was going and she persuaded me to go. Before we went, I was having some quiet time and read Acts 2 about the Holy Spirit touching the crowd of people and how they were all speaking in tongues. I didn’t purposely read that. It was just an open you bible wherever kind of moment!! Quite appropriate though seeing as I found out later on it was Pentecost Sunday!!! Anyway we got to church, and the worship was amazing. The person leading the service led us into prayer about Mozambique and praying for justice and integrity in the country and other stuff that was so needed after Friday. Many Oasis workers go to this church, but nothing had been said about Jorge prior to us praying. God’s presence was really strong and I think was exactly what most of us needed!

It’s kind of hard to describe what I was feeling. I cried a lot for Jorge and for his family in church, but I left with that amazing peace that God gives us, that really does transcend all understanding. After lunch, I and Jen took some work to the beach for a couple of hours, just so we could get a bit of air, and not have to look at our computers for a change. I love the beach normally, and even though it’s not the cleanest of places, it is still so beautiful, especially in the mornings and evenings. However, yesterday, the sea was the calmest I have ever seen it and the colours of the sun and the sky and the sand were perfect. It was so peaceful there. Normally you get random men walking up and down, but yesterday there was no one. Just me and Jen and the big wide world. We both fell asleep on the sand, which we found quite amusing, but I love the fact that God was there with us through all the horribleness of the weekend, and he gave us such immense peace in such a beautiful setting, that we were both able to sleep on Beira beach!! If you could see the beach sometimes, you’d understand why it is not a good idea to fall asleep there!!

It’s hard being here and having to deal with something like this, and I would give anything right now to have all of you here with me, but I am so grateful that God has placed such amazing people and friends around me. I talked to Marina last night, who has been here 3 years but left to go back to the UK last month. It was so lovely to be able to talk to someone who has been here and understands a bit more of the culture. She is a great encourager, and despite the fact that we have only known each other 4 months, our friendship is one that I value so much!! It will be so nice to go and spend a few days with her when I come home, and we can give each other de brief time!!

So, that wasn’t a very happy way to start an email, especially when I haven’t written for so long!! If I’m honest, things have been hard recently. The clinic is going really well, but I am finding it a huge responsibility. It would help so much if I had someone else here who had medical knowledge. Jill has been amazing at helping me with all the set up stuff and planning stages, and with the funding as well, but it is hard when I have a huge line of people all wanting me to give them intelligent answers as to why they are sick. I don’t envy doctors in the slightest!!! It would be fine if I could speak more Portuguese. I am finding now that I can understand the basics and I can do a consultation by myself in Portuguese, if it is just listening to the symptoms and giving advice, but people quite often want a bit of a counselling session too!! I was thinking the other day, that my job at home is probably half looking after the children, which is the easy part, and the other half is chatting to the parents about all their random problems, and making them feel a bit loved as well. That is the hard part, and that’s in English!! Here it is impossible to do that!! I thought Raima was good at translating, and she is, but when it gets to complicated conversation, she gets stuck. And because she knows I can understand the basics and have a basic conversation, she thinks I can understand the rest!!!

I think I am having a hard time dealing with all the horrible stuff that goes on and trying to make sense of it all. I know God is in control, and knows all things, but it would still be nice to have it straight in my head. It helped talking to Marina last night!! I am still happy though, despite all this, and I’m doing good.

I went to South Africa last week to buy medical supplies for the clinic, and it was nice to get away from Beira for a bit. I spent 6 hours shopping which was so nice, and treated myself to a halloumi salad for lunch!! It was freezing cold, which was so nice, and if I had taken warmer clothes I would have loved being all cosy. As it was, I had to have blue feet all week as the only shoes I own these days are flip flops!! The best thing was sleeping with a duvet!! You have no idea how much I miss my duvet!!

Jen is staying for longer now so I won’t be Billy no mates as soon as I thought!! She was planning to leave at the beginning of next month, but she accidently missed her flight, so she will stay till the end of august now which is cool!! She takes great pleasure in teaching me how to be American, but I am determined not to let her break me!! We have many great discussions about odd words that she comes out with, and things that I say that she thinks are funny!!

I know this email is getting a bit long, but I have to share this story with you!!

I had my first experience of Beira Central Hospital the other week. A 60 year old man came to the clinic with a big “ferida” on the ball of his foot. This is the word for a wound that has no classification!! He had it all bandaged up, so I asked him to take them all off so I could see. I was thinking he would just need a bit of anti-fungal cream!! But when he lifted his foot up he had a growth the size of a golf ball, protruding through his skin, and had the appearance of a small brain!! It was quite possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever seen, and made one of the girls who helps, Erneza, faint, face-first into this poor man’s groin!! Quite amusing, but once we had carted her out of the room, and I had managed to stop laughing, I needed to think of some intelligent advice to give to this man. However, I failed in this, so I gave him some antibiotic cream, knowing full well it wouldn’t help in the slightest and told him he needed to go to hospital! He looked a bit scared, but said he would go and that was that.

But the next week, he came back to the clinic. He said the cream had helped a bit which I don’t believe for a minute, but he wanted to know if I had any different medications that would make it disappear!! I said I didn’t and that he needed to have surgery to cut it off. I asked if he would go to the hospital if I came with him, and he agreed so I told him I’d come and get him on Monday. So off we went, with Pastor Manuel and Raima in tow, and the man was quite willing to come, on the basis that he would be coming home again that afternoon. I said he would and it would just be a quick job, which in England it would. I know full well, that here things take twice as long, but I thought they would just have a look and send him home, and give him an appointment for surgery.

We arrived at about 10 and he was seen straight away, which I was quite impressed with. They wouldn’t let any of us go in with him though, so we waited outside, whilst the doctor was in talking to him. The doctor emerged from the room about an hour later, and Pastor Manuel went in to see what was going on. He came out again straight away declaring “Cheee” which is what Mozambicans say when they have no other words to describe anything, and so I went to see what he had found. The man, was hooked up to a drip and had his leg in traction, which amused me as he had managed to walk round his village, get on 2 chapas, and walk in to the hospital. The doctor came back and said that his foot needed amputating. I asked why they couldn’t just cut off the growth and he said they didn’t have the right kind of knife! “You can’t just amputate his foot” I said, “surely that will be much more complicated”. But no. I was informed that to amputate, you just “hack” by the ankle bone, and the job is done!!

This was all said in front of the man, who was literally shaking with fear, and so Pastor Manuel took the doctor outside to try and reason with him. His efforts however, didn’t work and after several more hours of waiting and having the same conversation over and over again, we finally had to leave the hospital without the man, as we had no power to do anything else. I felt so bad, as this was the day before I went to SA.  Pastor Manuel promised that he would visit every day whilst I was gone and try and stop them from amputating. He said he would call me if he thought they were going to do it, but I’m not sure exactly what he thought I could do about it from SA!!

Thankfully, though  when I got back they hadn’t done anything. He was still in the hospital, but they had changed their minds and said they were still going to operate, but just take the ferida off. They finally did it this Monday gone, and Pastor Manuel cycled all the way to the office (about 11km) to tell me, as he had no credit to call!! He said the family were so happy, as he had had the growth for 10 years and couldn’t walk properly all that time!! He said the mans wife was beside herself with happiness and the whole family then gave their lives to God!! Since then 4 more people have become Christians through hearing of this story and the congregation of Pastor Manuel’s church has now grown from 5 to 20 in the space of 2 weeks!!  How amazing is that!!

I will leave this there on a happy note, and keep you all updated on what happens at the office. Please pray that we will all continue to experience God’s peace and that people will feel free to grieve however they need to. I think the funeral will be later this week, so I will let you know how it goes!!