Vacation in Mozambique

Today marks one year that we arrived in Mozambique! We just got back from a 10 day vacation which really allowed us to do some reflecting on this past year and some praying, discussing, and dreaming of where the Lord is leading us this next year. It was perfect timing as we had not really gotten away since Christian's birth and had not had a vacation since arriving a year ago. Although the last two weeks included a lot of traveling (over 1800 miles by car) and a lot of packing and unpacking (we never stayed more than two nights in any place), we so enjoyed our time away as a family.

Our idea with this vacation was to not only "get away" from work for a while, but to also get to know Mozambique better. So we headed north and spent some time visiting some old friends. We visited Phil and Elin Henderson with New Tribes Mission who work in Pebane. We also visited DJ and Tricia Morrisson and Pete and Charity Rogers in Nampula who also work with NTM. All of those girls I (Sharon) knew from my childhood at the boarding school in Brazil. We also spent some time visiting with Danny and Marilyn Germann (of NTM), regional leaders of NTM who just happened to be visiting Mozambique from Senegal at the time. It was really neat to see the work that NTM has begun here in Mozambique and their vision of future ministry.

On our way up from Pebane to Nampula, we caravaned with another missionary. Here are Cohen and Stefan helping to pump his tires.

Despite all the visiting, we did have a couple of days as just a family on Carusscas Beach just accross from Nampula. We spent a lot of time just hanging out in the sun and collecting shells.

Stefan and Cohen (and Christian) sorting the shells...

Here's Cohen...and like most kids completely oblivious to the previous night's catastrophe...Here's the thing: apparently we have some sort of an issue with rats following us around on our get aways. Here again, they joined our family and the first night ate through our bread and apples. The second night, when all that was left was a box of unopened UHT milk, yep, they ate through that! (Not to mention chewing up Christian's toys and leaving little bits of wood and plastic everywhere!)

Little "Laurence of Arabia" and his Mommy. Stefan always thinks it's funny when I put this little hat on Christian since it has that funny flap in the back. But on the beach, sun protection comes before image and style. So Christian gets to be little Laurence for a few hours.

On the other side of the cove is the Ilha de Mocambique (Mozambique Island), a small island with beautiful old buildings and a lot of history. We spent one night on the island at a B&B (using the term loosely). It had a really beatiful balcony view. See the mosque right next door to us? It had a loudspeaker attached and working at full volume...which in and of itself would not have been an issue had it been a normal week. But if you recall, last week was still the middle of Ramadan...which we found out meant hour long blasts of preaching and calling from roughly 8 pm to 3am throughout the night. So much for getting some sleep!

We visited a beautiful old Portuguese fortress on Ilha...

...complete with rusting cannons, crumbling walls, and a spectacular view...

...which Cohen also appreciated. Appreciated so much, in fact, that he forgot all about his shoe and dropped it over the edge. Now, any other shoe we might have just cut our losses. But it was one of his special "crocs" sent in a package from our sunday school class in KY.

So we spent the rest of our tour trying to arrange for someone to unlock old dungeons and gates and climb over falling rocks and sharp coral and wade through the rising tide to search for and retrieve said "croc." Cohen was super happy to have it back. And the boy that came to our rescue was super happy to have some money for a soda.

Finally we made the three day trip back to Beira. Along the way we stayed at a guest house in the home of a missionary family we had never met before, but who graciously housed us both on the way up and back. It is truly amazing to be a part of this body of Christ as each member seeks to glorify God through the gifts and ministry God has given him. This vacation was such a beautiful reminder of the larger work that the Lord is doing through His children in Mozambique and even around the world.