Wed 20th Feb. Beatings, Bombs and Bread fights

Today I headed off to Kongo late again. Becky’s father and brother came. It was lovely being back. Some things have changed. The main being running water. The pump has gone. Seeing the pastor was nice.

Back in time for lunch and I had a chance to sit and chat to Gill then the booming started. The munitions dump bombs again. Gill and Anna seemed panicked but that honestly didn’t bother me. Some of them were controlled!

Had a chance to catch up with Nancy. That was so nice. It did feel a little weird being here without her. It feels more like home! Now that Nancy is back and there are bombs going off. Gill was ill again this afternoon.

Spent some time outside and at the baby house before street ministry. Jentrode was outside with her kite. Well it’s a black bag on some string but it works well. Vela has now got Paulito living in her dorm. I thought he had escaped from the baby house but its amazing seeing him move on. Vasco not in good form. I wish I knew what was wrong.

So street ministry…………………..

I feel emotionally wrecked after this and probably a little amount of fear for the first time. We got dropped in the ‘posh part’ of town and walked a minute and were standing on a mini bocaria in the middle of the city. Tonight I was wearing flip flops and walking over only God knows what. I had been to this site before but on the opposite side of the street praying outside the jail as the guys who lived on the rubbish has been arrested earlier in the day for making too much noise – but now we were back with them on the rubbish praising God!

One guy had a massive bandage on his shoulder to cover a wound he got when someone stabbed him last week. It is evident a lot of guys suffer from alcohol. I felt like a day tonight as one of them kissed me on the back of the hand! Of course he wanted one back so an air kiss had to do him I’m afraid. An older Christian woman came to join us. She lives in the house next door and so each week when the team arrive she shows up. In the back of my mind I’m also thinking does she comes for the free bead each week, even so if that is the case she has the courtesy to listen to them preach. Maybe the bread is the reason why each of the kids/men comes back week after week but my prayer is that one day they will fall on good soil.

The guys from Iris protected us quite a lot on this site so I don’t know if something happened and they have been told to look out for us. The other thing I discovered later is most of the guys are packing a gun!
The bus came back for us and took us to another location, this one seemed to be a busy road and at what looked like an unused bus stop beside a church were some guys and a girl sitting on the bench waiting for the bus to arrive. I preached for a bit then the guys took over. As we spoke the crowd grew bigger. Mostly older men. Then the time for the bread to be given out and among some of the older guys they started to fight with Dinis and Ernesto who were giving out the bread. No matter how many times you see people fighting for bread is very hard to watch. As this was going on the police were gathering being with one of the guys was quite drunk and started to provoke the police. First he ran away and one of the police went to get a baton so when he came back and gave them more agro the police started to chase him and beat the life out of him. The police are carrying guns and for the first time I felt fear. These guys are waving the guns around like they are scarves and also standing very close to me. I felt so unsafe.

Watching real life Maputo is not at all easy. We waited for the bus for hours. Well at that point it seemed like it, but it gave me a chance to talk to the guy who translated for me. He used to live at the dump for two years and then the streets for three before one night Heidi found him and brought him back.
The testimony to what one woman has done in so many lives is amazing. Seeing the police chase this guy really has freaked me and also the bread fights. This trip to Moz is not at all what I fought and that is a good day. Each day brings new experiences and adventures.