Mozambique ‘24 - Tash
Nacala, Northern Mozambique September ‘24
While in a season of asking the Lord what the next steps might be for our family, we felt led to try out an online course in missions training with Iris Global. We were surprised to find that almost every video class we watched resonated, hearing long term missionaries share their struggles and joys of life on the mission field. At this stage, we did not imagine that God would call us full time to missions. The truth is He led us gently.
We found a great video podcast called the Iris Green Room, a great collection of down to earth interviews with seasoned missionaries which we found a great encouragement. One day a new video was posted on the podcast featuring Chris & Jenn Hadsell, who we had met around 11 years previously when visiting Norway. Their interview deeply resonated with us. They explained how they had founded an Iris base with their three little kids in Nacala Mozambique, and the beautiful fruit they were seeing amongst the poor.
We were able to jump on a call with them in May, the night before I flew to Ukraine, and we were blown away by their kindness and willingness to help us in anyway they could in our journey. They really encouraged us to seek the Lord on where He was leading us.
The next day we had a text, inviting us to visit them in Nacala, and as I brushed my teeth I started laughing, I actually couldn’t stop laughing for a while as I thought about us visiting. We knew the Lord was not permitting me to go just then, but that Tash should go by herself. It was her time to be thrown into the deep end, and she was more than up for the adventure!
Tash writes:
I didnt really know what to expect going to Nacala, I was going very open handed to see what God might want to say or do whilst I was there, but I wasnt going to do a specific outreach or missions trip, I was going to visit the team there and see what life was like as a missionary in Nacala, Mozambique.
The trip started with a delayed final flight from Maputo to Nacala, spending 12 hours in the small Maputo Airport and finally arriving in Nacala at 2am. A couple from the team were there to greet me warmly at 2am and take me to the base, I was overwhelmed by their warmth and hospitality, and the thought that had gone into my stay. As I woke up the next morning I was stunned by the beauty of Nacala, it really is a beautiful place.
The team leaders had really been intentional with my schedule, filling my time with showing me what life as a missionary family is really like in Nacala. It was filled with visits to the local international schools, visits to places you could rent to live, trips to the supermarket, and the few other shops available to buy things for everyday life. I was also scheduled to have a meal with each missionary couple to get their perspectives on the realities of being a missionary in Nacala. I was overwhelmed by the intentionality of it all - I thought to myself - this is very indepth when I don’t even know if we are moving here! But I also really appreciated the thought to show me the practicalities, the reality of life on the missions field there, what day to day really looked like as a mum of three, the challenges and obstacles, but also the beauty.
I also had the priviledge, on the Sunday, to go to one of the churches that had been planted in the local village and experience one of their church services, Chris & Jenn kindly translated for me, it was beautiful to see and hear their worship.
As I spent my time there, I would call home and chat to Ben about everything I was being shown and the conversations we had, and as the week went on, we had more and more peace that this was the place God was calling us as a family, as scary as that life change seemed, we felt his peace that this was where he was leading us to come.
On one of my final days there, I had some free time to rest on base, and had been reading in my room, when there was a knock at the door. One of the Mozambican team, a cleaner called Belita, came to the door, she didnt speak any English, and I spoke barely any Portuguese, she motioned to my phone, so I opened the translator on my phone, and she wrote into it ‘It is not good for you to be alone’. She had kind beautiful, joy-filled eyes, she took me to meet the cook Sorte, and we chatted through the translator best we could, she told me how she came to be at the base, and how thankful she was to be welcomed into the family there. She told me of her dreams to be a worshipper and help the poor. She had such a beautiful heart.
What a privilege it was to go and meet these incredible people, and hear how God is moving in a small province on the eastern coast of Africa, Jesus never ceases to amaze me, we cant wait to go and serve and learn from these amazing people who have nothing, yet have everything.