We have asked you to be praying for our family to adjust to Mozambican culture and today we got a sneak peak at how the kids are picking it up.
The kids and I (Jessica) were trying to decide if the birthday party we had been invited to was going to be at 2 or 2:30. I was going to make a quick call to clarify the situation explaining that if the party was at 2:30 we didn’t want to show up half an hour early. Austin turned to Janelle and said “It’s better to show up late than early”. She heartily agreed with him. I had a good chuckle as I thought they were becoming good Mozambicans. They had not even realized that they had begun to pick up culture from those around them.
I thought of all the times we had gone to a Mozambican church since arriving. Before we leave home we are trying to get ready as fast as we can (as peacefully as possible) and then arrive at the church right on time or occasionally a little late. We then wait a good 20 or more minutes for enough people to start arriving to start the service. There was one social event I attended that started an hour and a half late.
We are so time oriented as Americans. We judge effectiveness on how efficient something is. We want to get the most amount done in the least time possible. We overload our senses and our daily lives. The Mozambican culture, generally speaking, is very relationship oriented. Relationships take priority over schedules. Michael has gotten to know several merchants in the area. He calls them the "fish man", the "chicken man", the "guava man", the "artist" and the "tailor". He tries to go out regularly to visit with them in their different environments.
The "fish man" has already invited him to go up north to meet his family and pick up a load of dried salted fish. The "chicken man" has introduced him to his family and taken him around town. The "artist" is working on a painting right now that he is doing on a piece of white cloth (they use this instead of canvas). The "tailor" took him to buy cloth for a pair of dress pants. He is learning a lot from these new relationships. Please pray for wisdom in these as there is certainly going to be a give and take aspect to them. We don’t want to just be taking but want to give in a culturally appropriate way that goes along with why we are here.
Michael has been asked to be the new NCLA coordinator (National Culture/Language Acquisition)for the mission here, when the man who is currently doing this goes on furlough. This involves helping equip the foreign missionaries with the necessary tools for learning culture and language as well as providing accountability. When we were first asked about doing this we wondered about how it fits into the vision that God has given us in being here. Our vision is to help equip the Mozambican church to reach out to the unreached people in their own country. We realized that this goes right along with it. We can challenge and help instill this same vision in the new missionaries that arrive. This next week Michael will be gone to visit a missionary work in a village about two days from here.
"Praise the Lord, all you nations, Praise him, all you people of the earth. For he loves us with unfailing love; the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord!" Psalm 117 NLT
"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has redeemed you…" Psalm 107:1-2 NLT
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.