Five Years
We recently passed our five year anniversary in Mozambique. Five years sounds significant; but for me, it’s a reminder of how much transition we have gone through since November 2006. We have lived in three distinct places (not even counting the three months we spent in Beira for language study or the three months we were in Johannesburg, South Africa waiting for Nadia to be born). We started our assignment in Gondola and two years later moved to Chimoio. A little over a year later we moved to Maputo, where we’ve been for almost the past year and a half. My job has changed as much or more than we’ve moved—first working with the women of the Mennonite church in Gondola and the Women’s Society of the Christian Council of Mozambique in Chimoio, to savings groups through the Women’s Society of the United Church of Christ, to the Peace Building Department of the Christian Council of Mozambique to now the Transformacao de Armas em Enxadas (TAE—Turning Weapons into Ploughshares) of CCM. Our MCC team has been changing—adding people, subtracting people and now after 5 years, no one except for two Mozambican office workers, are the same people with whom we started. Our family has changed—adding Nadia in 2009 and the anticipation of our second child in early 2012. About the only things that have remained constant through the change are our steadily improving our Portuguese language skills and the constant search for finding God and relevance in a culture different than our own.

We have one more year to go, completing six years in Mozambique. It hasn’t been an easy journey. Would I do it again? I’d have to seriously think about it, though I have known the whole time this is where God wants us to be. I’ve wondered what it was like for people as they anticipated leaving their assignments/Mozambique. Now I’m at the point where I find myself thinking ahead to October 2012 and our leaving more than I think about where I am. I struggle being present beyond the details that daily living demands. I have a lot of questions of where we will go, what we will do, what it will be like to return to the States in our mid-30s with two children, having left only being a couple—DINKS (double income, no kids) as someone once described us.

What have I learned these five years that I will take with me? (in no particular order)

- God is good
- God is faithful
- Sometimes being present is all I can do and though it doesn’t feel like it, it is enough
- Showing up is skill
- I like the challenge of finding recipes based on seasons and produce locally available
- Children open and close doors
- I really value running water—with hot and cold as options—though a bucket bath with warm water outdoors is nice
- One of my favorite things is having tea outside (black tea in a teapot with a bit of milk, occasionally some sugar)
- As my mother used to say, “attitude follows action”
- I’m okay with having basically only one hobby—reading and need to always be involved with a book (I’m really looking forward to libraries in the States!)
- We waste resources whenever they feel unlimited, no matter our station in life
- Being poor is NOT glamorous or happier
- Mozambique, for as poor as it is, is a really expensive place to live—I feel for those who do not have enough
- Food security is huge stress on a family, community and society
- Clean water from the spigot in one’s house is a luxury for many people
- Walking, as opposed to driving to places, can be a radical choice of discipleship
- Forgiveness is freedom
- There’s a lot of value to insulation and crawl spaces between ceilings and roofs.
- The story of the little boy giving his five loaves of bread and two fishes to Jesus to feed the crowd of over 5000 people makes a lot more sense when I’ve eaten small fish and rolls and it’s a common meal for local people.
- The beach is a livelihood for some people; for others it’s a place for vacation
- Many people who have grown up just a few kilometers away from the ocean do not know how to swim

I know I’ve learned a lot more these five years. I wonder how I have changed. What will it be like to open the boxes of household goods that we’ve stored at my parents’ when we get back? Will I be astounded at what I chose to keep? Will I find joy in sets of matching sets of sheets? Will I feel overwhelmed by American culture? How will these six years in Mozambique affect my outlook and my lifestyle? My faith?