St Peter’s Notting Hill visit to Santa Monica, Homoine

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It was with great excitement that we finally stepped off the small Mozambican plane in Inhambane. I could hardly believe that I was at long last, in Mozambique. I had met Fr. Agostinho (and his wife Ofelia prior to that) five years before in London. I had been communicating by email ever since and his invitation to come and visit was irresistible. The timing of our visit was to coincide with the Patronal Festival at his church. We were met at the tiny airport by Fr. Agostinho, Fr. Emanuel the priest from Homoine and Fr. Jean the priest from Inhambane.

Fr. Agostinho was the priest at Homoine when we were first linked with the church but is now the Archdeacon for Inhambane and is based at St Mary of the Blessed Virgin Chambone, Maxixe, which is just across an inlet from Inhambane.  We stayed in the Bishop’s House next door to his vicarage and could not believe the view from our bedroom window. There we were, just yards from the sea!

The next morning, after breakfast, we set off for Homoine, (about 25 Km east of Maxixe). With my camera at the ready I was busy snapping photos of the local coconut palm housing, the coconut palms and the cashew nut trees as well as the bumpy dirt roads and sandy winding tracks.  We collected Fr. Emanuel and his wife Leonides and proceeded to one of the fifteen or so smaller churches supported by Homoine. There was a party of women singing a welcome to us as we were led into the small concrete church where folk had already gathered; some sitting on benches, others on matting on the floor and us, on plastic chairs, right at the front. There greeting us on the blackboard (for the readings) was a message in English – ‘Welcome in St Bartholomew – God bless you all’. We were deeply touched. They had also decorated the church with paper chains.

Having scoured the ALMA website to see what others had told of the their visits to this amazing country I thought I had a small idea of what it would be like, but nothing prepared me for the warm welcome, the vibrancy of experience in sight and sound - the singing in harmony accompanied only by drums and shakers and the dancing, and all of this as part of a normal church service! Only video clips give a vague idea of the experience.

Leonides helped us through the service and Fr. Agostinho interpreted Fr. Emanuel’s sermon for us. The singing was wonderful. We loved the way collection was taken; people came forward in different groups, singing and dancing, (like King David in the Old Testament) as each brought their offerings, be it money, coconuts or whatever. The sum total of the collection was announced to the congregation at the end of the service. Fr. Agostinho also explained to us the words of the songs that were being sung to us after the service. They had been written for the occasion. When the different groups had finished he turned to us and said “Now would you like to sing your song?” One doesn’t like to disappoint but …! We soon discovered that what we experienced that day would be repeated everywhere we went.

After the service we were treated to a young boy virtually running up a palm tree to knock down a green coconut so we could sample the milk - delicious. Then we joined in a meal. We sat in plastic chairs at a table as a lady came around with a jug of water and a bowl so we could wash our hands. We were served a chicken dish together with rice, maize-meal porridge and vegetables not mention cartons of fruit juice and bottles of water whilst everyone else sat on the ground and ate mainly rice, porridge and maybe beans. We truly were treated like royalty. The women had cooked the meal over the traditional open fire of three logs, and maybe a trivet on which to balance the large pots. Earlier we had watched them stirring the porridge until it became thicker.

We finally waved goodbye to our generous hosts and made our way back to Homoine where Fr. Emanuel showed us around the church site. Oh to have the massive plot of land that they own. We saw the church building they are using now, the partially built brick church, the Nursery School and the chicken sheds. Our church had sent money for the latter for an income-generating project for widows. After tea and cake with Emanuel and Leonides at their place we admired the new motor bike that the Diocese had given him. This meant he no longer had to walk four hours to one church and four hours back to take the service. His furthest congregation was 50 Km away! As he needs to visit so many churches he commences services on Wednesday each week. Catechists (our equivalent of Readers) take the other services.

The Sunday morning saw us in church at 8am for the Patronal Festival. What an amazing experience. The vibrancy of the worship of the large gathering has to be experienced to be believed. Even though our Portuguese and Bitonga (the local language for Maxixe) were not up to the mark we never felt left out of the wonderful celebration or once looked at our watches during the whole 3½ hour service. There was the Mayor and his wife, representatives from smaller congregations supported from that church and also the local Methodist Church. Each group was given a sung welcome and a wave and the response was to wave and sing back. Fortunately the deacon had been dispatched to sit between us when he was not actively engaged in the service, so he prompted us when it was our turn to respond. Similarly with the collection; as overseas guests we were the last ‘group’ to give our offering. Sitting in the front row made it difficult to blend in with the local customs so we certainly needed prompting.

Again, as the day before, when the main part of the service was completed the different groups came and sang their songs for the occasion; the Mother’s Union in their uniform of black and white, sang and then presented us with, and dressed us in, a capulana, (or sarong) a head scarf and a pendant made from coconut and shells, all of which we duly modelled for the congregation. Then the choir in their white blouses and leaf green ties and straight skirts sang. Suddenly I realised they were singing to us in English – “We welcome you, we welcome you, we welcome you dear friend. We thank you Lord for this partnership, we thank you Lord today, we thank you Lord for ALMA”.  We were then each presented with a made-to-measure outfit in local material. (Our sizes had been assessed by eye when being introduced to different folk shortly after our arrival.)

When all the groups had sung their songs we then presented our gifts to the church, each one being held aloft by Fr. Agostinho for all to see. Finally we processed with the altar party to the door to shake hands with everyone before enjoying a celebratory meal outside. Later we went to see where the banquet had been prepared and the ladies of the ‘Cooking Team’, all wearing matching capulanas, sang for us as we were busy photographing the massive cooking pots and marvelling at the skill of cooking rice, especially, over the open fire, in pots about 2ft deep.

We then slipped ‘home’ and tried on our new outfits much to the delight of Ofelia who told us we looked ‘very chic’. We also packed in preparation for our 5am start the next morning, when we were to drive about 250 Km south to a small church at Bango, near Xai-Xai, where we would meet Bishop Dinis. Each evening, Ofelia and Agostinho would join us for supper followed by prayers and Aniceto, their youngest son, would come and sleep in the house with us, as our guardian angel.

The service at Bango was held under a tarpaulin and the Bishop was there to lay the first stone for the new church. Again we were greeted by the most wonderful dancing and singing and Liz and I found ourselves joining in with the Mother’s Union ladies, trying to follow suit. This time the offering was of contributions for the church – a brick, a rock or a bag of rocks (brought by wheelbarrow), a coil of wire or a bag of cement – each one contributed as they were able. Once more we were deeply humbled by the gifts that folk brought and their generous hospitality.

From there we went to Xai-Xai where we visited Bishop Dinis’ sister and mother as Fr. Agostinho had lived with them in the early days of his ministry. We crossed the Limpopo River valley to go to a convent that made Communion wafers so Fr. Agostinho could purchase some – no local church supplies shop here! He showed us the extent of the flooding in 2000; it was truly hard to imagine. From there we started our journey back but stopped to visit the Cathedral at Maciene which was a truly special place.

The next morning we had another early start in order to meet Bishop Dinis at Chihunzuine. He showed us around and then we were warmly greeted by the young children from the Nursery School there. After a service in the church we went to inspect the water bore, solar panels and the water tanks provided by ALMA funding. Previously there was no water closer than two hours walk but now, with the 110m deep bore, children are now able to attend school rather than spending their days collecting water. We watched the tiny children watering the vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, and maize) and saw the long queue of mainly women waiting to fill their plastic cans from the tap. Some came with donkeys, cattle drawn carts or wheelbarrows to collect this precious commodity.

After a delicious meal, we said goodbye to the Bishop and continued on our way, including taking Fr. Armando to Buqene, Zandamela.

On our return we diverted off the main road to visit St  Andrew’s Liguirine (linked with St Mary the Virgin, Harmondsworth). We delivered some photos from Harmondsworth and, after gathering a few congregational members, gave them some gifts. We had been unable to establish contact with Fr. Alberto all day and discovered that he had gone elsewhere to charge his mobile phone. Such is their isolation – 15Km on a small sandy track from the nearest dirt road in one direction and 22Km in the other. We also visited another tiny church serviced by Liguirine and two of the catechists, on our way to the main road.

The next morning we were invited to join Fr. Agostinho’s weekly 7am meeting of catechists. We had a short service, the readings for Sunday were discussed, prayer needs mentioned, and travel expenses met from the collection. Following this I was shown all the work that had been done with the money sent from St John’s Notting Hill. The remainder of our time was more relaxed as Fr. Agostinho had other parish commitments such as a 5.30am Memorial Service and one or two funerals. He included some sight-seeing in our itinerary which included a swim at the famous Tofu Beach and visiting Inhambane town, together with us speaking to the Mother’s Union there.

Our last weekend was spent focussing more on our link parish at Homoine. On the Saturday we took huge barrels of drinking water out with us for Fr. Emanuel and then went on to a service at a small church at Hobo. The welcome, singing and dancing of the young people was amazing and after the service Fr. Agostinho invited me to pray for people coming for prayer after Communion. We returned to Homoine for a cup of tea and were able to spend time talking with, and praying for, Fr. Emanuel and his wife Leonides.

On Sunday morning we arrived at Homoine in time to pray with Fr. Emanuel before the service. Fr. Agostinho had invited me to preach and he translated.  Again it was a great service of celebration, with vibrant worship mainly led by the young people. They brought their own contribution to the singing at the end of the service followed by the women singing in a number of different languages, and also a small group from the choir at Chambone. The people at Homoine speak a different language from those at Chambone so a hymn in Bitonga was included for them. Again we were presented with wonderful gifts and we also gave our gifts. The meal afterwards outside was a wonderful celebration and after many photographs we reluctantly left with the back of our 4 x 4 filled to overflowing with folk getting a lift part-way home.

That evening Fr. Agostinho had invited the leaders of all the groups in his church to a party and asked us to speak to them about ‘small groups’. On his first visit to the UK he had been most impressed by the value of home groups so provided this opportunity for us to share our experience of them with his people. It was an excellent climax to an amazing ten days.

The benefits of the trip have been many both to us and hopefully our link church and hosts. We were challenged by the way they live; the vibrancy of their worship, the unconditional love shown, their overflowing generosity, and their genuine infectious joy. Our faith has been enlivened, and I certainly have been reminded to include God in every aspect of life. We have strengthened our relationship through spending time together and we now better understand their situation. On our return to the UK I reread all the Mozambican emails and things I had previously had difficulty understanding were now completely clear.

We exchanged ideas and discovered we have similar struggles such as involving men in the church and stewardship. I loved their custom of having ‘god parents’ for newly married couples.  It was such a privilege to learn from them, pray and listen for words of encouragement for them. Liz was also able to sort out a number of computer issues for Fr. Agostinho and now, through the use of Skype, we are able to be in frequent communication and have even had a live link-up in church when they sang for our congregation. We exchange prayer needs and have already seen some incredible answers.

The Holy Spirit is definitely on the move in that part of Africa. Homoine and Chambone and their surrounding churches each had 150 people for confirmation when the Bishop visited in November, and I was continually amazed at the high proportion of young people in each church we visited. If you have a parish link through ALMA to do whatever you can to go and visit. It means so much to the people, shows they are not forgotten, and you will be greatly challenged and encouraged.