Goodbye party

The day came when it was time for me to say goodbye to Mozambique.  Many of the friends I had grown closest to had already flown back to their home countries of Austria, Germany and the US.  Some new friends offered to take me out to celebrate my last night, which was music to my ears.  I had experienced moments of loneliness, which can happen when you are traveling by yourself and people you grow close to come and go, leaving you to your own thoughts once again.  So this invitation to celebrate with my new friends was huge for me.  We went to a local restaurant, ate chicken and fries, then played pool against some locals.

I think there was some divine intervention as we kept winning in pool which allowed us to stay on the table.  Turns out, there was a bigger reason we were there celebrating that night.  I looked over and saw my friends praying with some of the local guys at the bar.  They were sharing the gospel message to these guys who had never heard the name of Jesus.  Sometimes if you ask someone if they have heard of Jesus, they ask what village he lives in as they try to recall who we are talking about.  Can you imagine?  We use the name of Jesus in so many ways- sometimes in reverence, sometimes in vain, sometimes loosely with no acknowledgement of how sacred the name is.  Yet there are people all over the world who have literally never heard this name!

My last night in Mozambique became a time of celebration, but not because my friends were showing me a good time.  We celebrated 3 young men whose lives were changed forever.  I couldn't think of a better way to say goodbye to this place that I had come to love than over chicken, fries, pool and sharing the love of Jesus with these new friends.

I considered posting the picture I have of all of us celebrating with these Mozambican men at the pool hall.  However, the more I learn about the persecution that people face when it is discovered that they have become a Christian, I realize that exposing their pictures and names could jeopardize their safety.  People are being shunned, abandoned, kicked out of their homes, beaten or even killed for their faith.  The more I live, the more thankful I become for my freedom.  We are so free and don't even realize it until we see how others throughout this world live.  Thank God for freedom!