Jonathan & Lisa Parker Your Ministry Partners in Southeast Africa Emmanuel Mission Church
Brothers Fernando & Chuveque bringing the message
Special Music
We have been blessed to attend a small congregation here in our neighborhood for the past three Sundays. It is only a few minutes walk from our house. It is a “mission” church because it is a church plant from a larger Baptist church in the city. The church agreed to host us which means they have taken the responsibility of helping us during this time of adjustment. A small group came to the airport to greet us upon our arrival and accompanied us to our house which they had helped clean up and get ready for us. One of the men, Michelof took a couple days to teach us how to use the public transportation known as a “chapa” (12 to 14 passenger van) and showed us around the city. He and his wife, Margarida came one afternoon for a visit and see how we were doing. We have enjoyed learning about the culture as well as new vocabulary from them. Even though we still feel like outsiders we are slowly building closer relationships.
One of our younger members
The church services are in Portuguese and Makuwa languages. We are able to sing along with the Portuguese hymns and choruses but when they break out in Makuwa we just listen. We have had a couple of people at least translate some of the words. We especially enjoy the fact that instead of the worship team having instruments, the congregation uses instruments. The drums, tambourines and rattles are handed out before we start to who ever is willing to participate. We are learning that music is an important part of the culture here and they seem to have a song for about any event!
We have enjoyed our times of worship together, times of fellowship around a meal and in participating with the wedding that took place last weekend. This weekend we will be having a potluck as a farewell to another missionary couple who are returning to Brazil for six months to treat some health problems. Lisa has been invited to help in the food preparations, which will start at 5:00 am on Sunday morning. It will be a time of learning how they cook but also a time for her to get to know the ladies better.
Our "Welcome" potluck food preparation
Enjoying time together
Building relationships
The chima & mataba are ready...
Let's dig in!
We feel so blessed and privileged to be a part of what God is doing here in Southeast Africa through the Body of Christ world wide. We look forward to seeing how He wants to use us.
Best Wedding Anniversary Ever!
Our First & Only "Snail Mail" from Home...thanks Mom
Today (Saturday August 6, 2011) we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary! What better way to spend our first wedding anniversary in Africa than attending a wedding! A couple from our host church were the ones getting married so the first thing that happened was that Lisa had the option of getting a blouse and skirt made to match the other ladies from our church who would be attending. The ladies were all excited when Lisa showed up this morning in the skirt, blouse and head piece she had made just this past week. We left our house just before 9 am to walk to the church and we did not get backhome until after 6 pm. We got a ride to the center of the city where the legal ceremony took place then caravanned through the city, stopped for some pictures in front of a new hotel before we came to the church for the actual wedding ceremony. After a 3 hour ceremony we drove just outside the city to a Baptist Bible Institute campus for the reception. Everything was ready but we waited for the bride and groom to arrive before being seated and eventually getting fed. The main food was rice, beans and chicken. But there were other special foods as well including a beautiful wedding cake! There was a lot of food and it seems like everyone got plenty to eat.
Lisa doing her best to blend in...
Adopting grandkids...
Because it was a Christian wedding there were a lot of things done that were similar to our wedding 28 years. The bride and groom were dressed in what would be considered traditional apparel by US standards. There was music, preaching, exchange of vows, a ring ceremony and the groom was told he could kiss the bride. Even the weather corresponded with our wedding in August many years ago with the heat. Of course our ceremony was not done in a mixture of Portuguese and Makhuwa, nor did we have the pastors, wedding party and ourselves dance down the aisle. We are slowly learning that the people here seem to have a song for about any situation and love to break out in singing. There were various groups represented at the wedding including a couple different churches and the families of the bride and groom. The ladies of each of the groups wore clothing made from the same fabric and when it came time to give gifts and greet the newly weds each group formed a line and sang and danced to the front where the couple was, greet them, leave a gift and then dance back. Lisa and I did go down front to leave a gift and greet the couple but we left the dancing to them.
The Bride Arriving...
The Newly Weds with the Best Man and Matron of Honor
Our church group singing to the couple.
The reception had some similarities to our’s as well. There were tables set up for only a certain number of guests to sit and a head table for the wedding party. The wedding cake was cut by the newlyweds then after they shared a piece it was served to the guests. What made me feel a bit sad though was seeing young kids so excited about getting some left over rice that had been burned on the bottom. You would have thought they had won the lottery.
Reception set and ready...where are the Bride and Groom?
A Beautiful Cake
Although it was a tiring day we could not think of a better way to spend our anniversary. I don’t remember ever having a bigger anniversary celebration than this one. We feel like we were able to cultivate our relationship with our new church family through the extra interaction. We are beginning to put names with faces now.
We Made It…
Ready to check in...
For those who follow us on this site, mylast post had us heading off for our long journey to Africa. I know it would be much more interesting if we had some stories of all the problems that came up along the way but I am very GRATEFUL to say that our trip was completed without any real glitches! The Lord provided a ride to the airport and we are thankful that Chuck and Valerie went above and beyond the call of duty by helping us repack our hand bags because of the weight, then were willing to deliver the things left behind back to Williamsport.
First Leg finished...
The first word of encouragement was that we would be able to check our luggage to our final destination and when we got to South Africa we were even more blessed to find out that they actually got there and transferred. One piece of luggage ended up coming off the carousel which was the very one Lisa wanted for some overnight items.
Our first flight lasted about 18 hours total with a stop in Senegal along the way. Since we had an overnight stay in South Africa we were able to spend the night with Tony and Maria. They were kind enough to pick us up at the airport, open their home to us for the night and back to the airport the next day. Thanks guys, for your hospitality! Our 2 1/2 hour flight the next day went well and we landed in Mozambique right on time. We were greeted by a small group from our host church as well as a few of our co-workers. We spent quite a bit of time in customs since they seemed pretty interested in what was in our luggage. They were not real careful about how they searched through everything so we were glad we were able to fit everything back in.
Ready for the final leg...
Arrival
Once we actually got our passports stamped, met everyone and got our things loaded we were taken to our new home. Once again, we were blessed by the fact that so many people had helped us by getting the house cleaned up and getting the refrigerator and shelves stocked up with enough things to get started. It was hard to believe that we had finally made it after so many months of planning, preparation and faithful prayers of God’s people.
New "Home Sweet Home"
Leaving on a Jet Plane…
Today is the day! Still seems unreal, even after all the preparations in the past 14 months. It has been encouraging to have so many folks behind in prayer and giving. It has been awesome seeing the Lord work out the details. We are anxious to meet and be a part of our new team. We appreciate all they have done to get things ready for us on the other side. We are fearful of the unknown but we know that His grace is sufficient as many have reminded us. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve our Lord in a new context and trust that He will get the glory in all that we do. So, goodbye for now on this side of the ocean…
Anticipation…
Isn’t it interesting how much we tend to enjoy the anticipation of special events like vacation, a birthday party or a date with someone special? We almost enjoy the anticipation as much as the event itself. On the flip side of the coin, the anticipation of a visit to the dentist, a shot, a punishment or possibly a job interview can cause more anxiety than the actual event. We are awaiting our departure for Africa with much anticipation both negative and positive. For example, we anticipate a long, tiring flight and being faced with a lot of strange sights, smells and mixed feelings as we arrive and begin to adjust to our new surroundings. We anticipate cultural misunderstandings, feelings of distrust and even confusion at times. We anticipate homesickness and a desire to want to return to what is familiar when seemingly small issues build up and eventually turn to cultural stress. We anticipate having to “hang in there” for at least 2 years before we will begin to feel “at home”.
On the other hand we anticipate God’s faithfulness and grace, which is already there, being sufficient for every situation. We anticipate meeting new friends, enjoying new foods and learning a new way of doing things that will ultimately help us feel at home in Africa and continue to conform us to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. We look forward to the day when we can effectively carry out our new ministries and be culturally relevant representatives of Christ to our new friends and neighbors.
Packing, packing and more packing…
… Not necessarily because of the amount of things to pack but because of the space and 50 lb. limit of each piece of luggage. We had everything just about packed once then decided we better go through everything again to decide what we could take out. Then we found out we might be able to ship some things over so we went through everything again to pack some things that will go on a shipping container later on this fall. We were not sure how we would ship our things to Missouri where the container is being packed for shipment but the Lord had that worked out as well. We didn’t know it but we happened to be having dinner one evening with a couple headed to Missouri and to make a long story short, they offered to take our things before we even knew for sure that we were going to send them. Isn’t HE amazing? So…we can finally say that we are officially done packing except for the last few items for the suitcases. I have to admit it was not a pleasant experience but we were able to stick to it and sense His peace through the prayers of His people. Please keep praying!
Let's get started...
Checking and listing contents...
Wrap that "baby"
Departure Date is Set
Our visas arrived in the mail a couple of hours before we bought our tickets.
Our move to Africa seemed so distant a year ago when we were answering questions about when we would go and what we would be doing. It even seemed a bit impossible a couple months ago when we calculated how much we still needed to fly over and get set up.
It was so surreal yesterday when I was in contact with a travel agent trying to work out the details of a flight and so exciting when we were finally able to make the reservation and pay for the tickets. It is so exciting to finally be able to say that we will be leaving on July 18th. Even though we had hoped to be over there a month earlier we are so thankful for God’s provision to be leaving now. We know that He had this all planned beforehand.
Our van is officially up for sale!
The next few weeks we will be getting the rest of our things packed, doing a bit more traveling and trying to sell our van. I am not sure if it will happen in that order or not. It has been a journey with some ups and downs but it has been good. We feel a lot like the Israelite priests who had to step into the flooded Jordan before the Lord opened up the dry pathway through it. We have seen the Lord provide for us to get to this point and we will need to continue to trust Him to sustain us over there. We are looking to Him to continue to raise up ministry partners who want to be a part of what He is doing over in Southeast Africa.
Antimalarial anyone?
After reading all the possible side affects I was not real sure about trying out this antimalarial drug. But this is the best time to see how our bodies will react to it so I went ahead and took my first dosage yesterday. I am happy to say that more than 20 hours later I am still feeling pretty much the same. Lisa plans on starting today some time and we are a little more concerned for her because of other medications she takes. We are really thankful that we were able to take a trial run before our move.
Visa Application
We are moving ahead with our plans to be in Mozambique next month even though the specific date is not set. It was so good to be able to chat with one of our co-workers in Mozambique via Skype on Tuesday. I guess it helped make the whole move seem so much more real.
Yesterday I spent time getting our visa applications all filled out and today I will be heading to the post office to send them off. One more thing we can check off our “To Do” list.
Lisa has been busy the past few days sorting the rest of the things we hope to be able to take with us. What we cannot take with us this time we may be able to have mailed later. It certainly is hard to know how to prioritize when we have never been over there before. We hope to have everything packed and ready so we can head out as soon as possible when we are able to purchase our tickets. What an encouragement to see our faithful Father using His children to provide for our needs each step of the way. My tendency is to focus on the end goal rather than on Him and what He is doing in my life today. I am thankful for the reminder today in Hebrews 12 to focus on Him and to enjoy the relationship He wants to have with us during the process of getting to Africa!
Holding Pattern
It is pretty frustrating for an airline passenger to be so close to their final destination only to get caught in a holding pattern due to bad weather or other circumstances beyond their control. So close yet so far away…
Our tentative date for leaving for Mozambique was June 20th but the needed finances are still not in place for that to happen. It has been encouraging to see God providing in special ways this past month to help make our move a reality. We continue to trust Him to provide for airfare and luggage. We do feel a bit frustrated not knowing exactly when we will be landing in Africa but we are not sitting idle in the meantime. There is still a lot that needs to be done before we leave. We have been encouraged to get meningitis vaccines and begin taking Malaria prevention medication. We need wisdom in making the decision of what antimalarial treatment to take. We will be working on getting the rest of our packing done as well. We were able to pack up quite a bit before we left Missouri so it shouldn’t take too long to finish up. The hardest part is prioritizing since we know we won’t be able to take everything we might like to. .
So we press on even though we have do not have fixed date of departure. We would still like to be in Mozambique before the middle of July. We continue to wait on the Lord and His timing knowing that He is control and knows what is best.
