Baptism at the Beach -- Part 1

Two years ago a young man was living here in Quelimane. He was Jeremiah Johnson. He was an IMB worker who was part of the team here. Jeremiah and a national pastor worked together traveling on Jeremiah's motorcycle visiting remote villages near the coast of Mozambique. Many of these villages had not had a gospel witness in our lifetime....they were unreached with the gospel. It was Jeremiah's desire to see churches planted in these villages.


One day while traveling on a road between the coast and Quelimane, Jeremiah and his pastor friend had a tragic accident. Jeremiah was killed instantly.


On this side of eternity......Jeremiah never saw the fruit from all of the days he spent visiting with the people in those villages. Last Sunday......we did!


The first set of converts in the village of  Mundimwe were baptized in the Indian ocean....and we got to witness the awesome event!!


We left early in the day and didn't get back until quite late. I took so many pictures and I want to share as many as I can with you. It will take a several blog post.


We traveled out of town on a road that was new to us. Very quickly we were in a different world. Here is what we saw just right outside of Quelimane.

local delivery service

homes

Yes....dark clouds

We met the rain quickly

This was the typical scene out the window for much of the journey

Then everything changed! We stopped at a Baptist Church in a neighboring village to pick up some members of their congregation. They wanted to come to support the new believers and encourage them. We picked up about 20 people. They jumped into the back of our truck and Jessica's and crammed into the Dina's truck as well.

That is their church building in front of the vehicles.

We continued down the road for a couple of miles
then turned onto this path to pick-up a couple more passengers.

Then a strange thing happened......we kept going down the path!!!!
At first it was pretty clear...but the grass beside the truck was up to the windows.

Then the path got a bit less "traveled"

I kept thinking that if Mozambique had some wild animals....we surely would have seen some!
Doesn't this look like where a lion could be hiding?!?

Then we went over the coconut log bridge :)

Then through the river bed bridge :)

And down another path!
No wonder these villages are "unreached with the gospel".....they are difficult to get to!
I kept thinking, "Where are we going?"

Then...we turned off the path and drove right through the village.
The people that we brought from the other village's church were singing
and praising the Lord as loud as they could.

Our whole family loved the drive to Mundimwe! Seeing the sights in our new country never gets old! (Yet...) The girls are fascinated at the things that they are seeing. But....they were not ready for the attention that they received when we arrived at the little village church...

Tracy