Quelelene children

Serving the Koti people can be seen as a unique opportunity to catch the breath of God and comprehend in a fresh way the mysteries of our world and the times we live in. At this week’s training session I spoke about the need to listen, to retain and persevere with the words that God has spoken to us. This was taken from the very familiar Parable of the Sower. We endeavour to show our friends how to understand things for themselves and find answers to their own questions. This seems to be more strategic than simply presenting answers to questions which they will struggle to remember. I used the classic analogy of “it’s better to teach a man to fish rather than give him fish”, which seemed particularly pertinent amongst a room full of fishermen. So we attempt to show them how to unpack the bible, firstly for their own benefit but also for the 90 families of faith scattered across the Angoche district.

This is a new day for me and it’s also a new day for them. So we learn from each other, sometimes with smiles, occasionally with bemusement and often with tears which can be laughter and sometimes sadness.

I started to read Daniel this morning (for myself) and found it immediately evocative of the circumstances here in Angoche. Daniel was taken to the royal court and was requested to eat from the heavily laden table of the King, but he and his close friends chose to stand apart and just ate vegetables. After ten days they looked healthier than the others. In due course the King also discovered they were ten times wiser than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom, and gave them positions of authority and responsibility and then …. read the rest of the story for yourself, it’s really interesting!

A lorry load of food

Food for thought…… Angoche suffers from an annual food supply predicament around this time of year, made so much more acute in 2009 due to the cyclone last February which destroyed so much of the crops. A spark was lit last week by a new friend who works as a linguist who asked if we could help with famine relief and made available some money to buy food. We were able to widen the net and asked those on our mailing list to respond. The immediate reaction has been humbling so we write this with gratitude that defies description, even for this ad hoc English teacher! It’s not just the money that has been promised that has touched us deeply (an amazing £10,000 in total from across the world) but also our knowledge of the circumstances of many of the donors. The messages of comfort and encouragement attached to the gifts, like labels on Christmas presents placed under the tree have been wonderful. Food distribution starts on Friday 6th March just one week on from our first email requesting help.

On the way to the machamba in Namaponda - workers and food

Our prayer is that the simple food we are able to provide will make the people stronger than can be expected (like Daniel and his friends) and that the wisdom of the Koti people we work with will find an ear, not only here but out across the world. Getting the food down to Angoche has presented logistical problems but with perseverance we can get supplies through to this deeply troubled community. The ravage of hunger and acute sickness has spread tension and rumours where communication is so often based upon word of mouth, which is frequently at best misleading. Police have been despatched to one town nearby to try and keep a lid on things with limited success.

We sense a great need for kindness married to wisdom.

Our thanks go to those of you who are walking this Koti Journey with us. We know that many of you may not have the opportunity to come to Angoche but in some way you have connected with this story.   Like us, we think being a part of this journey will mess you up for the better….if you know what we mean?

Here are some first photos of the distribution of food. This lorry went this morning but was going to have a longer than normal journey as one of the bridges on the main road was washed away recently. The workers sitting on top of the food will travel about 2 hours to the machamba and then stay there for about 2 weeks, clearing the ground of weeds and unwanted growth around the newly planted crops. Other sacks of food went out on a boat to Quelelene early this morning. The children pictured live on the island about 2 hours boat ride from Angoche.”