Yesterday we visited the 50 year old dump of Maputo and its people working there.
It was hot from up and from down. It´s smoking and stinking….here hundreds of people are looking for things to use, to sell and even to eat….some make a brake of their work to receive prayer of us, afterwards we give out bread with fresh made marmalade of mangos and hearts, made of tissue that shall remind them that God loves even them. There are people, they lost their work, no money for the rent, so they sleep here on the dump, in parts of a fridge for example, covered with dirty blankets and plastics…..I feel nausea…..a mother with her 4 kids is introduced to us….a father, who´s wife died recently, with his 2 small kids…..old women, one of them not even has shoes, she went in socks over broken glass and dirt, most of them even wear different pair of shoe (rests).
2 women we meet in their brake for lunch, there is fresh made tea out of a tin, and 1 mango – I suppose they share it. Unfortunately our bread is all out, the 100 pieces quickly were gone – and even me, I want to go. But the 2 ladies say, it is not about bread. They are happy that we were thinking of them and they would wish, we would come again for visit. I am ashamed.
The hours drive back home we hardly spoke, the shower after was special. But I cannot wash away the pictures. The next morning they were present again, and the tears also.
The extent of the misery makes us feel we cannot do anything. What could we do? There are about 1000 families living on the dump. Where should we start to help and how? Does it help to give used clothes to a few? Should be finance a Christmas meal?
Why not helping especially 5 families to rent a simple house? (1 room) Could we find sponsors for the about 50 Euros rent per month? Could AVA create more jobs and pay for that?
Many questions are in my head. I ask God for good ideas, because I believe that HE is also touched by this misery. And HE is the one, who has the solution for our impossibilities.
I do not feel like Christmas…..but maybe neither Jesus felt like that beside the animals in the shed, when he was born to this planet – no space for him in a good house.
I wish that Jesus will find a place in your heart – not only to have good Christmas feelings, but to have the best relationship you were made for. And I am sure, HE also has a solution for your problems and impossibilities.
Hot greetings from Mozambique! 😊
Sabine Appel-Mohrs
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