June 6, 2006 | Salama! (Makua for Hello!)
Well, we are back in our beloved Pemba, and it is so nice to be home. We arrived back in Mozambique on the 17th of May and spent one week in Maputo at the annual staff retreat. Prior to that we spent a little less than two weeks in Thailand and, as I wrote earlier, it is so nice to be home after all that traveling.
MUSY UPDATE
First, I have been receiving many emails asking about Musy and the baby. We want to let everyone know that they are both doing fine. We appreciate all of your prayers and emails; they encourage us so much. Musy is definitely looking more and more pregnant as each day passes. I can already tell the difference in how much she has grown, even over this past week. I was so proud of her as she flew countless hours from start to finish during our journey back to Mozambique. She will go the extra mile when she knows God is calling us. MusyŴs belly is moving constantly, and watching it has become a new form of entertainment. We now have had a steady stream of missionaries and children from our center entering our house just to stare at her stomach, hoping to catch a glimpse of the baby rolling over or kicking. He is so active, usually you donŴt have to wait more than a couple of minutes until you see some body part lunging around in there. Each time I see movement it is a clear reminder that we will be meeting him in just a few short months. I canŴt wait!!
THAILAND
For five days in a row, during our visit to the Congo, I would wake up and instantly be in prayer for Pattaya, Thailand. During those five days I clearly saw the start of a work I believed the Lord was calling Musy and I to start there. It was on both of our hearts to visit Thailand on our return trip from the States, but we gave it to the Lord and waited for His timing.
While flying back to America, Musy and I flew thru Kenya. As we were getting off of our plane, Musy turns to me and says, "Keep your eyes open. I feel like we are going to run into Reinhard Bonnke". I know that this sounds strange but I have bumped into him twice in airports. Musy and I rounded the corner, coming off the gateway, and one of our friends from Minnesota is standing there. We started talking to him, and we found out that he is on his way to Pattaya, Thailand to spend some time at an orphanage I had visited two years prior. We took this as a huge God appointment, and to make a long story short, he volunteered to set up a trip for us to Thailand.
Two months later, as we flew into Bangkok, we had no idea what to expect. We spent a large amount of time with two Canadian missionaries who started an orphanage in Pattaya about nine years ago. They were a huge blessing and a perfect example of the importance of the body of Christ. They welcomed us with open arms and shared freely all that they had learned during their nine years in Thailand.
Musy and I spent some time just traveling around the city. Pattaya is built around prostitution. It started as a city where GIŴs would come during the war for R&R, and has turned into a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. We walked the streets at night and just watched and prayed, trying to hear GodŴs heart for the place. It was fantastic; God spoke to us clearly about the people, and our heartsŴ broke for not only the prostitutes but for the men buying them as well. I spent some time talking with a few of the older white men that travel to Pattaya just for the sex trade. They were just normal men with emptiness in their heart. During my last trip to Pattaya, I was able to pray over some of them and they were so open to receive prayer. I thought that these guys would be closed and angry, but it was the exact opposite.
Musy and I are praying about what the next step will be. We are sure there is a next step but we are just wating on Him to lead us. When we flew back into Mozambique, we went right to the annual Iris staff retreat. During those four days, Musy and I were called out and prophesied over a couple of times. Each word we received confirmed what the Lord was telling us. We will keep you updated on Pattaya as soon as we hear some more from Him.
In the meantime we are focused on Africa and the birth of our son. We are receiving a Global Awakening team in a few days and will be working with them. A large bush conference is planned in Nampula, a few hours south of Pemba. After that I am putting Musy on a plane to Maputo. I am going to do the four-day drive south with our truck. From there we are going to handle some visa and passport issues for the baby at the America Embassy before we drive to South Africa.
We were blessed to have a visit with Bob Jones during our trip to the States. He turned to Musy and told her that the Lord has prepared a place for us to have the baby, and he was right. Just today the confirmation came for free lodging in South Africa for the three months we will be there. YEA GOD!!
I have been talking with Rolland about another trip to the Congo. This time we will take a team of students from the Missions School. Hopefully we can get a good team to help build the childrenŴs center and a church. We believe that our base in Kalonge will be a hub for revival in the Congo. The latest cover of TIME is about Congo. They are reporting over 4 million people have been killed in the past nine years. THEY NEED THE GOSPEL!!! There has also been some talk about taking a quick trip to the Sudan. You guys can keep those two places in prayer as we are praying for direction.
A few days ago Musy and I picked up a drunk prostitute. We found her completely naked, sitting on a cement slab on the sidewalk. Three guards from the neighboring restaurant had surrounded her and were laughing at her. Musy quickly put herself between the men and the girl and sat next to her. We did not know if she was just raped or what the story was. She was crying and screaming at the same time, "TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL!! I WAS BEATEN". Musy searched for her clothing and found her skimpy dress lying on the ground. Musy grabbed it and helped her get dressed.
We sat with her and calmed her down, trying to get a clear picture of what happened. We asked her age, and she answered "I am fourteen". As we tried to have a conversation with her we quickly figured out that she was completely incapacitated. I drove my truck up and we put her in the back seat of our truck with Musy crying out to God for help. The girl quickly passed out. We tried to find her house, but each time we asked around we did not feel right about driving into the depths of some village at night. After about an hour of driving around and asking people if they knew her, I found a group of prostitutes. I pulled the truck up to them and asked them if she was familiar. One of the girls said that she was her cousin and they hauled her off to her house.
I am telling all of you this story because we need prayer. This girl was fourteen! As I drove around and looked for a safe place to drop her off, I couldnŴt find one. Everywhere I took her the men looked at her with bad intentions, saying, "Leave her with us". I knew that anywhere we would have left her she would have been raped. I have been praying about this, and I feel like there is a huge spirit of sexual impurity in Mozambique. This is not a huge shock to me but it seems like we are facing it more and more lately. Please pray for our pastors and our children, that they will learn to walk in purity and that they would not be affected by this. I believe that their culture puts women in such a low place that they are looked at as objects. We need to pray that GodŴs culture transforms Mozambique.
Well, this is gettting to be one of those long newsletters and it is getting late on my end. We love all of you and thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for Musy and our son, especially as we get closer and closer to the due date. Also, if you have not checked them out yet, we do have some pictures of our visit to Thailand on our webpage www.hartministries.com.
BLESSINGS FROM PEMBA,
Will and Musy Hart