Howdy everybody! I am officially back in Iowa after my month long adventure all over the world. First off, I just want to give a huge thank you to all of you. Thank you so much for supporting me in all of this, because I could not have done it without you. It was incredibly encouraging to receive so much support not only financially but through your prayers and words of encouragement. God provided more than I could have imagined for this trip. You’re all awesome and I greatly appreciate everything!
It’s been a little over a week now since I’ve been back. Taking time to process everything has been challenging but very helpful. So much happened in those four weeks that will be hard to try to explain everything in a simple letter but I’m going to try my best. Before I attempt share bits and pieces of my experience and even go on potential tangents as I often do, please feel free to meet up with me in person to hear more about everything and/or ask questions. My phone number is 641-780-0933 and my email is ryan.vermeer@hope.edu. I’ll be pretty free the next month or so. I am going to focus on my trip to Mozambique this letter, although the following week to Mexico was incredible as well. Parts of what I am sharing will be directly from my journal but much will simply be whatever comes to mind as I write and share. Thanks!
Over the past month my journey of missions has been filled with joys, struggles, healings (physical, emotional and spiritual), conviction, crazy Mozambican drivers, testimonies, amazing worship, a broken pair of glasses from intense Mozambican basketball, incredible new relationships, sunburns, missed flights, lots and lots of rice, amazing children, and Jesus in the midst of it all. Life changing only begins to describe it and yet doubt has already tried to work its way into the various experiences and inner transformations. Praise God however that He is silencing that doubt and is stirring an even greater fire and passion in my heart. I am learning that simply remembering what God has done for us is huge. How often do we forget what our God has done for us? I often forget how He rescued us from this life and world filled with hurt, brokenness, sin, suffering, abandonment and death. Jesus took it all for us- a bunch of selfish and broken people. He has set us free from the bondage we were once held to. He set us free to love God and love those around us whether it’s in Pella or half way across the world in Mozambique. We are missionaries wherever we are. My prayer is that we would never forget that.
Mozambique was incredible to say the least. Although I went on my own, other teams and individuals from all over the world were there with me. Visitors came from Texas, Oklahoma, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, the UK, and South Africa all to learn, grow, and pour out. Building new relationships with all the other visitors was great. It was awesome to see the different visions the God has laid on everybody’s hearts and to hear their stories. Being around groups of people whose hearts were on fire for God was extremely encouraging. I received and learned so much from all of the visitors I got to know.
The ministry I visited, Iris, has spread like crazy over the past 10 years or so and orphanages have been established all over Mozambique as well as other parts of Africa and other continents. God is pouring out an incredible amount of His Spirit into their ministry to spread the love of Jesus to the ends of the earth. I stayed in the first orphanage they ever started that happens to be the biggest one they have. It’s located in Maputo (Mozambique’s capitol) and they care for close to 350 children ranging from infants to teenagers. They also house and care for a group of Mozambican pastors who attend a Bible school at the center. Equipping the pastors with a solid biblical foundation allows them to be sent out to continue to spread the gospel throughout Mozambique as well as other nations.
Life at the center was amazing. There were always opportunities to go play with the kids and love on them. Smiles of joy constantly emanated from faces and it was easy to see how Jesus had filled these children’s hearts with His love and grace. Their joy was absolutely contagious. Whether it was playing tag, worshiping alongside my Mozambican brothers and sisters, or watching Spiderman with the kids (They absolutely love Spiderman there! For their birthdays they get the privilege of sleeping with special Spiderman sheets and blankets) it was all awesome. A lot of times we would just hang out and sing songs together or just talk about life. Many of the children at the orphanage had extraordinary testimonies. A majority of them were just living on the streets struggling to survive before they came to Iris. They were rescued from lives of poverty, thievery, and hopelessness. Now they have been given new life and it was so encouraging to hear how Jesus changed their hearts from their old way of life.
Three or four times a week they held worship/church services. Out of the many different pastors that preached all seemed to have one thing in common: the fire of God in their hearts. I was blown away by the passion they spoke with. God is doing something great in the hearts of His disciples who are being trained there. By far one of my favorite things I enjoyed in Mozambique was the worship. Even though I never understood the words (although a few of the songs I recognized, which was neat) the freedom to worship was wonderful. Children would dance and others would cry out and sing with beautiful voices. Prayers were shouted out not just by one but many at the same time. The presence of God fell in such a life giving way so many times. Nobody was ashamed to sing out loud, dance freely, close their eyes or bow down and offer everything they had to a God who has forever grabbed their hearts and changed their lives. I loved it!
Every week held many opportunities for outreach in various ways. Some of the outreaches included street ministry, hospital ministry, prayer at the local clinic, the bocharia (garbage dump), visiting other centers, and 2-3 day overnight outreaches to church plants in the bush. All were uniquely amazing as well as challenging. I’ll try and share a bit from a few of them I did…
Street Ministry: I had the opportunity to do this a few times. We went to jails, alleys, and city parks to share a simple message, some encouraging words, and testimonies. After we shared we invited people to ask Jesus into their hearts, prayed for people, and handed out loaves of bread. Street ministry was hard for me to be honest. Many we shared with seemed unreceptive to what we were sharing and simply wanted the bread. Although feeding the hungry is a huge way to bless people and help them, I wanted them to receive more. I learned a lot even throughout my feelings of helplessness. God kept reminding me that His power is made perfect in my weakness and that He was at work in their hearts, even if I wasn’t aware of it at the time. I praise God for that.
Hospital Ministry: This outreach was awesome but also incredibly tough. It’s honestly hard to find words to describe it. We went to a cancer ward my first time and a children’s section my second. Life and hope seemed to be robbed from many of these people who were barely hanging on. My heart broke as I saw patients lying in their beds in grief and pain. We prayed for many and asked God not only to heal these people physically but just to feel a touch of His love that they so desperately needed. Praying was tough and it was hard to know how to pray for people in such misery. I know that God heard us and that His love for those who were sick and broken is tremendous. We gave bananas out and simply just tried to love them. One lady who was with her child asked Jesus into her heart and it was incredible. To reach out and be Jesus hands and feet to the people at the hospital was really good.
Prayer at the Clinic: Oh my goodness this was awesome! Once a week people from the community come in to get checked up and receive medical attention. And since God heals, we decided to go ahead and pray for people who were waiting to receive help. The first time it was Gito (our Mozambican translator who was awesome), Nancy (a lady from Texas who was awesome) and I praying for people. Not a single person turned us down when we asked to pray for them. There were close to 30 people so we just started praying for 1-2 people at a time. The first person I prayed for had a headache and earache. After I prayed the first time she said the headache was gone but the earache was still there. I asked her if I could pray for her again and she said I could. I put my hand on her ear and prayed again. After I that I asked her how she felt and she said she was completely better; she could hear out of her ear and the pain was gone. I thought she merely had an earache, but she told me she couldn’t hear out of that ear before and now she could. God healed her of her headache, earache, and deaf left ear. Praise God! And that was just the first lady! That day, God healed people with backaches, stomach pains, headaches, swollen necks, chest pains, and knee problems. Around 20-25 of the 30 people we prayed for were healed of all sorts of aches and pains similar to the first lady. Some of the people didn’t even stay to get medical help, which was total confirmation of healings taking place. God is amazing and more people got healed the following week as well. It was awesome!
Bocharia (Garbage Dump): The bocharia was a really eye opening experience. I got to be a part of this three times while I was at Iris. People walk amongst the garbage dump in the hot sun every day in hopes of finding different scrap and materials to use and sell. Others were just lying on pieces of cardboard in the midst of the seemingly endless wasteland of garbage and junk. There is a large community of little houses right next to the dump where many lived as well. First, we went out and prayed for people in two groups. One group would go to the people on the dump and the other to the community next to it to pray, bless and love whoever we saw. We prayed healing for the sick and others we just simply wanted to bless. My second time there, we prayed for a blind woman and saw nothing happen. My third and last time we went, we prayed for her again and Jesus healed her! She could see, and started walking around with us after that. Everybody was smiling and bursting with joy. We gathered the children there for a small, but packed, worship service next to the dump, and a short message. During the service kids would swarm you just to receive a touch of love and for you to hold them. It was incredible, and they were filled with smiles and joy. After each service we would hand out bread to each of the kids. It was really hard to see people searching the dump to survive. But I know that Jesus was with the people there who were broken, hungry and dirty.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was simply the amount of free time to do whatever. It was so good to get away from all of the distractions of daily life like cell phones, computers, and TV. I had so much more time to focus on relationships with the visitors and Mozambicans as well as amazing times spent with God on my own. I loved getting to know everyone and it was great to just be with people even if there weren’t words spoken. God revealed to me a lot about my heart as well. Keeping my eyes on Him above all else is something that I am continuing to wrestle with. It is so easy to be focused on myself and my wants and desires that I forgot about simply thanking Him for all that He has given me, shown me, and done through me already. I am so thankful for His grace that He pours out on me daily. My big prayer going into this trip was asking God to wreck my life for Him. And He is definitely answering it, but it isn’t coming without cost. It’s hard to relinquish control over to Him. It’s hard to choose to daily lay down our lives, pick up our cross, and follow Him. But there is nothing like it, and I praise God that He is showing me how to follow Him and offer Him all that I am. I praise God again for this opportunity and for His provision through all of you. It was a tremendous blessing and words can’t describe how thankful I am for what I got to experience. Thank you so much for supporting and encouraging me in this. I hope I gave you at least a glimpse of my experience in Mozambique. May these stories give hope and encouragement to each of you Again, feel free to get a hold of me about this trip or just life in general. Thanks and many blessings to each of you!
Your pal and brother in Christ,
Ryan
