Mills wrote on July 2, 2007.........

From Chiconono with Love:

Hey ya'll!

Wow, I am in Chiconono now after a long few days of traveling. We left the Church at 7 am on Thursday, and drove through the night to Johannesburg to pick someone up and then kept going till we reached the border of Mozambique. We picked up Gabriel in Maputo, the capital, and then were on our way. After driving all that day we found a nice place to stay for really cheap; this opportunity to rest was well needed and it was just nice to lay down. We had 8 people in a "combi" or mini-van, and needless
to say, it was cramped. We drove all day the next day up into Mozambique working our way to the Zambezie river where we had to ferry across. After short delays we made it across and onto Macuba. (I think that is spelled right?) Late Sunday night early Monday morning around 1 we thought we were rolling into Lichinga, the major town nearest to Chiconono (2 and a half hours). Once we got there we realized it wasn't Lichinga and that we were in fact 6 or so hours away. We pressed on and made it to Lichinga
this morning (Monday). Then we had a 2 and a half hour drive to the particular village, Chiconono. The roads in Mozambique are awful. Pot holes plagued our tires, and we had two blowout on our trailer, and a roadside repair on a shot trailer bearing.

All of this being said... God has shown me parts of Mozambique that no one sees. I have an understanding about how many people live in absolute poverty and are happy! This people are lost in there sin so much that they can't see their right from their left. God is working my heart into loving these people and the arduous journey we took was only a way for me to grow closer to these people. Most people would fly into Lichinga after many other connections and miss the entire countryside. God is so
evident here; whether it be in the joyful face of a young child, or the change of an expression on an old man after a friendly thumbs up. God's creation screams out to him here, and nothing gets in the way.

Gabriel, the South Africa guy I'm going to be living with here and I have already become so close. The Lord has blessed us with such similar spirits in so many ways. Other than the fact that we are both stubborn, we both love working with engines and our hands, hiking, anything crazy like bungee jumping (which we plan to do in SA) ect. God was so awesome as to knit our hearts so closely before we even met and to give us the personalities that can live together and glorify him.

I'd love your prayers on,
Language barrier- Gabe and I are going to spend 2 hours each morning working on learning Portuguese and a little Yao. People here are blown away when you can simply say hello. If we make an effort to learn their language they understand we have something important to tell them.
Safety- as work on the project here we could really use the Lord's hedge of protection.
Health- Gabriel and I both eat a lot, and he has already made the change from a meat filled diet to one of vegetables, fruits, breads, local food and stuff we grow ect.
Wisdom- I just want the Lord to really teach me a lot, pray that he would give me wisdom on the issues Gabriel and I will be confronted with, and be able to discern what is best.

Sorry I had to send this in a hurry so that the stratosphere would be right to bounce our radio signal. I can explain later. Haha.
for freedom,
Mills