Jofrisi is a village about 10km north of Canxixe It's located on a hilltop where its crest served as a strategic residential place for the villagers.
Jofrisi is the equidistance village for many Message churches, (those that didn't manage to be in Canxixe to receive the Message books on Sunday requested the VGR team to travel to that village, and it was agreed and scheduled for Tuesday the 19th of April.)
As early as 7am, bicycles were being made ready to carry Bros Lee, John, Pastor Rosario, and a 15 family Message books set. The bicycles weren't enough for the trip, for many brothers from Canxixe wanted to join in the trip. Fear was still in our heart. We took our passports and money, our telephone, iPads, and camera, for we didn't know what could become of us.
The trail was rough and rocky. At times sandy dry riverbeds would stretch for half a mile, making the journey by bike difficult. One of the brothers suffered a bicycle accident twice and which in turn slowed our mission of getting to God’s sheep.
By the grace of God, at 11am we managed to reach Jofrisi safe with all of our gadgets and handy belongings. A group that followed on foot from Canxixe arrived an hour later.
During our stay, waiting for the pastor and the company to come and address the ceremony, we decided to compare the Samsung and iPad lens. We first started shooting pictures at different directions and angles to compare the quality of the two. Little did we know that it was a dangerous moment.
The very same hut and bushes where we were concentrating on taking pictures, hosted an armed militia of troops called Renamo (Mozambican National Resistance), less than 200 feet from where we were shooting the pictures. We even continued shooting pictures of the village, and even approached closer to them, but without noticing them. Obviously, we were seen by them. It was just the grace of God that they just didn't shoot randomly as they often do. Perhaps they noticed that we weren't soldiers.
We were only told of the Renamo troops when the group that was behind us arrived.
I was as good as a dead man and I had never felt real fear until that day. We saw them as if they were polishing or fixing their guns, and periodically a neighbor could go and supply them with food and water. This put our lives on edge for the rest of the time.
Some of the group was wanting to return to Canxixe immediately, but this could have been a dangerous move, for the Renamo wouldn't allow us to return if they thought we came as spies. But also to delay there was a dangerous move, for if the Frelimo (Front for Liberation of Mozambique) soldiers could arrive on the scene. This army would not have distinguished the civilians from the soldiers; all would have been destroyed.
The church elders gathered and wanted also our opinion. We asked them if they could just do a small, quick service and do the distribution, then leave immediately.
Little did we knew that the quick service would last for two hours. We understood that their normal service could last more than four hours.
As the service started, another group of the Renamo approached and joined the others. This time this group was bit active for they could be seen moving around, chatting and not hiding. They could clearly hear the singing and the preaching.
Only our bodies were present, our minds were already dead with fear. After the service we quickly handed out the books. And we were again forced to delay an hour for them to serve us lunch. After the lunch we returned home as fast as we could, thanking the Lord for protection.
As soon as we left, we were told that the Renamo came to the remaining congregation and requested the Spoken Word books, and they asked the local pastor to pray for them.
It's said that when they learnt that we were from Chimoio, they were very happy and wanted to see us, for many of them soldiers are from Chimoio.
Brother John Jannie
Mozambique