No roads at all

Julia Wensley, campaign coordinator for Micah Challenge UK, challenges her priorities as she travels to Mozambique…

Friday I was stressed by what I considered to be all the essentials of life – how would I pay all the bills this month, deal with the ever-increasing in-tray in the office, juggle time between family, friends and my relationship with God. Saturday I arrived in a country where, day after day, I met people who struggled just to collect sufficient water for their family. In this place, one in five people are infected with HIV/Aids, devastating families and leaving children to fend for themselves alone. Their homes, made from mud and thatch, are destroyed by floods each year.

I was privileged to be part of a team that distributed shoeboxes, collected by Samaritans Purse for Operation Christmas Child, to children in Mozambique. Fifteen of us from the UK were there to help deliver gift-filled packages to 11 schools in the Mapai and Chicualaula districts, near the border with Zimbabwe. The trip changed the priorities in my life.

We spent many hours in the back of a pick-up following what appeared to be no road or track at all. We passed through bush like this until suddenly we came upon a clearing where children had waited patiently for hours in the heat.

Each distribution was an amazing experience. On many occasions the children sang and danced for us, giving us a taste of their culture. We were given special permission to share the Gospel message with them, a privilege not usually allowed. After creative storytelling, including some dubious animal imitations from the team (my elephant impersonation deserved an award), time finally came for the presents. In Mozambique, children are not valued for who they are but how much work they can do for their parents. Now as each child lined up very quietly to be given a box, I discovered that for many this was the first ever present they had ever received.

Rolina, our interpreter, had great fun building up towards the moment when the gifts were opened. On the count of three the children opened all the presents together. For a second there is hush as the lids are flipped open, and then I am hit by a wall of noise as the children scream with delight and start shouting to their friends. Sitting down amongst the kids and seeing their faces light up as they explore the presents is a humbling experience. They are not demanding the latest Xbox or iPod; they are excited to have colouring pens and paper.

Many of the gifts have a double benefit. The teachers told me that supplies of pens and paper run out well before the end of each academic year. And toys can teach the children new skills.

I chatted to Rodu, who was 14 and had been attending school for four years. She said, "I like the notebook and pens because I will be able to do my maths." Rosita, who is 9, loved the hat, socks and pens, and when asked about school said, "it is the future of my country. I want to be an engineer".

The shoe boxes are just one part of the work Samaritan’s Purse undertakes in Mozambique. At our base in Mapai I was able to talk to Water Filter Programme Coordinator Relagio, who is very proud that the filters are made from local materials by local people. These are given to the most vulnerable families, enabling them to have clean drinking water.

I visited the Cossa family, who have one of them, and Adelia is sincerely grateful for the ability to have clean water, as her family no longer suffers from debilitating sickness.

Another world, just 24 hours travelling away, gave me an insight into a new set of priorities. A drought is not the inability to wash your car or water your plants; it’s a matter of life or death for a child. Clean water and a gift of a pen can actually change lives. And the joy of being involved has changed me.