Moves and the Moon

Although we have been back in Africa for almost three weeks already, it still feels like we arrived yesterday. In fact, it took until yesterday for Lynn and I to get our suitcases unpacked here in Mozambique.
Our trip back was interrupted in South Africa due to the aircraft not being ready. A number one radio/gps/vor/glideslope was installed in the form of a Garmin 430, and an Stec Auto-pilot was also installed to make single pilot IFR flying safer. Although there have been some glitches, part of the system is already working wonderfully and our flight back was certainly a lot less effort than ever before!
I was glad for the ease of the flight back, because I had to recover from the engine start earlier that morning! Due to the battery being low, John, an aircraft mechanic helped hand start the engine. I knew the battery was low, so I primed the engine to make sure it had the earliest chance of starting. The combination of the priming which caused extra fuel in the carb area, along with a back-fire, resulted in an engine fire. Smoke started billowing out from the engine cowling. I desperately tried to get the fuel turned off and the mixture set to idle-cut –off while still cranking the engine to suck the fire out. Only problem was the battery was almost dead and I had John at the front that I did not want to kill if the battery should suddenly come to life. Well, we got coordinated and pulled the engine through a few strokes and that must have put out the fire…but not the smoke. We scrambled for fire extinguishers and it must have looked rather funny with me trying to get out of the plane with my seat-belt still holding me down. I can only imagine what my face must have looked like.
Fire out, cowling off and thank the Lord everything was still okay…no damage at all. So like I mentioned, the peaceful, uneventful flight to Mozambique was sure appreciated helped along by an autopilot that tracked the GPS and held the 9000 ft altitude perfectly.

We landed in Vilanculos to clear customs and promptly found out there was no Avgas. This is a problem that has grown each year and the reason we have been researching the possibility of purchasing an SMA (Jet A or diesel -powered) 182. We had enough fuel to get back to Chimoio, so we left immediately and arrived safely “home”. I found out that there has not been Avgas in Vilanculos or Beira, our central part of Mozambique anyway, for almost a month and it has shut down many operations.
After a restful sleep, I woke at around 5 AM last Sunday morning (the impact of jetlag). I wandered around the dark house, since it is winter here and even the sun is smart enough to not get up when it is so cold, and could not figure out what to do with myself other than make coffee and pray. So wrapped up in a blanket I enjoyed coffee and the presence of the Lord until the doorbell rang at 7AM. It was Celestino with the news that Enia, an elderly lady who we have been caring for with leprosy, passed away in the night. She has been suffering for some time and failing badly, so we were grateful for her. Only challenge is that this now means there is a funeral to arrange and a coffin to make or buy and I hardly feel like my feet have touched the ground.
After a visit to the home with the nursing team, Francois (bless his heart) accompanied me to town where he had found a coffin on another Sunday. Bodies here have to be buried pretty much the same day due to a lack of cold storage, so this is a huge challenge. We found a beautiful coffin and as we prayed with the family, our confidence was that God was working to make his grace and truth known through the many here at the mission who have shown so much love. Keren Massey spent hours with Mae Enia just caring for her and ministering to her, as have others in the past. We are so grateful for the team of people here who live out Christ’s life.

Much more has transpired this past week and I am slowly recovering the energy to face so much important work ahead. We miss our family terribly as always and always feel it more when we have just returned. But as I looked up at the night sky with Lynn last night from our varanda, the almost full moon came out from behind a cloud and I remembered my father, Arthur’s words. As he (Arthur) was leaving for Africa, his father, Peter Lagore, had told him to remember that when he looked at the moon it was the same one his dad would stand under each night, and home would not seem so far away. He also said to him, “Son and don’t forget we can meet each day at the throne of grace.” And so we do, and we daily thank God for so many friends and family who also meet with us there as well.

"You Gave Me Something"

“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat” said Jesus (Matt 25:35). "You gave something" is why we have been able to feed. Literally hundreds of families will be fed due to your generosity through the army of pastor servants in each area who will volunteer their time and efforts to ensure the food gets to those who need it.

Pastor Ricardo, Rick Nuefeld and I departed Chimoio Friday morning March the 13th 2010 in the SAM Ministries' Cessna 182 again and headed for Caia where we were to meet the helicopter on the Zambezi. This time Ron Wayner of Mercy Air was the pilot who we anticipated would drop us off and then transport a film crew who were doing a special on the borders of God’s Kingdom...focusing on remote areas that are being reached by the gospel. It turned out that they already had caught another ride out, so Ron was able to return to Chimoio after leaving us in the capable hands of Matthias and Michael, the two Mercy Air helicopter pilots.

Since our evaluation visit a little over two weeks previous (see my previous blog), things had become more difficult due to rains in the Zambezi river catchment areas in Zambia and Zimbabwe and further west. This resulted in the Zambezi flooding it’s banks leaving homes and people stranded and fields under water. Due to the extreme drought the people were forced to attempt crops in the low areas near the river, but inevitably this is futile due to the danger of flooding. As a result of this flooding any food they were growing is further delayed making our assistance in these areas even more important.

The real need is to help these communities find a longer term solution to growing food on higher ground with the abundant water supply the Zambezi brings and to help them store food in the community to protect against these regular food crisis. And this is what we are hoping can be achieved as we work with the pastors associations being formed in each area.

We visited 7 areas in two days again: Mutarara, Chemba, Sinjal, Tambara, Chueza, Chiriza, and Mandie. In each place we met with a representatives of 16 of our extension schools in the worst affected areas. (There remain two areas we still would like to assist, but are trying to determine how this can be done). Each group of pastors have formed themselves into an association of pastors who will manage the work-for-food programs in each area. This is to ensure those who most need the food receive it, but that they assist to work on projects that have the hope to bring at least some change for the future.

We took the time to encourage each group that Jesus took what was made available...the few fish and loaves...and fed many thousands. We also took time to challenge them that change in our communities is like moving a very heavy rock. The rock has settled, so moving it takes many people on the same side working extremely hard. And when it starts to move it requires faithful effort to keep it moving and slowly change comes. As we work, God works and transformation begins to be seen.

Our strategy is being implemented with pastors associations formed, food located and plans made to purchase it, store it and get it to those in need. Projects in each area have been identified, challenges discussed, money counted and contracts signed.

In the meantime, Andy Kuret, a short term pilot/farmer who is evaluating a longer term commitment to SAM Ministries and Mozambique, after seeing the needs, has identified an opportunity to help. He is working on developing a pilot project using a solar pump for a small scale irrigation project to produce food that could be multiplied many times over. It is exciting to see what God does when we expose ourselves to needs. (And I just got an email a few minutes ago to say he and Ron Wayner found a supplier of solar pumps who will get them one at cost price!)

The only area completely cut off with no food anywhere near was Chiriza. Within the two weeks since our evaluation, we were able to identify where we could purchase food and had made a tentative plan for a few emergency loads by helicopter into this community.

After our visit to the community again to ensure the pastors were ready and able to help unloading and to take responsibility for the food, we left Pastor Ricardo and Rick Nuefeld on location and flew back to Tambara across the river where food was available. What would have taken the better part of two days by canoe and huge effort over 10km of bush trail, the helicopter was able to do in just under an hour including turn around and loading! The actual flight to the community was only 7 minutes!

The helicopter landed in Chiriza loaded with about 600 kg of maize (corn). It is quite amazing to appreciate the ingenuity and creativity God has given to people. A 120 kg jet engine can lift the entire airframe and rotors with pilot, fuel and a further 550 kg straight up into the air and provide the kind of rapid transport that is quite frankly amazing. As Mercy Air says, “Providing help from above to meet the needs down below.”

The tools God has given us are truly incredible and this includes the potential for each of us to "give something" in so many different and unique ways. And when we give together God makes his amazing grace visible which results in life-changing transformation in others.

As we returned directly from our last spot via helicopter to the mission farm (an hour and a half flight instead of a 6 to 8 hour drive), our approach path took us directly over the airstrip we are constructing on the mission property (the cleared spot just over the helicopters right shoulder). (If you are interested to participate in this see click here to go to our projects page). Once this is in place our ongoing work along the Zambezi training pastors and working with their associations to bring improved conditions and food security will be greatly enhanced. Follow up will continue with these groups and you will hear reports in the year to come.
For those of you who partner with us...Thank you yet again for your compassion, concern and prompt action to help us meet such critical needs!

"Don't be afraid, remember the Lord, and fight for your brothers"

These were Nehamiah's words (Nehemiah 4:14) when the people were facing discouragement and threat in the face of an overwhelming task (rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem with the rubble of the old walls in the way making it a daunting task...remember it was all hand labor!), and a threatening enemy! These were the words I felt impressed to communicate as we flew from community to community along the Zambezi river meeting with the pastors in our extension training schools this past week who are hungry and facing the threat of starvation the drought threatens to bring.

Our quest started immediately following the visit of two of our supervisors who brought word of the extreme impact the drought was having on the communities to the North of us. Although a little rain had come in early December, it was very little and any crops planted had long since dried and died in Mozambique's intense sun and heat. As we started to communicate the challenge with Mercy Air and a few of our key partners, we were spurred on by a significant donation of money to enable us to respond quickly to the situation. In God's wonderful timing it just so happened that the Mercy Air helicopter was in the Zambeze delta assisting another outreach, so it meant Matthias could position the helicopter in Tambara to meet up with us in pretty quick time.


As Andy (a Swiss pilot with a Canadian license and grad from Prairie Aviation school) and I climbed through the clouds we were trusting that Matthias could make it through the isolated storms brewing to the West of his location. Matthias had the same question as he awaited word from us, but by the time we landed on the grass strip in Tambara, we got word that the helicopter was 20 minutes out. So started a successful but very rushed visit to 7 communities on either side of the Zambezi. We achieved in less than two full days, what would have taken a week or more to accomplish and we visited communities that at this time of the year are simply cut off even with limited rainfall.


Each community and its leadership had the same story to tell...no rain, we have planted (in some cases) up to 5 times and everything has died, although a few who have money are buying in grain at very high prices, the rest of us are surviving on wild roots and wild seeds, but the elderly and children are suffering the worst and we are not sure about how we will survive the coming months. It is always so difficult facing overwhelming human need and feeling so helpless to be able to meet it all. To us and to these pastors and leaders the message is the same... "Do not fear". And the message that follows right on the heels of this is "remember the Lord your God who is great and awesome" In the midst of huge need, we must be courageous to do the little things we can do and trust our God who is great and awesome to multiply their effect.

This is the emphasis of the last part of the verse, "fight for your brothers". There is a call on the lives of every one of us to not be overwhelmed by overwhelming odds, but respond by joining the fight even though we feel rather weak and limited. It is only as we stand up and fight that we make a difference and give God the chance to work with us!

A strategy in each location was laid out to: 1. engage the pastors and leaders in being part of the solution and assisting to identify the closest locations we can source food and or other supplies, 2. Have them identify the projects we can implement as work-for-food opportunities in order to provide the food and yet ensure there is a longer term impact of the help in ways that will help to address food security in the communities we help, and 3. Assist to get storage locations and the right people who will assist in ensuring the food gets to those in need.

As a mission we have been working slowly in these communities to address the impact of this kind of crisis for some time and this year is the exclamation mark on that effort. Along with our pastor training and the orphan care programs in these communities, is the need to have the infrastructure that will enable us and the churches to 1. Better produce food in the community, 2. Provide storage for food and the ability to buy it in from the community when available to ensure it is not sold to outside buyers who truck it out never to be seen again and 3. Provide where necessary food processing and or other income generation projects that can help to make the local projects sustainable. There are many things the pastors can do in this regard, and every one of them is more productive than having them travel for days and days looking for food for them and their families only to come home with an empty bag! I have witnessed this first hand and it is not something I as a citizen of the Kingdom can live with.

This week has reminded me of the power of relationships and the synergy that results from people with Kingdom vision. Mercy Air has long been a partner of ours and so have so many of you who support and pray for SAM Ministries monthly. Put those relationships together with the Godly men and women on the ground in rural Mozambique who are studying God's word and the importance of effective leadership, and you have an explosion of good things just waiting to happen!

Thank you to everyone who participated this week to bring hope into a hopeless situation. And it is not over yet...some help should arrive on the ground by mid-March. The one administrator was very moved by our presence and shared with our pastor/monitor from Nhakolo (close to Tambara), that "the Church is a powerful organization...to have two aircraft come here and work with you to see the needs in the community is amazing." What more can one say.

(Thank you Andy for your help and all the pictures and to Matthias and the entire Mercy Air clan)

"Endure hardship"

Although I am certain any hardship I have had to endure does not equate with that suffered by the Apostle Paul or Timothy to whom these words were written, our tours to visit our extension schools and orphan programs certainly take us away from the “comforts” of home. And as we spend time again with these men and women studying with us who provide leadership to the churches and communities they serve, it is clear that they certainly do endure much hardship as they seek to survive and work in difficult conditions.

Our hardship at the start of our 9 day tour was somewhat less this time around as we had the privilege of driving across the brand spanking new bridge over the Zambezi river.

Although the cost is the same, in the past we would have had to drive a dirt track to the river’s edge and wait (for at times up to two hours) for the ferry to take us across. This time we paid our money and just drove across a bridge that for most of us westerners would not look like anything too dramatic except that this bridge is in the middle of Mozambique, and for the first time joins Northern Mozambique with Southern Mozambique in a very “concrete” way saving travelers and transporters many hours of delay. It took the goodwill and many millions of dollars of donor help (about 80 million to be exact) but what a blessing.

Our tour in the Zambezia province took us to our most northern school in a place called Posto Shiri. Here I remembered again why I should have asked to have BF Goodrich All Terrain tires put on when purchasing this vehicle. Here is another tire destroyed with side-wall damage from a stump. And out here, this now means we have another 7 days of the trip with no spare tire unless I can have it “fixed” as a backup.

Thankfully I found a side road tire place in Mutarara that was able to do a makeshift fix which gave us at least the peace of mind of a back up tire.

As we arrived in Sinjal, another very remote school, we felt like we had just had a dust bath. The terrible condition of the road from Mutarara meant that our 50 km drive took us almost two hours! Although the ride certainly was not comfortable, I think it was the vehicle that had to endure the most hardship! People had been gathering for a few hours already and as soon as the food and gowns were unloaded we started the very first ever graduation ceremony in one of our extension schools. Although there are now almost 30 leaders studying here with us, these first four have been at it for 6 years and have completed our program. What a joy to celebrate with them and the government leaders who attended and be challenged again by the duty we have to “study to show ourselves approved…” as those who “correctly handle (teach) the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15).

A very special day for these pastors and community leaders graduating after 6 years

These leaders do not merely have the responsibility to teach, they have the responsibility to live out the good news of the gospel. In this context that means motivating and organizing and providing care for orphans. Each place we stopped at was another chance to see yet another group of orphan children being cared for by pastors who have learned the importance of the church as the presence of Christ in the community. So many of you involved with us in SAM Ministries are partners with these pastors in the care of these children. Besides providing some of the desperate needs of these children, they are hearing the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope and help He brings into life. Thank you to all of you who help us with orphan and feeding support.
Pastor Elias with the Baue Orphan program
One of our last stops was in a place called Malemia where Pastor Cassecusa (Cassecusa means to shake :) ), but in the case of this elderly man, shake means to move! He is an amazing man and I close this blog entry with his story. We made it back safely to the mission and thankfully to a recovering Rick Nuefeld who had been duped by symptoms that did not present themselves clearly as malaria and as a result went untreated for far too long. When I arrived he was white as a sheet and very weak, but thankfully has improved greatly…just another hardship many Mozambicans endure with very little or no health care.

Manuel Cassecusa Nsito…
is an amazing man committed to serving God, his fellow pastors and his community. Manuel was born 7 Abril, 1939, in Malemia, Doa, Tete, Mozambique, on the North side of the Zambezi River. There was no school for him to attend. In fact his father was pretty much one of the only people settled in the area, with Lion, Hippo, Buffalo along with other wild animals his only neighbours.

Pastor Cassecussa handing a certificate to one of his pastor students
He grew up helping his father cultivate the land to grow food for the family. He had two brothers and one sister, but his sister and one brother passed away within the first few years of life. He suspects his little brother died of measles.

The first memory he has of white people were the Portuguese railway workers who came through their area to lay the railway. When he and his brother saw the white people he remembers them running home crying in fear. His parents put him and his brother in the hut and closed the door to try to settle them.

They grew up wearing a thong made of rope made from the bark of a tree tied around the waist with pieces of cloth hanging on the front to cover themselves. Manuel says the “back-end was just left open to the air!”

One of his memories is of the lion that periodically would attack neighboring homesteads and often took people. This was a constant fear and topic of conversation.

While young he never heard of God or the church and the family primarily practiced ancestral worship (African Traditional Religion).

When Manuel was about 26 years old, he heard that the first school had come to his area. A local Mozambican teacher by the name of Salvador started teaching school under the tree in Doa, about 7 Km away. After attending school for two months, the Chief of the area from the Portuguese administration called the teacher to bring all the children to the administrative offices for inspection. By this time in his life he was wearing a shirt and shorts, and the Chief demanded that all the boys/men take off their shirts to check their under-arms. Those who had hair under their arms or had hair appearing on their chin were taken immediately and put under guard. They were informed that they would not be able to return home, because they were required to pay tax and since they could not, they had to be “contracted”.

Manuel along with other young men (no girls were allowed to come to the first schools) were taken under guard directly to the train and shipped off to Beira where they were put on a small boat which took them across the bay to Buzi where they were required to work in the sugar cane fields. After working for eight months, they were allowed to return home, where they received 20 escudos and told the rest of their pay was taken in payment of taxes (One can buy 20 escudos in coin for around $5.00 on ebay). They were allowed to remain home for 3 month and then required to return at which time they were shipped off to work in the coal mines in Moatise for a full year before being allowed home.

Following this year he was allowed to return to his home, where he married and built his home. He and his wife had 12 children but only 6 survived. Five of the six who passed away also died within the first few years of life. Although life was hard, they produced enough food and survived reasonably well.

Due to loosing so many children and the fear that local tradition would result in much conflict with his family (in many cases family are blamed by the witchdoctor for the death of other family members), in 1977 he moved to Zobwe. When he arrived in Zobwe, a Christian pastor Armando Gave welcomed him to stay with him in his home until he could settle. At this time Manuel was both a witch doctor who “beat the drums,” and was also very committed to plying his trade in the manufacture and sale of local liquor (the equivalent of moonshine). While in the home of this pastor he started to hear about God and the pastor taught him the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Manuel accepted Christ and upon salvation he burned all of his moonshine manufacturing equipment along with his witch doctor drums.

Since that time he never lost any more children (which he gives God praise for) and has served God faithfully. Although he never had a chance to study the Bible in any formal way, he was selected to be a pastor. Due to his close relationship with Pastor Pires who was selected in his community to be a monitor of our Bible and Leadership training program, he came to find out about our Bible school. He started studying in 2007 and became the monitor of his area shortly thereafter. He is now almost half way through the training program and is teaching 29 other pastors in two separate communities.

Here is a man who not only serves others faithfully, but at 70 years old rode his bicycle over 200km to attend one of our training seminars focused on equipping pastors in personal evangelism! He has started an orphan care program in his area with a few other pastors and regularly provides care for

After receiving Christ the big miracle he witnessed in his life was both the fact that God enabled him to have children that lived, rather than died. He also experienced a dramatic deliverance from alcohol. The other major difference he started to witness in his life was in his ability to grow his personal wealth and ability to care for his family. Prior to accepting Christ he never could save any money, but after his life-changing experience, he has been able to save money, grow a herd of goats, and grow crops that have earned him a living.

“My hunger to study God’s Word and know His will for my life” is what Manuel says resulted in his commitment to study and to working with the mission voluntarily to help others also learn. Manuel witnesses to the growth in his understanding of God and His word and His ability to teach others. He has also experienced a wonderful growth in his ability to work with others and see his church grow in unity.

Manuel says that his one desire is to see his eighteen year old son continue his studies beyond Grade 8 where he is studying now. Also so that others have an opportunity to come to know Christ. This is something he is seeing on a weekly basis as he witnesses to the goodness and power of God in His life.

My dream being realized

This week was the start of another intensive training time for the monitors (pastor trainers) of our Bible and Leadership training program we call SBF or Faith Bible Seminary Mozambique. Although I have titled this blog entry “My dream”, I am fully aware that this has really been my Heavenly Father’s dream and that he put this very same dream and calling in the hearts of numerous others who He has brought together to help realize the dream. If I start mentioning names here, I will never complete this blog!



As we gathered for prayer on Monday morning at 6:30AM with our monitors, it was freezing cold (around 8 degrees C with no heating at all!) but it was also both exciting and incredibly fulfilling to participate in the prayer and hear the 3 minute challenge by Pastor Pires on Psalm 42:1 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” He shared on the strength that only God can give for each day and each challenge in ministry.

This morning as we gathered again, and following a time of corporate prayer, Pastor Chico Inacio from Tete shared on Jesus words, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep.” As he contrasted the good shepherd to the hired hand, his challenge was that we all continue to remember we are called to lay down our lives for His sheep, as He laid down His life for us.” Following this Pastor Eliah led us in a time of prayer and then silent waiting on the Lord and invited anyone to share what they felt the Holy Spirit was laying on their heart. Shortly Pastor Ricardo, our coordinator, shared that he felt God was saying that as pastors and leaders we needed to make sure we place value on the women and children God had entrusted to our care. This was followed again by a time of passionate prayer as each pastor asked God to soften his heart for the needs of the women and children. I was so moved to watch as God spoke to His under-shepherds!

When we launched out and started our first extension schools along the Zambezi river (early 2000) in the Tete province of Mozambique, I was concerned about the distance and the lack of consistent direct input we would have in the lives of those we were going to take responsibility to train. God reminded me in His own clear way, that His Holy Spirit and His Word were a powerful combination and I could rely on Him to do more than we ever could, but reminded me that He had called us to partner. That was when we decided to launch out and now God is doing more than we could have ever asked or imagined and the impact is growing each year.

The impact is growing not only due to the numbers of those being trained, it is growing due to the maturity, confidence and Holy Spirit empowered efforts of leaders who have walked with us for 9 years. Pastor Pires Williamo gave an amazing report today of how each aspect of this effort has impacted the government officials in Sinjal (his village) as they have witnessed not only leaders being trained, but the orphan program started, and now more recently a women’s ministry focusing on Bible, health and literacy taking off.

I can only say how honored I am to be here in Mozambique, and after 16 years of slugging, to see God working in such awesome ways in lives. Not only so, but He has blessed us with a team of awesome people committed to serving one another and the people of Mozambique as we love God and love them so they have the chance to experience the Father’s love and come to participate with him in loving their world.

If you read this entry this week, please pray for us as we share our hearts and God’s Word and do our best to encourage these amazing servants. Also pray for their families and their communities and the overwhelming number of challenges they face as they return and in turn teach, lead, train and encourage their fellow pastors and communities.

Email Hacked

A quick note to all my friends, family and supporters.
Please note my hotmail address has been hacked and you may be receiving emails requesting money. Please disregard these emails. You can continue to email me at dwight@samministries.org

Thank you so kindly

"To hug or not to hug," that is the question!

Yeah yeah, I know, but “to be” for some people means “to hug” and for others, “to be” means definitely, most definitely, absolutely, unequivocally, and most assuredly “Do NOT hug under any occasion!” Boy have I ever blown it…time and time and time again while travelling back in North America I have hugged when I should NOT have hugged. (And if you were the poor person on the other end of that un-wanted, un-deserved and most definitely un-desireable hug, I am soooo sorry :). You see, you can “be” all alone, but you can’t “hug” all alone, and if for you “to be” is “to hug” then your life has to be filled with warm, un-self-conscious, over-the-top and out-of-control huggers! And the problem is that when you work in different cultures and places the state of “being” changes.

Now I need to say to all you poor people who don’t hug…it’s okay…I guess. Because I know you were just not brought up that way, and it feels too close and generally just un-comfortable. I understand this and I want you to know you can likely live out a very full and happy life without hugging a bunch of other people. So please understand me, as I share the rest of my thoughts, because I really don’t mean to offend anyone. We huggers are too nice to want to offend.

But a couple things that relate to this topic of hugging may be worth mentioning, from my humble point of view:

The first is that sometimes hugging is perceived as some dirty old man (or needy woman) trying to get a little too close. And you know what, maybe that happens sometimes. Kind of like when some crazy religious types hijack a few planes and fly them into the twin towers. Yes it happens and it is terrible and sad and many other things I don’t have time to go on about, but it is NOT the norm. As we went through security to fly out of the Edmonton airport this last week, I waited as Lynn, yet again, had her bag ripped apart to find a small blunt pair of foldable scissors that one would have a hard time using to kill a mouse, never mind hijacking a plane. While her bag was being disassembled and re-assembled, I watched a little old lady being “strip” searched and the longer I watched the lady security agent patting her down in every place imaginable in the middle of a busy security area and in plain view of everyone else, the angrier I became. A few crazies have hijacked our way of life and now we see little old ladies and foldable scissors as serious threats to our world. What have we become?! Someone once said, “to the pure everything is pure, but to the impure, even pure things are impure.” Likely not everyone who reads this will agree with me, and I understand we live in a messed up world, but what I am actually talking about here is HUGGING!

Lynn and I have had the privilege of visiting Brazil annually over the past three years as part of our mission responsibilities. And it never ceases to amaze me at how quickly the hugging starts. And they don’t care who you are or whether you want to be hugged. You get hugged, and kissed and touched and warmly welcomed into their world. Amazing…even as I write the word, “touched,” I realize many will recoil at that word. For those who may have had a horrible experience growing up, I am so sorry, but there is such a thing as healthy normal touching. And hugging is one of those forms of healthy touching. Shaking one’s hand is also touching, and sometimes just touching another person’s hand, arm, shoulder or patting someone on the back can be another form of healthy touching. I am not writing a manual here on “healthy touching”, so let me move on. The reality is that after being in Brazil for a short while, the social warmth is something that just envelops me…the physical contact somehow just flows into a sense of well-being. I can’t really explain it in words. I just know that I feel accepted and appreciated and it is pretty easy to get used to.

But the stark contrast of leaving the warm embrace of Brazil and hitting the cold social blast of North America is quite sobering. Please know I love all of you gracious, generous, loving North Americans, but understand that sometimes it is hard to know, in our cultural diversity, how to say hi and bye. And it is never my intention to be cold to you or to offend you, I honestly just don’t know WHAT to do, so IF you want a hug, please feel free to hug me and if you would rather NOT be hugged, when you see me coming, just stick out your hand well in advance and I will do my best to give it the warmest shake I know how to, and beyond that I will let you “be”.