Our mission is to DISCOVER Mozambicans who want to change their nation,
PARTNER with them in their vision, and
EMPOWER them to reach their full potential
Imagine living with almost nothing.
And then you lose the "almost".
When Disaster Strikes
Mozambique was already a impoverished country full of struggling people. Over half of the population lives on less than $2 per day, reside in ramshackle run-down housing, and barely manage to clothe their families and put food on the table.
So when a disaster like Cyclone Idai strikes, it is truly devastating.
Unfortunately, the devastation did not stop when the winds died down and the rain ceased. The country now faces threats of the diseases cholera, malaria, and typhoid. Thousands of acres of farmland were washed away, leaving the region without its primary food sources for at least a year until they can replant. In short, it will take a long, long time for Mozambique to recover.
Cyclone Idai Relief:
Our part in saving lives and rebuilding a region
Helping Where We Can
Right after Cyclone Idai hit Beira, when we were still without cell signal to tell the outside world that we had survived, our industrious board of directors coordinated with other ministries to bring a shipment of food and generators from neighboring Zambia. The washed-out road was bridged over just in time to allow the truck through to us. It was such a blessing to receive them and the help that they brought! We were able to distribute it to our workers and sewing school ladies, keeping several families afloat at a very difficult time.
Putting Our Talents to Use
As foreign aid began pouring in from all over the world, it became apparent early on that the relief organizations required help finding the places of greatest need, and that the neediest people often had trouble locating help. People who lost their houses didn't know what places were offering shelter. Food distributions were unpredictable in timing and location. Makeshift clinics would pop up their tents in one location today, and move on to somewhere else tomorrow.
So Jon and the Equip Moz programming team burned the midnight oil and developed an app to address this need! "Aid" + "Idai" = AIDai, providing the best way to find current information about all the relief efforts in the region! Click here or on the picture below to watch a video of Jon explaining how it works. It was a great experience to collaborate with globally recognized organizations like the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNICEF, Translators without Borders, and the Red Cross to provide helpful information to make their efforts more effective.
The app already has over 1,700 downloads and is growing daily, helping people find the assistance and resources they need!
Strategic Connections
One of Equip Mozambique's biggest priorities of has long been to unite the Body of Christ to be more effective at advancing the Kingdom of God in Mozambique. We have encouraged pastors and their congregations to work together on numerous issues and provided many opportunities for them to collaborate. Now this united front is becoming extremely advantageous as our city moves forward in relief and rebuilding efforts. We called a meeting with many of our partner churches to help and solutions for the whole city, rather than thinking only of our immediate communities. Not long ago, these church leaders would never have worked together, but now after years of fostering connections on projects like the EM library and media training, it is becoming second nature to tackle the struggles facing Beira together.
Reconstruction Efforts
We have friends who run a cement factory in the area, and we have worked with them to secure discounts for churches that were leveled in the storm. Jon is also trying to import roofing materials from South Africa, as the high demand made the local prices skyrocket.
Community Health Education
With the outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, it is important to educate people about how they are spread and how to avoid catching them. A medical student named Antonio is interning with our tech team to help create the medical app, and he is offering training to members of the community to stop the spread of these diseases.
Praise Reports:
That we are able to work with many organizations to assist the relief efforts.
That our aid app is able to help people find the assistance they need!
That even though cholera spread rapidly, people received treatment quickly and there were very few deaths from it.
Prayer Requests:
Jon is en route to the States to join the family for several weeks of their stay. Please pray he has a safe and restful trip.
Please pray that the reconstruction of Beira and surrounding areas will be free from corruption and greed and that the people in greatest need will be served quickly.
Pray that the damaged farms will be able to replant and have bumper crops to avoid a famine later on in the year.
Pray that more people find out about the AIDai app so they can use it to discover the help they need.
Thanks for reading, please remember us in your prayers!
We watched it approaching on the weather radar, but we had no idea what to expect from Cyclone Idai, which was larger than and just as strong as Hurricane Sandy in 2012! We prepared as best we could, stockpiling food, water, and candles expecting a few days without power, boarding up several windows expecting high winds, and warning all of our friends who may not have heard it was coming.
Then on March 14th, the storm hit. Windows shattered. Tin roofs flew off of their buildings and crashed into our house. The two giant trees out front were uprooted and collapsed on our yard's wall. Watch some of the action in Jon's videos here.
At one point we heard our own sturdy roof clatter onto the cement ceiling and then blow away. Soon afterward, black water started entering through leaks in the ceiling, first pouring in through all the light fixtures and then dripping through a spiderweb of cracks. I lay on a sodden mattress on the floor, embracing my sleeping baby, trying to keep her dry and safe, and sang with my heart pounding:
I will sing songs in the night
Praise in the storm
You're God in it all
I will stand, I'll be still and know
Whatever may come,
You're God in it all
("Songs in the Night" by Matt Redman)
The raging winds from the south slowly abated, and all was relatively calm as the eye of the storm passed over us in the middle of the night. A couple hours later, the spiral hit us again full-force with north winds battering the other side of the house.
Jon and I wondered how many funerals we would have to attend in the following week. We wondered if we still had our whole team, if they still had their families. We wondered if we would still have an office building, it had so many huge windows and we thought for sure they'd all be broken, all the library books, computers, and sewing machines destroyed.
When we removed the mattress barricade over the door and made our way out of the safe room, we found every room flooded with a couple inches of water, and more pouring in through the ceiling. Cell service was down, making it nerve-wracking to not be able to contact our families to let them know we were safe; we couldn't imagine how they were feeling. We also couldn't call any of our local friends, so the only way to find out if they were still alive was to physically go visit them. The Equip Mozambique van's windshield was smashed and the roof and sides battered from fallen debris, but our personal car had been parked in our little garage which survived the storm. So Jon took the tiny car out to navigate the roads that were covered in sand blown in from the beach, fallen trees, downed power lines and poles, and bits of destroyed buildings and walls.
A Sigh of Relief
Jon managed to locate most of our employees and several missionary friends that day and all the rest in the days following; many had also lost roofs and belongings but ALL were safe, praise God! Then he drove by the office building and was SHOCKED to find ALL the windows intact and ALL our equipment and books safe! We were so relieved! The idea of starting over from scratch was absolutely overwhelming. We were so glad we wouldn't have to.
In fact, in spite of the fact that about 90% of the city of Beira being damaged or destroyed, there were remarkably few casualties within the city. It wasn't until later that we finally started hearing news reports that the flooding in rural areas was significantly worse, and that some villages were completely washed away. It will be impossible to know how many people perished until the next census is taken, but it is well over 1,000. The few survivors of some villages clung to the tops of trees and any structures that didn't collapse, and some were rescued by boats and helicopters in the following days. One lady even gave birth in a treetop! Still, the devastation is absolutely staggering, and will be an ongoing crisis for probably a year or more.
On the second day after the storm, with still no communication with the outside world, Jon jumped in the car with the plan to simply drive until he found cell signal somewhere, somehow. Unfortunately, after driving a couple hours over tree-littered roads, he came to a dead end. The one and only paved road that connected our city of half a million to the rest of the country was completely washed away by a brand new river.
Safe Havens
Some of our friends' homes had fared better than ours, and one Brazilian family took us in the day after the cyclone since our house had turned into a nonstop indoor rainforest. From there we were able to venture out, help our workers and friends who were worse off than us, and try to salvage some of our belongings from the flooded house (though with a week solid of rain afterward, it was hard to dry anything).
However, unfortunately in cases of disaster in underdeveloped countries, things get a whole lot worse before they get better. Because of the city's isolation and inability to receive new imports of food, necessities were growing scarce and expensive. This led to lots of looting, as people turned to violence and stealing to stay alive. There was also a rising danger of disease, due to the destroyed water systems there have been over 3,000 cases of cholera in Beira alone. Cases of malaria and typhoid rose due to the increased standing water for mosquitoes to multiply.
We decided it wasn't safe to keep the kids there, so a week after the cyclone I (Carla) boarded a plane with the 3 of them for South Africa. We stayed with friends in Pretoria for a couple weeks, and Jon was even able to join us for a few days, so we were finally able to catch up on returning messages to all our worried-sick family and friends, wash our mildewing clothes, and rest a bit after being in survival mode.
It's hard to describe the feeling of relief and joy at seeing my family's faces on the phone.
Now everybody reading this,
please go hug someone you love.
Now the four of us are back in the States, staying in St. Louis with the Reinagel side of the family for a while. The kids enjoyed the trip and that they get to spend time with their grandparents again.
Jon is still in Beira coordinating relief efforts and looking for a new house for us, but he is planning to join us partway through our time here and we will be getting around some. Let us know if you want to connect with us while we're here!
Relief Efforts
This email is already long enough, so I'll talk about the relief efforts and the part we play in them in Part 2 of the Cyclone series!
Praise Reports:
That we and all of our team and friends were protected in the cyclone!
That our office building was unharmed
That we were able to get out to keep the family safe
Prayer Requests:
For the needed aid to get to the places that are most desperate. Unfortunately, even in times of crisis some people can prove to be greedy and corrupt.
For the bouts of cholera, malaria, and typhoid to abate - many people are still dying from storm-related issues.
For a fruitful time in the States, with lots of chances to connect with people and raise funds for the rebuilding of many lives.
Thanks for reading, please remember us in your prayers!
