A letter from Mozambique:
How Mozambicans are regaining hope thanks to the incredible help they received from BMS supporters after Cyclone Idai.
?A letter from Anibal Ramos, who works with BMS partner, the Baptist Convention of Mozambique (CBM) in his native Beira to UK Christians
Dear friends,
After the cyclone, I went out in the rain to see how people were. There was rubble everywhere. We lost everything – everything we had worked for over whole lifetimes. From one day to the next, it was gone. Our stores and crops were destroyed by the cyclone, so our immediate worry was food. But what’s affecting us most is a lack of hope. Smiles have disappeared, heads are hung low.
This BMS-supported preschool was destroyed by Cyclone Idai. The generous giving of BMS supporters is helping to restore damaged preschools so that children can continue to receive vital education.
Thanks to the aid churches are sending to Beira, some feel like they have the strength to start again. At CBM, we have collected and distributed food. Those we could feed are no longer worried. Instead they can focus on gathering the materials they need to rebuild. The problem is that materials are expensive, and most people have lost their jobs because so many businesses were destroyed.
This church lost its roof after the cyclone hit. But BMS supporters stepped in, and their gifts have enabled the roof to be rebuilt, so it can return to being a fully functioning church.
People aren’t sleeping. They want to get back up again. They want to work. I try to speak hope into people’s lives. We can lose material things, but we can’t lose faith in God. He is our refuge. We have so many reasons to praise God. I praised God amidst the destruction, because he had protected us – we thought the cyclone was going to be much bigger than it was.
This photo demonstrates how extensive the damage was after Cylcone Idai. Only a bare skeleton of a church building in Beira remains.
I ask that you continue to pray for us – don’t forget about us and continue to give what you can.
Then, even when the media has forgotten about us, we’ll keep smiling, because you have remembered us.
Thank you,
Anibal Ramos
Anibal Ramos works with BMS partner, the Baptist Convention of Mozambique (CBM) in his native Beira. You’ve enabled him to play a crucial role in the relief efforts, working alongside BMS team leader in Mozambique, Carlos Tique Jone, in the devastating wake of Cyclone Idai.
The story of recovery
BMS World Mission supporters gave an incredible £82,000 to help people like Anibal in the wake of Cyclone Idai. They enabled BMS to give a further £17,600 to rebuild preschools and churches which host preschool education programmes. Give to BMS relief ministries today and help some of the most marginalised people in the world recover from devastating natural disasters.
This story was originally published on the BMS World Mission website and is used with permission
BMS World Mission, 21/11/2019