After the cyclone:
A letter from Mozambique to UK Christians
How Mozambicans are regaining hope thanks to the incredible help they received from BMS supporters after Cyclone Idai.
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.
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.
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.
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
You gave an incredible £82,000 to help people like Anibal in the wake of Cyclone Idai.
But our desire for restoration didn’t stop there. You enabled BMS to give a further £17,600 to rebuild preschools and churches which host preschool education programmes.
We were able to act because you gave generously. Give to BMS relief ministries today and help some of the most marginalised people in the world recover from devastating natural disasters.
Thank you for giving people in Beira the strength they need to start again.
First featured in Engage, Issue 45. Written and edited for the website by Melanie Webb.
