Sons of God's Generals: Unlocking the Power of Godly Inheritance Read Online Free PDF Page A

the Bragas’ home, fired shots in the air, and stole everything of value while they miraculously hid. Other missionaries and college visitors were shoved against walls with guns pointed at them. This gang has had a reputation for extreme violence and despite the obvious trauma this caused, the fact no one was shot or seriously hurt is an utter miracle. I can safely say the brave men and women who live their lives on the mission field are in great need of constant prayer and encouragement.
Practical Life
    When I say Chihango was outside the city of Maputo, I mean it was an hour away down some of the worst dirt roads I’ve been on. I’ll just say those early rides to school didn’t lend themselves to sleeping. At one point on the journey from the city to the center, our trucks had to pass through a stretch of road adjacent to a sandy cliff that barely allowed for the width of the truck. I wondered repeatedly if it would one day drop into the ocean.
    Many people ask me about my education growing up, often assuming I was homeschooled, which, once you get to know my parents and their schedule, is slightly comical. I think it’s a testament to God’s goodness, knowing how much they value education, that not long after we arrived they were contacted by a couple of teachers who had taught at my dad’s boarding school in Taiwan, and asked if there was a need for an American missionary school in Maputo. It was a strict school with high workload standards and a focus on college prep. The students I knew who wanted to attend university in the United States performed satisfactorily on their SATs and were well prepared.
    Before the Christian Academy of Mozambique was officially founded, however, Elisha and I attended a South African school for a semester. We had an eventful first day before we even made it to the school. It was close by, and the quickest way to get there was to walk through a local market, the type of place where you buy a live, squawking chicken for dinner. My mother, brother, and I left the house and were about to enter the market when a Mozambican woman came running to stop us in our tracks and urge us to turn around. My mom had befriended women in the market while learning Portuguese, and one recognized us. Riots had broken out, and we would have walked straight into them and more than likely been beaten and robbed, because at the time there were very few foreigners in the city and crime rates were high. Thankfully our new friend warned us away. Suffice to say we got to school via another route, and aside from a watch-stealing incident, walks became less eventful.
    My first Mozambican friends lived on the street where we rented our first house in Maputo. They would come to our courtyard to play and taught me my first Portuguese words while they attempted some English ones. They brought clams from the nearby ocean, smashed them open in front of me and ate them from the shell, insisting I do the same. When we moved out to Chihango I had my first experience with more rural village kids who would surround me and stroke my blonde hair and touch my skin. It was overwhelming at first, but pretty soon I wasn’t as much of a novelty. I befriended some of the girls at our center and learned you can play quite a few games without fully speaking someone’s language. One day we were all at my house while my parents were gone and I wanted to pierce my ears like them, so they gathered around with needles and Vaseline and we all started praying that it would go well. But I kept jumping back from the needle. When my mom came home and heard, she made sure I had my ears pierced in a more sterile South African environment within weeks.
    One of our first missionaries there was a kind but gruff-looking man missing his front teeth whom we nicknamed Machete Bill. I feel he deserves an honorable mention. He was an incredibly loyal man who met my parents in Asia, and after they took a faith journey into a Malaysian prison in Penang and