AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE PERMIT OFFICIAL

On the 26th of August 2005 at exactly 10:30am I stepped unto the soils of the beautiful Southern African country bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east – Mozambique!

I believed that God had given me the Land to possess. I went through immigration and customs procedures. I had only 30kg of luggage full of books, preaching tapes and videos of my spiritual father.
One custom official upon seeing all the materials in my luggage asked me if I had come into the country to sell books and tapes.
Those were the seeds my spiritual father had given me to sow into the country of Mozambique.

A few days after, I had to go and see the authorities to find out the process for getting my permit and the registration of the church. When I finally met the Director for religious affairs, he asked how old I was. He was shocked to know how young I was. He told me that he had been in charge of that office for over 25 years and had never met a young missionary like me. I was 26 years old.

He felt I was too young to come to Mozambique for missionary work and he advised me to go back to my country because I wouldn’t make it in Mozambique.

Besides, they expected missionaries from rich countries like America and not Ghana. Before I could convince him, he had dismissed my meeting with him.

In that moment I knew that only God could turn things around. I declared a 3 day fast and prayed fervently asking God to touch the heart of this man.
It was just a few days to my visa to expiration date.
I went back to see him again after my prayer and fasting.
This time, he had a completely different attitude towards me!
He was willing to help me go through the process to settle in the country to commence my mission!

PRAYER WORKS!
“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes”
(Proverbs 21:1)

How true God’s word is!

It’s been many years since and God has been faithful to me in Mozambique!

Frank Otchere – Missionary, Mozambique.