Last week a depot housing old weapons remaining from Mozambique’s devastating civil war exploded, killing 93 people and injuring hundreds more. According to CNN, the explosion was due to the blistering heat, which overheated the building. Missionaries Rolland and Heidi Baker of Iris Ministries have served in Mozambique for the last 12 years and report damage to their physical structures but no injuries or deaths to the ministry’s volunteers. “Shrapnel and missiles rained down on a radius of 10 kilometers,” Rolland said. “At least two missiles directly struck our Zimpeto base. Others kept flying over the center. Our church was hit, but our children were huddling in our prayer hut. It’s miraculous that no children were hurt.” Ministry volunteers report protecting the children in the prayer hut for almost five hours until the bombs and missiles stopped exploding. “We just prayed and prayed and sang to the Lord,” said Anna Coumos, a 21-year-old volunteer with the ministry. “We met death face to face and walked away in victory. God is perfect and His ways we will never understand, but He is faithful. We have lived through Psalm 91.” She asked intercessors to pray that the ministry would be able to meet people’s physical, spiritual and emotional needs in the explosion’s aftermath. “Please pray for the healing of shock and trauma,” Coumos said. “For me, every time I hear a drum or a loud truck rumbling by or a kid whistling like that sound of a missile flying through the air, I just cringe and feel so awful inside.” Nearly a month ago Mozambique was devastated by floods and cyclones that hit this impoverished country.
