In the early 1980s, Ellie Hein had a disturbing dream, wherein she found herself on the bank of a great river, beside which soldiers were fighting. As the water turned red with blood, she spotted a host of terrified, emaciated women and children on the far bank, crying for help. Upon awakening, she knew that she had to do something to help them.1 Her husband, Rodney, came to the same conclusion, so this white, Zimbabwean couple began planning a relief mission into neighboring Mozambique, where anti-Marxist rebels2 were locked in civil war with the government.3

The couple had little idea what they would find. The former “liberation movement,” which had taken control of the country on its independence from Portugal in 1974,4 had introduced harsh Soviet-style policies, with severe persecution of the Church5 and forced collectivization of agriculture.6 The country was now virtually closed to foreigners, but the Heins got visas anyway since Mozambique’s rulers appreciated Zimbabwe’s Marxist leanings.

The missionaries loaded an old pick-up truck with Bibles and gifts of food and clothing, and they drove into Mozambique along the notorious “Hell-Run Road,” so named for its frequent ambushes and plentiful land mines.7 Making their way to Tete, they discovered that this historic, once-beautiful city had become a mass of crumbling buildings and broken-down plumbing; the shops were virtually empty, and the people had little food or clothing.8 But the Heins found a group of Pentecostal Christians, who were delighted to see them, and so they began to make regular trips into the government-controlled sectors, helping similar, small groups of believers. Their work was already perilous, but it got worse in 1983, when “[the regime] started enforcing a policy that resulted in death or imprisonment for those walking unescorted.” But the couple “went anyway, walking from village to village, asking God to keep [them] hidden from those who would seek to harm [them].”9

In 1985 the Heins felt called to rural areas under rebel control. At first, they were suspected of being Zimbabwean spies, and they were held under “hut arrest” for two weeks whilst their claim to being missionaries was checked out. But when their story was verified, the rebel leader, Afonso Dhlakama, sent a message saying he wanted them to preach the gospel to all his soldiers, and he gave them complete freedom to travel in areas under his control.10 With such an extraordinary open door, their ministry blossomed. They walked hundreds of miles through the bush to preach the gospel in previously unreached, remote villages, often accompanied by rebel soldiers (many of whom, like Dhlakama himself, became committed Christians) carrying their boxes of Bibles.

Eventually, news of their work with the rebels found its way to the Zimbabwean authorities, and the couple had to flee for their lives. They settled for a while in nearby Malawi and from there continued to enter Mozambique clandestinely, using a small, old airplane. As it turned out, this aviation connection was critical to a national truce. In 1989, because Dhlakama so trusted Rodney Hein, the missionary was tapped to fly rebel leaders out of their hidden camps in Mozambique so that they could make their way to Rome for peace negotiations brokered by the Catholic Church.11 More than once, government factions bombarded his makeshift bush airstrips and opened fire on his plane, but God protected him. This was essential since, for a time, Rodney’s plane was their only means of contact with the outside world.12 Thankfully, a peace agreement was finally achieved in 1992.

The Heins now run a well-established mission, Afrika wa Yesu,13 based primarily at Inhaminga in central Mozambique with a Bible school to train bush pastors. Who could have imagined that Ellie’s convicting dream would prove so fruitful? But who can deny that God makes much of small beginnings and magnifies Himself through the selfless, courageous service of those who respond gladly to His calling?
Footnotes:

1 Rodney and Ellie Hein, Mozambique: The Cross and the Crown (Dallas: Christ for the Nations, 1989), 15-16.
2 Called Renamo, from the Portuguese Resistência Nacional Moçambicana.
3 Run by Frelimo, from the Portuguese Frente de Libertação de Moçambique. Renamo was set up in 1977 by a group of disaffected Frelimo officers with some small initial support from Rhodesia, before Rhodesia’s name and regime changed to Zimbabwe. For a very full assessment of Renamo’s origins and conduct, see David Hoile, Mozambique: Resistance and Freedom (London: The Mozambique Institute, 1994).
4 While the liberation movement did take control of the capital in 1974, independence was not technically granted until 1975. Nonetheless, the liberation movement was in control beginning in 1974.
5 As a former Portuguese colony, the main Christian denomination in Mozambique was the Roman Catholic Church, but there were also many Protestant churches in the country. In 1979 Frelimo forbade children under the age of 18 from attending church, expelled missionaries, and nationalized all church property—including church schools and hospitals. Many of the leaders of Protestant churches were killed or imprisoned in “re-education” camps. See Rachel Tingle, “The Truth about Mozambique,” Free Nation (June 1992). Also, David Hoile, Mozambique: A Nation in Crisis (London: Claridge Press, 1989).
6 Food became scarce as the traditional peasant system of agriculture was destroyed as the authorities embarked upon a program of forced collectivization to establish a system like the discredited state farms of the former Soviet Union. An estimated two million people were relocated in this way. See Hoile.
7Hein and Hein, 35.
8 Ibid., 56-64.
9 Ibid., 42.
10 Towards the end of the civil war this amounted to approximately 85% of the land area of Mozambique.
11 For the full story, see Ellie Hein, Beyond the Shadow (Dallas: Christ for the Nations, 2000).
12 During the entire negotiation process, until just two months before the signing of the Peace Accord, every document and every proposal had to be received and conveyed to Renamo in the bush by Rodney. And even when the Renamo leadership finally received a portable satellite phone in August 1992, they (and with them the world powers and the negotiators at the United Nations) had to rely on Rodney’s 35-year-old plane to ensure the supply of petrol for the generator.

13 For more information, see Afrika wa Yesu Website, www.afrikawayesu.org (accessed October 12, 2007).
article adapted from Kairos Jouranl

First Bapstist Church is located in Perryville, MD