Mozambique: Beyond the Shadow
ELLIE AND RODNEY HEIN  LIGHT IN THE DARK DAYS OF TYRANNY When I look back on my 40 years in Mozambique   from the time I arrived as a little boy of 8 until my entire extended family and I were stripped of all we had and forced out by the foreign-incubated communist revolution in 1975 many events and people pour into my mind but few with such clarity and honour as the missionary couple, Ellie and Rodney Hein. I met the Hein s in 1991 in Malawi and in Mozambique and I am a personal witness to their exemplary life of courage and dedication in the face of evil. Their remarkable book, BEYOND THE SHADOW, published in 2000 by Christ For The Nations Inc. in Dallas, Texas, gives a lucid and detailed account of their exceptional life over many decades concerning Mozambique and surrounding countries where they faced tyranny, terror, suffering and despair among the vulnerable rural populations and in the refugee camps in neighbouring Malawi where Mozambicans had fled. As unrest turned into terror and ordinary civilians of all communities began to bear the brunt of an insurgency fuelled from outside and embodied in the FRELIMO guerrilla movement of the day, the Hein couple increased their efforts to try to bring help to the rural Mozambicans.  Rodney, a skilled bush pilot, helped bring in medical supplies and other necessities from outside Mozambique.  He and his wife gave hope where there was despair as they ran rudimentary schools under the most arduous conditions. They did their best to care for the sick and injured and to feed the malnourished and starving. Not once did they waiver in the face of intimidation or death because they were sustained by deep religious and humanitarian convictions. This exceptional couple and their extraordinary life of dedication in some of the most isolated areas of Africa is an inspiration for all. They, indeed, spoke up for those who could not speak for themselves. --Adelino SERRAS PIRES and Fiona Claire CAPSTICK