Another Viewpoint

We so much enjoy reading of our visitor’s view of trips to Mozambique. It does two things: first it encourages us to realize that we really are used to the routine chaos of life here but second of all, just to see how God is touching the hearts of those who come.

So, if you don’t receive Men for Mission International’s magazine in the mail, I encourage you to download a copy of the most recent copy (Spring 2009). Just click on the link below. In fact, the last three issues have articles about Mozambique.

The first two pages of the Spring 2009 issue are articles about the recent the January 2009 MFMI prayer team trip to Mozambique. It’s a different perspective of the stories I wrote about back in January and February.

But don’t stop there – read about what God is doing in Ecuador, Korea, Japan, Haiti and give thanks!

May His name be honored and praised in all that we do together.

http://menformissions.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=68

Dave & Ann

“Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!” Ps 147

Micro-Enterprise

Today was full with meetings that started very early. First we met with Xavier and Daniel to set some direction forward for the seminary program; to set out some basic steps to continue toward Mike Thiessen's vision. Great meeting and we agreed to start meeting every week to talk about progress until God provides a new seminary director. We are totally unqualified to do this but God knows that and we have great confidence in these two Mozambican men to move the program forward; maybe not at the pace we would with a full-time director, but at least forward. Very encouraging meeting for all of us and we started out by simply laying it all our before God.

(Mario teaching CMED at Gurue)

Right after that we received a de-brief on Mario and Samuel's recent trip north to check on the micro-enterprise development work started in northern Mozambique. You might remember that Mario and Samuel traveled north with us last month and stayed after we returned to Maputo. We looked at pictures from their recent trip and were really encouraged by the good report. They have five separate village savings and loan groups working in and around the Gurue area. Only one is in a Palvra Viva church and the rest are golden opportunities. Two of these groups are extremely interested in someone leading a regular Bible study with them. We will get Juka working on that opportunity - could lead to some new church plants that in this case started with CMED. There certainly is no 'one method' of evangelism - an opportunity is an opportunity.

This photograph is of the group at Macarueue. Mario and Samuel trained two young men to train up and follow the groups in the Gurue area and they were very pleased by what they found on this trip. All the Village Savings and Loan (VSL) groups were healthy and generating their own capital to start small businesses. One of the groups is combining their savings to buy a small farm area to raise crops - microenterprise. Another group constructed a small church building to meet in as a result of God's moving in their lives through this program. Another group wants someone to come and lead them in a Bible study and another group is made up of a number of widows who have important government positions in the province and who are strong proponents of the program. Wow - only God can receive the credit for this.

In addition, Mario and Samuel put on a 4-day training seminar on Christian principles for handling money that was attended by over 25 people, including pastors from two other evangelical churches in the area. More VSL groups are expected to spin out of this seminar. The photo below is of the seminar attendees during class.

What is so exciting to us is seeing Mario and Samuel develop as leaders. They are comfortable in this position, not worried about 'protecting their chair', not trying to control things, but rather training and releasing and rejoicing in the progress and success of others. They have such tremendous potential as God develops this leadership gift we see in them. During this trip, they also opened the necessary doors for Mario to return to Mocuba later this year to start groups in the many churches that have been started in this area. The plan is to train someone to follow the new groups, to establish groups in the larger more mature churches, and utilize the newly trained person to follow the VSL groups, reporting back to Mario and Samuel, another application of 2 Tim. 2:2 (find reliable men and teach them to teach others...).

The other side of this is that we have a great vision to start real micro-enterprise projects so that the program here can become self-sustaining. But, we have two small problems. One would be the need for a full-time missionary willing to stand with Mario and Samuel (M&S) as they work out the details and initiate business initiatives. What a great opportunity! Second, our CMED program has a very tenuous funding source and frankly, we may run out of money in this fiscal year that we just started. We only pay for the wooden savings box, a calculator, some paper and pens to start a VSL group. We pay M&S a small salary for their efforts, which is a strength of the program so that the groups clearly see that M&S have no vested financial interest in the groups, along with a small amount of money for cell-phone credit and transportation. In addition, we pay a subsistence level salary for one helper in the north working on this program as well - and in some cases, provide a little rice and oil along the way for some of our volunteers. However, all of this takes a little bit of funding and that fund-raising thing is not one of my talents and an uncomfortable role for me at best. So we pray a lot and try to explain the opportunities (OMS CMED Project in Mozambique 302120)

Photo is Dave & Samuel in Mocuba.

Today was very encouraging to me. Two young men working hard to provide opportunities for people to have opportunities they would not normally have, and using the work as an evangelism opportunity. We continue to pray that God would raise up people with a passion for the work here - to come and stay. In the interim, we'll work on cloning technology as we'd like to work full-time on the CMED program, full time on the church planting program, full-time on the community health outreach, full-time on language learning, full-time on clean water initiatives, full-time on leadership development, full-time teaching Biblical principles, and full-time developing relationships with these Mozambicans that we love so much. Whew....now back to the full-time administrative work that goes along with it all.

"And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." Isaiah 58:11

Good news on Malaria

We've had an increase in the number of mosquitoes in our house with the weather starting to cool down a little. Not exactly sure why - but we have this fun tennis racket thing that has a recharge-able battery that zaps mosquitoes and other bugs. It's quite the rewarding thing - you see some mosquitoes and swing at them with the racket and "ZAP" - no more mosquito - just a fried carcass on the floor. Very satisfying in this land where people we know have died from this dreadful disease. We spray every three months to keep them under control and the guys are coming Thursday. We can always tell when it is time - all sorts of lovely critters start showing up in the house and lots of them bite!

Better living through chemistry!

I continue to see the workers in the villages spraying DDT on the walls of the houses - it is making a huge difference and lives are being saved. The most recent government report reported that the incidence of reported malaria in Mozambique decreased by 24 percent last year as a result of this program - that is phenomenal and if the program could reach more houses more quickly, it would drop even quicker. Praise the Lord! The official words are as follows:

"Health authorities confirmed the trend, saying the number of reported cases of infection fell by 24 per cent between 2007 and 2008, to 4.8 million people. The decline was attributed to stepped-up anti-malaria spraying campaigns in villages and the roll out of improved diagnostic tests and combination treatment."

I know that these are only the numbers they know about. I prayed with a man just the other day who had malaria but didn't have money for medicine, so he was just 'continuing on' without treatment. There are lots like him in this country - some survive, some don't. But, he's not treated, so a mosquito bites him and moves to the next person, spreading the disease. (He's on treatment now because we have a wonderful team of dear people who make it possible for us to be here changing one-life at a time!).

Blessings.

Dave & Ann

"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." 3 John 1:2

Another Funeral

Saturday morning, I left early to attend Paulo’s funeral in Khongolote. Ann is having a bout with the flu and so I was flying solo. I was told that I needed to be there by 0900 at the cemetery but it took longer to unload the Jesus film equipment than I expected, so I ended up leaving 15 minutes before hand for a 20 to 30 minute trip. But, I’ve learned not to be too nervous because things seldom start on time here.

(The photo is of Ann, Paulo, Olga, and David just a few short months ago.)

Scattered clouds filled the sky, making the temperature pleasant and with a nice breeze, mosquitoes are much less of a problem. I drove the sand roads to Khongolote, needing to use 4-wheel drive twice to get through a couple of areas of deep sand. At the cemetery, I pulled over and parked and saw many many people I knew from across the Palvra Viva Churches. There were a few trees around the cemetery and under the shade of each tree many people had gathered, waiting for the funeral car to arrive. We all greeted one another and as each new person arrived, the same process resumed. Good to see you, how are you doing, how’s the family. Of course, everyone wanted to know where Ann was, as she is the better conversationalist and they know I’m at half-brain without her.

The Chappas all were loading and unloading in front of the cemetery as people came and went. People were generally dressed in their finest and the colors made a beautiful sight on this most pleasant of days. But, the tone was somber as Paulo was loved by all. He was one of the first young people OMS missionaries worked with when the Mozambique field was first opened in Mozambique and he was merely 16 at the time. He was a key person in a number of new church plants and as a result, people arrived from all the Palvra Viva churches in the Maputo area. I counted over 400 people at one point and stopped counting as they kept coming.

Finally the small station wagon hearse arrived at 1015 to a full ground with people still arriving. The plan was the graveside service at 0900, the church service at 1000, and then afterwards visitation with the family at the house of Paulo and Olga. The hand-made wooden casket was unloaded and placed on a rusty metal table under the largest tree in the cemetery. The people gathered around in the shade of the magnificent tree. Various people lead song after song praising God in the beautiful Shanganna language. Nothing held back, nothing bashful as people sang out.

Pastor Lucas with help from our dear friend Belarmino read scripture and brought a message of hope and thanksgiving for a life ‘lived well’. We rejoiced in the fact that his eternity was secure and that God had indeed prepared a place for him.

The casket was opened by turning some hand bolts attached to screws that went through the casket top to bottom. The lid was pulled back so just his face and shoulders showed. Peaceful in death, absent in spirit. The family immediately began wailing, especially the women as their grief welled up inside of them. One older woman passed out as other ladies came to her aid. Paulo’s twin boys immediately started wailing when they saw their loving father in the casket; I’m sure not understanding this cruel blow to their lives. Carlos, one of the Khongolote church leaders, picked them up, holding them close as he is family to them and has worked with them in church and the pre-school. He comforted them until their crying subsided.

More singing as the funeral directors opened a small spray bottle of perfume and opened a new container of Johnson’s baby powder. The ladies of the family approached the casket and said their good-byes, spraying perfume and shaking baby powder around the inside of the casket. Gradually a line of sorts formed as each person walked by the open casket, receiving either the perfume or the baby powder from the person in front of them, spraying gently or shaking the powder as each person took their turn. Beautiful songs continued during this long anointing-type process. Upon completion, the funeral director arranged the casket interior, and gently wiping the excess liquid from Paulo’s serene face. The lid was attached and the casket carried to the nearby pre-dug hole, singing continuing and the crowd parting before the men carrying Paulo.

At the grave, the casket was about a six inches longer than the hole, so the crowd continued singing, waiting and watching patiently as men from the church lengthened the hole. Together with no words, the men lowered the casket by hand into the hole and then climbed out, taking the hand of people near the opening. Pastor Lucas and Belarmino read more scripture and then people took turns putting a handful or a shovel-ful of sand into the open grave. This continued until the hole was filled in and a nice raised place fashioned above freshly filled grave. One older lady gathered every piece of root, grass, or impurity in the dirt as it was filled in so that only the best went into the grave.

Almost out of nowhere flowers appeared and were passed through the crowd. Beautiful spring flowers of every color and style. Pastor Lucas preached on the symbolism of the flowers representing new life in heaven and the hope we all have in Christ. Each person stuck their flower or greenery into the sand above the grave and when it was complete, a
Five-gallon jug of water was used to sprinkle the flowers and sand above the grave, and all those who had used their hands to fill in the grave rinsed their hands above the grave. When it was complete, it was beautiful – a patch of fresh greenery in this cemetery full of relatively fresh graves in this land where the average life expectancy is the mid-thirties.

We were then invited to the house of Paulo and Olga for a service by the family. It was about two miles away and people began walking or taking chappas in that direction. I filled my car with people and we went to the church to pick up benches for the house. We piled the top of the car about 10 feet high with wooden benches and proceeded to the house. We gathered around the house where blue tarps had been arranged to provide shade for the people.

The benches were assembled and grass mats were laid out and it seemed that all 400 to 500 people came to the house. The singing continued and I said in the middle of the crowd next the on of Abel’s sons. The service, singing, testimonies, and preaching were all in Shanganna so my understanding was quite limited. I knew many of the songs and joined in on those I knew, wishing I had the language. The preaching was light with much laughter interspersed as people celebrated the live of Paulo. Others began speaking about his life with eloquence and passion. One woman essentially preached a sermon pointing out that Paulo was young, his death unplanned, but his reward eternal, asking where is your heart? What if it was you; where is your assurance? The family requested assistance with food and lodging for family and an offering was taken up with everyone sharing what they could.

So about four and ½ hours later, the services ended and the people dispersed. Pastor Abel rode with me as we passed back a different way, stopping to visit some people associated with a recent church plant in Machava. We talked much about the funeral on the way down the dusty dirt track. What happens to Olga now and the three kids? How will they make their may as Paulo always seemed to find a job here and a job there? It strikes at your heart but we know that God will provide in that gentle loving way that He does. This story is played out over and over again in this country as diseases such as cholera, HIV, and Malaria scorch the people. May we not lose our compassion nor our drive to reach the lost.

“A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation.” Ps 68:5

Good Friday and a Sad Story

Today was a day of preparation that ended with our showing the Jesus film in two different locations.  One in a more remote area outside of Maputo and the other in T-3.  While in the states for the conference last summer, we picked up a number of DVDs of the Jesus film, which is a vast improvement quality wise over the VCRs.  Tonight, we played it outside of the T-3 church on the road and had well over 500 people who gathered to watch this movie on the big screen.  I heard many talking about how clear the picture and sound was and people where absolutely drawn into it.   About 150 people responded and entered into the church afterwards to hear the gospel and be offered an opportunity to accept Christ.  We used the Tsonga version of the movie, a version of the heart language in the southern part of Mozambique and there were many comments about how clear the pictures were.  Some of the leaders at T-3 have helped with this equipment a couple of times now and so set-up and take-down went very well. I still fill the car with equipment even though we've reduced the size of components quite a bit. 

The Pastor wanted to use the Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson's movie), which is probably a more accurate depiction of the agony of the cross, but it is also not something that we thought would be good for small children and there are tons of small children at these showings.  In addition, we haven't run down a Portuguese version of this film yet (Portuguese subtitles).  We do have a children's perspective version of the Jesus film that T-3 will be showing to the kids in church on Sunday morning.  

In any case it was a great evening although Ann stayed home - she is coming down with something, so I was only operating at 50 percent tonight.  She was missed - many people came to me worried as they seldom see us separate and many were worried - it has a different meaning in this culture where life is so short and unpredictable, which brings me to a tragedy.

Tomorrow we will be attending a funeral for a young man we knew well named Paulo.  He is in his late twenties and has three kids and a wife named Olga.  They are a lovely couple from our Khongolote church but for the last year, he'd been plagued with different illnesses and just did not seem well.  The official cause of death was Tuberculosis but you usually see TB in people here with very suppressed immune systems usually caused by other disease.  He was a wonderful dancer, song/worship leader and always up-beat.   He was sought after to lead dancing/singing groups at weddings and other celebrations.  This death caught us by surprise and we've received lovely notes from many former missionaries, all who knew Paulo well and who have fond memories of him.   I like best what one of them said, that Paulo was preceding us into heaven, leading the way for all of us.  

I worry about his young family and yet this story is played out all over Mozambique all the time and this helps you understand why the average life expectancy is in the mid-thirties here. 

Very sobering and it points to the absolutely urgency of the task to take the Gospel to the nations.  Paulo knew that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  He knew his redeemer lives but so many others do not know the peace and assurance that comes with this knowledge.

Pray for Olga, the twins and their youngest and that God would continue to provide for them.  There are so many widows here like her.   It just grips my heart. 

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  James 1:27

Ernesto - To Work or Not to Work

On the way out to some meetings today, we saw my old friend Ernesto. We pulled over to stop and talk a few minutes. Ernesto was a long-time worker at the mission compound where we rent a small house and when we moved here, we simply 'hit it off' and used to talk quite a bit. We've visited at his home, know his family, and count him as a friend. As I talked with him today, I recalled our afternoon discussion not so long ago.

Ernesto had decided he didn't want to work anymore. He wrote a letter to his boss explaining that his back was bothering him and he had decided to stop work for a couple of years and he hoped that they would hold the position for him. We invited him to sit with us and talk about why he was doing this and from that discussion, we learned the rest of the story.

Well, the short story is that he would work all month to receive his pay. He would then go home and the family (extended) would be waiting and by the time the day had ended, he no longer had sufficient money for the next month, if any at all. In the culture, the debt is not to credit card companies but to everyone you know basically, and if someone has a job, the people line up to try and get some of the pay on pay-day. What pushed him over the edge was that they had a medical situation that required going to the hospital and receiving some treatments. Because he had a job, the hospital expected him to pay more, but he didn't have any money because the family had all run off with it. So, he couldn't get the care he needed and so he decided that it just wasn't worth it to work. So, if he didn't have a job, and he didn't have money coming in, the people wouldn't be lined out his door on pay-day, and he could simply do other things here and there. And, they would be able to get the treatment they needed. Finally, the family beggars would over a two-year period find someone else to be their provider and maybe he could start working again.

Interesting concept.

Wanting to "fix it" (isn't that just the way we Westerners think?), we asked if there was something we could do to help him through the medical problem and Ann, of course, wanted all the gory nursing details. But, that wasn't the point of the story, he didn't necessarily need or want the help, it was a sympton of the greater problem.

I asked him how would he feed and care for his family as that was his Biblical mandate, and he said that they would survive somehow and that he was confident that God would provide. I don't doubt this because I know him to be a very resourceful and talented individual. I asked him why he couldn't just say "no" to the line of people and he shrugged his shoulders and said something in Shanghanna that I think was along the lines of 'you just can't possibly understand,' which is probably true.

I've heard others talk about this - if you have a job, everyone comes after you for money - and it results in a kind of equalizing across society. The twist of it is that it is also considered to be a great honor to even be asked to help and the cultural expectation is that you help with whatever you have today for tomorrow will take care of itself. In a subsistence society, it is how many can continue to subsist through the strong relational ties within the community. It makes it very hard for people to improve their lot, keep their business growing, provide jobs, etc. It's like the story we hear about Eastern conformance societies where if someone stands above the crowd, you get a hammer and pound them down like that old carnival game where the peg pops up and your job is to pound it down level.

Today I understood a little better. He now has a very part-time job driving a truck between here and some cities in the north. The times are very sporatic and so no one knows when he is going, or when he is coming back. He gets paid by the job and so there is no regular pay-day. That gives him a little better chance of having money to feed his family through the month. He doesn't work nearly as much and doesn't have to admit to having a 'regular job'. God has provided and he is happy and thankful. But it is difficult to wrap my Western mind around all of this.

I've written before of how incredibly generous the Mocambicans are as a people - this might just paint a picture of the other side of that generousity.

I was happy to see him today and to know that he and his family are doing well. He promised to come sit and talk like we used to so we can practice my Portuguese and we can just enjoy a wonderful time of fellowship.

And I will continue to ponder the culture God has allowed us to live in; trying to discern those things that matter, those things that don't, and teaching the truth of a God who loves us beyond understanding and who desires a personal relationship with each one of us. Our Creator trancends these cultural distinctives and through real personal relationships with Him, the culture will change to be more like what He desires. I doubt any of us has a true vision of what that might really look like.

We are simply to trust Him.

Blessings to you.

" But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." 1 Tim. 5:8

"The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him." Na 1:7

"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Acts 2:44